THE EXPEDITION--PROBLEMS AHEAD
On the ocean no post brings us letters which we are compelled to
answer. No newspaper tempts us into reading the last night's debate
in Parliament. The absence of distracting incidents, the sameness
of the scene, and the uniformity of life on board ship, leave us
leisure for reflection; we are thrown in upon our own thoughts, and
can make up our accounts with our consciences.--FROUDE.
Miss Nightingale and her party left London on Saturday, October 21.
Among those who saw them off was her cousin, Arthur Hugh Clough. The
principal halts were made in Paris and Marseilles. At Paris, Miss
Nightingale had hoped to recruit some Sisters for nursing service. She
went to the headquarters of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul, furnished
with letters from the British Government and the French military
authorities, and accompanied by the British Ambassador's private
secretary in order to strengthen her application; but it was
refused.[77] At Marseilles, with what turned out to be admirable
forethought, she laid in a large store of miscellaneous provisions. Her
uncle, Mr. Sam Smith, accompanied the party to Marseilles, and from his
letters we obtain vivid glimpses of the expedition _en route_:--
"Kindly received everywhere," he wrote (Oct. 26), "by French and
English. Still it was very hard work for Flo to keep 40 in good
humour; arranging the rooms of 5 different sects each night, before
sitting down to supper, took a long time; then calling all to be
down at 6 ready to start. She bears all wonderfully--so calm,
winning everybody, French and English."
[77] Letter to Captain Galton, May 5, 1863.
A correspondent wrote to the _Times_ from Boulogne, describing how the
arrival of the party there caused so much enthusiasm, that the sturdy
fisherwomen seized their bags and carried them to the hotel, refusing to
accept the slightest gratuity; how the landlord of the hotel gave them
dinner, and told them to order what they liked, adding that they would
not be allowed to pay for anything; and how waiters and chambermaids
were equally firm in refusing any acknowledgment for their attentions.
Lady Verney, in a letter to a friend, acutely noted a yet more
remarkable thing, "the railroad would not be paid for her boxes."
At Marseilles the expedition excited lively interest, and its Chief was
overwhelmed with attentions:--
"Where she was seen or heard," wrote the proud uncle, "there was
nothing but admiration from high and low. Her calm dignity
influenced everybody. I am sure the nurses quite love her already.
Some cried when she exhorted them at the last, and all promised
well. Blessings on her! She makes everybody who joins with her feel
the good and like it (instead of disposing them against it, as some
well-meaning oppositious spirits do)."
And again in another letter:--
Words cannot tell Mrs. Bracebridge's devotion to Flo, nor Flo's to
the cause. Neither sat down but for a hurried meal. Shopkeepers,
visitors, nurses, servants, every single instant. Flo never crossed
the threshold. There she was, receiving in her little bedroom (not
at bedtime) the Inspector-General, the Consul and Agent, a Queen's
Messenger, _Times_ Correspondent, and two or three shopkeepers with
the same serenity as if in a drawing-room quite _dés[oe]uvrée_. Her
influence on all (to captain and steward of boat) was wonderful.
The rough hospital nurses, on the third day after breakfasting and
dining with us each day, and receiving all her attentions, were
quite humanized and civilized, their very manners at table
softened. "We never had so much care taken of our comforts before;
it is not people's way with _us_; we had no notion Miss N. would
slave herself so for us." She looked so calm and noble in it all,
whether waiting on the nurses at dinner in the station (because no
one else would), or carrying parcels, or receiving functionaries.
The Bracebridges are fuller than ever of admiration of her, as I
am. She looked better and handsomer than even the day she sailed. I
went back with the literary public of Marseilles, all full of
admiration. It was very doleful sitting in Flo's deserted room.
She sailed from Marseilles on board the _Vectis_ on Friday, October 27,
loudly cheered from an English vessel in the harbour, carrying with her,
as a friend had written, "the deep prayers and gratitude of the English
people."
II
From the moment when public announcement of her mission was made, she
had, indeed, become a popular heroine. Though well known in Society, she
had been as yet a stranger to public fame; so much so that the _Times_
itself, in printing the announcement (Oct. 19), said: "We are authorised
to state that Mrs. Nightingale," etc. Delane cannot have kept his eye on
the news-columns, for not until some days had elapsed was it discovered
to the public that "Mrs." Nightingale was in fact "Miss." "Who is 'Mrs.'
Nightingale?" was a heading in the _Examiner_ (Oct. 28), and the
question was answered in a biographical article. Some passages of it
deserve record here, for it went the round of the press throughout the
world, and was the source from which, from that day to this, the popular
idea of Florence Nightingale has been derived. The article stated
succinctly, and with substantial accuracy, the course of her life; dwelt
upon the facts that she was "young, graceful, feminine, rich, and
popular"; enlarged, with less accuracy, upon her delight in the
"palpable and heart-felt attractions" of her home; described her
forsaking the "assemblies, lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and all the
entertainments for taste and intellect with which London in its season
abounds," in order to sit beside the sick and dying; and concluded thus:
She had set out for the scene of war
... at the risk of her own life, at the pang of separation from all
her friends and family, and at the certainty of encountering
hardship, dangers, toils, and the constantly renewing scene of
human suffering, amid all the worst horrors of war. There are few
who would not recoil from such realities, but Miss Nightingale
shrank not, and at once accepted the request that was made her to
form and control the entire nursing establishment for all sick and
wounded soldiers and sailors in the Levant. While we write, this
deliberate, sensitive, and highly-endowed young lady is already at
her post, rendering the holiest of women's charities to the sick,
the dying, and the convalescent. There is a heroism in dashing up
the heights of Alma in defiance of death and all mortal opposition,
and let all praise and honour be, as they are, bestowed upon it;
but there is a quiet forecasting heroism and largeness of heart in
this lady's resolute accumulation of the powers of consolation, and
her devoted application of them, which rank as high and are at
least as pure. A sage few will no doubt condemn, sneer at, or pity
an enthusiasm which to them seems eccentric, or at best misplaced;
but to the true heart of the country it will speak home, and be
there felt that there is not one of England's proudest and purest
daughters who at this moment stands on so high a pinnacle as
Florence Nightingale.
The discovery by the public that the head of the Nursing Expedition was
not "Mrs." Nightingale, a matron, but a young lady, "graceful, rich, and
popular," added to the enthusiasm which her devotion called forth. Her
services were rendered gratuitously; her necessary expenses were to be
defrayed by the Government, and officialdom opined that no voluntary
contributions, either in money or in kind, were needed. Happily for the
comfort of our soldiers in the East, private individuals took a
different view, and--in addition to the _Times_ Fund--donations were
sent to Miss Nightingale personally, both by her friends and by the
general public. An account rendered after her return[78] from the East
shows that from the general public she received nearly £7000 in money.
This fund, added to the help which she obtained from the _Times_, and
supplemented by expenditure out of her private purse, enabled Miss
Nightingale greatly to extend the scope of her work. The statement that
she was rich requires some qualification. Her father was rich, but the
personal allowance which he had made to her, when she declared her
independence in 1853, was £500 a year, and it remained at this figure
for several years. During her mission to the East she devoted the whole
of it to her work.
[78] The _Statement_ (see Bibliography A, No. 5).
Gifts in kind and offers of personal service also poured in. Now that
Miss Nightingale was at sea, the task of dealing with such matters was
undertaken by her sister and a friend. The Nightingale family had taken
a house for the time in Cavendish Square (No. 4), which became the
headquarters of a charitable bureau.
"I am well nigh writ out," wrote Lady Verney to Madame Mohl (Nov.
6), "170 letters to answer in the last fortnight, and very
difficult ones, some of them. I should like you to hear a batch of
the offers of all kinds we receive, some so pretty, some so queer.
Old linen is abating, I am happy to say; even knitted socks are
slacker; but nurses, rabble and respectable, ladies, and _very
much_ the reverse, continue to rain. It is tremendous; however,
having reached No. 276, we are going to shut the door. Mary Stanley
and I sit daily at the receipt of custom, and funny things do we
see and hear! Human nature is a wondrous work, whether of God
Almighty I sometimes begin to doubt."
It is worth noting, in view of an unfortunate dispute that presently
arose, that both Lady Verney and Miss Stanley distinctly understood that
additional nurses would only be sent "if Flo asks." All applicants were
so informed; but so keen was the desire to serve, that "many ladies," so
Lady Verney wrote, "are undergoing hospital training on chance."
III
Miss Nightingale, meanwhile, was at sea on her way to Constantinople,
revolving many things in her mind. She had been called to a mission upon
which issues very near to her heart depended. If it succeeded, then, as
Mr. Herbert had written to her, not only would an enormous amount of
good be done now to the sick and wounded, but "a prejudice would have
been broken through, and a precedent established, which would multiply
the good to all time." And so, as we all know, it was destined to be.
But at the time the fate of the experiment was doubtful. It was Mr.
Herbert's conviction that no one except Florence Nightingale could make
it succeed, but it was by no means certain that even she could do so.
She took in her hands the reputation of the Minister who trusted her,
and her own; and not her reputation only, but the hopes, the
aspirations, the ambitions which had ruled her life.
She determined to succeed, and she counted the difficulties which would
confront her. Writing two years later and giving account of her
stewardship, she paid her tribute of thanks to those "among the
officials, medical as well as military, to whose benevolence, ability,
and unselfish devotion to duty she was indebted for facilities, without
which, in a position such as hers, new to the service, and exposed to
much criticism and difficulty, she would have been utterly unable to
perform the work entrusted to her."[79] She saw from the start that she
would be exposed, in the very nature of the case, to some medical
jealousy and much military prejudice.
[79] _Statement_, pp. 3-4.
The idea of employing female nurses at Scutari had been mooted before
the army left for the East, but was abandoned, as the Duke of Newcastle
explained, because "it was not liked by the military authorities."[80]
Of the military prejudice against the intrusion of women, even for the
gentle office of nursing, into the rough work of war, some entertaining
illustrations are happily on record. Lieutenant-Colonel Sterling,
afterwards Sir Anthony Sterling, K.C.B., was on active service during
the Crimean campaign, first as brigade-major, and afterwards as
assistant adjutant-general to the Highland division. He was an elder
brother of Carlyle's John Sterling, and himself possessed of some
literary skill. "A solid, substantial man," Carlyle calls him; he was
also a man who loved to stand by the ancient ways. He wrote a series of
lively letters during the campaign, and in his will directed that they
should be published. Nowhere, so clearly as in Sterling's _Highland
Brigade in the Crimea_, have I found contemporary evidence of the
prejudices against which the experiment of Mr. Herbert and Miss
Nightingale had to contend. During Miss Nightingale's visit to Balaclava
in 1855, some dispute arose among the nurses. "Miss---- has added
herself," wrote Colonel Sterling, "to the hospital of the 42nd; and will
not acknowledge the voice of the Nightingale, who has written an
official letter to Lord Raglan on the subject. I suppose he will order a
court-martial composed of nurses, who will administer queer justice."
Our Colonel is something of a wag. He cannot help laughing at "the
Nightingale," because, as he explains, he has such "a keen sense of the
ridiculous." He is so pleased with his quip about the female
court-martial that he returns to it in another letter. He is tickled,
too, by a saying of the mess-room, that "Miss Nightingale has shaved her
head to keep out vermin." One can almost hear the honest Colonel's
guffaw as he wonders whether "she will wear a wig or a helmet?" Women,
he supposes, imagine that "war can be made without wounds"; they will be
teaching us how to fight next; and as for their ideas of nursing, why
some of the ladies actually took to "scrubbing floors"! It amused him,
but angered him no less. He has to admit that he believes "the
Nightingale" has been of some use; but he bitterly resents her "capture"
of orderlies for mere purposes of nursing, and when he is asked, "When
will she go home?" answers with Christopher Sly, "Would it were done."
"However," he writes, "---- (presumably Sidney Herbert) is gone; and I
hope there is not to be found another Minister who will allow these
absurdities." Miss Nightingale read Sir Anthony's book when it came out
in 1895, and made some severe _marginalia_ upon it; remarking upon his
"absolute ignorance of sanitary things," noting the "misprints as a fair
index to the whole," and finally dismissing the book as "one long string
of Seniority complaints." But I protest that she need not have been so
angry. And, indeed, perhaps she was not so angry as she seemed, for her
caustic pen was not always a true index of her mind. For my part I take
my hat off to Sir Anthony Absolute. His honest, old-fashioned outbursts
let in a flood of light upon one side of the difficulties which were to
confront Miss Nightingale upon landing at Scutari.
[80] _Roebuck Committee, Q_. 14625.
She pondered much also upon the possibilities of friction with the
medical officers; and here, too, our Colonel has some light to give us.
"The Chief Medical Officer out here," he wrote, "ought to have been
intrusted with Nightingale powers." The Service in all its branches
stuck together, it will be seen, and no blame to it for that! But if a
fighting colonel smarted under what he deemed a slight upon an army
medical officer, how much more might the Medical Service itself be
expected to resent any encroachment upon its appointed province! How
keenly it did resent such encroachment may be gathered from the _Life
and Letters of Sir John Hall, M.D._, by Mr. Mitra, whose book supplies
us with the same kind of illustration in regard to the army doctors that
we may gather from Colonel Sterling's in regard to the soldiers. Sir
John, like Sir Anthony, thought the whole thing "very droll." He was
stationed in the Crimea, and we shall hear something of the strained
relations between him and Miss Nightingale, when we follow her thither.
But at Scutari also, there were some few medical officers who retained
even to the last a ridiculous jealousy of any "meddling" by Miss
Nightingale and her staff.[81] She foresaw this danger, and made up her
mind to avert it by every means in her power.
[81] _Pincoffs_, p. 79.
And there was a third danger which she foresaw also. Not only had she to
overcome military prejudice and to avert medical jealousy, but she had
also to prevent religious disputation. This last task was beyond her
powers, as it has ever proved beyond those of men, women, and angels;
for by this cause even the angels fell. No work, however beneficent, has
ever yet been found beyond the capacity of the _odium theologicum_ to
mar and embitter. Miss Nightingale's mission did not escape the common
lot, as we shall hear; but she was keenly sensible of the danger.
Miss Nightingale pondered over all these things as the ship sped on its
way to the Golden Horn; and the more she pondered, the more she was
driven to decide upon a course of action, very different from what many
people supposed that she would adopt, but entirely consonant with the
bent of her own mind. She saw quite clearly that, if she was to avoid
the rocks ahead of her, what was needed was not so much genial,
impulsive kindness, reckless of rules and defiant of constituted
authority, but rather strict method, stern discipline, and rigid
subordination. The criticisms to which she exposed herself in the
superintendence of her nurses were based, not upon laxity, but upon her
alleged severity.[82] As for her own conduct, she supposed that her
work, when she landed, would be that of the matron of a hospital. If, as
it turned out, she became rather (as she put it) mistress of a barrack,
it was because she found herself in the midst of conditions which the
constituted authorities at home had not foreseen, and before which those
on the spot stood powerless. Miss Nightingale was happily possessed of
an original mind and a resolute will. She saw evils which cried out for
remedies; and new occasions taught new duties.
[82] See on this point the references given below, p. 210 _n._