When the same prices are charged equally to all customers, it often happens that it is much higher in the western than in less fashionable localities. This may arise from a vicious system of giving credit, and the extra price is necessary to compensate for risk of loss, and of capital lying unproductive. The effect, however, is injurious to the tradesman: many of those who pay ready money and would therefore be his best customers, desert the shop. Those whose means are small, go to a greater distance for the daily or weekly purchases; whilst those possessed of larger incomes, purchase the same articles, not only at a cheaper shop in the city but in larger quantities, and therefore more nearly at the wholesale price. Our foreign visitors naturally ask how it happened that in the country of Adam Smith so strange a mistake could have been made: they inquire why none of the eminent disciples of that school were placed on the Commission? They will learn with surprise that our Minister of Commerce took, as befitted his office, an active part in it; that the great economist, to whose profound views and extensive experience in monetary affairs more than one minister has been indebted, was also a member; that even the apostle of _free trade_ himself, whose successful exertions have been crowned with merited reward, sat on the same commission; and yet that the talents, the knowledge, and the eloquence of such men, failed to convince the understandings of their colleagues, who, in violation of the first principles of “_Free trade_,” deliberately raised an obstacle against _competition_. Since the first edition of this work was printed, the Crystal Palace has been filled by the industry and peopled by the nations of the earth. The fears of the ignorant, the hopes of the selfish, the vaticinations of the shallow, have proved alike groundless. Opinions expressed by the few who were competent to judge, which were then scouted as the ravings of visionaries, have now become realized as facts. However great the admitted advantages resulting from the Exposition have been, still it has failed to produce anything like the information which it was calculated to afford. Many of those who most rejoice in its success regret that so much perseverance and energy have not, owing to one fatal error, been permitted to accomplish the full amount of good which they so well deserved to have achieved. The public have now had ample opportunity of forming their own opinion upon the question of _price_; and they are almost unanimous in their decision that without having the _price_ on the articles they examine, the collection is of little intrinsic use to them, although it is a very agreeable and splendid show. No attempt to answer the arguments on that question contained in the first edition of this work has yet reached me. An entirely different reason has now been assigned for the omission of _price_.