WE believe there is no such thing as absolute cheapness

in the world—no spot upon the face of the habitable globe where a gentle- man with limited means can live and lay by. Travellers and penny-a-liners very often, indeed, publish accounts of places where the prices are astonishingly low ; but the luckless economist, who acts upon their suggestions, shortly discovers something in the social or geographical state of the most favoured spot, which makes the " odds all even." If wages are low, servants are idle, incapable, stand upon etiquette : you require, according to the heat of the climate and the training of the people, from three to twenty hangers on, to do the work of an accomplished " man," or of a maid of all work. If provisions are plentiful, skill is wanted to

render them eatable,—the cookery turns your stomach : or the public opinion of a limited society—a very clique, though it may

call itself a state—dooms you to solitude, unless you submit to squander your small substance upon unnecessary pomp and cir- cumstance. "The poor inhabitant beholds ill vain" the richest raw materials springing spontaneously around him. Spanish ma-

hogany- may grow at his door; but talent is wanted to turn it to account. It must twice cross the Atlantic, and be charged with

two freights, with a frightful succession of profits, and an uncon- scionable expense fbr packages, before the original claimant can call himself master of a dinner-table. The cotton-plant may be indigenous ; but it must go to Manchester and back, before even the grower can encase his neck in a cravat. Australian fleeces, rivalling those of Spain and ;Saxony, may whiten the primeval

plains; but unless the dwellers in the land dress a Ii reasoe, they

must pay very dear for their broad cloth. Luxuries, as if to spite the economist, change their miture. In England, pine-apples sell for les. ed. and upwards : in Jamaica, they may be had fur the

gathering ; but the inhabitants pine for apples and sears, which arc selling here for two a penny. In shore all tiiim,s find.their

level. In cheap countries, we throw away our itisney upon others ;

in dense and highly-polished seeieties, we spend it upon ourselves. We would not be understood to dully that places cannot be found where a little money may he made to el) further than ill others ; but go it must, and too often " what hat II the owner thereof but the sight of it with his eye:4," as it is :suing

It is an ill wind that blows uolenly goed. Tn England, profits are low and prices high. But counteracting causes are in motion,

lessening the evil, and enabling the present lower profit to coin- Maud perhaps nearly as many of the convenicla 0.4 and luxuries of lifb as the hielwr iron did lininerliy. The gelwral decline of profits ereates a competition of and stinn& les invention in ef- feeling improvements of all kinds, frein a pin to a steina-eneinc. The tiii!:calf y of finding emplo■ment for capital, encourages experi- ments and :Teculations, in bridges, canals, rail-roads, and cal and agricultural improvement, some titnes somtl knee

the reverse, to the speculators thsmselves, but mestly beneficial

to the public. The cost of transmit ting raw materiel, so heavy in a cheap country, is reduced t.t a minimum ; the modes in manufac- turing it are greatly improved ; and both these circumstances, with

the low sate of profits, tell iiivourably in the last price. Thus, in England, wheat is on an average 7s.. a bushel, and bread is eld. the pound : in the Eastern district of Upper Canada, the medium

price of wheat was only 5s. 3ti. a bushel, yet bread was 21d. and

Vd. the pound. And though the lower profit be disadvantageous in one sense to the sellers, they reap the benefit when they have

to buy. Even the great bugbear to the new school of political economy, population, is not unwind evil. In thinly-peopled countries, gross profits may be greatels but look at the drawbacks

upon them. The numberless articles that in a densely-peopled.

and highly civilized country contribute to every mads convenience, or fiwilitate Ids business, cannot be bad, or must be brought from

a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles. In Loud. n, we may send a letter six miles for twopence, six times a day ; throughout England, it will be conveyed daily more than 'bur hundred miles for

fifteen pence. In a very cheap country, a postman must be hired, for a short distance, at the cost of a day's wages ; for along journey, you must wait till a "traveller" passes, or compass your commu- nication at a tremendous cost. Consider, too, the numberless cal- lings, in a polished society, for supplying our wants, both natural and artificial, in the cheapest mode ; the savings effected by skill and practice; the waste which takes place where an extensive di- vision of employments is necessarily unknown, and the awkward manner in which every thing in such places is performed at last.

Look, again, at the saving in time which is effected by the rapidity of communication in thickly-peopled places, where a low rate of Profit creates competition and improvement. Take an instance: -" sixty years since," a journey to Edinburgh and back occupied fortnight; at present it is accomplished in four days. Here, say- ing nothing of expense, many days are added to an active life, which would otherwise be so much waste time, passed neither in pleasure nor business.

It is, indeed, in facility of communication—in the improvements -effected in travelling—that the great advantages of a nominally dear country are shown. And this brings us back to the second edition of Captain SKINNERS pleasant Excursions in India ; the reperusal of which has given rise to these suggestions, by the con- trast which it suggested between

TRAVELLING IN ENGLAND AND IN INDIA.

In India, most things are cheap ; in England, all things are said to be dear. To a superficial observer, the East is the land of luxury, where captains and even subalterns arc literally clothed by their servants, and fare sumptuously every day. In England, the same class of braves cannot accomplish a footboy from their "pay and allowances." Yet the advantage is not all on one side ; and the experieneed might incline us to decide in favour of the waiter at a club, against twenty natives, each of whom was cone potent to one thing only. On a journey, the difference is still more favourable to Old England. Whether on a public or a pri- vate expedition—on whole or on half-pay—the captain turns out the very beau ideal of a traveller, in a country where profits are small but conveniences great. lie carries a large part of his ward. robe on his back, because at every halting-place he can procure what lie wants: the remainder he puts into a travelling-bag, and himself into a stage or a steamer; and feels satisfied, that at the close of day he shall have accomplished from one to two hundred miles, without trouble, anxiety, or fatigue—every want provided for, almost every wish anticipated. Let us turn to his fbllow on the shores of the Ganges. We think we see him, with a red skin, a.face swollen by self-importance and mosquito-bites, surmounting a hard black stock ; his whole figure as stiff as buckram, and his person perspiring at every pore. As he dreams of the barge which is to carry himself and his household, when he hears of the kitchen which is to follow in his wake, and when lie sums the number of his retainers, his heart (if a novice) " distends with pride, and, hardening in its strength, glories" over his brother in England, condenuted to the mired sockey of a steam-bout or an inn. With what reason, let Captain SKINNER, in his slight but efibctive manner, tell us.

it was a month after the m der haul been given before the boats could be pro- cured ; the olliecrs were obliged to Lite their own, but those intended for the men were pieced by the coneni,sariat. When the boats were all ready, the crews were found to have ,dee_sir,r,rtit;d,,,,a)angd., an impressment u-as again to take place. With budgerows, hor gage. boats, cook boats, hospital ;nal soldiers' boats, the seene -a-as the most ex- traordinary that can be conceived. Every Milner had a sort of Noah's ark at. tactic,: to his bud■terow, rind the uproar to till it with its various anitualstowba: terrible: unwilling horse,:, and obstinate cows, with goats and sheep, running in ;ill quarters ; men, women, arid children, of all colours and costumes; earri- ageQ, palanquins, coops of poultry, dunks, geese, and turkies, scattered about, selling ling and hissing with all their. were to be seen in every direct. tin:, hail we were thinly launched, I do nut think any person seemed perrhe;iy in,-'used id' his judgment, for every thing in this country appears to be devoted to the most irretrievable confusion, when a move, or a change of any description, is about to take place.

It is impossible to describe our course through the labyrinth of creeks and lake; ; sometimes the trees rising to it great Bright from the water, rich in foli- age and fill in blossoms, render it truly lreautifirl. Om. 'ingress through them is very slow and dependent on the tides. The skill of the :Slanjees by no means accelerates it ; we not unfrequently find or ;dyes in the midst of the w; ;;;:l dis- masted by the branches. The pilots seem to vie with each other in ste..ring at close :Is they can to the point of danger. I was this morning literally whipped out of rilv bed ; the branches of the trees enuring whirl we had contrived to get, broke through the Venetian blinds of my budgerow, awl, as my boat still moved on, tore the inlisquito curtains ill wy bed, ar,,i tloggcd ate nut of irry sleep. I rushed forth instantly, to resent the indignity, xvireir the gelasies on the opposite side, as we humped Trom tree to trit,, playcd like the ;inns of a telegraph, and nearly knocked me down. When I reached the deck of the boat, the confusion u-as terrible; I found that almost the whole fleet had got entangled in the forest, the last boats having followed the leading- ones, which, mistaking their course, were now obliged to thread their way out. The dandies were mounted on their roofs, endeavouring to cut away some of the branches which were tearing the choppers of them as first as possible ; the vessels were running find of each other every instant, and many a crash of a broken plank was heard ; while the sound of voices, English, Irish, and llengalee, mingled their diseord. The wildness of the scene, the intermixture of the boats, the ignorance of our situa- tion, and the quarrelling of all parties, made really a savage picture.

The passage was muelm more tedious than a sea voyage of double the time. It was not till the thirteenth day that we were able to land ; as long a time as (night have carried us from England to Gibraltar.

The hurricanes arc magnificent, both in their approach and retreat, butsome. what uncomfortable during their operation. Our boats were moored on the first night we experienced one beneath a high bank of soft sand, that threat- ened every moment to fall upon us; wherever purchase could be found for a rope one was fastened, so that the vessels were in a line, and made fast from every possible quarter. The sky had been some tune darkening; we were prepared therefore for the onset. Clouds of dustannounced the approach, and tilled our budgerows and the thatched boats, which rocked up and down as if they had been at sea, and bumped each other at a most alarming rate. The boatmen and servants were all drawn up in front cooking their food, thinking no evil," when the storm burst; their fires were soon extinguished, their cook- ing- pots overthrown, and their clothes and turbans cast down the wind : every one rushed on board as well as he could. It blew tremendously, and a violent storm of hail accompanied the wind ; the hailstones were as large as hazel nuts, and rattled on the roof of my budgerow at a rate that made me fear it would be beaten in ; heavy rain and the loudest thunder succeeded, while the lightning played so vividly about our thatched boats, that they appeared to be on fire. It was dreadfully dark, but the bursts of fire from all sides lit up our situation splendidly. The lightning did not appear tobreak from any one quar- ter of the heavens; the whole firmament was flame ! it seemed to open every mo- ment and disclose a sheet of living fire. Many people were not able to reach their boats, and were seen clinging to the posts to which they were moored, in perfect despair. Now and then time cracking of a rope and the breaking away of a boat from its fastenings, added to the confusion ; several got loose and drifted into the middle of the stream ; the natives screamed for assistance which could not be granted, for no one could tell precisely where they were driving to; every description of thing seemed to be travelling down the wind,—hats, tur- bans, loose straw, broken cooking-pots, lighted wood, and even fragments of the cooked messes.