The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-23 00:00:00

COST OF LIVING ABROAD.

A series of reports from British representatives respect.
ing the organisation of the diplomatic service contain
some details as to the cost of living abroad now compared
with a couple of decades ago. There is a general rise of
price and expenses at the cities where our diplomatists
are stationed. At Paris neither a diplomatist nor any
other member of society can live now upon the income
which sufficed in 1850. At that time the cost of living
for a young man in the diplomatic service, not including
such expenses as keeping a horse or a carriage, but with
economical habits for a person in his social position, may
be taken at £330 a year, but now at £6OO. Mr. West, of
the English Embassy, observes that the general style of
living among the society in which members of the diplo-
matic body are in the habit of mixing is undoubtedly
very much more expensive now than it was
In 1850. At Berlin the average expenses of
such a member of society, as a junior diplomatist, have
risen from £3OO to £5OO. Lord Loftus remarks that
" there is no court in Europe more magnificently kept
up than at Berlin. Luxury has taken the place
of simplicity, and this is more especially the
case as regards ladies' dresses." An observation of a
Prussian member of Parliament is quoted to the effect
that the cost of living at Berlin has risen 90 per cent. in
twenty years. Lord Bloomfield reports an increase at
Vienna of 70 or 80 per cent. in the last 20 years in the
cost of living • and Sir A. Buchanan wends a similar
report from St'. Petersburg. Sir A. Paget writes from
Florence that the general expense of living is
almost treble what it was twenty years ago. Mr. Burnley
reports that at Dresden he could have lived at half
his present rate 10 or 15 years ago ; " the requirements of
society are much greater than they used to be ; rich
bankers and traders, who have made their fortunes in
Chemnitz and other largo towns, come to Dresden to
reside, and spend their money freely, and this, of course,
entails a certain amount of rivalry as to who shall be said
to have given the best entertainment ; a good deal of the
present dearness of living is also attributable to the number
of Americans who are accustomed to the high paper prices
of their own country, and are too apt to observe that every.
thing is very cheap, which induces shopkeepers to raise their
price accordingly." From Stuttgart and other European
capitals comes a similar wail. Mr. Odo Russell, our repre-
sentative at Rome, observes that no one should enter the
diplomatic service without a private income of £l,OOO
a year. Mr, Thornton says that at Washington the junior
members of the mission are obliged to expend $3,205
(about £667) if bachelors, and above £l,OOO if with a wife
and small family ; these are the lowest rates, and do not
include clothes or the hire of carriages, and, in fact, the
gentlemen belonging to this mission spend a great deal
more. The change in favour of more luxurious
habits is even still greater in South America. But most
melancholy.of all is the statement of the British repre-
sentatives in China. They are ignorant of their own
servant's language, and find the price of everything
doubled to them—the actual market tariff being
high. Much food is lost by getting tainted, espe-
cially as the Chinese have no scruple in selling the
flesh of animals that have died of any disease.
Alutton has a most objectionable amount of bone
to its meat, and in some places it is only sold by
the quarter. The saying is that a man must buy a sheep
to get a mutton chop. I+ owls are sold by weight, with
sand shaken into the feathers. Consul Markham calls to
mind that at home a beefsteak or a leg of mutton would
constitute a fair meal, and says that in China it is neces-
sary to have three times the number of dishes required, in
order to have a fair chance of getting one eatable. It is a
common saying that in China dollars go no further than
shillings do in England ; and Consul Tedder writes from
Annoy that even sovereigns must occasionally be spent
for what could be done, at least as satisfactorily, for shil-
lings in England. Thus the tale from all quarters is the
same.