King of Antwerp; but what has your royalty done with your customary suite?"

Rubens colored deeply at this salutation, which was ironically uttered; but as Rembrandt's eye met that of his sister, his manners changed, and he assumed a much more cordial tone. He shook Rubens warmly by the hand, as he said, "It is many a long year, Messire Rubens, since we met, and many events have since then passed. My old Katherine, whom perhaps you remember, is dead. Heaven be praised!"

"Brother! brother! for shame!" interposed the sister.

66

My sister Louise," said Rembrandt, "has kindly come to take care of me and my house. She is devoted in her attachment to me. She is a perfect angel, Messire Rubens-she is a perfect angel." His voice faltered while approaching his sister, whose hand he affectionately kissed.

"And," demanded sister Louise, "is it only lately that you have heard of the boy's existence?"

"It is now," said Rubens, remembering well meeting the boy and Borruelo, "ten years since Master Rembrandt knew of his nephew's existence : it was on the night of All Saints."

"Master Nikeleker!" exclaimed sister Louise, "you, doubtless, know where this Master Borruelo resides. Will you conduct me to his abode ?"

"he

"Mademoiselle," answered the notary, resides at the other end of the city, not far from the guard-house of the western gate. I will conduct you there with pleasure."

"And, with your permission," said Rubens, "I will join you company. I am very culpable in having forgotten a promise, and I wish to do all in my power to repair the effects of my forgetful

A tear glistened in the eye of the generons-ness!" hearted Rubens, as he looked at Louise with profound respect. Louise blushed like a young girl of sixteen.

"I trust, Messire Rubens," said Rembrandt, "that you will receive better treatment at our hands than when last you saw us. I am ashamed of the sorry reception we then gave you. But who comes here?" continued he, as he turned to the door, which was opened by Master Nikeleker, the notary.

The sister was desirous of preventing his entry, on the plea that her brother had company, and could not be disturbed.

66

'Ha! ha!" exclaimed the notary, in a hearty tone; "you must not keep me out, Mademoiselle Louise. I bring tidings of your having become a great heiress, and Master Rembrandt has an accession to his fortune of two hundred thousand florins."

"Two hundred thousand florins!" shouted Rembrandt, in an ecstasy of delight.

"Yes, sir," answered the notary. "Your uncle, Eustache Gerritz, is no more. He has left in all six hundred thousand florins-one-third for you, one-third for Mademoiselle, and the remaining third for the children of your sister Margaret.

"My sister Margaret," said Rembrandt, vehemently, "died many years ago.' "Aye, aye," replied the notary; "but her children ?"

"Dead, also," asserted the painter. "Their deaths, then," said Nikeleker, "must be legally proved; for, until that is done, the division of the property cannot possibly take place."

"That can be done in less than an hour's time," answered Rembrandt. "The girl, I know, died: the boy was sickly, and, I dare say, is long since dead; unless, indeed, Nicholas Borruelo, the tailor, who took charge of him, sent him to the hospital.'

The boy of our sister Margaret?" cried the tender Louise; "did she leave a surviving child? Oh, brother, brother! Heaven have mercy upon you! Why did you never mention to me the fact of the boy's existence?"

"Why, sister," replied Rembrandt, in great confusion, "what would you have? How could I bear the expenses of rearing Margaret's boy, when I had one myself, and was, besides, a poor struggling artist, who with difficulty could gain a subsistence?"

Louise, Rubens, and the notary, traversed the city, and entered the humble abode of Nicholas Borruelo. They saw a good-looking, healthy boy, of sixteen, hard at work on some canvass, which was on an easel in a corner of the room. He informed the visitors, in answer to their question, that Nicholas Borruelo would very shortly enter. He had, in fact, gone out with some clothes for a customer; and he handed a seat for Mademoiselle Louise, who was evidently laboring under very great excitement. Rubens went straightway up to the sketch on the easel, and uttered an exclamation of surprise and astonishment, which made the boy blush scarlet.

"Who is thy master?" demanded Rubens, turning to him.

"I never had a master, sir," answered the boy. "I amuse myself in my moments of leisure in daubing canvass, as you see; still that is but seldom, for Master Eustache, the cabinet-maker, for whom I work, has too much need of my services."

"You must put by the saw and the plane, and you must devote yourself to painting," observed Rubens.

"That, sir, is impossible," replied the boy "for I must work hard at my trade to support myself and my father, who is now getting old."

"Thy father?" asked Dame Louise. "Does thy father yet live?"

"I speak, madam," said the boy, "of the excellent tailor, Master Nicholas Borruelo, who adopted me, and has been to me all that the kindest parent could have been. My own poor father has been dead four years. Master Borruelo supported him, also, for six long years; but he is gone to join my sainted mother and my little sister in heaven! Ah, madam, ours has been a sorrowful story; but Heaven has been merciful to me in sending me such friends as Borruelo and Eustache!"

"Thy name is Antonio Netcelli, is it not?" demanded the lady.

"Yes, most honored lady," answered the youth; "such truly is my name.'

แ

"Then thy sorrows and trials have ceased," exclaimed the lady. "Thou need'st no longer toil for thy daily subsistence; thou hast found thy family, and art become rich. My child-my child! I am thy mother's aunt, Louise." And, with many tears, the kind-hearted lady warmly embraced the young Antonio.

At that moment a heavy step was heard ap-| could not raise the sum demanded, and the robbers proaching the door, and Borruelo made his appear- roasted the child alive. The governor of the ance. The youth left the arms of Dame Louise, province hereupon issued a proclamation, intiand joyfully met his foster-father. mating (what was too well known already) that "Here is aunt Louise, father-aunt Louise, of there were numerous bands of robbers in the diswhom my mother spoke so often, and so affection-trict, and exhorting the people "to contrive plans ately," said Antonio.

Dame Louise informed the tailor of the sudden change in Antonio's fortunes.

Borruelo heard the communication with evident sorrow of heart. His lips moved, and his eye was turned towards heaven in silent prayer. He then took the boy in his arms, and said, in a low, plaintive voice,Thou art now become rich, Antonio; thou need'st no longer work at thy trade; thou must quit my roof, and wilt perhaps soon cease to love thy father."

"Never-never!" said Antonio, struggling with deep emotion. "As thou hast been, so thou shalt always be-my father. The same roof shall always cover us; we will never sepa

rate."

for capturing them and bringing them to justice." The proclamation also stated, that by this means "the number of these banditti will be daily lessened and that of well-behaved people increase; the manners and habits of the populace will undergo a renovating change." But not a word was said of any active steps about to be taken for the arrest of the kidnappers. The same fashion of publishing a lay sermon or moral essay, instead of sending policemen to arrest offenders, prevails at Pekin. Robberies and murders are perpetrated as openly in the province of Pe-che-li, in which the capital is, and in the neighboring provinces of Leaoutung and Shantung, as in that of Canton; and encountered in like manner by proclamations only.

The despatches of a shrewd man like Keying to the emperor indicate the character of the prince to whom they are addressed. Little stress should be laid upon the hyperbolical compliments paid to the monarch and the abusive epithets applied to foreigners. Our best translators are mere ele

"My uncle Rembrandt!" said the youth, draw-mentary scholars in the Chinese language; its ing back, and shuddering.

Hush!" said Dame Louise. "You must forgive the past, as those have who are now in heaven!"

turns and combinations, so different from those of European tongues, become more strange in their schoolboy versions; and epithets are supposed to be used by the Chinese with an entire conscious"Come, then, my father," said Antonio, turn-ness of their force, which are probably as uning to Borruelo; "if I go, you must come with me." And he took the old man gently by the arm, and led him along.

meaning as the "most obedient servant" of our epistles, or have lost their original offensive meaning as completely as "furosh," (slave,) which at "Young man," said Rubens, laying his hand Medina has come to be the title of the rulers of on Antonio's shoulder, "wilt thou become my the city. But even after translating Keying's pupil? I will take thee and thy excellent father strange phraseology into the most commonplace to Antwerp, and my house shall be thy home. language, his despatches are evidently the efforts Dost thou consent? I am Peter Paul Rubens !" of a man of sense to reconcile an ignorant and "Rubens!" cried Antonio, enthusiastically-childish despot to treaties concluded with more "Rubens! What! I become the pupil of Rubens !" powerful nations upon equal terms. The wily He paused for a few moments in great hesitation; statesman prepares the royal mind for the intellithen, running up tenderly to Dame Louise, he gence of what has been conceded, by sneering at said, "Pardon me, noble sir, I cannot do it; I the bad grammar of the foreign ministers, and must remain with this good lady; for she is the enlarging on the claims that have been rejected. living resemblance of my dead mother!"

Antonio Netcelli became the pupil of Rembrandt, and rapidly obtained eminence as one of the first masters of Flemish Art. To please his old uncle, he gave a Flemish termination to his Italian name, and always signed his painting GASPARD ANTOINE NETSCHER.

There is a great amount of political insubordination as well as general lawlessness in China. In Leaoutung, (the Mandshu province nearest Pekin on the east,) Chinese immigrants are occupying large districts in defiance of the prohibitions of government. In Koko-nor, (the Mongol province immediately adjoining the western termination of the north frontier of the "central flowery,") the predatory tribes threaten to invade the province of Sechuen; and the Chinese government has no better means of repelling them than by bribing one half of them to fight against the FURTHER acquaintance with the "central flow- other. In Dsoongaria and Turkistan, (the provery" land serves to confirm the opinion we have inces lying between Siberia and Tibet,) no taxes always expressed, that our Chinese victories were are paid. In Formosa, the islanders have reonly the beginning of more complicated embarrass-belled, and were still in arms against the Mandarins at the date of the last news. In the moun

ments.

From the Spectator of 22 Feb.
CHINA.

is a numerous and hardy race which has never acknowledged the imperial sovereignty.

The government of China is one of those which tains north-west of the province of Canton, there exist in virtue of doing nothing, and because men are iccustomed to it. It is a government upon paper: its officers do not attempt to check or punish crimes-they only write essays against them. Towards the end of 1843, the child of a widow in the district of Canton was stolen by a band of robbers and held to ransom: the poor woman

In a country where rebellion and robbery have become chronic diseases-where the forms of government exist everywhere and its power is felt nowhere-habit may give permanence to such an imaginary constitution, so long as no impulse is

received from without. But the slightest contact the courts, &c. The decrees and orders of the with foreign influences must shake it to the foun- courts are generally printed in the English, the dation. That contact has taken place. England French, and the Hawaiian languages. has contracted one commercial treaty with China; We find in the Polynesian a weekly summary the United States another, in which some more of foreign news, selected from the journals of all favorable articles have been introduced; the French countries, highly respectable disquisitions on phihave a mission in China, which is claiming, with lology, jurisprudence, the law of nations, reviews a good deal of bluster, more respectful treatment of new and foreign publications, scientific notices, than was experienced by the American Envoy. &c. Thus, for example, the number dated AuThe French, American, and English traders in the gust 24th contains an elaborate report on the waters of China, are animated by their full share finances, commerce, manufactures, &c., of Mexof national jealousy. The British settlement at iço, by R. C. Wyllie, British pro-consul at HonoHong-kong is an eyesore to the others: France lulu-this is continued through several succeeding and the United States will aspire to have their papers; a long and learned disquisition on the islands or their settlements on the main also. The exact meaning of the words used in connexion hatred of foreigners entertained by the rabble, and with the subject of allegiance, in which the Roman the powerlessness of the officers of the law, have Code, Vattel, Chancellor Kent, Judge Story, and already given rise to repeated attacks upon the the French and English authorities are quoted. European and American traders at Canton: an To this succeeds an editorial article on the estabunprovoked assault has been made upon some lishment of a public cemetery at Honolulu; news English gentlemen at Fow-chow-foo. When it is from China and from Oregon; reports of cases the cue of any American or European government tried before C. Kanaina, acting Governor of Oahu; to pick a quarrel with the Chinese as a pretext for a petition to Kamehameha III. King of the Sandoccupying a part of the Imperial territory, a sub-wich Islands, against the grant of a license for the stantial grievance is not likely to be long wanting. sale of spirituous liquors in the Bay of Hilo; a And who can doubt that such a territorial acquisi- list of imports for the week; notice of a meeting tion by any one state would stimulate all the rest of the "Hawaiian Total Abstinence Society;" to hasten to anticipate each other in appropriating shipping intelligence; advertisements of new books, part of the spoil? France has only to place Du- hotels, schools, sales, new goods, &c. The Polypetit-Thouars on the Chinese station, in order to nesian is very neatly and accurately printed. recommence in China the game of hostilities be- Hungwa, the landlord of the Canton Hotel, advertween the European factories and intrigues with tises that he has secured the services of superior the local native governors, which in India has ter- Chinese cooks and waiters; the lists of new books minated by leaving almost the whole of the pen- received, include all the recent publications of the insula on our hands. English and American press.

From the National Intelligencer.
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

In the paper of August 31st, we have an "order in council" of his Hawaiian majesty, prescribing a "code of etiquette" to be observed at his court. There is also an advertisement of "Albert E. Wilson, general commission merchant, Astoria, mouth of the Columbia river," offering his services for the sale of merchandise and purchase of the produce of the country. Other papers contain similar advertisements of merchants in California.

EVERY man whose philanthropy is not bounded by country or kin, who can rejoice in the advances of the human family in knowledge, virtue, and happiness, whether those advances take place in China or New Zealand, and mourn when he hears of violence and of wrong, of crime and of misery, In the papers of the 21st and 28th of September as well when they occur in Labrador or Craffraria very copious literary notices are given of the cruise as in London or New York, will be gratified to of the " United States Exploring Expedition," as learn that "in the far-off isles" of the Pacific, the deduced from the synopsis published in this city in white man has carried not unmixed evil, but that 1842, and the brief account published in Silliman's civilization, in some of its most unquestioned Journal in 1843. In the Polynesian of the 28th shapes, is rapidly extending itself among the September is a very able article on naturalization, natives of those comparatively lately-discovered and the reciprocal duties of nations to each other. abodes of the human race. We have just received The same paper contains an anticipatory glance of a file of the Polynesian," a weekly journal, pub- the future importance of the Sandwich Islands in lished at Honolulu, in Oahu, one of the Hawaiiana commercial point of view. "Their riches," says or Sandwich Islands, and have made the following summary of its contents:

the writer, "lie in the soil; of mineral wealth they have next to none. Markets are opening There are three weekly papers published at around us. A continent lies near us, rapidly fillHonolulu, viz. the "Friend," the " Nonanona," ing with Anglo-Saxon sons. Sugar, coffee, indigo, and the "Polynesian." The first of these is tobacco, cotton, and cabinet lumber will be the edited by a clergyman, the Rev. Samuel C. Da- staple commodities, and maize, wheat, yarns, mon, and devotes much of its columns to the arrow-root, hemp, raw silk, &c., articles of cause of religion, temperance, &c. The "Nona-secondary value. These islands will become the nona" contains many valuable agricultural arti- West Indies of the northern Pacific; the trade cles; and the "Polynesian" has been lately pur- will naturally go forward to Oregon, and if we do chased by the government, and connected with the not hasten operations the demand will exceed our government printing establishment. It is published means of supplying it. The trade of the Southern under the editorial care of J. J. Jarves, who is Islands," continues the writer, "will naturally also the director of government printing. This tend southward, towards the myriads of Englishlast mentioned paper is therefore "the official organ," and contains the government appointments, ordinances, decrees, reports of the proceedings of

men who inhabit the Island Continent," (New Holland.) The existing trade between Columbia river and the Sandwich Islands is evidenced by an

advertisement in this week's paper of the arrival | fear that a false pride exists, and a spirit of emulafor sale of 107,000 feet of lumber, 300 barrels of tion which prompts people to transcend their superior flour, 300 barrels of "the highly-prized means. Individual wealth is unknown as yet; a Columbia river salmon," &c., by the barque few persons have been sufficiently fortunate to Brothers; and subsequent papers notice similar acquire a competency from the precarious and arrivals to a large amount. A considerable arrival restricted business of the place. But poverty is of lumber, shingles, &c., from California is also likewise a stranger. Every industrious man has noticed. In the Polynesian of October 5th, refer- it in his power not only to secure a living, but to ence is made to a letter (the second on the subject) accumulate." received from "a Maryland farmer of capital," in regard to emigration to the Sandwich Islands, with a view to the cultivation of wheat and the manufacturing of it into flour. The editor requests information upon these points, as the probable means of establishing a very desirable branch of business.

the latter expressing a desire to establish close | useful and ennobling literature, science, and art, commercial relations between the two countries. through the universal family of mankind!

Besides the new royal residence, it appears that a palace is also building for the governor of Oahu, which is said to be the most costly and imposing building which has been erected on the island. "Its faults, however," says the Polynesian," and those of other public and private buildings, show that an architect of good taste and skill is much needed." The native chiefs are also building new residences in Honolulu, and the town appears to be rapidly improving.

It was stated, among other novelties, that "the Wesleyan Methodists of the Bingham circuit have erected a wooden meeting house upon wheels, capable of seating 120 persons, for the accommodation of several villages where no site can be obtained."

From the Spectator.

THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN.

No nation has been great or prosperous that did not honor an idea. The power and happiness of every nation have been in proportion to the purity and elevation of the idea it has honored. The idea which England reveres and cherishes is that of the English gentleman.

66

The very outcast of society, when he would gall one of his betters in worldly station, can invent no reproach that he conceives more bitter than "you are no gentleman." When the Earl of Dalhousie, in the house of lords, proclaimed Captain O'Brien a man of as pure integrity as any peer in this The Polynesian of the 16th November says house," he recognized, and the peers of England that complaints have been made, without just with him, the unquestioned honor of the English cause, by the captains of whalers touching at gentleman-the title of moral nobility superior to Honolulu, of the amount of port charges which legal rank, to which peers and commoners must they have had to pay. The following statement alike aspire if they wish to be respected by their is given of the port expenses charged on a vessel countrymen. The real gentleman is in the England

of 300 tons burden:

Tonnage duty, at 6 cents per ton,
Buoys, &c.,

of our day what the knight was in the days of $18 chivalry: the ascendancy in council, in the field, 3 and in the hall, which was conceded to the knight

Pilotage in and out, $1 per foot, say 28 feet, 28 of old, is attributed now to the gentleman.

The English gentleman is that ideal character $49 which all Englishmen aspire to be, or at least to These charges are said to be very low in pro- be thought. The English gentleman is braveportion to the advantages obtained. "The pe- physically and morally. The English gentleman culiar value and importance of these islands to the is veracious-in England alone "the lie" is conwhaling interest" are said "to have become more sidered as the greatest and most inexpiable insult. conspicuous since the discovery of the great North- The English gentleman is decorous-no deliberate western hunting ground." In this quotation profligate can hope to be thought an English genhunting" is to be understood by the uninitiated tleman. The English gentleman is humane. The as meaning the catching of whales, and "ground" English gentleman has a taste for literature and to mean sea. "These islands," says the editor, "afford fresh provisions, medical aid, secure harbors, wholesome laws, the means of recruiting diminished crews, of repairing vessels, &c. If they had not existed, the whaling business must have been prosecuted under serious disadvantages."

The latest news which had been received from Tahiti (Otaheite) at Honolulu was of the 26th October, at which time the best understanding appeared to exist between the native authorities and the resident ones of England and France. Queen POMARE had been invited to return to Tahiti to resume her rights as the independent sovereign of the Society Islands, under the protectorate which had been established. This she had refused to do till the definite orders should arrive from Europe; but hopes were entertained that everything would be speedily and satisfactorily arranged.

science. The English gentleman abhors ostentation; though his plainness is free from rusticity. The substratum of the character is the homely hearty squire; the animating principle, a spirit of chivalry such as existed in Sydney, dashed with a spice of the Puritan; and the regulating principle, strong common sense, with a dread of appearing ridiculous, carried almost to excess.

The English public is not exacting; it does not demand perfection from its leaders-it is ever ready to make allowance for lapses incident to humanity: but it reverences those only who keep the ideal character of the gentleman constantly before their eyes as the model upon which they seek to form themselves. The very mob have never been long faithful to any leader who was not by education and habits a gentleman. The demagogue who would count upon their fidelity must possess that refinement on the want of which they pride themselves: he may be weak, vain, We trust that, with the great majority of our headstrong, inconsistent; but a shabby trick, or readers, the interesting nature and the importance anything that looks like chicanery, is fatal to his of the subject will supersede the necessity of any empire. The English mob retained to the last a apology for the length of this article. The Anglo- sneaking kindness for the "faded gentleman," Saxon or Anglo-American race are belting the which the power and (in his main object) consistworld with their language, their laws, their litera-ency of O'Connell have failed to obtain for him. ture, and their religion. This enterprising, ener- And to the minister of this country the highest getic, and enlightened branch of the human family talents and most fervid patriotism are recommendis, if not absolutely dominant in Europe, Asia, ations far weaker than the character of a true Africa, and America, secondary to no other race. English gentleman. In practical sagacity, in broad In Australasia it is striking firm and vigorous statesmanlike views, Fox was immeasurably supe root; and in Polynesia, our present article will rior to Pitt: but the dicing and drabbing of the show that its march has been and is rapidly on-whig leader placed him at a disadvantage. In the ward. May it be the means of spreading true present century, we have seen a statesman enreligion, sound knowledge, rational liberty, and dowed with preternatural quickness of apprehen