again--better had he so
bethought him before his colonial debut in the House last June--would it
not be the part of wisdom to take counsel with his dear friend and
neighbour Mr Samuel Brookes, the well-known opulent calico-printer,
manufacturer, and exporting merchant of Manchester, who proved, some three
or four years ago, as clearly as figures--made up, like the restaurateur's
_pain_, at discretion--can prove any thing, that the larger the foreign
trade he carried on, the greater were his losses, in various instances
cited of hundreds per cent; from whence, seeing how rotund and robust
grows the worthy alderman, deplorable balance-sheets notwithstanding,
which would prostrate the Bank of England like the Bank of Manchester, it
should result that he, like another Themistocles, might exclaim to his
family, clad in purple and fine linen, "My children, had we not been
ruined, we should have been undone!"

But _revenons a nos moutons_. According to Mr Cobden's _new_ facts,
borrowed from Porter's Tables, so far as the figures, the superior
importance and profit of foreign trade should be measured by the gross
quantities, and be, say, as 35 to 16. We have shown that the relation of
profit really stands as 31 to 23, starting from the same basis of total
amounts as himself. The total profit upon a foreign trade of thirty-five
millions, to place it on an equal rateable footing with colonial, should
be, not three millions and an eighth, but upwards of five millions, or the
colonial trade of sixteen millions, if no more gainful than foreign, should
be, not L.2,300,000, but about one million less. And here the question
naturally recurs, assuming the principle of Mr Cobden to be correct--as so,
for his satisfaction, it has been reasoned hitherto--at what rate of charge
nationally are these profits, colonial and foreign, purchased? Fortunately
the materials for the estimates are already in hand, and here they are:

Colonial trade--cost in Army, Navy,
Ordnance, &c., L.3,000,000
Colonial trade--profit to exporters, 2,302,000
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Deficit--loss to the country, L.698,000
Foreign trade--cost in Army, Navy,
Ordnance, &c., L.4,500,000
Foreign trade exporting profit, 3,125,000
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Deficit--loss to the country,