The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-07 00:00:00

The King, during his stay here, bought Mosaics, and other
works of art, to the amount of 16,000 scudi.

If UNICH, OCT. 25,

The King's health continues to improve ; but, on ac-
count of the cold and foggy weather which just now pre-
vails, his Majesty will not leave his apartments for some
days. The report that has been spread by some Journals,
that his Majesty's poems have been prohibited in Austria,
has received no confirmation whatever. We can likewise
contradict, upon good authority, as wholly groundless, the
assertion of several journals, that the new organization of
the schools is not yet to be carried into effect.
HANOVER, OCT. 28.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Bavaria ar-
rived on the 23d inst., from Munich, at Gottingen, to
prosecute his studies at that University.

There is no topic on which the politicians of
the SADLER school take more delight in in•
dulging, than that of the alteration which they
say has taken place in the comforts of life for-
merly so generally diffused among the middling
and inferior classes of our population. If we are
to believe a hundredth part of the complaints
we hear of the general distress that is said to pre-
vail, England has been changed within the last
century from a land flowing with milk and honey,
into one whose people are going out in a state of
starvation, not knowing where to lay their heads.
We set so little value ourselves upon general
assertions of this kind—resembling as they do
the murmurs of old women at the weather being
less fine than it was when they were young and
blooming—that we should not have thought it
necessary to allude to them at all, did we not
feel that the spirit of discontent which prevails
even among men whose own experience ought
lo have taught them better, is really mischievous,
from the erroneous notions to which it constantly
gives rise—that the country is suffering from the
adoption of the theories of the advocates of
Free Trade.

The comparative consumption of the neces-
saries and comforts of life in particular years, is
an infallible criterion of the circumstances of the
people in general, during those years, when con-
sidered with reference to the numbers of the
population. And if those articles are selected
for comparison, of which the physical ability of
any individual does not permit him to use more
than a given quantity, such as tobacco, wine,
spirits, sugar, tea, and coffee, it is obvious that
an increased consumption is a direct refutation
of the assertion that men's means are now
smaller than they used to be. We have ab-
stracted from a Parliamentary Return, made on
the 19th June, the following account, with a
view of shewing what the real truth is in this re-
spect. The fact of the articles referred to being
of a mixed nature—partaking both of luxuries
and necessaries—is one which vouches for the
propriety of their selection, as an index of the
condition of the people.
roru LATION. 1790 1811 1828
Great Britain
CONSUMPTION. 1790 1811 1828
- - - -

Tobacco (lbs.) 8,960,224 14,923,243 14,540,368
French Wines (gals.) 246,334 63,221 451,361
Other Wine (ditto) 6,245,983 5,797,653 7,129,264
Foreign Brandy and
Geneva.. ....(do) 2,225,403 1,329,467 1,645,159
Ruin (ditto) 2,274,533 3,615,570 3,903,534
Sugar (cwts. )
Tea (lbs.) 14,693,299 20,702,809 26,790,481
Coffee (ditto)
It appears from this statement that, after
making the proper allowance for the excess
of population in the last year, over that of 1790
and 1811, the consumption for 1828, of to•
ham), was greater by 14 to 12 than in 1790,
and less by 14 to 17 than in 1811 ; of French
wine, greater by 5 to 4 than in 1790, and of 6
to 1 than in 1811 ; of other wine, less by 7 to
8 than in 1790, and about the same as in 1811 ;
of brandy and genera, less by four to 7 than in
1790, and greater by 16 to 15 than in 1811 ;
of rum, greater by 4 to 3 than in 1790, and less
by 10 to 11 than in 1811 ; of sugar, greater by
11 to 7 in 1790, and less by 11 to 13 than in
1811 ; of tea, greater by 26 to 19 than in 1790,
and by 13 to 12 than in 1811 ; and of coffee,
greater by 15 to 1 than in 1790, and by 15 to 7
than in 1811. The use of tobacco, French wine,
rum, sugar, tea, and coffee, is, therefore, at pre-
sent, far more general than in 1790, and that
of French wine, brandy, and geneva, tea and
coffee, also more general than in 1811. The
decrease, where it occurs, is very trifling, as in
wines, except French, which are now used
in a proportion only one-eighth less than
1790, the consumption being about the
same as in 1811. The diminished use of
foreign spirits is referable to the encouragement
given lately to British gin, and forms an
unimportant feature in the whole case.
If the commodities we have mentioned be a
fair index of the enjoyments of other kinds
within the reach of the bulk of the community,
the nation enjoys a degree of comfort much su-
perior to that of the periods of the commence-
ment of the war, and of its height. We do not
mean to say that there are not articles, such as
malt, in which the necessaries of life have been
severely reduced in plentifulness, by excessive
taxation ; but altogether, our opinion is, judg-
ing from what we know ourselves of the way in
which the lower classes live—from the variety of
new inventions which have bee►► made subser-
vient to public utility—from the extraordinary
cheapness of clothing in this country, particularly
of cottons and woollens, which can be purchased
here for less than any where else in the world—
from the reduction in the agricultural prices,
which have lowered those of bread and meat—
and from the extended consumption of articles
which range rather under luxuries than neces-
saries—that the situation of our population is
now reall better than it has been at any given
period during the last forty years.
We have no inclination to praise the present