The Cost of Living Abroad. By C. T. BidwelL (Sampson
Low and Co.)—This is a book which will be sufficiently recommended by its title. Mr. Bidwell's facts we, of course, take for granted. They come, indeed, from official sources, consuls' reports and the like, and be is quite right in thinking that it is well for them to be put into an acces- sible shape. The book will have a most discouraging effect, we fear, on any hopes of cheap living that readers may be cherishing. Mr. Bidwell, indeed, believes that there are still corners in the United Kingdom where cheap living is possible, and he speaks of some Utopia called the Roscrea Union—presumably in Ireland—whore they get the best beef at 3fd. per pound, but the foreign cheap places are too often snares. One feature of the book is that it gives comparative lists of prices as they were in 1858 and as they are now, and the increase is alarming. In the Argentine Republic, for instance, if we may take an instance of a place where no one, it is to be supposed, would voluntarily live, a style of living which cost £1,040 in 1858 now costs £1,848. Of this latter sum, £340 is consumed in house-rent. At Damascus things appear to have risen in a still greater ratio; broad, for instance, from one halfpenny to threeponce-halfponny per lb., and the wages of a maid-servant from £1 1Gs. per annum to £9 12s. Boot was then 5d. per lb., it is now 10d.; mutton is still tolerably cheap, being not more than 4j-d. In fact, Damascus is still, absolutely speaking, cheap. Eggs are 20. per dozen ; river fish, 7d. per dozen (a vague description, by the way); hares 20d. each. And then there is the appre- hension of a massacre, which must tend to diminish the appetite. Coming nearer home, we find the cost of living at Frankfort increased by 50 per cent., if not by more. At Hamburg it is 25 per cont., at the least. In France, as might be expected, tho increase is greater. In all the more frequented towns, apparently, prices are very high. Al Havre, for instance, each article stands at something above tho usual price in England. This is a very useful volume.
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