text:  We arrived at the truth by the careful process of dissecting analysing and classifying under each colonial head the various items of which his gross sum of aggregates must necessarily be composed; and the result was that of the _four millions and a-half sterling_ with such dauntless assurance set down as the proportion of army charge incurred for the colonies by the parent state it was found and proved in detail by official returns colony by colony and summed up in tabular array at the close that the very conscientiously calculating Leaguer had made no scruple under his lumping system of overlaying colonial trade with upwards of one million and a half of army expenditure one million and a quarter of which in all probability appertaining to and forming part of the cost nationally at which foreign trade was carried on