to a certain degree, to lower their
prices; and their present prices, reduced as they are, will most
assuredly die with them.

Everything will, by degrees, find its level; but this level is not to be
found at once. Should peace continue, ten years from this date will
make a great alteration in every article, not only of necessity, but of
luxury; and then, after having been the dearest, England will become the
cheapest residence in the world. House rent in the capitals abroad is
certainly as dear, if not dearer than it is in England. There are
situations more or less fashionable in every metropolis; and if you wish
to reside in those quarters, you pay accordingly. It is true that, by
taking a portion of a house, you to a certain degree indemnify
yourself;--a first, second, or third story, with a common staircase
loaded with dirt and filth; but is this equal to the comfort of a clean
English house, in which you have your own servants, and are not
overlooked by your neighbours? If they were to let out houses in floors
in England as they do in Paris and elsewhere, a less sum would be
demanded. You may procure a handsome house in a fashionable quarter,
well furnished, in London, for 300 pounds per annum. Go to the Place
Vendome, or those quarters styled the English quarters, at Paris, and
which are by no means the most fashionable quarters, and you will pay
for a handsome front floor 700 francs per month; so that for one floor
of a house in Paris you will pay 336 pounds per annum, when in London
you will obtain the whole house for 300 pounds. The proprietor of the
Paris house, therefore, receives much more by letting his floors
separate than the English do. The common articles of necessity are as
dear, if not dearer abroad; the _octroi_ duty upon all that enters the
barriers raising the price excessively. Meat at Paris or Brussels is as
dear as in London, and not so good; it is as dear, because they charge
you the same price all round, about 5 pence per pound, independent of
its inferiority and the villainous manner in which it is cut up. Our
butchers only butcher the animal, but foreign butchers butcher the meat.
Poultry is as dear; game much dearer; and so is fish. Indeed, fish is
not only dear, but scarce and bad. Horses and carriages are quite as
dear abroad, in the capitals, as in London. Clothes are in some
respects cheaper, in others dearer, especially articles of English
manufacture, which are more sou