During the week the main part of the Fleet has
been lying in the Thames, stretching from the Nore to Westminster, and has been "at home" to the people of London. It is a curious fact that the Fleet has never visited London before in this way. Every one has been surprised at the extraordinary interest it has aroused. It is an experiment well worth repeating, for the ordinary Englishman sees little or nothing of the Navy, although it is the first line of defence. He is bound to take a new kind of interest in it if he can occasionally see sub- marines and torpedo-boats in the heart of London. On Tuesday the Lord Mayor visited the Fleet at Southend; on Wednesday twelve hundred men and forty officers marched through the City and were entertained at the Guildball ; and on Thursday the Lord Mayor entertained many officers at luncheon. There is only one possible danger in these events, and that is lest the spectacle of all these ships, in fine trim and splendidly manned, should be taken for a guarantee that all must necessarily be well with the Navy. The state of these particular ships, of course, does not touch any of the questions about which critics of the present Board of Admiralty have ierious misgivings.
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