16 MARCH 1901, Page 3

On Tuesday Lord Rosebery opened the first exhibition of the

new Whitechapel Art Gallery,—erected at a cost of £15,000 by public subscription. After a feeling reference to the admirable exertions of Canon and Mrs. Barnett, whose absence owing to a domestic bereavement they so deeply deplored, Lord Rosebery recalled the fact that twenty years ago he had opened the first of these annual exhibitions. Lord Rosebery created great amusement by mentioning that a Scotch paper had on that occasion reported him SA saying that you must not expect that a rough will become civilised by the mere contemplation of a Era Diavolo, instead, of course, of a Era Angelico.