26 SEPTEMBER 1874, Page 21

The Englishman's Illustrated Guide-book to the United States one Canada.

(Longmans.)—It will very seldom be within the power of a reviewer to criticise a guide-book effectively. At the most, he can but test a very limited portion. We shall content ourselves with saying that the plan of the little volume before us is satisfactory, and that the volume itself is of convenient size and shape, an important, but by no means an universal virtue of guide-books. After some general informa- tion, among which we find the important statement that travelling on the Continent of North America is less expensive than travelling in Western Europe, twenty-seven routes are described in detail, three of these lying wholly or partly in Canada. An interesting and valuable appendix is added, "showing the area, population, climate, soil, products, prices of lands, wages of labour, cost of living, &c., in seventeen of the States and Territories of the United States." Here we find tables of wages and of the " cost of living "which intending emigrants may study with advantage. A farm-labourer's wages in the States average, for ex- perienced hands, 7s. in summer, and 5s. 6d. in winter; for ordinary hands, 58. 6d. in slimmer, and 4s. 6d. in winter. When we speak of" the States," it must be understood that the Pacific States and territories, where everything is on a higher scale, are not included. But how about the cost of living ? In the middle States, a name which includes Virginia and Kentucky, beef is Sid. per pound, mutton 7d., pork 71, butter 20d., cheese 12d., rice 6-1{1., tea 5s. 6d., sugar Id., coffee 1C3d. Coal is about 82s. a ton (a price which rises in the Pacific States to 90s.). These prices are not mach above the English average, meat, the most important article of all, being cheaper ; though tea, which comes next to it, is much dearer. The price of bread is given in that of barrels of flour, which we are not skilful enough to be able to reduce; but as America is a wheat-export- ing country, it cannot be very high. In house-rent the labourer would seem to have the difference against him. A four-roomed tenement would cost about .£17 per annum. This, however, refers to the towns only. The villages supply accommodation more cheaply, it is to be presumed, there as they do here. Statistics of this kind must of course be supplemented by more particular information, especially on the point which is being at this moment energetically debated, whether employ- ment at these wages is to be found, but they are very useful in their way.