The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-10 00:00:00

COMPARATIVE EXPENSES.

All Englishmen, and Londoners in particular,
may draw, we think, a satisfactory kind of moral
from certain remarkable documents which we pub-
lished on Wednesday. The United States of
America, like a more ancient republic, appears to
be bent upon getting the greatest possible amount
of information from their Ministers in foreign parts,
and the " relations " of these gentlemen may be
almost matched with those of the old Venetian
Ambassadors for characteristic interest and exact-
ness. Not long ago the State Department of the
American Government addressed circular inquiries
to the representatives of the Union in foreign capi-
tals as to the cost of living at their respective sta-
tions. These questions were, of course, framed
with a view to the proper regulation of diplomatic
expenditure ; but the replies put on record in the
correspondence to which we refer, present a compa-
rative survey of national advantages so very intel-
ligible and amusing, that we think it will consist
both with our own duty and the reader's gratifica-
tion, if we revive the subject for a little further re-
mark.

It will be readily understood that the position of
a foreign minister is peculiarly unfavourable to
experiments in domestic economy, and it was the
effect, perhaps, of these invariable conditions which
appears to have impressed every American envoy
with the not unnatural conviction that his own
station must inevitably be the very dearest spot of
the habitable globe. Still, the very universality of
this impression enables us to deal with it, for,
though every foreign minister may doubtless live
at higher charges than any native resident, yet, as
the ministers in every capital fare alike in this par-
ticular, the general expensiveness of their respec-
tive locations may be ascertained as easily from these
returns as from those of any other class, the only
difference being that the scale is somewhat higher
throughout. From London, then, we find Mr.
Abbot Lawrance writing that a house befitting the
position of the American Minister would cost from
7001. to 9001. a-year, and that carriages and horses
would require from 2251. to 2501. more. These are
the only items which it was thought necessary to spe-
cify in the British return. On turning, however, to
Paris, we observe that Mr. Rives, after enumerat-
ing very nearly the same charges in respect to
house-rent and equipages, proceeds immediately
to recapitulate certain other items of expenditure
almost as serious as the former. Fuel, for a house-
hold of half-a-dozen persons and their servants,
averages in Paris from 2501. to 3001 a-year--a
fact not. perhaps astonishing to those who can re-
collect what they have paid for a few days' firing
at a Parisian hotel, but which will promptly sug-
gest to the untravelled reader a very sufficing
explanation of the value of woods and forest in
France. Be it remembered, too, that the country
thus enormously taxed for one of the chief neces-
saries of life is within an hour or two's voyage
of another country where the best coals may be
had at less than 1/. per ton. Passing from fuel,
Mr. Rives next reports the extraordinary price
of eatables, and remarks, with the true em-
phasis of an American, that ham, which his coun-
trymen would probably be glad to send into
France at 6d. or Bd. a-pound, is charged in Paris
at ls. 6d. or 2s. Fowls, too, at Bs. 6d. a-couple
are very properly recorded for the wonder of
posterity, though on that point we have not much
to boast of at home, for all the " poultry mania,"
to which the coming will testify, has not yet re-
sulted in bringing to London markets at less than
ss. or 6s. a-pair chickens which are certainly raised
in the country for less than half-a-crown. In
" common groceries," indeed, the contrast would
have been surprising, but Mr. Rives is content to
allude to this charge upon French residence without
entering into particulars.
From Vienna we get but few details, as Mr.
M'Curdy does not yet " know much personally
about the expenses incident to his residence."
From St. Petersburgh Mr. Brown reports that the
Russian capital "is emphatically and in every re-
spect an artificial city—artificially built and artifi-
cially sustained. It is dependent for all its supplies
on distant regions • the necessaries of life are ex-
orbitantly high, while the tastes and habits of the
place are extravagant." Nevertheless, as Russia
possesses some railway communication, and is in
the way of getting more, St. Petersburgh, not-
withstanding this character, must be largely in ad-
vance of more ancient capitals. The description
given of Madrid is in the highest degree instructive.
" The great distance," writes Mr. Barringer, " of
this capital from the coast, the universal want of
good internal communication, the barrenness of
the immediate locality, the peculiar habits of the
nation, their general prejudice against everything
foreign, their indifference, and. even content with
the stationary condition f their country, have all
had a most pernicious influence." Water, which
is brought to the house-doors on men's shoulders,
is exceedingly expensive ; wood, when it can be
procured at all, is sold by the pound ; coal, oil,
and other articles of daily consumption, are first
carried over hundreds of miles on mules' backs,
and then burdened with crushing duties at the
very gate of the city whose wants they arrive to
supply. As an example of the state of things, Mr.
Barringer mentions that one of his carriages, which
was brought for 121. from New York to Cadiz, cost
721. in coming from Cadiz to Madrid. It is
amusing to observe how closely the metropolis of
Turkey corresponds in these respects with the me-
tropolis of Spain. The same total want of internal
communications, the same uncertainty of supplies,
and the same extravagance of prices are reported
from Constantinople as were returned from Madrid,
and either account would nearly serve for a
description of Burmah or Affghanistan. Civilized
capitals have at least this advantage, that their re-
sources are known and unfailing at a current rate
of charge; but at Madrid, no less than at Constan-
tinople, the latitudes of which are politically as
well as geographically the same, no supplies can be
reckoned upon with certainty at any price at all.
We have not yet exhausted the list before us,
but we have probably said enough to make Lon-
doners tolerably content with their lot. To grum-
ble is not only an Englishman's privilege, but, so
long as obvious improvements are wilfully neglected,
his duty too. Nevertheless, we may think more
comfortably even of our sewers and our water-rates
—of our narrow streets and our national " embel-
lishments," when we compare our institutions with
those of other capitals. Free trade has already ac-
complished
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,• but even these visitors are ex-
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which perversity or ignorance maintain elsewhere.
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All the necessaries of life are brought to our doors,
both from foreign and home markets, at a price
I really regulated by the expense of production,