THE YOUTHS CABINET.

 

for half an hour. General Peter Stuy-
vesant was the last of these governors.
He arrived in the colony in 1647. You
know, or at least you can guess, how
the Dutch were forced to give up their
claims to the island. The English, who
had settled in New England, wished to
get possession of the country in posses-
sion of their neighbors from Holland ;
and, as is frequently the case in such in-
stances, they found a great many different
reasons for engaging in a quarrel, Un-
der the government of Charles II. the
Yankees obtained the aid of the mother
country, and a fleet, commanded by Col-
onel Richard Nichols, arrived in Boston
in the summer of 1664, prepared to take
possession of the country which, up to
that time, had been under the control
of the Dutch. On the 28th of August

following, the fleet appeared before New

Amsterdam—as the city of New York

was then called—and demanded the

surrender of the city and the province.
Stuyvesant was a brave man, and

wanted to resist the English stoutly.

But the great majority of the chief men
of the city thought there would be no
use in attempting to oppose these pow-
erful enemies; and so the governor
yielded, and gave up the island. Col-
onel Nichols succeeded Stuyvesant as
governor. Charles II. at that time
king of Great Britain, had made a grant
of the whole territory of the Dutch in
this country, to his brother James, the
Duke of York. In honor of this noble-
man, the name of the city was soon
changed from New Amsterdam to New
York. In 1665, the city received a
charter from Governor Nichols, and the
people elected a mayor, several alder-
men, and a sheriff.

  
  
 

Young Men—What they have done.

ILLIAM Prrt, the
first earl of Chat-
ham, was twen-
4 \ ty-seven years
fe old, when,.as a
<— member of par-
liament, he wa-
ged the war of
a giant against
the corruptions of Sir Robert Walpole.

The younger Pitt was scarcely twenty
years of age, when, with masterly pow-
er, he grappled with the veterans in
parliament in favor of America. At
twenty-two he was called to the high
and responsible trust of chancellor of
exchequer. It was at that age that, he
came forth in his might on the affairs
of the East Indies. At twenty-nine,
during the first insanity of George III.
he rallied around the Prince of Wales.

Edmund Burke, at the age of nine-
teen, planned a refutation of the meta-
physical theories of Berkeley and Hume.
At twenty he was in the temple, the
admiration of its inmates for the bril-
liancy of his genius, and the variety of
his acquisitions. At twenty-six he pub-
lished his celebrated satire, entitled “A
Vindication of Natural Society.” The
same year he published his essay on the
Sublime and Beautiful—so much admir-
ed for its spirit of philosophy and the
elegance of its language.

George Washington was only twenty-
seven years of age when he covered the
retreat of the British troops at Brad-
dock’s defeat; and the same year he
was appointed commander-in-chief of all
the Virginia forces.

Gen. Joseph Warren was only twenty-