| Butter from the market folkes in Southwarke, paying but | 3d. where the owners would not afford it under 5d. by | the pound. For which disorder the said young men were | punished on the 27th June, by whipping, setting on the | Pillorie, and long imprisonment.”—Penkethman. | 1630 | England. Dearth; bread made of turnips, &c. | 1649 | Scotland and North of England. “From rains and wars”; also | following year. | 1649 | Lancashire. Occasioned by the ravages of the armies; and | the plague follows it.—Salmon’s _Chronological | Historian_. | 1694-99 | Scotland. Famine; England, great dearth, “from rains, | colds, frosts, snows; all bad weathers.”—Short. | 1700 | England. From rain and cold of previous year. | 1709 | Scotland. From rain and cold; also in England. | 1740-41 | England. “From frost, cold, exporting and hoarding up | corn.”—Short. | 1741 | Scotland. From “terrible shake-winds when corn was ready | for reaping.”—Short. | 1748 | England. Extended famine. | 1766 | Scotland. “The magistrates of Edinburgh and Glasgow have | put a stop to the exportation of grain, tallow, and | butter, in their respective jurisdictions; a power which | the magistrates of London do not seem to | possess.”—_Gentleman’s Magazine_, February. | 1795 | England. Scarcity of food severely felt. | 1801 | United Kingdom. Great scarcity; flour obtained from | America; Committees of both Houses of Parliament were | appointed to inquire into means of supplying food. | 1812 | United Kingdom. Great scarcity in England and Ireland. To this list of heart-rending desolation caused by famine, may be added many other cases which have occurred more recently, and among them the appalling famine in China—a kingdom well provided with granaries constructed by the ancient founder, Moses. From the account given by a traveller, who marvelled at such solitary hills standing in plains surrounded by fertile corn-fields, it may safely be inferred that these Pyramids or Storehouses still remain unopened, and, consequently, are stored with the produce of the fields that surround them. So that had the Emperors of China been aware of the existence of such treasure-houses in their extensive dominions, peopled by innumerable millions of human beings, they would never have had the sorrow of reading such a harrowing account of misery suffered by their subjects, arising from want of food, which was so near at hand! This severe famine visited China in A.D. 1877-78, and is thus chronicled by Walford:—