The Exposition of 1851, or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government, of England / by Charles Babbage.

  • Charles Babbage
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Exposition of 1851, or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government, of England / by Charles Babbage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the price to the articles displayed. When the Exhibitor considers the merit of his article to consist in its cheapness, and founds a claim on this ground, he must state the price in the invoice sent to the Commissioners. This rule is a model specimen of what very clever men united in a large committee can assent to. The first and last sentences of the oracular writing pronounce that— Prices must not be affixed to any article ex- hibited for the judgment of the public, even though there should be no other reason for exhibiting it than its price. The intervening sentence reveals to us that even Commissioners may in some cases be themselves unable to judge without a knowledge of the price— that it may perchance be so important that they must take evidence upon it. Yet, with a very flattering deference to the sagacity of the pubHc, they seem to think it can, without that information, form as good an opinion as their owni It may be remarked that the permission to ask of the attendant the price of an article, on which much stress has been laid, depends on several con- tingencies, namely —that every article has an at- tendant—that he is at all times at his post;—and also that he knows its price. It is admitted that the Commissioners wish to give each exhibitor the henefit to be derived by him from the knowledge [of price] on the part of the public, and also that the public cannot judge
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