assured itself of the cordial co-opera

tion of the nations of the world but provided a biennial congress of Art which it is impossible for any country to ignore if it wishes to take a share in the world's progress in Art, to show what its countrymen are doing, and to obtain an accurate estimate of its position in comparison with other nations.

Every artist on the Continent now knows that Venice dominates the situation, and English artists are slowly beginning to realize that fact. The recognition too by the profession of the benefits that have accrued to them through the Venice Exhibition has been spontaneous, whole-hearted, and unanimous, as was evidenced in the enthusiasm that prevailed at the breakfast given to Professor Fradeletto at the opening of the present Exhibition, enthusiasm unknown in art circles in England. On that occasion some 200 artists from every nation, save our own, assembled to tender their indebtedness and thanks to the Professor, and the plaudits which greeted every mention of his name, and punctuated every sentence of his eloquently expressed thanks, must have been very grateful to the Member of Parliament for Venice and the Honorary Secretary of the Exhibition, for it is mainly due to his unwearied efforts that the present achievement has been arrived at.

What this achievement is may thus be summarized. Venice has herself expended over a million and a half lire on the erection and decoration of her main buildings. She has been the medium whereby artists have effected sales during the last seven exhibitions to the extent of three million lire. For British artists, hitherto a very small section of the whole, she has obtained recognition in the shape of many decorations granted to them; her King and Queen have purchased no fewer than fifteen British pictures; Venice, for its modern Art Gallery, has acquired twen

ty-seven, and many others have passed into municipal and private collections in Italy.

But having labored so hard to secure this fruition she now naturally feels herself in a position to dictate her terms to those who wish to participate in her success. Hitherto she has admitted to a place on the walls of her Exhibition buildings the work of all nations, but now she finds even the thirty-seven galleries insufficient for the needs of the kingdom of Italy and certain privileged artists who on each occasion she invites to fill galleries with their productions. Many countries foreseeing this have been quick to recognize the importance of acquiring permanent habitations of their own, and the Governments of Belgium, Hungary, and Bavaria, countries where Art is just now in a very vital condition, have secured and built for themselves suites of galleries which their artists have been glad to decorate most sumptuously. The Government of France and probably Germany will at the next Exhibition be also the possessors of their own buildings.

Such being the condition of affairs, the authorities at the close of the last Exhibition felt themselves, in fairness to other nations, unable to extend any longer to Great Britain hospitality on any such extended scale as her Art demanded, and an intimation was conveyed to those who then represented her that steps must be taken to provide a locale of their own. At the same time a building, in what is undoubtedly the best situation in the gardens, was offered to them for the sum of 29001.

The task of providing this sum, and the further amount necessary to furnish and decorate the interior and instal a fitting collection of pictures, should not have been a difficult one, but it proved to be so, and it was only at the last moment, through the liber

ality of Sir David Salomons, who came forward and offered to find a sum sufficient to secure the building in perpetuity for the adequate representation of British Art, that Great Britain was not deprived of further participation in this all-important show.

Sir David Salomons gave as his reasons for making the gift that

English artists should not be placed in a worse position than foreign artists at such an important International Exhibition.

They might extend their means of becoming known and earning their livelihood.

Their Art might be improved by competition of a healthy character.

Other contributors provided a further sum of 500l., which enabled the Committee to decorate and furnish the interior of the building in a measure, not of course comparable with that of buildings which rely on Government aid, but sufficient to present a quiet and dignified setting to the 150 pictures by which our artists are now represented, and also to pay the expenses of supervision and upkeep during the present Exhibition.

The complete success of any undertaking of this kind cannot be assured without much being done for the artist. He is too often indisposed (perhaps by the nature of his profession) to combine, in any matter requiring much expenditure of time or trouble. The Venetian authorities, aware of this artistic trait, doubtless owe much of their success to its recognition. For in contrast to the treatment of the artist elsewhere (in Great Britain, for instance, where he has to deliver his picture unpacked at the Exhibition doors, or in France, where at the Salon a stranger has to pay ten francs before he can get his picture as far as submission to the jury) they have arranged that, in the case of a picture

for Venice, it is fetched, packed, sent thither, and returned to the studio without one pennyworth's expense to the artist, even though he may reside at the furthermost point of the British Isles. Of this considerable expense the Venetian Municipality bears 75 per cent., the remainder being defrayed by the British Committee. In fact, the only tax imposed on the artist is one of 5 per cent. if he sells his picture. More than this: In case the artist should wish to visit the Exhibition he is furnished with a voucher, which enables him to obtain a rebate of from 40 per cent. to 60 per cent. on Italian railways, not only on his journey to and from Venice, but wherever he may wish to travel in Italy during the continuance of the Exhibition."

To secure these benefits for the artist and organize the English section has entailed an amount of work and expense for the British Committee that can hardly be expected to be renewed. with each recurring Exhibition. Fortunately, since the task was entered upon, the English Government has determined to interest itself in the exhibition abroad of Great Britain's arts and industries, and has founded a Department under the Board of Trade for that purpose. Italy, curiously enough, will be the first country over two of whose Exhibitions this ægis has been cast. It would seem proper, therefore, that to Rome and Turin should be added Venice, where British Art could be very materially assisted in the future at a very small expenditure to the nation, now that the preliminary outlay has been met out of private purses. Great Britain would then fall into line with other countries, whose sections are all under governmental control.

As no account of any fulness has appeared in any of the English news

2 An appeal by the Venetians to our railway companies to grant a similar advantage met with a polite refusal.

sheets as to the Exhibition itself, it may be of interest in conclusion to say a few words, not of criticism, but merely of description, to show its cosmopolitan character, its completeness as representing European Art of today, and its value as an educational factor for artists all the world over.

The main Palace consists of thirtyseven galleries of varying dimensions, the visitor entering through two large halls, the first the Salon of the Cupola, domed and with decorations just completed of the most sumptuous kind from the brush of Galileo Chiri, an Italian artist of much repute. The whole of this gallery is furnished with hangings of magnificent Genoese velvet, made in Venice. Passing on we come to a fine, well-proportioned hall, which forms a cool and quiet lounge. It is decorated with frescoes, the gift of the King of Italy, by Aristide Sartorio, an artist whose work is well known in England, and who is now engaged on a colossal frieze for the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. What are known as the "International Galleries" open out on either side of this and contain works by artists of various countries, who are practically hors concours. Italian pictures are for the most part separated in rooms according to the schools they represent, and we find chambers assigned to the artists of Rome, Piedmont, Naples and Venice. But the most interesting feature is the "one man" shows, where selected artists have each a room placed at their disposition for the exhibition of some fifty canvases. The artists selected this year for this distinction are the well-known Frenchman, Paul Albert Besnard; Anders Zorn and Peter Kroyer, Scandinavians; and Franz Stuck, now the most sought after painter in Germany, who combines the idealism of Boechlin and Klinger with the realism of Max Liebermann, and whose thirty-one pictures are appraised

by their owners (for they are for the most part loans) at some 60,000l. Besides these we have galleries assigned to native artists from all parts of Italy, some living, some deceased; amongst these may be named Camillo Innocenti (who recently exhibited in London), Jerace the sculptor, Tallone, Tito and Ciardi (foremost among Venetian artists), Bergler (a Sicilian), as well as Passini, Fattori, and Cairati, who have all passed away. The distinction of a "one man" show is now a much sought for honor by Italian artists. The only nationality that still has a place to itself in the main Palace is America, a gallery being placed at the disposal of a collection organized by the National Academy of Design, New York, and a smaller room to American artists resident in Paris.

Flanking the Palace on either side are the handsome pavilions of Hungary and Belgium, and further afield those of Great Britain and Bavaria. Our pavilion stands on an eminence approached by a broad avenue of planes. The galleries are five in number, three of which are occupied by oil-paintings, one by water-colors, and one by black and white.

The collection selected by a committee in England consisting of Sir George Frampton, R. A., Frank Brangwyn, A. R. A., and Grosvenor Thomas may be termed unacademic in character, with a Scottish flavoring, but is remarkable for the high level of attainment, for the absence of eccentricities which so frequently mar the exhibits of other nations, and for the reserve of power it suggests. Every picture is spaced and hung on the line. "Un grand succès" was the verdict unhesitatingly given by the authorities at the opening, and this has been endorsed by the Commission appointed to acquire pictures for the National Gallery of Italy selecting as its first choice an English picture. It was the only pic

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ture by a foreign artist that was purchased, and it was chosen even before any by native artists. The canvas in question was Polymnia, by Lavery, which many will remember having seen at the Franco-British show. Besides this, almost all the exhibits of porcelain were acquired for the National Museum of Industrial Art. A word more. One Englishman's name is still on everyone's lips who visits Venice. Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Browning, and Dickens, not to mention other immortals, have been moved to pour out impassioned language concerning the beauties of the Queen of the Adriatic, but their most ardent speech leaves one unmoved when compared with the burning words of Ruskin, who lavished all the best of his marvellous diction in his determination to make the world appreciate those glories of Art that the city he loved SO well contained. His The Nineteenth Century and After.

teachings may in these revolutionary days be questioned and his preaching combated, but he still magnetizes the most lukewarm tourist and compels him to 'study what he would otherwise pass by. Englishmen wonder that Venice, for whose pre-eminence he labored so long, has raised no monument in testimony of the debt she owes him. Maybe she considers that an imperishable one exists in the words that he has written concerning every palace, church, picture, and stone of any worth in her city. But Venetian memorials apart, should not Englishmen place somewhere their tribute to the debt they, too, owe to their great countryman, who has enabled them to enter into the heart and soul of Venice, and where better could they erect it than on the one spot in Venice over which Great Britain's flag may be flown, namely, the British Pavilion in the Giardini Pubblici?

Marcus B. Huish.

XXIII.

And now the men of the war party were possessed by demons. Those among them who in the old days had "bathed them in the bullets and the smoke"-as the Malay phrase has itfelt youth, fierce and reckless, revive within them, the youth which they had thought had been for ever taken from them. The young men saw in the bloody doing of this night a materialization of a thousand dreams. One and all were beside themselves with an intoxication of excitement, so masterless and savage that its effects resembled those of a demoniacal possession.

A group of youngsters, close to Saleh were dancing and yelling around the bodies of three half-naked Sikhs, plung

ing their daggers into them near the region of the heart, and licking the blades with howls and outcries. This, which is the last trace of pre-historic cannibalism that still lingers among the Malays, is analogous to the practice of blooding a boy at the death of his first fox; but the sight caused in Saleh a keen revulsion of feeling. What were the unknown, savage forces which he had unwittingly let loose? how should he curb them? whither would they lead him?

There was no question of governing them now, for the war party was beyond all human power of control. Half a dozen of the older and saner men grouped themselves about Saleh, at the bidding of Raja Pahlawan, for a Malayan raja of his rank is not suffered

to take a personal part in battle, and then the mob of scallywags rushed headlong down the village street. Saleh stormed and shouted, commanded them to hold their hands, would have thrown himself before them in his impotent desire to restrain them, but those about him clung to him with respectful vigor and would not let him go. For the rest he spoke and shouted to deaf ears. In a moment the hounds of war, which so long had slept in Pelesu, were let loose upon the Chinese shops. The gambling and opium farm, the biggest building in the place, was stormed and looted in an instant; the other shops were pillaged and plundered without mercy; Saleh saw men, ay, and even little male children, struck down ruthlessly while they pleaded and grovelled for mercy. They were infidels, these Chinese, and this was a Jehad, a Holy War, in which infidel women might be carried away into bondage, but the males of the accursed people must be exterminated with a biblical completeness. In an hour the prosperous little settlement was a ruin; in an hour and a half it was a bonfire; before the dawn it was an unsightly cinder. The money in the Government treasury was secured by Râja Pahlawan, who knew that the sinews of war would be required; and an hour after daybreak the war party, its numbers swelling every moment by young recruits from the neighboring villages, melted once more into the forest.

Saleh knew that his boats had been burned. He was the nominal leader of this band of outlaws, and he had no alternative but to go with them. For the future, he realized, his lot must be shared with them, but once again there was a bitter disillusionment in his heart. It had all been so different to anything which he had conceived, imagined. From the point of view of Raja Pahlawan the attack had been most eminently successful. There

had been some slaughter and much loot; the young men had been blooded; the whole force would derive a fortifying confidence from that night's work; it was a fateful beginning of an epochmaking war, such as proved that Allah and his Prophet were on the side of the Children of Islâm. But to Saleh, this, his latest experience, was fraught with woful disappointment. It had held nothing that was uplifting or inspiring; it had called for the display of no valor; it had excited no emotions that were not mean, squalid, and brutal. It had not been fighting, as he had pictured it to himself in imagination. It had begun with the treacherous murder of five-and-twenty Sikhs, which had been followed by unspeakable rites performed over their corpses; by the indiscriminate and cowardly slaughter of a hundred defenceless Chinese; by the lawless looting of private and public property, and now the assailants were sneaking off into the forest like the blood-stained thieves they were. The Past, looked at through the glamor of romance,-the fierce unfettered Past of a thousand stories, had appealed to him with a wonderful force: now that it had been revived and had been made actual in the Present, it filled him with horror, disgust, and shame. Indeed, indeed the English had robbed him of many things.

XXIV.

Now it so happens to my countrymen, in the East and out of it, that the very last thing they expect is ordinarily the thing that happens. The Holy War, led by Tungku Muhammad Saleh, was one of these things. This meant that the Government in Pelesu was not in a position to take the offensive until several weeks had elapsed, and that the insurgents were given more law than was useful to anybody. Wilson came up river in his boat,