It is asserted that the shopkeepers of London persuaded the Commissioners that if _prices_ were permitted to be fixed upon articles, they, the shopkeepers, would destroy the Exhibition, by not exhibiting anything themselves, and by their determination ruin the producer, if, by affixing prices to his produce, he should expose the “_secrets of trade_.” One of the proverbs most frequently appealed to is—deprecation of _protection_ by one’s _friends_: few cases have ever occurred in which its application is more necessary. These friends thus maintain that the reason for _forbidding prices_ to be placed upon articles, stated by the Commissioners to have been arrived at after mature consideration, and _officially_ communicated by them to foreign governments,—was not the _real reason_. The motive of the rule laid down by the Commission seems to have been a conscientious wish not to mislead the public, and was at most only an error of judgment. The _friends_ of the Commission, however, have imputed to them a line of conduct which, to use the mildest form of expression, is highly undignified, and have suggested that they were driven to the adoption of the rule by fears which were absurd. Some of the fashionable shopkeepers at the West-end may have endeavoured to alarm their too credulous customers by holding out such exaggerated estimates of their own power; but the mass of London tradesmen are a shrewder race, and estimate more truly their own influence. They well know, in the present state of rapid communication throughout the land, that any such attempt must necessarily fail. Imagine for a moment the present race of butchers attempting to starve London by combining to withhold meat. The utmost they could accomplish, if so inclined, would be to put their customers to some small and temporary inconvenience, at the expense of certain ruin to themselves. The practical effect of forbidding prices has been very unfortunate. The great and meritorious efforts by which the plan has been carried out, have been shorn of much of their utility. A building of half the size, containing only articles _each_ of which had attached to it a short and clear statement of the grounds on which it was exhibited, and the price at which it could be acquired, would have conveyed far more instruction to the public, and have been far more effective for the promotion of commerce, thus fulfilling much more completely the two great objects of the Exposition. To reply that prices may be obtained on inquiry, betrays a childish ignorance of the whole subject. It is practically impossible to obtain the required information; and those who have made the effort, have found that even in the cases where an attendant is present to explain the articles, he is often entirely ignorant of their price.