Ireland Considered as a Field for Investment or Residence, By William Bullock Webster, Esq. Dublin: Hodges Smith, 1852. First edition.Pp xi, 123, with large folding coloured Map ‘Showing the Localities of the Red and Mountain Bog in Ireland, the Railways, Canals &c.’ Small 8vo. Bound in recent plain cloth, title label to spine. A very good copy. Webster, an Englishman Resident in Ireland for Four Years, Attempts to Break Down English Prejudice that “in Ireland There is No Security for Either Life or Property”. He Argues That Social Improvements Have Changed the Irish Peasantry Into Hardworking, Worthy Citizens. There is Much Statistical Material on Contemporary Prices, Rainfall, Crops, Poor Rates and Natural Resources. This Book is a Product of an Interesting and Largely Forgotten Phenomenon, Namely the Interest Shown in Post-Famine Ireland by English Investors. The Optimistic View of Irish Agricultural Resources Propagated by Such Books as This and James Caird’s “The Plantation Scheme; or the West of Ireland as a Field for Investment” (1850) led to Substantial Investment of English Capital into Irish Land. That Second Edition was printed Within Six Months of the First Exhibits the Contemporary Interest, and in the New Preface Webster States that his Continuing Experience, Drawn from Extensive Land Purchases in Both England and Ireland, Has Confirmed his Earlier Finding that the Latter Provided a Better Economic Return.