The efforts made by the Navy League to secure the
public. commemoration of Trafalgar Day have this year met with a great success. The League obtained leave from the Office of Works to decorate the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, and did so in a manner both striking and original. By employing steeplejacks and extension ladders they twined a, gigantic wreath of laurel round the shaft of the monument. The result was very pretty, and it is not too much to say that no more effective decoration of a public monument was ever achieved. Seen from the sides, the effect was a little marred by two pendant cables of laurel, but these were neces- sary to hide the ladders, which had to be left in posi- tion. At the base of the column were placed a number of wreaths. The huge crowd which watched all day in the Square showed itself eager and interested, and as it was con- stantly changing, owing to the arrival of new-comers and the departure of others, many thousands of men and women must have seen the decorations on the Wednesday. Since, too, they are to remain in place till Monday, they will probably have been seen by half a million people before they are taken down. We have expressed elsewhere our satisfaction that Trafalgar Day should have been so eagerly adopted as a national anniversary. It may be made to remind people that our safety, indeed our existence as a nation, hangs upon what we gained at Trafalgar,—the command of the sea. It is needless to say that the celebration involved no ill-feeling towards France.
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