A Plutocratic Atmosphere.
For rapid increase in wealth and population there is nothing in France comparable to the manufacturing district within a radius of forty miles from the Manchester Exchange. The population of that region is greater than that within forty miles of Charing Cross; and notwithstanding times of depression it is probable that the wealth in it far exceeds that of any similar area in France. Manchester, and the congeries of minor yet still populous towns that crowd round it, are an example of rapidity in the increase of wealth and population together which is rather American than European, and there, at least, an American would find proofs of material success. I, who have lived in Lancashire, have known many surprising instances, and it is not so much this or that particular example that strikes one there as the prevalence of a plutocratic atmosphere. Money is as much in the air of Lancashire as the smell of flowers about Cannes and Nice, with this difference, that whilst flowers are delightful to most noses, the odour of money is so chiefly to those who possess it.
Cost of Living in France and England.
Necessity of a large Income.
The reader may perhaps imagine that small professional incomes must be relatively larger in France than in England because living is cheaper there, but these ideas are founded upon a former state of things. Before the Second Empire, when there were few railways, living was very cheap in some out-of-the-way parts of France. Railways equalised prices, and since then various other causes have combined to raise them. At present, living is quite as expensive in France as in England. An Englishman, now settled in Kent after a residence in Burgundy, tells me that he finds it more economical to live in his own country. At the same time that prices have risen, the customs of society have become both more exacting and more costly, so that married people feel what has been called “the pinch of poverty” on means that would have seemed an ample competence to their fathers. The one conclusion to which accumulated experience seems now to be driving mankind is that without a large income there can be no success, and that a man’s life is a failure unless he can afford to live in society, to travel, and to provide handsomely for all the members of his family.
Another estimate of success is held by some, and I think by more people in France than in England. It is, and always has been, my own view, and I have never seen any reason to change it.
Real Success.
The true Success of a Priest.
Corot.
Cox.