It has been shown that arrangements ruder than the custom very important in its bearing on the history of modern family exist among contemporary savages, and have society. In about two-thirds of the globe persons in adexisted among ancient peoples. It has been shown that dressing a kinsman do not discriminate between grades of these rude institutions produce large associations of men, relationship. All these grades are merged in large cate tribes and totem-kindred, among savages, and that, by a gories. Thus, in what Mr. Morgan calls the "Malayan series of changes, every one of which is exemplified in system," "all consanguinei, near or far, fall within one of experience, the Greek and Roman gentes, the units of early these relationships-grand-parent, parent, brother, sister, political society, may have been developed out of barbarous child, and grand-child." No other blood-relationships are groups. There are next certain customs to be examined, recognized (Ancient Society, p. 385). This at once reminds which tend, as far as they go, to show that civilized society us of the Platonic Republic. "We devised means that no passed through savage stages. The chief of these customs one should ever be able to know his own child, but that all are the ceremony of capture and bridal etiquette. As to should imagine themselves to be of one family, and should the ceremony of capture it is superfluous to say much, as regard as brothers and sisters those who were within a certhe subject has been handled, with complete originality and tain limit of age; and those who were of an elder genercopious illustrations, in M'Lennan's Primitive Marriage. ation they were to regard as parents and grand-parents, and The classic example of the ceremony of capture is thus stated those who were of a younger generation as children and by C. O. Müller (History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, grand-children (Timæus, 18, Jowett's translation, first ediEnglish translation, Oxford, 1830, vol. ii. p. 298): "Two tion, vol. ii., 1871). This system prevails in the Folythings were requisite as an introduction and preparation to nesian groups, and in New Zealand. Next comes what Mr. marriage at Sparta: first, betrothing on the part of the Morgan chooses to call the Turanian system. "It was unifather; secondly, the seizure of the bride. The latter was versal among the North American aborigines," whom Mr. clearly an ancient national custom." Müller then describes Morgan styles Ganowanians. "Traces of it have been the clandestine intercourse, which lasted for some time, be- found in parts of Africa" (Ancient Society, p. 386), and “it fore the man "brought his bride, and frequently her mother, still prevails in South India among the Hindus, who speak into his house." The intercourse of bride and groom the Dravidian language," and also in North India, among among the Iroquois of Lafitau's time was likewise clandes- other Hindus. The system, as Mr. Morgan says, "is simtine. For the practice in Crete Müller quotes Strabo, x. ply stupendous." It is not exactly the same among all his 482, D. A similar custom prevailed in Rome (Apuleius, miscellaneous "Turanians," but, on the whole, assumes the De As. Aur. iv.; Festus, 8. v. Rapi"), and was supposed following shapes. Suppose the speaker to be a male, he to be derived from the time of the rape of the Sabines. will style his nephew and niece in the male line, his Mr. M'Lennan finds the practice necessary to the constitu- brother's children, "son" and "daughter," and his grandtion of the relations of husband and wife among the Cal- nephews and grand-nieces in the male line, "grandson mucks, the Tunguzians, the Khonds, the Fuegians, the and "granddaughter." Here the Turanian and the MaWelsh, the Arabs, the Irish, and various other races. He layan systems agree. But change the sex; let the male explains its existence by the institutions of exogamy (i.e., speaker address his nephews and nieces in the female line, the rule prohibiting marriage between people of the same the children of his sister, he salutes them as "nephew" blood), and by the prevalence of hostility between the and "niece," and they hail him as "uncle." Now, in the tribes of rude times. Suppose the rule to exist that a man Malay system, nephews and nieces on both sides, brother's may not marry a woman of his own community, and sup- children or sisters, are alike named "children" of the pose that, by an exhaustive division, all other communities uncle. If the speaker be a female, using the Turanian without exception are hostile, he must steal a wife if he is style, these terms are reversed. Her sister's sons and to marry at all. The fiction of capture, as men grow more daughters are saluted by her as "son" and "daughter," polite, will endure as part of the marriage ceremony when her brother's children she calls "nephew" and "niece." the need of the reality is passed. It is to be noticed that Yet the children of the persons thus styled "nephew" and the theft of the woman is, in the fictitious capture, gen- "niece" are not recognized in conversation as granderally the work of more than one man, as it well might be, nephew" and grand-niece," but as "grandson" and if the early marriages were polyandrous. If it be granted "granddaughter." It is impossible here to do more than that the prohibition to marry within the community is as indicate these features of the classificatory nomenclature. early as it is widely prevalent, this explanation of the form from which the others may be inferred. The reader is re of capture will seem sufficient. The origin of the early ferred for particulars to Mr. Morgan's great work, Systems prohibition will be discussed later. Thus, on the evidence of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Race (Washof a sportive feature in the marriage ceremony of civilized ington, 1871). peoples, a vestige is revealed of customs connected with a very early form of the family. A strange piece of barbarous etiquette may hint that the kindred of the bride and groom were once hostile groups. The daughter-in-law, among many races, is forbidden to speak to her father-in-law; the mother-in-law must hide when she sees her son-in-law. The wives treat their husbands with what may be a survival of hostility, and never name them by their names. Examples are collected in Sir John Lubbock's Origin of Civilization, pp. 11, 12. The practices are found among races on the border of the Polar Sea, in the Rocky Mountains, in Southern Africa, among the Caribs, Mongols, and Calmucks, in China, in Siberia, and in Australia. To these instances adduced by Sir John Lubbock we may add Bulgaria (Dozon, Chants Populaires Bulgares). Herodotus says (i. 146) that the wives of the early Ionians would not call their husbands by their names nor sit at meat with them, and instructed their daughters to practise the same reserve. The reason assigned is that the women were originally Carians, whose parents the Ionians had slain. It may be allowed that this world-wide practice, too, testifies to a time when men married out of their own group, and all groups were hostile each to the other. Perhaps the English local custom, which forbids the parents of bride and bridegroom to be present at the marriage ceremony, holds the same antiquity. We have now to note the widespread existence of a system of nomenclature, which can hardly have arisen in times when the monogamous family was the unit of society. Mr. Lewis Morgan of New York was the discoverer of a " The existence of the classificatory system is not an entirely novel discovery. Nicolaus Damascenus, one of the inquirers into early society, who lived in the first century of our era, noticed this mode of address among the Galac tophagi. Lafitau found it among the Iroquois. To Mr. Morgan's perception of the importance of the facts, and to his energetic collection of reports, we owe our knowledge of the wide prevalence of the system. From an examination of the degrees of kindred which seem to be indicated by the "Malayan" and "Turanian" modes of address, Mr. Morgan has worked out a theory of the evolution of the modern family. A brief comparison of this with other modern theories will close our account of the family. The main points of the theory are shortly stated in Systems of Consanguinity, etc., pp. 487, 493, and in Ancient Society, p. 384. From the latter work we quote the following descrip tion of the five different and successive forms of the family: "I. The Consanguine Family. It was founded upon the intermarriage of brothers and sisters, own and collateral, in a group. "II. The Punaluan Family. It was founded upon the intermarriage of several sisters, own and collateral, with each others' husbands, in a group,-the joint husbands not being necessarily kinsmen of each other; also, on the intermarriage of several brothers, own and collateral, with each others' wives in a group, these wives not being necessarily of kin to each other, although often the case in both instances (sic). In each case the group of men were conjointly married to the group of women. "III. The Syndyasmian or Pairing Family. It was founded upon marriage between single pairs, but without an exclusive cohabitation. The marriage continued during the pleasure of the parties. "IV. The Patriarchal Family. It was founded upon the marriage of one man with several wives, followed in general by the seclusion of the wives. "V. The Monogamian Family. It was founded upon marriage between single pairs with an exclusive cohabitation. "Three of these forms, namely, the first, second, and fifth, were radical, because they were sufficiently general and influential to create three distinct systems of consanguinity, all of which still exist in living forms. Conversely, these systems are sufficient of themselves to prove the antecedent existence of the forms of the family and of marriage with which they severally stand connected." Mr. Morgan makes the systems of nomenclature proofs of the existence of the Consanguine and Punaluan families. Unhappily, there is no other proof, and the same systems have been explained on a very different principle (M'Lennan, Studies in Ancient History, pp. 372-407). Looking at facts, we find the consanguine family nowhere, and cannot easily imagine how early groups abstained from infringing on each other, and created a systematic marriage of brothers and sisters. St. Augustine, however (De Civ. Dei, xv. 16), and Archinus in his Thessalica (Odyssey, xi. 7, scholia B, Q) agree more or less with Mr. Morgan. Next, how did the consanguine family change into the Punaluan? Mr. Morgan says (Ancient Society, pp. 424, 428) brothers ceased to marry their sisters, because "the evils of it could not for ever escape human observation." Thus the Punaluan family was hit upon, and "created distinct system of consanguinity" (Ancient Society, p. 384), the Turanian. Again, "marriages in Punaluan groups explain the relationships in the system." But (p. 386) Mr. Morgan provides himself with another explanation, "the Turanian system owes its origin to marriage in the group and to the gentile organization." He calls exogamy the gentile organization," though, in point of fact, the only gentes we know, the Roman gentes, show scarcely a trace of exogamy. Again, "the change of relationships which resulted from substituting Punaluan in the place of Consanguine marriage turns the Malayan into the Turanian system" (p. 442, see too p. 387). In the same page (442) Mr. Morgan attributes the change to the "gentile organization," and, still in the same page, uses both factors in his working out of the problem. Now, if the Punaluan marriage is a sufficient explanation, we do not need the "gentile organization." Both, in Mr. Morgan's opinion, were efforts of conscious moral reform. In Systems of Consanguinity (p. 490) the gentile organization (there called tribal), that is, exogamy, is said to have been "designed to work out a reformation in the intermarriage of brothers and sisters." But the Punaluan marriage had done that, otherwise it would not have produced (as Mr. Morgan says it did) the change from the Malayan to the Turanian system, the difference in the two systems, as exemplified in Seneca and Tamil, being "in the relationships which depended on the intermarriage or non-intermarriage of brothers and sisters" (Ancient Society, p. 442). Yet the Punaluan family, though itself a reform in morals and in "breeding," "did not furnish adequate motives to reform the Malay system," which, as we have seen, it did reform (p. 388). The Punaluan family, it is suspected, "frequently involved own brothers and sisters" (p. 427); had it not been so, there would have been no need of a fresh moral reformation,-"the gentile organization." Yet even in the Punaluan family (Ancient Society, p. 488) "brothers ceased to marry their own sisters." What, then, did the "gentile organization" do for As they had already ceased to marry their own sisters, and as, under the gentile organization, they were still able to marry their half-sisters, the reformatory "ingenuity" of the inventors of the organizations was at once superfluous and useless. It is impossible to understand the Punaluan system. Its existence is inferred from a system of nomenclature which it does (and does not) produce; it admits (and excludes) own brothers and sisters. Mr. Morgan has intended, apparently, to represent the Punaduan marriage as a long transition to the definite custom of exogamy, but it will be seen that his language is not very clear nor his positions assured. He does not adduce sufficient proof that the Punaluan family ever existed as an institution, even in Hawaii. There is, if possible, a greater absence of historical testimony to the existence of the Consanguine family. It is difficult to believe that exogamy was a conscious moral and social reformation, because, ex hypothesi, the savages had no moral data, nothing men? to cause disgust at relations which seem revolting to us. It is as improbable that they discovered the supposed physical evils of breeding in and in. That discovery could only have been made after a long experience, and in the Consanguine family that experience was impossible. Thus, setting moral reform aside as inconceivable, we cannot understand how the Consanguine families ever broke up. Mr. Morgan's ingenious speculations as to a transitional step towards the gens (as he calls what we style the totemkindred), supposed to be found in the "classes" and marriage laws of the Kamilaroi, are vitiated by the weakness and contradictory nature of the evidence (see Pritchard, vol. ii. p. 492; Lang's Queensland, Appendix; Proceedings of American Academy of Arts, etc., vol. viii. 412; Nature, October 29, 1874). Further, though Mr. Morgan calls the Australian "gentile organization" "incipient," he admits (Ancient Society, p. 374) that the Narrinyeri have totem groups, in which "the children are of the clan of the father." Far from being "incipient," the gene of the Narrinyeri is on the footing of the ghotra of Hindu custom. Lastly, though Mr. Morgan frequently declares that the Polynesians have not the gens (for he thinks them not sufficiently advanced), Mr. Gill has shown that unmistakable traces of the totem survive in Polynesian mythology. There is the less necessity to believe, with Mr. Morgan, in the Punaluan and Consanguine families, because the evidence on which he relies, the evidence of the classificatory system, has been explained on a different theory by Mr. M'Lennan (Studies in Ancient History, loc. cit.), whose mode of conceiving the evolution of the family is, briefly stated, this. Primitive man was, as geology reveals him, gregarious. We have no sort of evidence as to his truly primitive manners, for all existing savages have had many ages of experience and, as it were, of education. It can hardly be supposed, however, that the earliest men had instinct against marriage with near kin. Their earliest associations would be based on the sentiment of kindred, not yet brought into explicit consciousness, and on community of residence. They would be named by the name of their group. The blood relation of the mother to the child would be the first they perceived. As time went on they could reason out other relationships through women, but male kinship would remain, though not unknown as a fact, unrecognized in custom, because, if harmony was to exist within the group, it could only be secured "through indifference and promiscuity," which made certainty of male parentage impossible. Now let it be supposed, as a vast body of evidence leads us to suppose, that female children were slaughtered as bouches inutiles. The result would be a scarcity of women within the group. To secure wives men would be obliged to steal them from other groups, which were, ex hypothesi, hostile. This is almost the state of things known to Montaigne (Cotton's translation, chap. xvii.), "where the servile condition of women is looked upon with such contempt that they kill all the native females and buy wives from their neighbors." Now, in each group, by the system of capture, are members of alien groups, namely, the women and their children, who, as we have seen, are recognized as connexions of the mothers, not the fathers. Let these practices be formed into customary law, refuse a man permission to marry a woman of his own stock-name (marked by the totem), and you have exogamy, or what Mr. Morgan calls "the gentile organization." Within the groups are several families of the earliest type, the female and her offspring. Next, conceive of the sets of mother's sons, as feeling a stronger bond of union between themselves and the other members of the group, and as living with their mother. They cannot marry their sisters (who are of the same name and totem as themselves), but they regard their sisters' children as their heirs. To their own putative children they can only make presents inter vivos, and the sisters are wedded each to a set of men in the manner of the Nairs. But, as property was amassed, the brothers would prefer to keep their property in the hands of their putative children, and there would be a disposition in favor of a system of marriage which would allow of the property passing to the brother's own children" (Prim. Mar., 242). This form of marriage would be the one prevailing in Thibet. The elder brother, the first to marry, would have some of the attributes of the paterfamilias. Thus the idea of fatherhood attained something like maturity. Chiefs, moreover, would secure one or more wives to themselves, and their example imitated would produce monandry. The old state of things would leave its trace in the levirate, the duty of "raising up seed to a brother." Even before these changes the custom of marrying out of the group would have introduced so many strangers of various names and totems, that the members of a local tribe could intermarry with one another and yet not violate the law of exogamy. Such a local tribe, flushed with success in war, might refuse to marry beyond its limits, and become, so to say, a caste divided into ghotras. Let this caste feign itself to be descended from a common ancestor (a process of which Sir John Lubbock gives many examples), and you have a caste believed to be of common blood, yet refusing to marry outside the blood, that is, an endogamous tribe. Within this tribe (as it were by a reaction from the old kinship through females) grows kinship through males only, the agnatic system of Rome. The wife and children are the husband's property; agnates only can be a man's heirs, and, failing these, gentiles,-i. e., members of the kin still denoted by the common name. Many criticisms have been made, especially by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Herbert Spencer (Origin of Civilization, third edition; Principles of Sociology, vol. i.), on the scheme here too briefly sketched. Sir John Lubbock holds that exogamy springs from marriage by capture (by which alone a member of a group could get a wife to himself), rather than marriage by capture from exogamy. Mr. Spencer advocates the action of various "conspiring causes," the stealing of a wife might become the required proof of fitness to have one" (op. cit., pp. 652, 653). The origin of exogamy lies so far behind us in the past that it may remain for ever obscure. It is probable that every variety of union of the sexes has existed, while it seems possible that a few have been passed through, as necessary stages, by all advancing races. In this notice we have said little of the custom by which a man is a member of several clubs of men, each with one wife in common. No hard and fast theory is likely to be accepted as more than provisional in the present state of knowledge, when science has only for a few years been busily occupied in this investigation. (A. L.) FAMINES. War, pestilence, and famine are regarded by many as the natural enemies of the human race; but in truth these are all more or less associated with the circumstances of civilization. In the highest state of civilized society there ought to be no war; there need be no pestilence; and famine alone would stand as being beyond the range of human prevention-subject to some conditions to be afterwards spoken of. The advancement in the social scale to a state of dependence upon cereal crops, while the facilities of intercommunication between different countries, or even parts of the same country, remained imperfect, led almost necessarily to the periodical recurrence of scarcity. Cereal crops are especially dependent upon conditions of climate for their regular production; and here at least are circumstances beyond human control. In a matter of such practical importance as the failure of the regular supply of the food of the people, it is not desirable to rely upon merely theoretical surmises; nor is it necessary to do so. A table has recently been prepared of over 350 famines which have occurred in the history of the world, beginning with those spoken of in the Scriptures as having been in Palestine and in the neighboring nations in the time of Abraham (Gen. xii. 10), and again in the time of Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 1); passing on to the seven years' famine in Egypt down through those which afflicted ancient Rome; enumerating in their order those which have visited the three divisions of the United Kingdom (by far the most numerous in the table-the records being more available), as also those devastating Europe in the Middle Ages; reviewing in special detail the 34 famines which have visited India, including, as the first recorded of this group, that of 1769-70 (above 20 have been on a large scale); and concluding with that terrible calamity which is now ravag ing the populations in North China. It is not pretended that this table is entirely exhaustive. It is known that many famines have occurred in the Chinese empire of which no details have been found available; and it is supposed that many have desolated Persia and other portions of Asia of which exact particulars are not available. But 1 See Statistical Journal, vol. xli., paper by Mr. Cornelius Walford, F.L.A., F.S.S., etc., "On the Famines of the World, past and present." as this is believed to be the only existing table of the kind, and as great pains have been taken to make it complete, it may for our present purpose be regarded at least as representative. We proceed, then, to an analysis of it, in view of ascertaining what have been the causes of famines,—a point of the first importance when we come to a consideration of the problem which will naturally force itself into prominence can anything be done to avert these national calamities? The analysis discloses the following causes, or we may perhaps more accurately say attributed causes-for in this matter we have to follow the authority of the original chronicle, or of such records as have reached us:-1, rain; 2, frost; 3, drought; 4, other meteorological phenomena; 5, insects and vermin; 6, war; 7, defective agriculture; 8, defective transport; 9, legislative interference; 10, currency restrictions; 11, speculation; 12, misapplication of grain. These causes are named, as far as may be, in the order of their importance. It is immediately noticeable that they form themselves into the two distinct groups of natural and artificial causes. We proceed to consider the first group-natural causes of famines. 1. Rain.-By excess of rain floods are produced, the soil becomes saturated, and decomposition of the seed is occasioned. In hilly countries the seed is not unfrequently washed entirely out of the ground, and so is destroyed. This cause of famine applies in a marked manner to tropical countries, where the rains are so much of the nature of torrents that the evil presents itself in a magnified degree. Improved cultivation of the land, embracing good drainage, is providing the most effective remedy. Other forms of damage to grain crops result from rain, as where it occurs in undue quantities during the harvest season, and the crops are destroyed before they can be safely stored. This has constantly happened in the northern portions of our own kingdom, and in parts of continental Europe. Inundations from the sea, from rivers, from inland lakes, fall within this category, and great mischief has resulted from these in many parts of the world. White, in his Natural History of Selborne, gives scientific reasons why much-flooded lands remain infertilethe beneficial action of the earth-worms is thereby retarded. 2. Frost. In temperate regions frost is a deadly enemy to vegetation in several forms. In the case of grain cultivation it may, by setting in early, prevent the efficient manipulation of the soil and the sowing of the autumn seed. Or by being protracted beyond the early months of the year, it will prevent spring sowing, and even seriously injure the young crops. Combined with rain it will frequently destroy the vitality of the seed while yet in the ground. In the northern part of our island it not unfrequently destroys the grain before it is fully harvested. Efficient drainage of the soil is almost as effective against the ravages of frost as against the damage from rain. Many famines in Great Britain_have been shown to be directly the result of frost. In France, and other wine and olive producing countries, the damage occasioned by frost is immense. Such damage, as well as that occasioned by floods, is there a recognized branch of insurance business. 3. Drought. In all climates of a tropical character drought plays an important part in retarding the development of vegetation. When combined with moisture, solar heat affords the most certain means of securing luxuriance; without the moisture there is absolute sterility. The early Bible records refer to the rising of the waters of the Nile as the event upon which the fertility of Egypt depends. About 1060 the overflowing of this great river failed for seven successive years, occasioning one of the greatest famines of history. Two provinces were wholly depopulated; and in another half the inhabitants perished. Even in temperate climates long-continued drought is very disastrous. 4. Other Meteorological Phenomena.-Under this general designation has to be included several causes more or less directly or remotely contributing to famines. (a) Comets. -The appearance of these has often coincided with periods of drought; they are also frequently associated with excessive heat. But heat, except in so far as it may superinduce drought, is not detrimental to the grain crops; while, in relation to fruit crops, and more especially that of the vine, not only is the quality of the produce greatly enhanced, but frequently its quantity also. The sale of some of the comet-claret of 1811 recently at £12, 10s. per bottle in Paris is some evidence of the quality. (b) Earthquakes. These would seem to have but little influence in producing famine, except in the immediate locality of their devastations. Where, however, they have produced irruptions of the sea or inland waters, which has not unfrequently been the case, the damage has been extensive. (c) Hurricanes and Storms.-These frequently produce widespread injury in the localities they visit. They also lead to irruptions of the sea, and to the overflow of rivers; but as a rule these occur at periods of the year when the grain and other crops are not sufficiently advanced to sustain serious damage by shaking or otherwise, or have been harvested. (d) Hail-storms.-These are usually local in their effects-rarely extending beyond 60 miles in their greatest length and some 6 miles in width, and are generally confined to much smaller limits. They are most destructive to grain and fruit produce of all kinds when they occur in severe form, and in the summer and autumn months-when they are most prevalent. The damage these occasion has long been the subject of insurance alike in England and other parts of Europe. In France hail-storms are of great frequency, and also of great severity. 5. Insects, Vermin, etc.-Insect plagues appear to have afflicted mankind from a very early period. Thus flies and locusts were among the plagues of Egypt, and concerning the latter we read (Ex. x. 14, 15): "Very griev- | ous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt." The present writer travelled in 1874 through districts in the Western States of America devastated very much in the manner thus described. The famine now raging in North China began in one district at least by a visitation of locusts. In India such visitations have occurred several times. England has been visited on various occasions by plagues of insects, especially in 476 and again in 872. As to vermin, such as rats, mice, etc., destroying the crops, there are but few instances on record. In 1581 there was a plague of mice in Essex, and in 1812-13 a plague of rats in the Madras presidency, which in part occasioned the famine of that year. We now turn to the artificial causes of famines, some of which hardly admit of being dealt with in the same detail. 6. War-Warfare has a tendency to create famine in one or other of several forms. It too frequently retards cultivation, either by its direct operation, or indirectly by calling the agricultural classes to arms. By its agency, too, the crops of whole districts are either designedly destroyed or ruinously devastated. Famines in particular towns or localities are often occasioned by the establishment of blockades, or through supplies being otherwise intercepted or cut off. A large quantity of grain, too, is probably damaged every year by being kept in military stores in various parts of Europe; in the event of famine, however, these stores may become of immense value. one part of the kingdom, with a superabundance of ford in another. The introduction of canals, and subsequently of railroads, removed all possible difficulty in the United Kingdom. In India at the present moment the chief difficulty in connection with the famines is the want of the means of transport. 9. Legislative Interference.-It does not appear altogether certain whether legislative interference with respect to the import or export of grain originated in relation to the prevention of famines, or in the desire to advance agriculture or to keep down prices within the limits at one time prescribed by law. Probably all these causes contributed to the building up of the system of the Corn Laws, which were only repealed, at the indignant demand of the nation, as recently as 1846. It is clear that all legislative interference must be designed to interfere with the natural course of supply and demand; and to that extent it is dangerous. There is no doubt that the Corn Laws were often called into play to prevent exportation of grain; while they only admitted of its importation when prices reached or exceeded certain predetermined limits. It was the Irish famine of 1845-46 which at least hastened their final repeal.1 10. Currency Restrictions.-Under this head is mainly included the consideration of debasing the coin, and so lessening its purchasing power. But for very direct testimony on more than one occasion we should hardly have included this among the causes of famine. Thus Penkethman (who may be regarded as a high authority) says, under date 1124, “By means of changing the coine all things became very deere, whereof an extreme famine did arise, and afflict the multitude of the people unto death." Other instances, as in 1248, 1390, and 1586, are more particularly set out in the table of famines already referred to. 11. Speculation.-Under this head has chiefly to be considered that class of dealings known as "forestalling," "ingrossing," and trafficking by "regratours." Offences of this character were prohibited by statute in 1552 (5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 14), and it is seen that much importance was attached to them. Then there was the Act of 1555 (2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 15), “An Act that purveyors shall not take victuals within 5 miles of Cambridge and Oxford," on account of the poor estate of the multitude of scholars “having very bare and small sustentation." A further inquiry into the legislative measures taken in this direction would show how little removed from famine conditions were the people of England even at a comparatively recent period. 12. Misapplication of Grain.-Under this head is mainly to be noted the excessive use of grain in brewing and distilling, and by burning, whether wilfully or by misadventure. The laws regarding the burning of grain ricks were long and properly very severe, the punishment being capital until within a comparatively recent date. Under date 1315 we find it recorded that the Londoners, "considering that wheat was much consumed by the converting thereof into mault, ordained that from thence it was to be made of other grains." This order was afterwards extended by the king (Edward II.) through the whole kingdom. In later times distilling from grain has been prohibited. It is clear from what has thus been said that the specific causes of famines which are denominated artificial have nearly all passed away, so far as Britain is concerned; but some of them still assert their force, especially in the East. 7. Defective Agriculture.-This may result from one of As to India, the constantly recurring famines in the various several causes, as ignorance, indifference, or unsuitability provinces have caused great commiseration in England, of climate or location. Where the produce of the soil but and much anxiety and cost to the Government, that of barely meets the current requirements of the inhabitants, 1874 costing £6,500,000, that of 1877 nearly £10,000,000,it is clear that either the failure of one season's crops, or and have naturally drawn attention to the fact that the Inthe sudden influx of any great number of strangers, may dian empire, as a whole, produces year by year sufficient produce at least temporary famine. See Macaulay's Eng-food for its aggregate population. The food supply fails at land, vol. i. chap. 3, or Wade's British History chrono- certain points; and there are no adequate means of translogically arranged, under date 1549 to 1553, etc. portation between the suffering provinces and others which have abundance. Hence millions starve; and hence, in the mean time, has arisen a fierce controversy between those who are in favor of canals, and water carriage generally, and the military authorities, who regard railways as of the first necessity-funds not being immediately forthcoming for both purposes. 8. Dejective Transport.-This may arise from such causes as bad roads or want of roads, absence of canals or want of shipping, or from wilful obstruction. In our own country we had the advantage of the great Roman roads from a very early period; but still for cross country purposes the roads remained very bad, or, indeed, did not exist, until comparatively recent times. In 1285 an Act was passed for widening the highways from one market town to another; "but this was intended rather to prevent robbery than to facilitate travelling" (Wade). In consequence of the bad state of the roads it has frequently happened that there was a famine prevailing in There are other facts regarding the famines of India which require to be known, as they are contrary to the general belief. Thus Mr. F. C. Danvers says, in his able Report on the Famines of India (1878):— 1 Edward I. "caused the wooll and leather to be stayed in England, and there followed great dearth of corne and wine."-Penkethman. |