SOME FOREIGN IMPRESSIONS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"]
Srs,—Only yesterday (September 9th) I received the Spectator of September 3rd, in which there appears a pessimistic letter entitled " Some Foreign Impressions." The writer is seriously concerned because he finds Germans prosperous and " burst- ing with happiness," whilst in England men are unemployed, and consequently distressed. I do not infer that he has a remedy to suggest, or that he sees where true happiness is to be found, unless it be in the contemplation of an early and bloody war ; still less can I understand where, in these Cassandra times, he finds his " self-satisfied and over- confident fellow-countrymen." My purpose in offering an addition to his observations is less philosophical and far- reaching; it is only to comment on the sudden and almost entire disappearance of English tourists. A few days ago at Geneva I happened to read in the " Life of Lord Brougham " his letter of August 27th, 1817, in which, writing thence, be says : " The multitudes of English who continue to flock here exceed belief." Of the Americans this is true to-day, Germans come in great numbers, and there are many French, but it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that an obvious and manifest Englishman is a rare sight to see. 'This is equally
true of the High Alps, and so far as I am at present aware of North Italy also. I have travelled as an ordinary tourist every year for some time past in different directions, and for the first time this phenomenon is strikingly apparent. It may be that English people have migrated from familiar haunts, but there is little doubt that their absence will be attributed to the Budget of 1909-10. If this be indeed the cause, it has proved itself astonishingly effective,—with reason or without.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Milan. REGINALD LUCAS.
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