there were brought into Lahaina and Honolulu by American ships, 351,486 bbls. whale oil, 4,277.000 lbs. whalebone, and 173,590 bbls. sperm oil. In 1845, 514,340 bbls. whale oil, 5,900,000 lbs. whalebone, and 102,250 bbls. sperin oil. In ships of other nations proportionate amounts. This large fleet passes the winter months between the tropics, in pursuit of sperm whale; in the summer months in the Northern Ocean, between the Sandwich and Aleutian Islands, for the capture of black whale, and between the Sandwich Islands and the coast of Japan for sperm. It is to be remembered that this large capital is invested by the inhabitants of the Eastern states; and the length of the voyage out and home causes a loss of one-fourth of the time employed, or say $2,500,000 per annum, an expense to which is to be added a loss of 10 per cent. of the oil from the same cause.

California now offers to this interest the best possible facilities for ship building white oak of superior quality is found in the greatest abundance, and the cheap labor of Asia may be applied with the greatest success. Ships may be launched in San Francisco bay of California oak, and hemp and canvass of a better quality and at cheaper rates than in other parts of the world. And the capacity of the country to supply these vessels cannot be equalled. It is evident that not only must the whaling interest, the nursery of 20,000 seamen, be transferred at once to California, where already are a great number of whalers digging gold, but that the 65 to 70 ships, employing a capital of some $3,000,000 in the China trade, must hail from that section of the United States. Not only will that country grow rapidly, but it will grow at the expense of the Atlantic section, unless the interests of both are consulted by the prompt establishment of rail-road and steam communication. Such a communication will insure to the United States all the India trade; because from the peculiarities of ocean navigation, Great Britain is now 1500 miles nearer to India than the United States; but via Panama, New-York is 3,100 miles nearer to Canton than is Liverpool. Hence the difference between the two routes is 4,600 miles, or 14 days in favor of the United States.

The fertile and wealthy Sandwich Islands* are but six days distant by steam, and from that point the vast wealth and trade of all Asia are commanded. The wealthy and populous nations of that continent, as well as the English colonies of New-Holland, are without a navy, mercantile or military. The nations of Europe are too distant to compete with American ships, built on the Pacific coast, and manned by the same race of seamen that successfully grappled with the colossal power of England a quarter of a

* The imports and duties of the Sandwich Islands for five years, were as follows:

The exports for 1846 were as follows:-Foreign goods claiming drawback. $62,325 74; foreign goods not claiming drawback, $81,100; 300,000 lbs. sugar, $16,500; 16.000 gals. molasses, $4,000; 8,500 bls. salt, $10,625; 10.000 lbs. coffee, $1,500; 10,000 lbs. arrow root, $400: 35,000 goat-skins, $7,000; 2.000 bullock hides, $4,000; mustard seed, $500; brooms, mats, topas, &c., &c., $2,000; supplies-salt and fresh beef, vegetables, &c., for seventeen ships of war, at $4.000 each, $68,000; supplies for thirty-eight merchant vessels, at $1,000 each, $38,000; supplies for one hundred and twelve whale ships, at $400 each, $448,000; add for whale ships touching outside, not ncluded in the above, $20,000; making a total of $763,950 74.

century since. The whole trade and vast wealth of the indolent Asiatics must be monopolized by the Anglo-Saxon energy emanating from the "Pacific section of the United States." With the advantages that that quarter of the world holds out to enterprise, it is not too much to expect that its population will in the next forty years increase as fast as that of the Atlantic states in the last forty years; and that the year 1885 may find at least 12,000,000 Americans, enjoying from the Pacific states the whole trade of the Indian seas. The maritime power of California will be to the Pacific what the English navy has been to the Atlantic; and the weight of the United States' power must be west of the Rocky Mountains, leaving the old world in its sluggish pomp and decaying strength, while "Democratic energy" will infuse new life into the time-honored governments of the East. Since the Roman empire perished, before the pressure of the hordes issuing in countless numbers from Asia, overrunning and destroying the polite and wealthy nations of Southern and Western Europe, the tide of emigration has been constantly westward, with the Saxon race ever in the van. The lapse of fifteen hundred years of progress in every respect finds the old Asiatic stock improved into the American race, concentrating upon the Pacific Ocean, preparatory to a return into the bosom of Asia, carrying with them civilization, Christianity, and political science. The western impulse given to the population of Europe by the fierce onslaught of the exiled Tartars, reacts after fifteen centuries upon the country of their origin. The fierce race whose only deity was a necked scimitar, occupied by war and supported by plunder, departed from the land that gave them birth for the destruction of European civilization. Succeeding to the long night of the dark ages, which her sons inflicted upon Europe, Asia may now observe breaking in the East the dawn of civilization. The Americo-Saxon race is about to invade her with the steam-engine and the printing-press. The bible and the ballot-box are coming back to Asia from the East, in return for the scimitar and the spear, which twenty centuries since she despatched westward into Europe. Undisturbed in all that period by foreign aggression or intestine commotion, Eastern Asia has gone on to increase in wealth, and multiply in numbers, until the population of China alone is now estimated to equal the half of the entire globe; and to the missionary and the merchant, as well as the politician and philanthropist, the new fields of enterprise to be commanded from the Bay of San Francisco are of the most brilliant description. The uncertain and criminal possession which English satraps hold of the Indian peninsula, is becoming relaxed through the declining vigor of the Imperial country; and the friendly hand of American commerce will soon supplant the mailed glove of British oppression The sums now extracted from the wretched ryot to feed the pomp of British officials, will swell the profits of American dealers in exchange for the products of industry; and the vast wealth of India will reward the enterprise of the American dealer, swelling the grandeur of our commerce and magnificence of the national wealth. The vivid imagination of Napoleon was ever haunted with the visions of Eastern splendor, but he looked in the wrong direction with the wrong means. His face was set eastward, with arms in his hands; "Young Democracy looks westward, with the arts of peace as a means to attain the same end, and will be successful where he met only disaster and disgrace.

THE THREE NUTS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF CLEMENS BRENTANO.

DANIEL WILHELM MOLLER, afterwards professor at Altdorf, lived, in the year 1665, in Colmar, as tutor to the three sons of the burgomaster Lindorf.

This same year, in the month of October, a travelling alchemist, calling himself Todenus, stopped at the burgomaster's house, and when, after dinner, some walnuts, among other delicacies, were placed upon the table, the company had much to say about the properties of this fruit. But as Möller's three pupils ate rather greedily of the nuts, cracking them one after another in quick succession, he reproved them mildly, and referred them to the following verse out of the Schola Salernitana: "Unica nux prodest, nocet altera, tertia mors est."

They at once rightly translated it as follows: "One nut benefits, the second injures, the third is death." Möller said to them, however, that this translation could scarcely be the right one, as they had long since eaten the third nut, and still were well and hearty, and he told them to think of a better.

He had hardly time to finish these words when, to the astonishment of all present, the alchymist rushed suddenly from the table, ran to his chamber, and locked himself in. At his father's command, the burgomaster's youngest son followed the stranger to ask him if he were ill; but as he found the door locked, he looked through the keyhole and saw the man upon his knees, and heard him call out, as he wrung his hands and wept bitterly-"Ah, my God! my God!"

The boy had scarcely brought news of this to his father, when the alchymist sent word to him that he wished to see him in private. All left the dining-room. The stranger then entered, sank upon his knees, clasped the burgomaster's feet, and prayed him not to bring him before the tribunals, but to save him from a shameful death.

The burgomaster was startled at his words, for he feared that the man might have lost his senses; he raised him from the floor, and requested him mildly to explain why he spoke thus singularly.

it

The stranger then replied-" Ah, sir, do not dissemble; you and the tutor Möller know of my crime; the verse of the three nuts proves tertia mors est-the third is death! Yes, yes, a leaden bullet, a pull with the finger, and he fell. You have agreed between you to betray me; you will deliver me into the hands of justice, and by your means my head will fall upon the scaffold."

The burgomaster was now satisfied that the alchymist was deranged, and he endeavored to soothe him with kind words.

It was impossible to quiet him, however; he passed his hand across his brow and said-" Well, if you do not know it, the tutor does most certainly, for he gazed steadfastly at me as he said—tertia mors est."

The burgomaster could do nothing more than to beg him to go quietly

to bed, giving him his word of honor that neither he nor Möller would betray him, if, indeed, there were any truth in what he said. The unhappy man would not leave him, however, until Möller was summoned, who assured him solemnly that he would keep his secret, for all that he could say could not convince the alchymist that he knew nothing evil of him.

On the following morning the alchymist resolved to leave Colmar for Basle, and begged the tutor Möller to give him a letter of recommendation to a professor of medicine. Möller gave him a letter to doctor Schmidt, and placed it open in his hands that he might conceive no suspicion.

He left the house with tears, and renewed entreaties that they would not betray him.

About the same time in the following year, perhaps three weeks later, as the burgomaster was sitting with his family at table and again eating walnuts, and as they were reminded thereby of the alchymist and were speaking of him, a woman, requested admittance. The burgomaster directed the domestics to introduce her; a female now entered dressed in morning; her features seemed wasted with grief, yet they bore the traces of remarkable beauty. The burgomaster offered her a chair, placed a glass of wine and a few walnuts before her, but at the sight of the latter she seemed violently agitated, and the tears started to her eyes. "No nuts! no nuts!" she cried, as she pushed back her plate.

These words, combined with a remembrance of the alchymist, produced a singular excitement among those who were seated at table. The burgomaster directed a domestic to remove the nuts, and after having excused himself to the woman, protesting that he was entirely ignorant of her aversion for this fruit, he begged to be informed of the business which had led her to his house.

"I am the widow of an apothecary of Lyons," she said, " and I wish to settle in Colmar; a sad misfortune compels me to leave my native city." The burgomaster now requested to see her passport, in order to satisfy himself that she had not left her country to escape the demands of justice.

She reached him her papers, which were in every way satisfactory, and in which she was mentioned as the widow of, the apothecary Pierre du Pont, or Petrus Pontanus. She also showed the burgomaster several testimonials from the faculty of medicine at Montpelier, which proved that she was in possession of recipes for the compounding of various excellent medical remedies.

The burgomaster promised to do everything in his power to assist her in her project of settling in Colmar, and requested her to follow him into his study, that he might write her some letters of recommendation to several physicians and apothecaries in the town.

After accompanying the woman up the stairs, as they crossed the hall above, she became so suddenly and deeply agitated at the sight of a childish painting that was fastened against a chamber door which they passed, that the burgomaster feared she would swoon in his arms. He led her in haste to his room and reached her a seat, upon which she sank, weeping bitterly.

The burgomaster, at a loss how to explain her emotion, asked her the cause of it.

"Oh, sir," she replied, "how is it possible that you have become

acquainted with my misfortune? who fastened that picture upon the chamber door ?"

The burgomaster now remembered the picture, and said that it was a drawing of his youngest son's, who was in the habit of representing all occurrences which particularly interested him, by these rude attempts at painting.

The boy who, the year before, had seen the alchymist upon his knees wringing his hands in this chamber, and had heard him call out, “ Ah, my God! my God!" had painted him in this position upon a piece of pasteboard, with three nuts above him and the sentence, Unica nux prodest, nocet altera, tertia mors est." He had nailed the painting against the door of the chamber which the alchymist had occupied.

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"How could your son have become acquainted with my husband's fearful calamity ?" said the woman. "How could he know that which I would fain keep forever concealed-that for which I have left my native land."

"Your husband?" replied the burgomaster, in astonishment; "is the chemist Todenus your husband? I supposed, judging from your passport, that you were the widow of the apothecary Pierre du Pont, of Lyons.

"I am so," replied the woman; " and the person represented upon that picture is my husband, Du Pont. I know that it is he, by the position in which I last saw him; I know it by the fatal sentence and the three nuts over his head."

The burgomaster now recounted to her all that had passed, a year ago, when the alchymist visited him, and asked how it happened, if he were really her husband, that he had introduced himself to him under a false

name.

"Ah, sir," replied the woman, "I see it plainly; fate has decreed that my shame shall not remain concealed. As a worthy and upright man, I expect that you will not reveal my sad story to my prejudice. Listen to me. My husband, the apothecary Pierre du Pont, at Lyons, was in comfortable circumstances, and he would have been rich if he had not lavished much money upon his unhappy passion for alchymy. I was young, and had the misfortune to be exceedingly beautiful. Ah, sir, there can be no greater misfortune than this; for no rest, no peace is possible for the unhappy creature whom heaven has visited with this curse; all pursue her, and the persecution and temptation to which she is exposed often prompt her to steps that prove her ruin. I was not vain— I was unfortunate merely. Let me dress myself as plainly and unbecomingly as possible, my attire at once set the fashion, and it was thought charming. Wherever I went I was surrounded by admirers; I could not sleep for serenades, and I was perpetually annoyed by gifts and amor ous billets. Two assistants in my husband's employ poisoned each other, because each had discovered that the other was a rival, who, out of love to me, had entered our service. All the people who purchased medicines at our shop were at once suspected of being enamored of me. I reaped nothing from all this, but anxiety and wretchedness, and my husband's pride in my beauty alone prevented me from disfiguring my face in some manner. Often have I asked him whether he could not be contented with my love and affection, and if he would not permit me to destroy my beauty, that source of continual annoyance, by some corrosive liquid. But he always replied,' beautiful Amelia! I should despair if I