e had not scrupled to raise from the depths of
discomfiture and oblivion, in which abandoned by the colonial detractors,
his predecessors, who had tried their art to conjure "spirits from the
vasty deep," which would not come when they did "call for them." With
gross numerical proportions apparently in his favour, but well-grounded
convictions that more might be discovered than met the eye, or squared
with the desire, should the component elements of those proportions be
respectively submitted to the process of dissection, he preferred to leave
the tale half told, the subject less than half discussed, rather than
challenge the certain exposure of the fallacious assumptions on which he
had reconstructed a seemingly plausible, but really shallow dogma. A
foreign export trade of thirty-five millions he wished the world to
believe must represent, proportionally, a larger amount of profit, than
sixteen millions of colonial export trade; that the difference, in fact,
would be as thirty-five to sixteen, and so, according to his Cockerian
rule of calculation, it should be. But, it is said and agreed, that two
and two do not always make four, as in the present case will be verified.
We may, indeed, place the matter beyond dispute, by a homely illustration
level to every man's capacity. For example, a Manchester banker, dealing
in money, shall turn over in discounts and accounts-current, with a
capital of L.100,000, the sum of one million sterling per annum. As he
charges interest in current-account at the rate of 5 per cent, so he
allows the same. His profit, therefore, _quoad_ the interest on
current-accounts and balances in hand, is _nil_; but for the trouble of
managing accounts and for discounts, his charge is five shillings per
L.100. In lending out his capital, he realises five per cent more upon
that. But the return upon capital embarked, say, in the cotton manufacture,
is calculated, at the least, at an average of fifteen per cent. What, then,
are the relative profit returns upon the same sum-total of operations for
the banker and manufacturer?

Manufacturer's Balance Sheet.
On Capital.
Operations, L.1,000,000 Capital, L.100,000 Profit, 15 per cent, L.15,000

Banker's Balance Sheet.
Operations, L.1,000,000 Profit thereon, 5s. per L.100, L.2500
Capital, 100,000 Interest thereon, 5 per cent, 5000