ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1140, 7 March 1884, Page 3

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

The Marquis T’seng, according to a writer in the Nineteenth Century, thinks ‘‘the French and E glish are lioth fond of lauding their own national customs, and of finding flaws in tho-m of other countries. Mr French interpreter jeered at the English, and my English interpreter ridiculed ttie Pieuoh A Chinese going to Europe suffers from two difficulties, to which he finds it very hard to accustom himself ; one is the contined nature of the house accomodation, the other the high price of everything. In the West the cost o f ground for building purposes is enormous, and the consequence is that people are obliged to live in houses eight or nine storeys high. Not only this, hut so sparing arc they of land in constructing their houses that there are generally one or two pits underground, which serve as kitchens and wine-cellars. Their parks and gardens, however, are laid out on a most extensive scale, and care is taken to copy nature in all its wild simplicity. 'these resorts of amusement and pleasure vary in size from one to three miles in circumference. Here 'they show no disposition to stint themselves in the matter of land, and bestow much care upon the neat arrangement of such places, thereby embodying the maxim transmitted by Mencius, that ‘if the people are made to share in the means of enjoyment, they will cherish no feelings of discontent.’ Both exo“l in their use (f ways and means for the acquisition of wealth ; the French d slight in extravagance and waste. With the former the result of the general eagerness to get rich is that everything, however inferior in quality, is high priced, while with the latter extravagance has become a national habit, and prices know no hounds. Such is the difference between the two countries,- a difference, however, which entails the same .inconvenience upon the traveller in either case.” .- - ..