When will the English get rid of their notion that
to enjoy an " outing," people must be collected in such crowds that they have no space to move, that means of conveyance fail, and that feeding is a matter for commissary-generals P Some kind people have induced the Archbishop of Canterbury to lend his gardens at Lambeth for a treat to Sunday-school children, and have accordingly asked 20,000 of them on July 3rd. They will -converge on the gardens from all quarters, but they must all return from a single centre, and the means of conveyance will inevitably break down. They must, as " A London Vicar " points out, be eight hours on foot, it will be most difficult to give them anything to drink, and to save the gardens from de- struction the regulations must be most strict. Indeed, we are told the unhappy children, most of them girls from twelve to fifteen, must perforce be directed, when they have arrived, to stay as much as possible in their assigned places till the "march past," when they are all to keep step and turn their eyes one way. What is the idea of so absurd a treat? The enjoyment of the children P They would have ten times as much enjoyment if sent in twenty directions to twenty places. Or the glorification of the teachers P They would be much more glorified, if the Archbishop would give them a picnic and a speech. There is sure to be a cata- strophe of some sort, with such unmanageable crowds of tired babies ; and Dr. Tait, who is kindness itself, will never forgive himself for his permission.
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