truly than did the Englishmen who against recourse to arms. The Arbitracontinued year after year the conflict tion Treaty, whether it pass through with the colonies, is certain, but Ameri- the Senate or not, is still a sign of the can patriotism need not hesitate to al- influence exerted by the friends of low that the sentiments which actuated peace. The approval of such a treaty the northern states of America during by the ministers of the queen and of the War of Secession were not alto- the president is of itself a declaration gether unlike the sentiments which ac- that the moral feeling of the whole Entuated Englishmen and their king dur- glish people condemns armed conflict ing the War of Independence. In En- between England and the United gland, on the other hand, we can now States much as it would condemn a see that the American colonies pursued civil war. By a singularly happy cointhe path dictated to them both by duty cidence the leaders of every party in and by expediency. Separation of one England have given pledges of friendkind or another was inevitable, and in liness towards America. The treaty many ways it was well for both counwhich closed every question connected tries that separation was not much with the ill-starred Alabama was the longer delayed. But patriots on both work of a Liberal ministry, but was carsides the Atlantic may legitimately re- ried through with the aid of a leading gret the terms on which the separation Conservative statesman. The last two took place; and even as things stand the references to arbitration have been needless war of 1813 must be to any sanctioned by the whole nation, and Englishman a more reasonable sub- the attempt, whether it succeed at the ject for regret than the inevitable con- moment or not, to form a permanent test between the mother country and arbitration court, will remain one of the colonies. Let us further note that Lord Salisbury's lasting claims to the despite the displays of unfriendliness gratitude of his country. Look at the which have recently startled English- matter from whichever side you will, men, the permanent tendency of events and it will become plain to a reasonable is clearly in favor of the maintenance and calm observer that the permanent of peace between England and Amer- set of events tends strongly towards ica. Any one will see that this is so peace. who calmly surveys the thirty years and more which have elapsed since the close of the War of Secession. On three successive occasions the governments of England and of America have, with the full approval of their people, referred national disputes to arbitration. If the transactions with regard to Venezuela have an ugly aspect, they still, if their effect is to be fairly understood, must be looked at as a whole. Now, when President Cleveland's language seemed, whatever its intention, to threaten war, it soon became apparent to the most bellicose of politicians that the moral sentiment of the United States no less than of England was offended by the idea of an appeal to arms. There is no need to underrate the hostile feeling of some considerable number of Americans; but it is of great importance not to underrate the weight of the protest

Nor is it possible to omit one circumstance which specially favors the attempt to form a civil union of the whole English race. The personal character, no less than the political action of the queen throughout her reign, has in every part of the United States surrounded the name of Victoria with popularity, with respect, and, one might almost say, with reverence. To us in England, used as we have been during the last sixty years to the perfectly smooth working of constitutional government, the private character of the sovereign seems, erroneously I believe, to be a matter of little public moment. Amongst Americans there prevails a different, and probably a truer, notion. They attach, at any rate, great value to the display of domestic virtues in high places. Americans, too, believe, and not without reason, that the queen rendered to the United

a

was an

States a service of inestimable value at of the future. Under the federal rethe very crisis of their fortunes. The public of America an attempt has been modifications suggested by Prince Al- made to develop the popular and dembert, and insisted upon by the queen in ocratic side of English ideas, and, the language of the despatches de- above all, to form a society which manding the surrender of Sliddell and should be free from all the political and Mason, were all intended to save the moral confusions originating in feudaldignity of the republic. They certainly ism. That English constitutionalism facilitated the yielding to demands or that English republicanism will which, though just, would otherwise ultimately turn out a complete success have been made in a too imperious is more than any prophet will have the tone. Whoever realizes the immediate boldness to predict. It is well, howresults in 1861 of a war between En- ever, that both the experiment of degland and America will feel that both veloping English ideas on conservative countries owe much to the intervention lines and the experiment of developing of the crown, and that it is right that the same ideas on democratic lines Americans should feel, as they un- should be tried. For a fair trial of doubtedly do feel, the greatness of their each experiment the political indepenobligation to the queen. Isopolity, it is dence of the United States certain, could hardly be proclaimed essential condition, but, as I have alunder happier auspices than under the ready insisted, the political indepenreign of Queen Victoria, and the union dence of America, as of England, is in of the two branches of the English peo- no way affected by my proposal. The ple in the bonds of common citizen- evils of a separation which was necesship would be far more difficult if the sary, and even beneficial, were first the occupant of the English throne should temporary hostility of kindred peoples ever happen to be a sovereign who had meant to live on terms of friendliness, no special claims on American regard. and next the dissolution of a common citizenship which ought to have been carefully preserved. These evils would be removed by a system of isopolity which would depend for its very existence on the permanence of peace, and would make every member of the English people a citizen of every country belonging to any branch of the English people. Nor are the ideas which underlie the proposal for a common citizenship in reality novel. No sooner was the war between England and her colonies over than even the men who had struggled most manfully or most obsti nately to maintain English sovereignty, perceived that political severance ought to be counteracted by a new moral unity. Let Englishmen of to-day read with care the words of George III. addressed to the first representative of the United States accredited to the crown. It is the most striking king's speech on record:

The word "union" is, indeed, hardly the right description of a policy which aims not so much at the union as to the reunion of the English people. Its object is nothing less than to preserve all the good and to undo all the evil which has flowed from the severance between England and her colonies. The na tional independence of the United States has been a benefit to mankind. It is well that the two divisions of the English people should have developed English ideas of good government in two different forms. Under the constitutional monarchy of England we have retained the conservative aspect of English institutions; we have shown that it is possible that ancient forms may be so developed and modified as to suit modern times, and that much of what is good in obsolete institutions may be quietly carried over to a new society which meets the wants of to-day, and may, it is to be hoped, meet the wants

1 See Martin's "Life of the Prince Consort," pp. 421-426.

I was the last [said George III.] to consent to the separation; but the separation having been made, and having become in

evitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power. The moment I see such sentiments and language as yours prevail, and a disposition to give to this country the preference, that moment I shall say, let the circumstances of language, religion, and blood have their natural and full effect.

A. V. DICEY.

its ultimate form. But one kind of interest the British public do seem to feel in regard to painters, an interest analogous to that which they feel in regard to royal personages. The publicity of the exhibition catalogue, like that of the court circular, gives to those whose names are mentioned in it a position of notoriety, unaccompanied by any further information about them, which piques the many-headed curiosity. The dear public would like to know what the artist eats and drinks, whether he swears at his models, how From The Edinburgh Review. his house is furnished, and any other PAINTERS BEHIND THE SCENES.1 details they can get at about his private There was perhaps never any pe- life. Hence the popularity, in second-rate riod when attendance at picture exhi- magazines, of "illustrated interviews" bitions was so fashionable an amuse- with artists, with photographs of their ment as it is in the present day. Pri- dining-room, drawing-room, and studio, vate views of exhibitions, large and the latter probably introducing the figsmall, keep recurring in London all the ure of the artist "at work on his celeyear round, except during the dead sea- brated picture," etc. Hence the publison of autumn, and are always cation, on thick paper and with large crowded; and if we may say of one margins, of somebody's record of his half at least of the large private-view doings "In Bohemia with Du Maurier," audiences, "veniunt spectentur ut in which the practical jokes of the aripsæ," it must be admitted that at the tist and his comrades, the nicknames Royal Academy, the specially hall- they called each other, and the caricamarked emporium of Art, the attend- tures they drew of each other, are solance during the first two or three emnly put on record. The fun, if not weeks of the paying days are as large very refined, was innocent enough in itas those at the private view. To the self; the crime lies in publishing it. majority of these visitors the painters Hence, again, the publication of the of the works which they crowd to "Reminiscences" of living artists, which look at year after year are but appear to be SO certain of a sale names in the catalogue; nor do that one can only praise the reticence they ever care, so far as one can and self-denial of those popular judge, to learn what was behind artists who have not made use the production of this or that picture, of this contrivance for capturing what was its motive in the mind of the artist, what were the difficulties he had to contend with in bringing it into

the pence of the public. The literary or artistic value of the reminis cences may be infinitesimal-that is of no consequence; the people have been in the habit of seeing an artist's pictures on the walls for many years, and they want their curiosity gratified by hearing him talk, no matter how or on what subject.

For those who take their pictures more seriously, and in respect of those pictures which can be taken seriously, there is an interest of another kind in knowing something about the painter, his turn of mind, his manner of re

sense, the autobiography of Mr. Frith, which some ten years ago became, not undeservedly, in a sense, the book of the season; not undeservedly, for it is well written and contains 1 great deal that is really amusing and interesting; a great many much finer artists could not have produced half so readable a book. But we refer to it here as a salient example or confession of that mere superficial and business view of painting to which we have referred. Mr. Frith's frankness is amusing, almost cynical. He laughs at the whole thing, and at himself into the bargain. He seems to have been perfectly conscious that he had no serious aim in painting, and content that every one should know it; he almost writes himself down a humbug. His election as associate of the Academy seems to have been a kind of “fluke,” and surprised no one more than himself-or so he gives us to understand. Even the curiously scrambling course of instruction at the atelier of the eccentric Mr. Sass bored him; "perspective bewildered me, and to this day I "know little or nothing about that dreadful science, and anatomy and I parted after a very short and early acquaintance;” and he goes on to say that in the kind of art he has practised very little anatomy is required, a dictum which can only be accepted in a sense which the author of the observation would probably find rather objectionable. A few pages further on, indeed, in the course of some sensible remarks in regard to the "well-meaning objectors" to female models, observing that many artists draw every figure

garding nature and art, and more especially the circumstances which led him to treat any particular subject, and his own feeling with regard to it. It is true that the pursuit of this investigation may lead to a painful amount of what is called disillusion; to know too much of what is behind a picture does not always tend to raise one's intellectual estimate of painting and painters. It is curious to find sometimes (in the case of landscape especially), in reference perhaps to a picture which seems to have a good deal of poetic feeling in it, how very matter-of-fact a business it has been to the painter of it, and that what has been to the outsider an appeal to his sentiment has been to the artist an experiment in the use of pigments to produce a certain effect; curious to think that a work, into the making of which no sentiment has gone, can evoke sentiment; but it certainly is so in many cases. It is strange, again, to find how very poor an order of intellectual perception in other respects may co-exist with the power to produce pictures which have high intellectual interest, as if the painter's intellect went all into the picture and found expression in no other way.' In short, there is a great deal of hollowness in the pretensions often set up as to the high claims of the artist on society, and his position as a kind of superior being. A great deal of the painting of the day is really only a kind of busness, requiring more adroitness, painstaking, and application (let that always be admitted) than most other businesses. There are painters no doubt, some living and some whose biographies are before us, to whom painting was an art to be gone into in a serious spirit and with high aims. There are some, on the other hand, to whom it from much more distinguished artists that they seems to be a kind of joke, wherewith they amuse themselves and mystify or befool the public.

We are not going at this date, of course, to review, in the ordinary

1 This, as every one knows, may be said with equal or even greater truth about musicians. Some of the greatest composers have been men of very little intellectual culture.

2 He is perhaps in better company than he is aware of here. We have heard the confession

could not tell how to put a building in perspective; one very eminent artist admitted that he had to get a model made of the interior of a columned temple before he could tell how to get the columns in their right place; yet it is a very simple matter, much easier than foreshortening an arm. Perspective, in fact, is a science; foreshortening is an art. If painters do not understand perspective, it is only because they have not taken the trouble, as any one can learn it even without being an artist.