n, is that for which you ask
two hundred guineas!"

"No;--I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime." (_Applause._)

"You have been told that your pictures exhibit some eccentricities?"

"Yes; often." (_Laughter._)

"You send them to the galleries to incite the admiration of the
public?"

"That would be such vast absurdity on my part, that I don't think I
could." (_Laughter._)

"You know that many critics entirely disagree with your views as to
these pictures?"

"It would be beyond me to agree with the critics."

"You don't approve of criticism then?"

"I should not disapprove in any way of technical criticism by a man
whose whole life is passed in the practice of the science which he
criticises; but for the opinion of a man whose life is not so passed I
would have as little regard as you would, if he expressed an opinion
on law."

"You expect to be criticised?"

"Yes; certainly. And I do not expect to be affected by it, until
it becomes a case of this kind. It is not only when criticism is
inimical that I object to it, but also when it is incompetent. I hold
that none but an artist can be a competent critic."

"You put your pictures upon the garden wall, Mr. Whistler, or hang
them on the clothes line, don't you--to mellow?"

"I do not understand."

"Do you not put your paintings out into the garden?"

"Oh! I understand now. I thought, at first, that you were perhaps
again using a term that you are accustomed to yourself. Yes; I
certainly do put the canvases into the garden that they may dry in the
open air while I am painting, but I should be sorry to see them
'mellowed.'"

"Why do you call Mr. Irving 'an arrangement in black'?" (_Laughter._)

Mr. BARON HUDDLESTON: "It is the picture and not Mr. Irving that is
the arrangement."

A discussion ensued as to the inspection of the pictures, and
incidentally Baron Huddleston remarked that a critic must be competent
to form an opinion, and bold enough to express that opinion in strong
terms if necessary.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL complained that no answer was given to a
written application by the defendant's solicitors for leave to inspect
the pictures which the plaintiff had been called upon to produce at
the trial. The WITNESS replied that Mr. Arthur Severn had been to his
studio to inspect the paintings, on behalf of the defendant, for the
purpose of passing his final judgment upon them and settling that
question for ever.

Cross-examination continu