The idea of a Jubilee for children from the London
schools was a very kindly one, and does credit to its originator, the editor of the Daily Telegraph. It was very well carried out, too. Great ladies were induced to help, which means that the petty jealousies that stand in the way of success were smothered, out of deference to rank. The parties were thoroughly organised, and each child was carefully individualised by a ticket. That really was clever, not only because the risk of losing the child was minimised, but because the hundreds of bad mothers who would have carefully lost their children, either to be rid of them or to tell pathetic lies about them, were defeated. No less than 26,000 children were accordingly marched to Hyde Park and Regent's Park, spent a day in the open air, ate huge quantities of pies and buns, saw the Queen, mobbed the Prince and Princess of Wales, received 42,000 presents, and marched home again, happier, let us hope, but, at all events, without disaster or visible failure in the arrangements. No doubt gregarious happiness is difficult to imagine, the babies were thick on the ground, and twenty-six parties of a thousand might have given more pleasure; but what help is there for that ? London cannot be reduced in size, twenty-six days were not procurable, and the Jubilee required an expenditure very few individuals are disposed to incur without getting their own way in return. All was done that could be done, and done with kindness, and we do not see why Mr. Lawson, who suggested and partly paid for the treat, should be either sneered at or bespattered with praise. As far as the bigness of a thing is noticeable, the children's feast at Man- chester was three times as big.
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