The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-18 00:00:00

CANTERBURY-HALL CONCERTS
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.

EVERY EVENDTG,

Two Grand Selections from celebrated Operas, including
Verdi's new Opera, THE BAL MASQUE (first produced
in England at this Establishment), with a Chorus of Forty
Voices, and upon a scale unequalled at any other Concerts.
Miss Russell, Miss Ernst Mr. Greville, Mr. Herbert, Signor
Tivoli, Mr. Bernard; popular Solos on the Cornet-a-piston,
by Mr. Levy (the first performer of the day); the Brothers
Conrad (in an entirely original entertainment on the double
rope, not to be seen elsewhere); continued success of Mr.
Wood and his talented little Son.

The Comic Department comprises the following favourites:
—Mr. Marshall, Mr. Hollingsworth ; the NERVES, by
Messrs. Harvey and French ; and Mrs. Lawrence.
Musical Director, Mr. JONGHMANS.

T H E

0 X F 0 it D,

6, OXFORD-STREET.

This noble building being now completed, its architectural
beauty, elegance of ornamentation, and brilliancy of lighting
render it one of the sights of the metropolis. Open Ever,
Evening'. The programme is varied, and includes -Selections
(by a full company of principals, powerful band, and chorus)
from "Macbeth" and "Un Ballo in 3lasehera." both operas
by Verdi, the composer of the day—The wonderful Solos on
the Cornet-a-Piston of the renowned LEVY—Scotch Duets by
the Misses Stuart, and other vocal and instrumental music
of the highest order. Conductor, Mr. F. Jonghmans. The
Comic portion of the entertainment is supported Ig Miss
Green, Messrs. Sam Collins, Harvey, and French (the Nerves),
W. H. Wieland, E. Marshall, and W. Randall. A sslon,
Hall, sixpence ; Balcony and Stalls, one shilling. Private
Boxes, 10s. 6d.

HIGH WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tim DAY.—Morning, 10h. 14m.—Afternoon, 10h. 48m.
To-moßnow.-Morning, 11h. 26m.—Afternoon, h. in.

THE WEATHER.—Bux OFFICE, JuLTIB, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
72—highest since noon yesterday.
58—lowest this morning and during the night.
68—this day at noon.
BAnomerns-29.78 ; falling slowly.
WlND—Westerly; gusty, with cloudy weather.

Free-trade and the Freedom of the City har-
monise well. Better now than they did at no very
distant period. If we are not mistaken, the Great
Companies of which the City is so proud, and which
are so proud of themselves, are all monuments of
civic exclusiveness. So far from every man being
free to exchange his labour or skill on equal
terms with other men, he must be free of the
City, or trade, if at all, at a great disadvantage.
Indeed we should not, we believe, be wide of
the mark, in designating " Freedom of the
City" as a remnant of Protection, and of
deadly antagonism to Free-trade. The learned
in such lore could furnish us with a toler-
able Tariff of the protective advantages to be
enjoyed through taking up freedom in the City of
London—advantages in no way depending on skill
and capacity. Those who had not served an
apprenticeship to a trade in London might, of
course, be far superior to those who had; but, in
the genuine spirit of Protection, London, and a
hundred old corporations besides, forbad the citizens
to buy in the cheaper market of all skilful hands,
and compelled them to deal only with the favoured
fellow-citizens. What relics of Protection still
hang upon the privilege of freedom we care not
to inquire. They can hardly be very important
now. And it may, perhaps, be regarded as a
sign of the times, that what was so lately almost
the; blue riband of Protection has now become an
appropriate decoration for the great Free-trader ;
and that the banquet on the occasion should be
given, and given with the most cordial hospitality,
by a leading civic Tory.
Mr. COBDEN, notwithstanding the precarious
state of his health, which all his countrymen regret,
spoke exceedingly well, and made some happy hits.
His reference to the merchants of London, for in-
stance, who, forty-one years ago, drew up a decla-
ration by the pen of Mr. TOOKE, and afterwards
presented it to Parliament by Mr. BARING, after-
wards Lord ASHBURTON. That declaration, he
said, "really contained in a few words almost all
that has been since said in favour of the principle
of free-trade. I think I can quote it to you from
memory. It was to this effect : that the maxim of
buying in the cheapest market and selling in the
dearest, which always regulates the transactions of
individual merchants, is equally applicable as the
best rule to the trade of a whole nation. I really
do not know that any amplification would better
define what is the meaning of the words free trade
than that short sentence. It means that it is the
interest of men to exchange superfluities for neces-
saries. It has not the base and sordid meaning
which some people have given to it—that it is
based upon selfishness. It means that it is the in-
terest of mankind to go and seek a commodity where
it is cheap—that is, where it is plentiful—and can-
vey it to another locality where it is dear; in other
words, where it is scarce."
Mr. COBDEN found a happy illustration of this
in the importations of corn since last autumn. He
thought, and he is probably right, that considering
the extent of land now cultivated, and the in-
creased skill and capital applied to its cultivation,
we had not had within memory a greater failure of
our crops, both for man and beast, than last year.
Yet the vast deficiency had been filled up as we all
know not only without any cry of agricultural
distress, or any resort by "farmer's friends," or by
half starving towns, to the Government—but filled
up by our private traders so smoothly and quietly
that but for the advantage conferred by it on the
Chancellor of the Exchequer we should hardly have
known of it. The Custom-house tells us, however,
that Free-trade has in one twelvemonth supplied
us with fifteen million quarters of different kinds
of corn from various countries, seven or eight
millions of it being corn adapted to the food of
man. The distant prairies of America, the
steppes of Russia, the almost inacessible pla-
teaus of Spain, were all swept of their
abundance to feed the towns of England. " And
all this process went on without the aid of the
Government. Without any recognition of public
duty, it was silently, thankfully, and without shock
or convulsion received as the result of free trade.
And after an experience as that, how can doubt
arise ? How can we withhold our faith in aprinciple
which is greater than charity, for it steps in and
does the work of almsgiving on such a mighty scale
that human benevolence would shrink from it?

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THE SUN.
LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1861.