TAX UPON TRAVELLERS.
Ona correspondence and remarks upon exorbitant charges at English inns have brought upon us a most extraordinary proposal; not without ingenuity, and perhaps to be turned to some practical account, but certainly not in the way suggested. Our friend an 4' Old Subscriber" is the proposer, and his idea is founded on practical experience.
"The plan suggested itself," he says, "from a recollection of a little diver- sion a friend and myself some three or four years ago bad in Switzerland and certain towns on the Rhine, at the expense of some of the innkeepers, whose charges were extravagant ; owing principally, I think, to the open contempt for money displayed by some unfledged sprigs of fashion and coxcombry, well known on the Continent by the cognomen of' Milord Anglais,' who, as they do not pay their tradesmen at home, can afford to be extravagant abroad. I need not remind you, each innkeeper abroad is bound to keep a book, in which his guests are required, for the information of the municipal authorities, to enter their name, address, particulars of their route, and whether their motive for travelling is pleasure or business. We availed ourselves of this book (knowing, too, that no one in the hotels where we put up could read English) by inserting in it some concise remarks on the hotels in question. One example will suffice- " ' The accommodation at this hotel is execrable—charges enormous—the landlord a brute—his wife a slut. English travellers are recommended to try the hotel near the Cathedral. We found the Hotel de — at
Zurich very tolerable. V. R. B. H.' "My friend and myself are not entitled to the merit of discovering this sys- tem; for we found several remarks of this kind had been inserted by previous travellers ; and we were considerate enough, in the first hour of our arrival at the hotel which contained such a notice, to translate or interpret to mine host the flattering eulogium. It always insured us good accommodation, and most moderate charges; and we therefore readily acceded to the reasonable request of the panic-struck landlord to insert a favourable testimonial in his book of the treatment we had received."
The proposed plan is a kind of centralization of this system of recorded certificates, commendatory and damnatory-
" My idea is, that a book, to be called the Spectator's Album, be forthwith laid on the table of Mr. Editor, and that all subscribers of a certain standing be privileged to enter into this Album any useful information they may acquire in their travels which is pertinent to the object we have in view. "As a member of the legal profession, I would not recommend you to ex- pose yourself to an action for libel by publishing the names of extortionate hotel-keepers ; but I would have you insert the names of those hotel-keepers whose houses are recommended by your travelling friends as combining economy with comfort. The innkeepers (and the towns in which they reside) who are extortioners are to be inserted in the Album, which is to be a sealed book to the public, and only accessible to the subscribers. This precaution will make it a privileged communication, and you need not fear being mulcted for warn- mg your subscribers against imposition and extortion."
The idea is ingenious, and the Black Book might afford some very useful hints to travellers. But if our correspondent were to see " the table of Mr. Editor" at certain times in the week, he would be alive to the fact that there is not an inch of room for albums, even of so utilitarian a kind ; and assuredly we have no saloon spacious enough to convert into the parlour of a house of call for travellers in search of good inns. The keeping of such a book might not be a bad attraction to some club accessible to eco- nomical travellers, or even to a reading-room. But after all, we are convinced, the real mode of effecting a re- form is to persuade innkeepers that they must fall in with the spirit of the time, and seek a larger income in increased use of their inns with more moderate charges ; and we are no less convinced, that the capitalists who should begin the system of cheap inns at all our principal towns, with plain substantial comforts, quiet respecta- bility, decorous service, and moderate uniform charges, would reap a very large harvest. There is an enormous inn-frequenting population to be called into existence by cheap inns with a fixed and known tariff of charges.
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