THE IMPROVEMENTS OF PARIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 94, 5 March 1862, Page 6

THE IMPROVEMENTS OF PARIS.

(From the Spectator.) There is one. and but one, of the triumphs of tha second Empire upon which opinion is nearly unanimous. Tho reconstruction of Paris is the theme of universal laudation. The prefect, said 51. de Persigny, has performed " miracles of edility." Paris, say all provincial Frenchmen, was always the pivot of civilization, and is now worthy of its high destiny. Paris, say English travellers, is the one perfect city, and they usually conclude their applause by a wish for a few hours of M. Haussinann, as prefect ofthe Thames. The only break in the chorus comes from the Parisians themselves. These beautiful houses, they say, are made at tlie expense of our history. These barracks, so Egyptian in size and gloominess, aro made for soldiers who are to enchain us. These glorious streets are so straight in order that cavalry may charge upon our children ; ancl these splendid residences drive the poor into corners so close that they breed malaria, and intensify every epidemic. Above all, for these improvements, which we did not. ask for, wliich we do not entirely like, and wliich, at all events, we never sanctioned, we are required to pay. These mutterings, usually only whispered, have hitherto been set down as the growling ofthe class which is always discontented with a rise in price, or at most, as the arguments of men habitually distrustful of the Imperial Government. A writer hi Bently's Miscellany, however, who is evidently master of his subject, undertakes to prove that the discontent is well founded, that the Imperial improvements are ruinous to capital, and that the reaction, whenever it comes, will be moit terrible. Collecting together all official figures, he first strives to ascertain the actual cost of these improvemenls. The returns of the municipality supply numerous data, which only require to be tested by the application of current prices to admit, at leastjofan approximate estimate. It must bo remembered that the public expenditure is but a small portion of the whole outlay, the speculators having followed in the wake of the Imperial edife. The state and fhe city togethei have not expended more than fifteen millions— a sum which, considering the special political position of Paris, is quite within reasonable bounds It is the private outlay which bas been so enormous. The writer, using offlccial data, calculates that 12,000 new houses have been erected, and 4,003 enlarged or repaired. The new housesT built, as they are in an extravagantly ornamental style, have cost £75,000,000 sterling", That is a sum of some magnitude, but to it must be added £0,250,000 for the 3,000 houses removed by the proprietors to make room for them, and •t'6,520,000 more for the repairs of tiie 4,603 houses enlarged and repaired. This is positive outlay, the whole of which must have been repaid so to the speculators and builders by the existing proprietory. This, however, is not all. Tlie improvements and the spirit of speculation have raised the value of land from £4 the square yard to £16 ancl the increased price of land represents, therefore, £43,000,000 more, all of which has to be paid for. The builders elo not, of course, keep their houses, which are purchased by men who look only to moderate interest, nnd who have, therefore, given for the improved bouses £131,024,000. Even this colossal sum, however,.is but a part of the truth. The enormous rise in rents, rendered imperative by the costly scale of the new erections, has affected all Paris. Prices for houses have multiplied threefold, a vast extent of Paris has changed hands, and the additional value thus given, ancl proved by auction sales of the 24,0000hl houses of Paris, amounts to £172,000,000 more. The total cost, therefore, to Paris of the improvements executed in the last ten years has been £319,134,000. That is tbe cost to Paris, paid either in capital or rental ; but of course a number of old proprietors have spent nothing, and are, therefore, simply reaping profits. Supposing, however, one-third of Paris to have changed hands, anel the speculation has been enormous, the speculators making fortunes as quick as on the Bourse—tiie actual outlay paid for by existing proprietors will be as follows :— Cost of erecting 12,000 houses ... £118,200,000 Cost of enlarging old houses .. .. 6)904,000 Cost of demolitions 6,520,000 £131,624,000 Cost of the increased price given for one-third_of the old houses ... 57,300,000 £185,921,000 That sum, or more than a fourth of the English National Debt, represents the actual sum laid out by present proprietors, anel actually demonstrable, item by item, as land, masons' work, &c. I This money must bear interest, and to pay it the rental of Paris must he increased by at least eight per cent, on the capital expended, that is, by £1 5,040.000 a-year. In other words, each of tiie 30,000 houses of Paris must yield an increased rental of £400 a-year—an increase absurd as an average, but which would be still more absurd were the increase divided, as it ought to be, wholly on certain quartiers of the city. The rent is now paid by the wealthy, the classes enriched by the Empire, and by the mass of the population, who, when able to pay, have raised their rent and diminished other expenditure, so that rent, which used to cost one-tenth of a Parisian's income, now costs three-tenths, or if unable, crowded themselves, and paid for one room what they formerly paid for two. How long will it continue Ito be paid ? Of course, some portion of this enormous outlay is reasonable, and is intended to provide for a re.al increase of population, and more may be borne permanently for the sake of better accommodation. But it. is to be observed that the increase of population has been chiefly caused by the influx of workmen to build these houses, arid that the moment the process ends, the influx will disappear. The classes, moreover, inhabiting these new palaces are the nouveaux riches, men whose wealth is the creation of the Empire— speculators, stock-jobbers, builders, and owners of ground in Paris. With the first heavy shock, — a great war, or a severe monetary crisis,— this artificial prosperity must disappear. Rents may never, and probably will jnevcr, fall to the level of 1851 ; but of the rise jot" 300 per cent., at least two-thirds must be unreal. In other words, the new proprietors of Paris, the men who have invested their money at the present extravagant prices, or have helped on the enormous outlay for improvements, will find their rental reduced at least one half, a loss of capital more severe than often falls to the lot of a single class. We do not think that result will in any way endanger the Empire. What the proprietors lose the others will gain, and it is the poor, not the rich, who make revolutions ; but it will undoubtedly dissipate that halo of artificial

prosperity whicli hangs around Paris under the 1 second Empire. The expense is only one port'on of the loss snf ferod by the inhabitants. Overbuilding has, to : : large extent, crowded the population togethe" and tho total number of inhabitants, wbich ir 1351 was 82 per acre, is, in 1861, 147 per acre, oi almost double. It is not fair to argue, as the writer in lient'ey argues, that this is entirely ai • increase of men over space, for a new Paris h.n beeu built into the air, and a new story may have • new tenants without "diminishing the health o those below. But it is certain that all.the court ■ yards, back-yards, and every bit of ground whicl ; formerly gave air to the old houses, have heer built over, aud that Parisians are now as closclj i packed as the denizens of the closest district: of London. The front rooms are airy, but the i back rooms, much the most numerous, are buill round courts often " with eighty windows looking ' into a well twenty feet square and seventy feel ■ deep," which well furnishes all the air that tin people behind those eighty windows can have te . breathe. The result ought to be an immense in--1 crease in deaths from all the diseases known te be generated by malaria, while epidemics, such a: ■ the cholera, will be fatal to a degree never ye: ■ known.