The managers of the Jubilee fete are not showing much
judgment. They have extended the route which her Majesty is to traverse in visiting Westminster Abbey, and thereby relieved the terrible congestion otherwise to be anticipated ; but they have advised the Queen to make the procession in semi-state, which will be a disappointment. Moreover, the Royal visitors, who will form a main attraction, are to drive to the Abbey by themselves, and will not be recognised by the crowds at all. If it is worth while to spend money and energy on a mere cere- monial, it is worth while to make it splendid, more especially in an age like the present, when the reverence for pageantry has disappeared without any diminution in the enjoyment of it. Indeed, we rather think the enjoyment has increased, the people understanding pictorial effects, and sympathising with them, much more than they did. A mere hint that the Queen would be pleased with a blaze of colour along the line of her route would fill every balcony and window with bright draperies, carpets, and china, and turn the morsel of London she is to traverse into a mighty drawing-room. What the residents along the route want is an excuse for an abandon which they wish to display, but which, being at once shy and self-conscious, they will be, without such an excuse, half ashamed of. "The Queen's wish" will cover them even in making their houses momentarily resplendent.
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