ng amount of 50,000,000 of
tons--a tremendous advance, which proves, if nothing else, that if,
as some will have it, we are an 'old' country, the capacity for hard
work as well as power of consumption increases marvellously with
age. At anyrate the three great business localities I have partially
indicated are stupendous facts, the full significance of which will
be fully comprehended by all and every one who may choose to compare
these slight outline sketches with the great originals.

STORY OF REMBRANDT.

At a short distance from Leyden may still be seen a flour-mill with
a quaint old dwelling-house attached, which bears, on a brick in a
corner of the wide chimney, the date 1550. Here, in 1606, was born
Paul Rembrandt. At an early age he manifested a stubborn,
independent will, which his father tried in vain to subdue. He
caused his son to work in the mill, intending that he should succeed
him in its management; but the boy shewed so decided a distaste for
the employment, that his father resolved to make him a priest, and
sent him to study at Leyden. Every one knows, however, that few lads
of fifteen, endowed with great muscular vigour and abundance of
animal spirits, will take naturally and without compulsion to the
study of Latin grammar. Rembrandt certainly did not; and his
obstinacy proving an overmatch for his teachers' patience, he was
sent back to the mill, when his father beat him so severely, that
next morning he ran off to Leyden, without in the least knowing how
he should live there. Fortunately he sought refuge in the house of
an honest artist, Van Zwaanenberg, who was acquainted with his
father.

'Tell me, Paul,' asked his friend, 'what do you mean to do with
yourself, if you will not be either a priest or a miller? They are
both honourable professions: one gives food to the soul, the other
prepares it for the body.'

'Very likely,' replied the boy; 'but I don't fancy either; for in
order to be a priest, one must learn Latin; and to be a miller, one
must bear to be beaten. How do _you_ earn your bread?'

'You know very well I am a painter.'

'Then I will be one too, Herr Zwaanenberg; and if you will go
to-morrow and tell my father so, you will do me a great service.'

The good-natured artist willingly undertook the mission, and
acquainted the old miller with his son's resolution.

'I want to know one thing,' said Master Rembrandt; 'will he be able
to gain a livelihood by painting?'

'