Now what conclusion do our Congressmen draw from the sums entered into the custom-house, in this operation? They thence learn that the United States have exported $200,000, and imported $352,000; from whence they conclude "_that she has spent, dissipated, the profits of her previous savings; that she is impoverishing herself and progressing to her ruin; and that she has squandered on a foreign nation_ $152,000 _of her capital_." Some time after this transaction, Mr. T dispatched another vessel, again freighted with national produce, to the amount of $200,000. But the vessel foundered in leaving the port, and Mr. T had only further to inscribe upon his books two little items, thus worded: "_Sundries due to X_, $200,000, for purchase of divers articles dispatched by vessel N." "_Profit and loss due, to sundries_, $200,000, _for final and total loss of cargo._" In the meantime the custom-house inscribed $200,000 upon its list of _exportations_, and as there can of course be nothing to balance this entry on the list of _importations_, it hence follows that our enlightened members of Congress must see in this wreck _a clear profit_ to the United States of $200,000. We may draw hence yet another conclusion, viz.: that according to the Balance of Trade theory, the United States has an exceedingly simple manner of constantly doubling her capital. It is only necessary, to accomplish this, that she should, after entering into the custom-house her articles for exportation, cause them to be thrown into the sea. By this course, her exportations can speedily be made to equal her capital; importations will be nothing, and our gain will be, all which the ocean will have swallowed up. You are joking, the protectionists will reply. You know that it is impossible that we should utter such absurdities. Nevertheless, I answer, you do utter them, and what is more, you give them life, you exercise them practically upon your fellow-citizens, as much, at least, as is in your power to do. But lest even Mr. T's books may not be deemed of sufficient weight to counterbalance the convictions of the Horace Greeley school of prohibition, I shall proceed to furnish a table exhibiting various classes of commercial transactions, embracing most of the classes usually effected by importing and exporting houses, all of which may result in undoubted profits to the parties engaged in them, and to the country at large, and yet which, as they appear in the annual Commerce and Navigation Reports issued by the government, would be made to prove by Mr. Greeley that the result has in each case been a loss to the country. The sums are all stated in gold: