ABSTRACT
There is something illogical in an admission-fee to the Temple of Free Trade. It sounds awkward, and the wags might make game of it. In all other countries, to be sure, our Free Trade is carried on under the drawback of heavy tariffs, and, therefore, a fee of a shilling, or even half-a-crown per head, would seem a moderate tax to be levied on the industrial curiosity of all nations. There are “seven thousand Exhibitors;” they, of course, and their families, wives, children, brothers, sisters, cousins to the fourth and fifth degrees, must have free admission. A great crush must in that case ensue daily at the gates, if the “millions” of visitors, native and foreign, are to be admitted. But to return from this digression. The question of free admission is not only a question of prudence and convenience; it is also a question of finance.
