INN-BILLS.
IT is curious that a nation priding itself on the promptitude with which commerce supplies any ascertainable want should remain so long as the English nation has remained without the kind of ac- commodation that it needs in some of its most urgent necessities.
Unadulterated food and safe railways are not more difficult to obtain in England, for love or money, than good inn-accommoda- tion suited to the wants of people in moderate oiecumstances, and at the same time sifted to their pockets. But the worst of it is, that when disputes on'the subject arise, you can seldom get at the truth of it. " Biffin " complains, that on landing at Folkstone the only available place for rest and refreshment was the Pavilion Hotel, at which he is charged half-a-crown for a cup of tea and a bit of bread and butter, including sixpence to the waiter. Mr. Breach, the proprietor, replies, that the cost of tea is one shilling and sixpence for each adult. "Pippin" then states that he has paid at the rate of two-and-sixpence for himself, three servants, and three little children. Mr. Breach is "at a loss to understand the case "; his tariff being printed and posted in every room, and his manager ready to hear complaints. Mr. Breach explains, that the high charge of one-and-sixpence for tea and bread and butter with sixpence for attendance is compensated to the traveller by the splendid hotel, which was erected at the cost of nearly 60,0001., and pays in rent, rates, and taxes more than 30001. a year ; and by the variety of its rooms, the abundance of its leading journals, the lavatories free of expense, and so forth,—accommodations which many use without paving for them or wiitllit taking re- freshment. Thus it seems 'that modest family people, who only require shelter, tea, and bread and butter, must pay not only for those articles, but also for lavatories, smoking-rooms, journals, and other things which they do not use. This appears to us to be a bad arrangement; it would be better to pay for the use of the thing used,—so much for entrance to the hotel, so much for the smoking-room, and so forth. It is hardly reasonable to maintain an establishment for smokers and loungers at the expense of family men who do not smoke and lounge.
But the high charges are not the chief difficulty in the question. Mr. Breach says that plain tea is only one-and-sixpence with six- pence for attendance, and that children under seven years of age are charged half-price ; while Biffin and Pippin declare that they paid two-and-sixpence a piece without any reference to age. The responsibility of discovering where the discrepancy arises appears to us to lie with the master of the establishment. :Unless he means to aver that Biffin and Pippin have been writing falsehoods to the Times, and forging the bill which one of them sent to that journal, it is quite clear that the charges levied in the Folkston° hotel are not the charges assessed. It is true, the publics can complain ; but it appears to be forgotten that complaint is a troublesome and disagreeable process. With respect to the management of Mr. Breach's establishment, we are not aware of any specific complaint that can be made ; but every traveller knows that the waiter genus in England is favoured by his employer in proportion as he en- courages expenditure ; and on the other hand' that the waiter is perpetually trying to eke out his own means by apportioning the sunshine or cloud of his own countenance to the amount of silver which passes between the traveller and himself. To the open- handed, the waiter is a charming friend, whose expressions are the sunshine of the heart, whose actions are boundless benevolence, and whase diligence anticipates the wishes; but there are shadows in the oountenance of the waiter, not less marked, for the close- fisted -or-the needy. Indeed, the unpleasant sensations which the advvse waiter can oast, however temporarily, upon the existence of .itbie._treveller, will induce many whose means are very strait to expend at the rate of those who are wealthy, rather than undergo the mortification and pain which the injured waiter can cause to exist without committing himself to any tangible ground of com- plaint. The chief mischief of the present arrangement is, that all classes are huddled into the same kind of establishment without the means of the self-classification which they would gladly adopt. In some towns there is the "commercial" inn, whose name gene- rally implies a certain degree of moderation, or rather an uncertain degree ; but that is not obvious to the hurried traveller at the railway station, and fit accommodation for the numerous body who are now incessantly in locomotion would be an invention salted to the age, and, we have no doubt, profitable. It appears to offer a very proper subject for the commercial associations that are now so much the fashion.
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