THE BIG AND THE LITTLE LOAF.
[T9 THE EDITOR 05' THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—I have been staying for the last week in Protectionist France. I purchase daily four rolls of bread at a baker's shop adjoining my present residence ; for these I pay one sou (five centimes), say a halfpenny, each. In London I pay one penny for the self-same crescent roll. Sir W. Vernon Harcourt tells us in the Times of July 16th that as corn is dearer in France than in England owing to Protective duties, the price of bread must rise if similar duties are imposed in England. How do they manage it in France ? I am " puzzle-headed," and cannot understand it. Will any of your correspondents kindly enlighten me ? In Germany for three marks (3s.), at Cologne or Stuttgart I can obtain a dinner of seven courses equal to a repast at a first-rate London hotel, for which I should have to pay, say, from five to seven shillings. On July 17th I paid three francs (2s. 6d.) for my clejeuner, consisting of Hors d'ceuvres, Omelette au jambon, Cotes de mouton, Pommes de terres au maitre d'hotel, Noix-de-veau en aspic, Compote Mirabelles Gateaux a la crème, Gruyere and butter, three kinds of delicious biscuits, beautifully cooked in the best hotel in the place, and the management is building another hotel. I cannot get anything as good and as cheap in Free-trade England. How is it done P-1 am, Sir, &c.,
PUZZLE-HEAD.
[English cooking and English management are usually bad, and English labour in " fancy " baking is no doubt very much dearer than abroad, but if the prices of flour and of the bread used by the people are compared in both cases our correspondent will find that the Frenchman pays, not less, but more than the Englishman.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
