The above table shows how terribly the Irish people have suffered from want of food, and how in their hunger they have been compelled to have recourse to cannibalism in order to save themselves from death by starvation. This sad picture should be a lesson to fanatics like those who, in their misdirected zeal to serve their Master in heaven, destroyed the granaries of the ancient people, mistaking them to be temples dedicated to heathen gods. For, had the pyramids, which appear to have existed in large numbers all over Ireland, been filled during the years of plenty, and the grain kept in reserve until the time of scarcity, there would then have been sufficient food not only for the inhabitants of Ireland, but also for the wants of the sister islands. The following chronological table of the famines that have devastated England, Scotland and Wales, is taken from Walford’s _Famines of the World_. It presents a sad picture of human misery and wretchedness, which might have been prevented by wisdom and forethought. TABLE OF FAMINES IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES. A.D. | | 54 | England. Grievous famine | 104 | England and Scotland. Famine. | 107 | Britain. From long rains. | 119 | Britain. “After a pillar of fire seen several nights in the | air.” | 151 | Wales. Grievous. | 160 | England. Multitudes starved. | 173 | England. After severe frost and snow. | 228 | Scotland. “Thousands were starved.” | 238 | Scotland. “Most grievous.” | 259 | Wales. Thousands were “pined to death.” | 272 | Britain. People ate the bark of trees and roots. | 288 | Britain. Famine all through. | 298 | Wales. After a comet. | 306 | Scotland. Thousands died; most grievous and fatal for four | years.—Short. | 310 | England. 40,000 perished. | 325 | Britain. Generally, severe famine. | 439 | Britain. After a comet. | 466 | Britain. “And bad fatal air.”—Short. | 480 | Scotland. After a comet. | 515 | Britain. “Most afflictive.” | 523 | Scotland. “Terrible.” | 527 | North Wales. Famine. | 531 | South Wales. And a small plague. | 537 | Scotland. Dearth; also in Wales. | 576 | Scotland. “Fatal.” | 590 | England. From a tempest that raised a great flood. | 592 | England. Drought from 10th January to September; and | locusts. | 605 | England. From heat and drought. | 625 | Britain. Grievous. | 667 | Scotland. Grievous. | 680 | Britain. From three years’ drought.