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THE LIFE OF FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Florence Nightingale
1887
from the picture by Sir William Richmond at Claydon_]
* * * * *
THE LIFE
OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
BY
SIR EDWARD COOK
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II
(1862-1910)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1913
COPYRIGHT
* * * * *
CONTENTS
PART V
FOR THE HEALTH OF THE ARMY IN INDIA
(1862-1865)
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY. THE LOSS OF FRIENDS
(AUGUST-DECEMBER 1861)
PAGE
Despondency after the death of Sidney Herbert--Sir George Lewis and
the War Office--Lord de Grey reappointed under-secretary. II.
"Saving things from the wreck"--The Herbert Hospital at Woolwich--
Captain Galton at the War Office--Barracks inquiry extended to the
Mediterranean--Miss Nightingale and the Volunteers. III. The
American Civil War--Miss Nightingale and the nursing--British
reinforcements to Canada--Miss Nightingale "working as in the times
of Sidney Herbert." IV. Miss Nightingale and Arthur Hugh Clough--
His assistance to her--His death (Nov. 1861)--Her grief--Letters of
condolence--Her yearning for sympathy--Illness 3
CHAPTER II
THE PROVIDENCE OF THE INDIAN ARMY
(1862, 1863)
High rate of mortality among the British army in India: Miss
Nightingale as a "saviour" of the army. Her determination to obtain
a Royal Commission for India on the lines of the Commission of 1857
for the home army--Lord Stanley approves the idea: Sidney Herbert,
chairman, succeeded by Lord Stanley--Selection of Commissioners.
II. Miss Nightingale's work for the Commission (1859-1862)--
Collection of evidence from India: her circular of inquiry--
Preparation of statistical evidence at home: Miss Nightingale and
Dr. Farr--Miss Nightingale and the witnesses. III. Her analysis of
the written reports from India: "Observations by Miss Nightingale"
thereon (1862)--Circulation of the "Observations"--Account of them
--Abstract of the evidence by Miss Nightingale and Dr. Sutherland.
IV. Death of Sir George Lewis--Her desire to see Lord de Grey
appointed to the War Office--Press notices: letter to Lord
Palmerston. V. Preparation of the Report of the Commission--Miss
Nightingale's part in it--The recommendations--Her suggested
machinery: (1) sanitary commissions in India, (2) supervision in
England--Adoption of her policy--The Report signed (May 1863).
VI. Miss Nightingale's "publicity campaign"--Distribution of early
copies--Press notices--Omission of her "Observations" and Indian
evidence from the cheaper official issue of the Report--Separate
publication by her--Re-issue of the Report with her "Observations":
circulation of the re-issue by the War Office. VII. Physical
disabilities under which Miss Nightingale worked 18
CHAPTER III
SETTING REFORMERS TO WORK
(1863-1865)
"Reports not self-executive": Miss Nightingale's determination to
put the Indian Report into execution. Correspondence with Lord
Stanley--His interview with Sir Charles Wood--Miss Nightingale
asked to draft "Suggestions" to be sent out to India--Departmental
criticism of the Report: delay. II. Death of Lord Elgin, the
Viceroy--Question of his successor--Miss Nightingale's admiration
for Sir John Lawrence--His appointment--Her interview with him.
III. Sir John Lawrence announces the appointment of sanitary
commissions in India and begs her to expedite the dispatch of the
"Suggestions."--More departmental delay--Miss Nightingale's
impatience--Lord Stanley's intervention--The "Suggestions" approved
and printed--Delay in sending them: circumvented by Miss
Nightingale. IV. Sir John Lawrence's prompt action in India--
Correspondence with Miss Nightingale--Reforms by Sir Hugh Rose
(Lord Strathnairn)--Miss Nightingale's paper, _How People may Live
and not Die in India_--Criticism of the Royal Commission's Report
from India--Miss Nightingale's reply--Progress of sanitary reform
in the army in India. V. Miss Nightingale as consultant and
inspirer in Indian sanitary reform--Sir John Lawrence's
difficulties--Lord Stanley's tribute to her--Importance of the
co-operation between her and Sir John Lawrence 40
CHAPTER IV
ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE WAR OFFICE
(1862-1866)
Miss Nightingale and the War Office: her position as consultant.
Explanation of the position--Her expert authority on certain
questions--Official legatee of Sidney Herbert--Correspondence with
Sir George Lewis--Her friends at the War Office. II. Death of the
permanent under-secretary--Miss Nightingale and Captain Galton's
appointment--Her hopes of re-organization in the War Office.
III. The Army Sanitary Commission--Miss Nightingale and
improvements in barracks--Nursing in military hospitals. IV. The
Army Medical School, and position of army doctors--Miss Nightingale
as the doctors' champion--Lord Panmure's attack on the Herbert
Hospital--Miss Nightingale's case for the defence. V. Wide range of
subjects referred to her advice--The Geneva Convention (1864)--
Suggestions about soldiers' and sailors' pay--Miss Nightingale's
methods. VI. The State regulation of vice--Miss Nightingale's
efforts on behalf of soldiers' clubs, recreation-rooms, etc. VII.
Her researches into the disappearance of aboriginal races. VIII.
Spiritual comfort--Memories of heroism in the Crimea 59
CHAPTER V
HELPERS, VISITORS, AND FRIENDS
(1862-1866)
The years of Miss Nightingale's most trying work. Her helpers--The
indispensable Dr. Sutherland--His constant service--Miss
Nightingale as task-mistress--Her method of "conversation" by
written notes. II. Seclusion from her friends--Her strict rule of
life--Letters to Madame Mohl--Visit from Garibaldi (1864)--Her
account of the interview--Appreciation of Abraham Lincoln--Death of
Lord Palmerston. III. Miss Nightingale's scheme for investments by
the working-classes in small freeholds--Correspondence with
Mr. Villiers and Mr. Gladstone. IV. Sympathetic letters to friends
--Literary correspondence with M. Mohl. V. Friendship with
Mr. Jowett--Their correspondence--Miss Nightingale's work for the
army and for India an accidental "call"--Her yearnings for hospital
work 84
CHAPTER VI
NEW MASTERS
(1866)
Public events in 1866 in relation to Miss Nightingale's work.
Letters on those events. II. The story of a lost dispatch. Sir John
Lawrence's scheme for sanitary organization in India--Miss
Nightingale's anxiety to have it revised before the Liberal
Government fell--The Dispatch lost at the India Office: found by
Lord Ripon--His reply to it drafted, when the government fell.
III. Miss Nightingale's vexation--Dr. Sutherland's absence--Visit
from Lord Napier on his appointment to the governorship of Madras.
IV. The Conservative Government--Miss Nightingale's desire to come
in touch with the new ministers--Correspondence with Lord Cranborne
(India Office) and Mr. Gathorne Hardy (Poor Law Board). V. The
Austro-Prussian War--Miss Nightingale and war-nursing--
Correspondence with the Princess Alice and the Crown Princess of
Prussia. VI. A holiday at Embley with her mother--Private
meditations 104
PART VI
MANY THREADS (1867-1872)
CHAPTER I
WORKHOUSE REFORM
(1864-1867)
State of the workhouse infirmaries--Report on the Metropolitan
workhouses in 1866--Miss Nightingale a prime mover in the remedial
legislation of 1867. II. Her friendship with Mr. William
Rathbone--His scheme for introducing trained nurses into the
Workhouse Infirmary at Liverpool--Negotiations with Miss
Nightingale--Her friend, Miss Agnes Jones, appointed Lady
Superintendent--Reforms effected by her (1865). III. Miss
Nightingale's resolve to use the Liverpool experiment as a lever for
reform in London--Workhouse scandals in London--Correspondence and
interviews with Mr. Villiers--Friendship with Mr. Farnall, Poor Law
Inspector--Miss Nightingale's scheme of Poor Law reform
(1865)--Approved by Mr. Villiers--Articles in the _Times_--Defeat of
the Government. IV. Mr. Gathorne Hardy succeeds Mr. Villiers--Removal
of Mr. Farnall from London--Miss Nightingale's communications with
Mr. Villiers--Committee appointed by Mr. Hardy--Miss Nightingale
invited to express her views: outlines her scheme in a Memorandum.
V. Mr. Hardy's Bill (1867)--Various views of it--Miss Nightingale's
efforts for its extension--Importance of the reforms included in
the Bill: the starting-point of workhouse reform. VI. Success of
Miss Agnes Jones's pioneer work--Her death (1868)--Miss
Nightingale's account of her in _Good Words_--Selection of a
successor--Effect of the article 123
CHAPTER II
ALLIANCE WITH SIR BARTLE FRERE
(1867-1868)
Miss Nightingale's concern for a better organization of the public
health service in India. Approaching retirement of Sir John
Lawrence: her anxiety to insert "the main-spring"--Points for which
she contended. II. Lord Cranborne succeeded at the India Office by
Sir Stafford Northcote--Miss Nightingale's friendship with
Sir Bartle Frere--She determines to advance--The "Doors _versus_
Windows" controversy. III. Her communications with Sir S. Northcote
--Interviews with him--Her scheme of organization adopted--Dispatch
and other sanitary papers drafted by her. IV. Attitude of the
Government of India--Letters from Sir John Lawrence--Abandonment of
a female nursing scheme--Miss Nightingale's vexation. V. Continued
correspondence with Sir John Lawrence--His return to England--Visit
to Miss Nightingale 144
CHAPTER III
PUBLIC HEALTH MISSIONARY FOR INDIA
(1868-1872)
Miss Nightingale's "little Indian Department all to herself," a
main pre-occupation. Rest-cure at Malvern (Dec. 1867)--Visit to her
mother at Lea Hurst (July-Oct. 1868)--Miss Nightingale's movements
in following years. II. Mr. Jowett's plea for less official
drudgery, and more literary work--Her "Note on Pauperism" in
_Fraser's Magazine_--Interest in colonization--Interview with
Mr. Goschen. III. Health work for India: (1) correspondence and
interviews with Indian officials--Interviews with Lord Mayo--
Correspondence with Lord Napier (Madras)--"Special cholera
inquiry." IV. An episode: Miss Nightingale's intervention to save
the Army Sanitary Commission and the Army Medical School from being
retrenched out of existence--Statistical evidence of sanitary
reform. V. Interviews with Lord Napier of Magdala--Further
correspondence with Lord Mayo--Other interviews and correspondence.
VI. Health work for India: (2) acquaintance and correspondence
with native Indian gentlemen--Sanitary appeal to village elders.
VII. Health work for India: (3) work in connection with the Sanitary
Department at the India Office--Contributions to and revision of
the Indian Health Annual. VIII. Ten years' progress: _How some
People have Lived, not Died, in India_--How much, and yet how
little! 161
CHAPTER IV
ADVISER-GENERAL ON HOSPITALS AND NURSING
(1868-1872)
Miss Nightingale as a central department relating to hospitals and
nurses. Criticism of hospital plans--"Suggestions" for nursing
organization in public institutions. II. Visits on such subjects
from great personages--Interviews and correspondence with the Crown
Princess of Prussia. III. Supervision of the Nightingale Training
School--Personal influence--Miss Nightingale's reception of lady
superintendents and nurses going out from the School to other
posts. IV. Closing of the Midwifery School at King's College
Hospital--Miss Nightingale's _Notes on Lying-in Institutions_.
V. The Franco-German War--Miss Nightingale and the "National
Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded"--Communications with the
Crown Princess of Germany--Red Cross Societies. VI. Miss
Nightingale's continued ill-health--Dr. Sutherland's constant help 185
PART VII
WORK OF LATER YEARS (1872-1910)
CHAPTER I
"OUT OF OFFICE." LITERARY WORK
(1872-1874)
Miss Nightingale's thought of entering St. Thomas's Hospital (1872)
--Dissuaded by Mr. Jowett--"This year I go out of office"--Meaning
of her statement--Her connection with the War Office closed--Lord
Northbrook did not come to her. II. Unsettlement and depression--
Mr. Jowett's plea for literary work--Mr. Mill's plea that she
should speak out recalled. III. Articles in _Fraser's Magazine_
(1873): embodying some of her _Suggestions for Thought_--Froude's
and Carlyle's opinions of the articles--Miss Nightingale and her
critics. IV. Death of Mr. Mill--Appreciation of him by Miss
Nightingale. V. Theological essays written at Mr. Jowett's
suggestion--Discussions with him--Contributions to the revised
edition of his _Plato_--Suggestions for his sermons--Collaboration
in _The Children's Bible_--Remarks on such literary work 211
CHAPTER II
THE MYSTICAL WAY
Miss Nightingale's fondness for Catholic books of devotion--Idea of
making a selection--Mr. Jowett's views of mysticism. II. Miss
Nightingale's Preface to her _Notes from Devotional Authors of the
Middle Ages_. III. Interruption of work by the death of her father
(1874)--His character--Death of Mrs. Bracebridge: Miss
Nightingale's tributes to her and her husband--Family worries.
IV. Her book on the _Mystics_ never finished--Her own mystical life
--Her private meditations--The path to perfection 231
CHAPTER III
MISS NIGHTINGALE'S SCHOOL
(1872-1879)
Miss Nightingale's increased attention to the Nightingale Training
School. Opening of the new buildings of St. Thomas's Hospital--
Appointment of a new Medical Instructor of the Probationers, and of
a "Home Sister." II. Miss Nightingale's interviews with the
probationers--Her character-sketches and other records--Her sense
of humour. III. District nursing in London--Miss Florence Lees--
Selections and promotions--Some favourite pupils--Wide influence of
the Nightingale nurses--Miss Nightingale's close relations with her
old pupils in their new posts--Her affectionate solicitude for them
--Typical letters--Extent of her correspondence. IV. Her "Addresses
to Probationers"--Leading ideas in them--Style of address,
reminiscent of school sermons. V. Her ideal of the nurse's calling
--Her belief in individual influence, not in organization--Miss
Nightingale as a "Founder" 246
CHAPTER IV
AN INDIAN REFORMER
(1874-1879)
Miss Nightingale's work on Indian questions. Her sources of
information and industrious study: her opportunities of effective
action less than in earlier years. II. Continued interest in army
sanitation--Letter from Lord Napier of Magdala--Correspondence with
Lord Salisbury and Lord Northbrook. III. Correspondence with Lord
Salisbury and the Duke of Buckingham on the drainage of Madras.
IV. Indian famines and an extension of Miss Nightingale's interests
--Correspondence with Sir Arthur Cotton. V. An irrigation campaign
--Miss Nightingale's appeal to Lord Salisbury for a Return of
irrigation-results--Lord Salisbury on the experts--Miss
Nightingale's continued advocacy of irrigation--Her article in the
_Nineteenth Century_ on "The People of India" (1878)--
Correspondence with Lord Cranbrook. VI. Correspondence and
interview with Mr. Gladstone--The death of Lord Lawrence. VII. Miss
Nightingale's unpublished book on Indian Land Tenures and
Irrigation--Her Irrigation maps. VIII. Her impatience at the slow
rate of Indian reforms--Lord Salisbury's Philosophic Defence of the
Policy of Draft 273
CHAPTER V
HOME LIFE IN SOUTH STREET AND THE COUNTRY
Miss Nightingale's house in South Street--Sir Harry Verney's house
in the same street. II. Her servants--Housekeeping. III. Miss
Nightingale as a hostess--Reminiscences by a nursing friend.
IV. Miss Nightingale's room--Personal appearance--Rarely out of
doors--Love of birds--Note on London sky-effects. V. Sojourns out
of London--A "lobster-like villa" at Norwood (1875)--Annual visits
with her mother at Lea Hurst--Miss Nightingale's interest in her
poorer neighbours--Mother and daughter--Impression made by Miss
Nightingale on her friends--Mr. Jowett--The Grand Duchess of Baden
--Lady Ashburton. VI. Letters to M. and Mme. Mohl--Death of M. Mohl
(1876)--Death of Dr. Parkes--Miss Nightingale's intervention once
more to save the Army Medical School--The Eastern Question--Miss
Paulina Irby. VII. Was Miss Nightingale's a happy life?--Letters
from Mr. Jowett 300
CHAPTER VI
LORD RIPON AND GENERAL GORDON
(1880-1885)
Death of Miss Nightingale's mother--Illness--Visits to the seaside
and Claydon. II. The elections of 1880--Her special preoccupations
and general work at this period--Visit to St. Thomas's Hospital.
III. Friendship with General Gordon and his cousin, Mrs.
Hawthorn--Inquiry into nursing by Orderlies in military
hospitals--Letters from General Gordon. IV. Lord Ripon's Indian
policy--Miss Nightingale's enthusiasm--Her efforts to support Lord
Ripon--Interviews with Indian officials and politicians--Her
interest in Indian agriculture and education--The Indian Civil
servants at Oxford: suggestions to Arnold Toynbee--Her paper on Lord
Ripon's Bengal Land Tenure Bill. V. The Egyptian campaign of
1882--Miss Nightingale and the return of the Guards--Her appearances
in public--Defects in hospital arrangements in South Africa and
Egypt (1880-82)--Miss Nightingale's representations--Committee of
Inquiry--Miss Nightingale and Lord Wantage. VI. Royal Red Cross
conferred on her (1883)--Correspondence with the Queen--The Ilbert
Bill--The hospital corps--Reforms in accordance with the Committee's
recommendations--Lord Wolseley and the female nurses. VII. Progress
of Lord Ripon's reforms--His resignation--Miss Nightingale's
interview with his successor, Lord Dufferin--Mr. Gladstone and
India--Lord Ripon's return. VIII. The Soudan expedition--Miss
Nightingale and the war nurses--Reminiscences of Sister
Philippa--Letters to Miss Williams--Miss Nightingale's
meditations--Death of old friends 323
CHAPTER VII
"THE NURSES' BATTLE"; AND HEALTH IN THE VILLAGE
(1885-1893)
Miss Nightingale's "Jubilee Year"--A retrospect (1837-1887).
Selection of a new matron at St. Thomas's Hospital. II. Queen
Victoria's "Jubilee Institute for Nurses"--Misgivings--"The Nurses'
Battle": for and against Registration--Therival forces--Miss
Nightingale's leadership of the "Anti's"--Course of the battle--The
hearing by the Privy Council--The result--Miss Nightingale's
standpoint. III. Her work for Indian sanitation--Political
unsettlement at home--Miss Nightingale's interviews with Lord
Roberts and others--Lord Roberts's introduction of female nurses
into Indian military hospitals--Lady Dufferin's Association.
IV. "The Sutherland Succession"--Threatened dissolution of the Army
Sanitary Committee--Proposed abolition of the Sanitary
Commissioners in India--Miss Nightingale's campaign in
defence--Appeal to Lord Dufferin--Communications with Lord Cross
and Mr. W. H. Smith--Resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill--Mr.
Smith succeeded at the War Office by Mr. Stanhope--Resignation of
Dr. Sutherland--Reconstitution of the Army Sanitary Committee.
V. Draft dispatch at the India Office advocating
a "forward" sanitary policy--The Indian Government's resolution for
the appointment of Provincial Sanitary Boards--Lord Lansdowne
succeeds Lord Dufferin. VI. Miss Nightingale and village sanitation
in India--Scheme for providing funds submitted to Lord Cross--Her
letter circulated to the Local Governments in India--Final reply
from the Government of India (1894)--Her retrospect of her Indian
work. VII. Miss Nightingale and village sanitation in England--
Death of her sister--Sir Harry Verney and Miss Nightingale--Her
visits to Claydon--Her scheme of Health Missioners adopted by the
Bucks County Council 353
CHAPTER VIII
MR. JOWETT AND OTHER FRIENDS
Miss Nightingale's public acquaintances and private friends. Her
sympathetic nature--Acquaintances made on public business passing
into friendships--Sir Henry Yule. II. Affectionate sympathy with
her relations--Death of her "Aunt Mai" (1889)--Letters to her
younger relations--A burglary in South Street. III. Last years with
Mr. Jowett--His illness in South Street (1887)--Their scheme for a
"Nightingale Professorship of Statistics"--Mr. Jowett's illnesses
and death (1892)--Death of Sir Harry Verney and of Mr. Shore Smith
(1894). IV. Miss Nightingale on Mr. Jowett's death--Correspondence
with Lord Lansdowne--Mr. Jowett's precepts on old age 385
CHAPTER IX
OLD AGE. DEATH
(1894-1910)
The spirit of Rabbi Ben Ezra. The latter years to be the best--Miss
Nightingale's letters in this sense--Her own fullness of work.
II. Continual interest in India--Lord Elgin's village sanitary
inspection. III. Interest in army affairs--Letter to the Duke of
Cambridge (1895)--The Hongkong barracks (1896)--Indian cantonments
(1896-97)--The Victorian Era Exhibition (1897): Crimean
"relics"--Note on Waterloo Day (1898)--The South African War (1899).
IV. Interest in nursing--The "Nurses' Battle" again--The true
"angels"--Correspondence with the Grand Duchess of Baden and
Mr. Rathbone--Death of old friends and fellow-workers. V. Gradual
failure of Miss Nightingale's powers--Loss of sight--Her
companions--Her favourite reading--Visitors. VI. Honours--The Order
of Merit (1907)--Freedom of the City (1908)--Her fame--Renewed cult
of "The Popular Heroine." VII. Death and funeral--Memorials 402
CONCLUSION 424
APPENDICES
A. Chronological List of Writings by Miss Nightingale 437
B. List of Some Writings about Miss Nightingale 459
C. List of Portraits 467
INDEX 471
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACE PAGE
Florence Nightingale: 1887. (_From the portrait by Sir William
Richmond, K.C.B., R.A._) _Frontispiece_
Florence Nightingale in her Room at South Street. (_From a
photograph by Miss E. F. Bosanquet, 1906_) 306
Florence Nightingale: 1907. (_From a water-colour drawing by Miss
F. Amicia de Biden Footner_) 418
* * * * *
Florence Nightingale's Handwriting: _facsimile_ of part of a letter
to John Stuart Mill, August 11, 1867 216
PART V
FOR THE HEALTH OF THE ARMY IN INDIA
(1862-1865)
The question is no less an one than this: How to create a public
health department for India; how to bring a higher civilization
into India. What a work, what a noble task for a Government--no
"inglorious period of our dominion" that, but a most glorious one!
That would be creating India anew. For God places His own power,
His own life-giving laws in the hands of man. He permits man to
create mankind by those laws, even as He permits man to destroy
mankind by neglect of those laws.--FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE: _How
People may live and not die in India_, 1864.
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY--THE LOSS OF FRIENDS
But tasks in hours of insight will'd
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd.
MATTHEW ARNOLD.
The years immediately after Sidney Herbert's death were among the
busiest and most useful in Miss Nightingale's life. She was engaged
during them in carrying their "joint work unfinished" into a new field.
In the previous volume we saw Miss Nightingale using her position as the
heroine of the Crimean War in order to become the founder of modern
nursing, and to initiate reforms for the welfare of the British soldier.
Among those who know, it is recognized that the services which she
rendered to the British army at home were hardly greater than those
which she was able to render to British India, and it was this Indian
work which after Sidney Herbert's death became one of the main interests
of her life. She threw herself into it, as we shall hear, with full
fire, and brought to it abundant energy and resource. But first she had
the memory of her friend to honour and protect; and then the hours of
gloom were to be deepened by the loss of another friend hardly less dear
to her.
* * * * *
Having finished her Paper upon Sidney Herbert, Miss Nightingale left the
Burlington Hotel, never to return, and took lodgings in Hampstead
(Aug.-Oct. 1861). Her mood was of deep despondency. She was inclined to
shut herself off from most of her former fellow-workers. Against the
outside world she double-barred her shutters. Her uncle was strictly
enjoined to give no one her address; she asked that all her letters
might be addressed to and from his care in London. The formula was to be
that "a great and overwhelming affliction entirely precludes Miss
Nightingale" from seeing or writing to anybody. "For her sake it is most
earnestly to be wished," wrote her cousin Beatrice to Mr. Chadwick
(Sept. 18), "that you may come into some immediate communication with
her. It is your faith that her working days are not yet over, that she
may work in another field, her own being now closed against her. I
cannot find that any of those who have been with her lately would share
this hope, less on account of her health, than of her state of extreme
discouragement." It was a case not only, perhaps not chiefly, of
personal loss, but also of public vexation; it was not only that the
Minister had died, it was that his work seemed like to die also. The
point of view appears in her letters to Dr. Farr:--
_Sept._ 10. We are grateful to you for the memorial of my dear
Master which you have raised to him in the hearts of the nation.[1]
Indeed it is in the hearts of the nation that he will live--not in
the hearts of Ministers. There he is dead already, if indeed they
have any. And before he was cold in his grave, Gladstone attends
his funeral and then writes to me that he cannot pledge himself to
give any assistance in carrying out his friend's reforms. The reign
of intelligence at the War Office is over. The reign of muffs has
begun. The only rule of conduct in the bureaucracy there and in the
Horse Guards is to reverse _his_ decision, _his_ judgment, and (if
they can do nothing more) _his_ words.
[1] An eloquent address delivered to the British Association at
Manchester (_Times_, Sept. 9, 1861).
_October_ 2.... My poor Master has been dead two months to-day, too
long a time for him not to be forgotten.... The dogs have trampled
on his dead body. Alas! seven years this month I have fought the
good fight with the War Office _and lost it_!
_November_ 2. My dear Master has been dead three months to-day.
Poor Lady Herbert goes abroad this next week with the children and
shuts up Wilton, the eldest boy going to school. It is as if the
earth had opened and swallowed up even the Name which filled my
whole life these five years.
But there were things to be done in her friend's name, and she turned to
do them. The power of the bureaucracy to resist was strong, because the
new Secretary of State was a novice at his task, and Lord Herbert, by
failing to carry through any radical reorganization of the War Office,
had as she said, failed to put in "the mainspring to his works." "The
Commander-in-Chief rides over the learned Secretary of State as if he
were straw." But there was one hopeful and helpful factor in the case.
Now that the Secretary for War was in the Commons, Lord de Grey was
reappointed Under-Secretary. He was a genuine reformer. He knew the mind
of his former Chief. He was most sympathetic to Lady Herbert. He was
acquainted with Miss Nightingale. The power of an Under-Secretary is
very small, but what he could do, he would. A letter which she received
from a friend, both of Lord de Grey and of herself, gave her
encouragement:--
(_R. Monckton Milnes to Miss Nightingale._) _October_ 21. I knew how
irreparable a loss you and your objects in life had in Herbert's
death, but I should like you to know how you will find Ld. de Grey
willing to do all in his power to forward your great and wise
designs. I say "in his power," for that, you know, is extremely
limited, but he may do something for you in an indirect way and,
without much originality, he has considerable tact and adroitness.
You won't like Sir G. Lewis, but somewhere or other you ought to do
so; for in his sincere way of looking at things and in his critical
and curious spirit he is by no means unlike yourself. He makes up
his mind, no doubt, far better to the damnabilities of the work
than you would do,--tho' one does not know what you would have been
if you had been corrupted by public life. I write this about de
Grey because I was staying with him not long ago, and he expressed
himself on the subject with much earnestness.
II
So, then, there were some things perhaps which might yet, as she put it,
be "saved from the wreck." Lord de Grey had already given earnest both
of his good will and of his courage. He had seen Lady Herbert and asked
about her husband's intentions. She knew them generally, but referred
for details to Miss Nightingale, who was thus able to be of some use in
carrying through Lord Herbert's scheme for a Soldiers' Home at
Aldershot. Then there was the question of the General Hospital to be
built at Woolwich. The Commander-in-Chief was opposed to the scheme, and
asked Sir George Lewis to cancel it. Economy was, perhaps, behind the
Minister tempting him. But Lord de Grey, who was present at the
interview, stood firm. "Sir," he said, "it is impossible. Lord Herbert
decided it, and the House of Commons voted it."[2] In the end, the Horse
Guards and the War Office accepted the inevitable with a good grace; the
order was given for the building to proceed, and Miss Nightingale's
suggestion was adopted that it should be christened "The Herbert
Hospital."
[2] Miss Nightingale related this incident in two letters--to Dr. Farr
(Sept. 10), and to Harriet Martineau (Sept. 24).
Lord de Grey was also influential in securing a redefinition of Captain
Galton's duties at the War Office. Lady Herbert told Lord de Grey that
this was one of the last official matters on which she had heard her
husband speak. Miss Nightingale again supplied the details, and to her
ally was committed responsibility (under the Secretary of State) for new
barrack works. On some other questions Miss Nightingale had the
bitterness of seeing projects abandoned which she and Lord Herbert had
almost matured. "It is really melancholy now," wrote Captain Galton to
her (Aug. 19), "to see the attempts made on all hands to pull down all
that Sidney Herbert laboured to build up." She recounted some of the
disappointments in a letter to Harriet Martineau, and that lady, whose
genuine sympathy in the cause was perhaps heightened by a journalist's
scent for "copy," was eager to go on the war-path. "No harm can come,"
she wrote to Miss Nightingale (Oct. 4), "of an attempt to shame the
Horse Guards. I have consulted my editor [of the _Daily News_], and if I
can obtain a sufficiency of clear facts, I will gladly harass the
Commander-in-Chief as he was never harassed before--that is, I will
write a leader against him every Saturday for as many weeks as there are
heads of accusation against him and his Department. We don't want to
mince matters." Miss Nightingale was to supply the powder and shot; Miss
Martineau was to fire the guns. The partnership was declined by Miss
Nightingale. The reason she gave was that she was no longer in the way
of obtaining much inside information. But she doubtless had other
reasons. There were things which she had just managed to carry through.
There were other possibilities of usefulness before her. She was playing
a difficult game. She did not think that her hand would be strengthened
by newspaper polemics, for the form of which she would not be
responsible, but the information in which would be traced back to her.
Among the points which she had just managed to score was the appointment
of the Commission already mentioned,[3] for extending the Barracks
Inquiry to the Mediterranean stations. Headquarters tried to stop it.
"And I defeated them," she had told Miss Martineau (Sept. 24), "by a
trick which they were too stupid to find out." Her papers do not
disclose the nature of the "trick" by which this excellent piece of work
was carried through.
[3] See Vol. I. p. 405.
And there was another thing which she did in order to forward Sidney
Herbert's work, though in a field outside that of their collaboration:
she wrote a stirring letter (Oct. 8) on the Volunteer Movement, which he
had organized in 1859. It brought her several "offers," as we have heard
already[4]; and, displayed in large print on a card, must have attracted
many recruits. She wrote it as one who had experience of war and its
lessons; as one, too, who had worked for the Army, "seven years this
very month, without the intermission of one single waking hour." She
made eloquent appeal to the patriotic spirit of the British people; and
she included this piece of personal feeling: "On the saddest night of
all my life, two months ago, when my dear chief Sidney Herbert lay
dying, and I knew that with him died much of the welfare of the British
Army--he was, too, so proud, so justly proud, of his Volunteers--on that
night I lay listening to the bands of the Volunteers as they came
marching in successively--it had been a review-day--and I said to
myself, 'The nation can never go back which is capable of such a
movement as this; not the spirit of an hour; these are men who have all
something to give up; all men whose time is valuable for money, which is
not their god, as other nations say of us.'" I do not know if the name
of Florence Nightingale be still--as it ought to be--a name of power
with the people. If it is, then her letter of 1861 might well be
reprinted in connection with recruiting for the Territorial Force. She
laid stress upon the voluntary spirit, as opposed to compulsion. But she
laid stress also on the supreme importance of efficient training:
"Garibaldi's Volunteers did excellently in guerilla movements; they
failed before a fourth-rate regular army."
[4] Vol. I. p. 496.
III
Presently some old work in a new form came in Miss Nightingale's way.
She had returned to London in November, chiefly in order to be on the
spot for consultation and suggestion in connection with the Memorial to
Sidney Herbert. It was her suggestion, for one thing, that the Memorial
should include a Prize Medal at the Army Medical School. For this
sojourn in London, Sir Harry Verney lent his house in South Street[5] to
Miss Nightingale. The American Civil War now kept her busy. "Did I tell
you," she wrote to Dr. Farr (Oct. 8), "that I had forwarded to the War
Secretary at Washington, upon application, all our War Office Forms and
Reports, statistical and other, taking the occasion to tell them that,
as the U.S. had adopted our Registrar-General's nomenclature, it would
be easier for them to adopt our Army Statistics Forms. It appears that
they, the Northern States, are quite puzzled by their own want of any
Army organization. I also took occasion to tell them of our Chinese
success in reducing the Army mortality to one-tenth of what it was, and
the Constantly Sick to one-seventh of what they were during the first
winter of the Crimean War, due to my dear master." When the Civil War
broke out, Miss Nightingale's example in the Crimea had produced an
immediate effect. A "Woman's Central Association of Relief" was formed
in New York. In co-operation with other bodies they petitioned the
Secretary of War to appoint a Sanitary Commission, and after some delay
this was done. Camps were inspected; female nurses were sent to the
hospitals; contrivances for improved cooking were supplied, and in
short, much of Miss Nightingale's Crimean work was reproduced.[6]
Presently she became more directly concerned. At the end of the year
(1861) England was on the verge of being embroiled in the conflict, and,
whilst the agitation over the _Trent_ affair was at its height, the
British Government decided to send reinforcements to Canada. Lord de
Grey was charged with many of the preparations. He asked Miss
Nightingale (Dec. 3) if he might consult her personally "as to sanitary
arrangements generally." He wished to profit by her experience and
judgment in relation to transports, hospitals, clothing of the troops,
supplies, comforts for the sick, and generally upon "the defects and
dangers to be feared," and how best to prevent them. He also asked for
the names of suitable men for the position of Principal Medical Officer,
and he consulted her again before making the appointment. Without a
moment's loss of time, she set to work in conjunction with Dr.
Sutherland, and sent in her suggestions. The draft instructions to the
officers in charge of the expedition were sent to her on December 8. On
December 10 Lord de Grey wrote: "I have got all your suggestions
inserted in the Instructions, and am greatly obliged to you for them."
"We are shipping off the Expedition to Canada as fast as we can," she
wrote to Madame Mohl (Dec. 13). "I have been working just as I did in
the times of Sidney Herbert. Alas! he left no organization, my dear
master! But the Horse Guards were so terrified at the idea of the
national indignation if they lost another army, that they have
consented to everything." A few days later another draft of
instructions was sent to her through Captain Galton. "We have gone over
your draft very carefully," she wrote (Dec. 18), "and find that although
it includes almost everything necessary, it does not define with
sufficient precision the manner in which the meat is to get from the
Commissariat into the soldier's kettle, or the clothing from the Army
Medical General store on to the soldier's back. You must define all
this. Otherwise you will have men, as you had in the Crimea, shirking
the responsibility." Memoranda among Miss Nightingale's papers show the
grasp of detail with which she worked out the problems. Her mind
envisaged the scene of operations. She calculated the distances which
might have to be covered by sledges; she counted the relays and depots;
she compared the relative weights and warming capacities of blankets and
buffalo robes. A great Commander was lost to her country when Florence
Nightingale was born a woman. Her suggestions in the case of the
Canadian reinforcements were happily not put to the test of war. The
_Trent_ affair was smoothed over, largely, as is now well known, owing
to the moderating counsels of the Prince Consort. It was his last
service to his adopted country. Miss Nightingale felt his death to be a
national loss. "He neither liked," she said of him, "nor was liked. But
what he has done for our country no one knows."
[5] No. 32 at that time; now renumbered, No. 4.
[6] See on this subject Bibliography B, No. 23. The Secretary of another
body, the United States Christian Communion, in sending reports and
papers to Miss Nightingale (July 26, 1865) wrote: "Your influence and
our indebtedness to you can never be known. Only this is true that
everywhere throughout our broad country during these years of
inventive and earnest benevolence in the constant endeavour to
succour and sustain our heroic defenders, the name and work of
Florence Nightingale have been an encouragement and inspiration." In
the same year the plans of an Emigrant Hospital on Ward Island were
sent to her. In return she sent engravings of the Departure and the
Arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers: "Presented to the Commissioners of
Emigration of New York for the new Emigrant Hospital on Ward Island
by Florence Nightingale as a slight sign of her deepest reverence and
her warmest sympathy for the noble act by which they have so
magnificently provided for--not their own sick, but--those of the Old
Country."
IV
Miss Nightingale's work in connection with the Canadian expedition was
done in the midst of a personal sorrow of her own, second only in
poignancy, if second at all, to that caused by the death of Sidney
Herbert. This was the death of Arthur Hugh Clough. He had broken down in
health and been ordered abroad in April 1861, and she had urged him to
go. He died, however, at Florence on November 12. They had been close
friends since her return to England from the Crimea. His sweetness of
disposition, his humour, his lofty moral feeling, alike attracted her.
He on his side had deep admiration for her, and he devoted such
strength--alas! but little--as remained to him from work in the Privy
Council Office to her service. He fetched and carried for her. He made
arrangements for her journeys, as we have heard, and escorted her. He
saw her printers, he corrected her proofs. He became, at a modest
salary, secretary to the Nightingale Fund. It was poor work to set a
poet to, but he did it with cheerful modesty. He was intent, he told
Miss Nightingale, upon "doing plain work"; he had "studied and taught,"
he said, "too much for a man's own moral good." In 1860 his health began
to fail. Miss Nightingale was sometimes a little impatient. His loyalty
and zeal she could never have doubted; but she was inclined to think him
lacking in initiative and energy. She was always inclined to drive
willing horses a little hardly. In the case of Clough, as in that of
Sidney Herbert, she sometimes attributed to infirmity of will what was
in fact due to infirmity of body. And in each case her grief, when the
end came, was not free, I think, from some element of self-reproach. "I
have always felt," she had written to her uncle (Dec. 7, 1860), "that I
have been a great drag on Arthur's health and spirits, a much greater
one than I should have chosen to be, if I had not promised him to die
sooner." "She saw my father," wrote her cousin Beatrice to
Mr. Nightingale (Dec. 4), "to speak only of Arthur, as only she can
speak. She was quite natural, very affectionate, very, very much moved."
But in her state of loneliness and nervous exhaustion her feeling for
lost friends was sometimes morbid. She said that for months after the
death of Sidney Herbert, and again after that of Clough, she could not
bear to open a newspaper for dread of seeing some mention of a beloved
name. Some years later she was sent a book by Mrs. Clough. "I like very
much," she replied (Nov. 13, 1865)--"how much I cannot say--to receive
that book from you. But it would be impossible to me to read it or look
at it, not from want of time or strength, but from too much of both
spent on his memory, from thinking, not too little, but too much on him.
But I don't say this for others. I believe it is a morbid peculiarity of
long illness, of the loss of power of resistance to morbid thoughts. I
cannot bear to see a portrait of those who are gone." The depth of her
grief at the death of Mr. Clough is expressed or reflected in letters
which she wrote or received at the time:--
(_Benjamin Jowett to Miss Nightingale._) BALLIOL, _Nov._ 19 [1861].
Thank you for writing to me. I am very much grieved at the tidings
which your letter brought me. I agree entirely in your estimate of
our dear friend's character. It was in 1836 (the anniversary is
next week) that I first saw him when he was elected to the Balliol
Scholarship. No one who only knew him in later life would imagine
what a noble, striking-looking youth he was before he got worried
with false views of religion and the world. I never met with any
one who was more thoroughly high-minded: I believe he acted all
through life simply from the feeling of what was right. He
certainly had great genius, but some want of will or some want of
harmony with things around him prevented his creating anything
worthy of himself. I am glad he was married: life was dark to him,
and his wife and children made him as happy as he was capable of
being made. He was naturally very religious, and I think that he
never recovered the rude shock which his religion received during
his first years at Oxford. He did not see and yet he believed in
the great belief of all--to do rightly. Did I quote to you ever an
expression which Neander used to me of Blanco White: _einer Christ
mehr in Unbewusstseyn als in Bewusstseyn_? It grieves me that you
should have lost so invaluable a friend. No earthly trial can be
greater than to pursue without friends the work that you began with
them. And yet it is the more needed because it rests on one only.
If there be any way in this world to be like Christ it must be by
pursuing in solitude and illness, without the support of sympathy
or public opinion, works for the good of mankind. I hope you will
sometimes let me hear from you. Let me assure you that I shall
never cease to take an interest in your objects and writings.--Ever
yours sincerely, B. JOWETT.
(_Miss Nightingale to Sir John McNeill._) SOUTH STREET, _Nov._ 18....
He was a man of rare mind and temper. The more so because he
would gladly do "plain work." To me, seeing the blundering harasses
which were the uses to which we put him, he seemed like a
race-horse harnessed to a coal truck. This not because he did
"plain work" and did it so well. For the best of us can be put to
no better use than that. He helped me immensely, though not
officially, by his sound judgment and constant sympathy. "Oh,
Jonathan, my brother Jonathan, my love to thee was very great,
passing the love of woman." Now, not one man remains (that I can
call a man) of all those whom these five years I have worked with.
But, as you say, "we are all dying."
(_Sir John McNeill to Miss Nightingale._) EDINBURGH, _November_ 19.
I should find it difficult to tell you how much your letter has
distressed me. I do not know that I have ever cared so much for any
man of whom I had seen so little as I did for Clough. Perhaps it
may not have been all on his own account, for to know that he was
near you was a comfort, but if he had not been altogether estimable
in head and heart this mixed feeling could not have arisen. His
death leaves you dreadfully alone in the midst of your work, but
that work is your life and you can do it alone. There is no feeling
more sustaining than that of being alone--at least I have ever
found it so. To mount my horse and ride over the desert alone with
the sky closing the circle in which my horse and I were the only
living things, I have always found intensely elating. To work out
views in which no one helped me has all my life been to me a source
of vitality and strength. So I doubt not it will be to you, for you
have a strength and a power for good to which I never could
pretend. It is a small matter to die a few days sooner than usual.
It is a great matter to work while it is day, and so to husband
one's power as to make the most of the days that are given us. This
you will do. Herbert and Clough and many more may fall around you,
but you are destined to do a great work and you cannot die till it
is substantially, if not apparently, done. You are leaving your
impress on the age in which you live, and the print of your foot
will be traced by generations yet unborn. Go on--to you the
accidents of mortality ought to be as the falling of the leaves in
autumn. Ever respectfully and sincerely yours, JOHN MCNEILL.
Miss Nightingale was able, as her friends predicted, to pursue in hours
of gloom the tasks which in hours of insight she had willed; and to
continue, without the same sympathy from close friends as before, the
kind of work which she had once done with Sidney Herbert's co-operation
or with Clough's advice. But she yearned for sympathy none the less; in
a noble, though an exacting, way. For by "sympathy" she understood not
such feeling as would be expressed merely in affectionate behaviour or
personal consideration for herself, but a fellow-feeling for her objects
expressed in readiness to follow her in serving them with something of
her own practical devotion. She did not think of herself apart from her
mission.
(_Miss Nightingale to Madame Mohl._) 32 SOUTH STREET, LONDON,
_Dec_. 13 [1861]. I have read half your book thro' [_Madame
Récamier_], and am immensely charmed by it. But some things I
disagree with and more I do not understand. This does not apply to
the characters, but to your conclusions, _e.g._ you say "women are
more sympathetic than men." Now if I were to write a book out of my
experience, I should begin _Women have no sympathy_. Yours is the
tradition. Mine is the conviction of experience. I have never found
one woman who has altered her life by one iota for me or my
opinions. Now look at my experience of men. A statesman, past
middle age, absorbed in politics for a quarter of a century, out of
sympathy with me, remodels his whole life and policy--learns a
science the driest, the most technical, the most difficult, that of
administration, as far as it concerns the lives of men,--not, as I
learnt it, in the field from stirring experience, but by writing
dry regulations in a London room by my sofa with me. This is what I
call real sympathy. Another (Alexander, whom I made
Director-General) does very nearly the same thing. He is dead too.
Clough, a poet born if ever there was one, takes to
nursing-administration in the same way, for me. I only mention
three whose whole lives were remodelled by sympathy for me. But I
could mention very many others--Farr, McNeill, Tulloch, Storks,
Martin, who in a lesser degree have altered their work by my
opinions. And, the most wonderful of all, a man born without a
soul, like Undine--all these elderly men.
Now just look at the degree in which women have sympathy--as far as
my experience is concerned. And my experience of women is almost as
large as Europe. And it is so intimate too. I have lived and slept
in the same bed with English Countesses and Prussian Bäuerinnen.
No Roman Catholic Supérieure has ever had charge of women of the
different creeds that I have had. No woman has excited "passions"
among women more than I have. Yet I leave no school behind me. My
doctrines have taken no hold among women. Not one of my Crimean
following learnt anything from me, or gave herself for one moment
after she came home to carry out the lesson of that war or of those
hospitals.... No woman that I know has ever _appris à apprendre_. And
I attribute this to want of sympathy. You say somewhere that women
have no attention. Yes. And I attribute this to want of sympathy.
Nothing makes me so impatient as people complaining of their want of
memory. How can you remember what you have never heard?... It makes
me mad, the Women's Rights talk about "the want of a field" for
them--when I know that I would gladly give £500 a year for a Woman
Secretary. And two English Lady Superintendents have told me the same
thing. And we can't get _one_.... They don't know the names of the
Cabinet Ministers. They don't know the offices at the Horse Guards.
They don't know who of the men of the day is dead and who is alive.
They don't know which of the Churches has Bishops and which not. Now
I'm sure I did not know these things. When I went to the Crimea I did
not know a Colonel from a Corporal. But there are such things as Army
Lists and Almanacs. Yet I never could find a woman who, out of
sympathy, would consult one--for my work. The only woman I ever
influenced by sympathy was one of those Lady Superintendents I have
named. Yet she is like me, overwhelmed with her own business.... In
one sense, I do believe I am "like a man," as Parthe says. But how?
_In having sympathy._ I am sure I have nothing else. I am sure I have
no genius. I am sure that my contemporaries, Parthe, Hilary, Marianne,
Lady Dunsany, were all cleverer than I was, and several of them
more unselfish. But not one had a bit of sympathy. Now Sidney
Herbert's wife just did the Secretary's work for her husband (which
I have had to do without) out of pure sympathy. She did not
understand his policy. Yet she could write his letters for him
"like a man." I should think M^{me} Récamier was another specimen
of pure sympathy.... Women crave _for being loved_, not for loving.
They scream out at you for sympathy all day long, they are
incapable of giving any in return, for they cannot remember your
affairs long enough to do so.... They cannot state a fact
accurately to another, nor can that other attend to it accurately
enough for it to become information. Now is not all this the result
of want of sympathy?...
You say of M^{me} Récamier that her existence was "empty but
brilliant." And you attribute it to want of family. Oh, dear
friend, don't give in to that sort of tradition. People often say
to me, You don't know what a wife and mother feels. No, I say, I
don't and I'm very glad I don't. And _they_ don't know what I
_feel_.... I am sick with indignation at what wives and mothers
will do of the most egregious selfishness. And people call it all
maternal or conjugal affection, and think it pretty to say so. No,
no, let each person tell the truth from his own experience. Ezekiel
went running about naked, "for a sign." I can't run about naked
because it is not the custom of the country. But I would mount
three widows' caps on my head, "for a sign." And I would cry, This
is for Sidney Herbert, This is for Arthur Clough, and This, the
biggest widow's cap of all, is for the loss of all sympathy on the
part of my dearest and nearest.[7] ...
I cannot understand how M^{me} Récamier could give "advice and
sympathy" to such opposite people as, _e.g._ M^{me} Salvage and
Chateaubriand. Neither can I understand how she could give
"support" without recommending a distinct line of policy,--by
merely keeping up the tone to a high one. It is as if I had said to
Sidney Herbert, Be a statesman, be a statesman--instead of
indicating to him a definite course of statesmanship to follow.
Also I am sure I never could have given "advice and sympathy" to
Gladstone and S. Herbert--men pursuing opposite lines of policy.
Also I am sure I never could have been the friend and adviser of
Sidney Herbert, of Alexander, and of others, by simply keeping up
the tone of general conversation on promiscuous matters. We debated
and settled _measures_ together. That is the way we did it. Adieu,
dear friend.... I have had two consultations. They say that all
this worry has brought on congestion of the spine which leads
straight to paralysis....
[7] The reference here is to the Aunt who, in earlier years, had been in
close companionship with her. At this time there was some
misunderstanding between them. Mrs. Smith's advancing age and home
claims brought a cessation of her constant activity in Miss
Nightingale's service; but in later years aunt and niece took much
counsel together in a resumed study of the religious subjects upon
which they had formerly held intimate converse: see below, pp. 353,
387.
(_Miss Nightingale to her Mother._) 9 CHESTERFIELD ST., W., _March_
7 [1862]. DEAREST MOTHER--So far from your letters being a "bore,"
you are the only person who tells me any news. I have never been
able to get over the morbid feeling at seeing my lost two's names
in the paper, so that I see no paper. I did not know of the deaths
you mention.... But they and others do not know how much they are
spared by having no bitterness mingled with their grief. Such
unspeakable bitterness has been connected with each one of my
losses--far, far greater than the grief.... Sometimes I wonder that
I should be so impatient for death. Had I only to stand and wait, I
think it would be nothing, though the pain is so great that I
wonder how anybody can dread an operation.... I think what I have
felt most (during my last three months of extreme weakness) is the
not having one single person to give me one inspiring word or even
one correct fact. I am glad to end a day which never can come back,
gladder to end a night, gladdest to end a month. I have felt this
much more in setting up (for the first time in my life) a
fashionable old maid's house in a fashionable quarter (tho'
grateful to Papa's liberality for enabling me to do so), because it
is, as it were, deciding upon a new and independent course in my
broken old age.... Thank you very much for the weekly box. I could
not help sending the game, chicken, vegetables and flowers to
King's College Hospital. I never see the spring without thinking of
my Clough. He used to tell me how the leaves were coming
out--always remembering that, without his eyes, I should never see
the spring again. Thank God! my lost two are in brighter springs
than ours. Poor Mrs. Herbert told me that her chief comfort was in
a little Chinese dog of his, which he was not very fond of either
(he always said he liked Christians better than beasts), but which
used to come and kiss her eyelids and lick the tears from her
cheeks. I remember thinking this childish. But now I don't. My cat
does just the same to me. Dumb beasts observe you so much more than
talking beings; and know so much better what you are thinking
of.... Ever, dear Mama, your loving child, F.
At the turn of the year, 1861-62, Miss Nightingale had been very ill;
and two physicians, Dr. Williams and Dr. Sutherland, were in daily
attendance. Happily, however, the case was by no means so serious as she
had reported to Madame Mohl, and in 1862 she was able to devote
unremitting labour to one of the heaviest, and most useful, pieces of
work which she ever did.
CHAPTER II
THE PROVIDENCE OF THE INDIAN ARMY
(1862, 1863)
In this case you are doing much more than providing for the health
of the Troops; for, to be effectual, the improvement must extend to
the civil population, and thus another great element of
Civilization will be introduced.--SIR CHARLES TREVELYAN (_Letter to
Florence Nightingale_, Aug. 11, 1862).
It is a commonplace that the British Empire in India was won and is held
by British arms. And this, though not the whole truth of the tenure by
which the Empire is held, is true. What is also true, but less generally
known, is that there have been heavier sacrifices than those demanded in
war and rendered glorious by British valour. The greater part of the
British lives that were shed in India were lost, not in battle, but by
disease. Burke said of British rule in India in his time: "England has
built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations. Were we driven
out of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been
possessed, during the inglorious period of our dominion, by anything
better than the ourang-outang or the tiger."[8] That was no longer true
at the time with which we are here concerned. The era had begun in which
it has been a song of the English to "drive the road and bridge the
ford." But the land was not yet "cleared of evil." The British soldier
was still sent out to India to die ingloriously by the neglect of
sanitary laws.
In 1859 it was found that the average annual death-rate among the
British soldiers in India since the year 1817 had been 69 per 1000.
To-day it is little over 5 per 1000. The changes in barracks and
military sanitation in India, which are primarily accountable for this
great saving of life, are directly traceable to the recommendations of
the Royal Commission which was appointed by Lord Stanley in 1859, and
which reported in 1863. Thus much the reader may find stated in any
trustworthy book of reference or other standard authority. What he will
not find generally stated is that the appointment of the Royal
Commission is directly traceable to Miss Nightingale, that by her the
greater part of its Report was written, and that the suggestions for
reform founded upon it were also her work. At an International Congress
held in London in 1860 a French delegate, as already related, spoke of
Florence Nightingale as "the Providence of the English Army." She was no
less the Providence of the Indian Army. To the British soldier in India,
as at home, she was "a saviour." In introducing this subject, we must go
back a little in point of time, for the Indian work had begun a few
years before the death of Sidney Herbert.
[8] Speech on Fox's East India Bill, Dec. 1, 1783 (_Burke's Speeches_,
1816, vol. ii. p. 430).
* * * * *
"I must tell you a secret," wrote Miss Nightingale to Harriet Martineau
in 1859 (May 19), "because I think it will please you. For eight long
months I have been 'importunate-widowing' my 'unjust judge,' viz. Lord
Stanley, to give us a Royal Sanitary Commission to do exactly the same
thing for the Armies in India which the last did for the Army at home.
We have just won it. The Queen has signed the Warrant. So it is safe.
Mr. Sidney Herbert is Chairman of course. Drs. Sutherland, Martin, Farr,
and Alexander, whose names will be known to you, and Sir R. Vivian and
Sir P. Cautley, of the India Council, are on it."
Miss Nightingale had made up her mind two years before to do this thing.
The Indian Mutiny, which filled some minds only with thoughts of
vengeance and repression against the native soldiers, filled hers rather
with thoughts of pity and reform on behalf of the British soldiers. She
had gone into the figures of mortality in the Indian army at the time
when she was analysing those in the army at home. There was "murder"
committed not only by the Sepoys. It was murder also to doom British
soldiers to death by neglect of sanitary precautions. At the end of her
_Notes on the Army_ (1857), she inserted a fly-leaf, which
foreshadowed her Indian campaign:--
While the sheets were passing through the press, those lamentable
occurrences took place in India which have led to an universal
conviction that this vast Empire must henceforth be held by British
troops. If we were to be led by past experience of the presumed
effect of Indian climates on European constitutions, our country
might almost despair of being able to supply men enough.... The
British race has carried with it into those regions of the sun its
habits, its customs, and its vices, without considering that under
a low temperature man may do with impunity what under a higher one
is death. Our vast Indian Empire consists of many zones, of many
regions, of many climates. On the mere question of climate, it is
surely within human possibility, even in the great majority of
instances, so to arrange the stations, and so to connect them, by
railroads and telegraphs, that the troops would hardly be required
to occupy unhealthy districts. Even with regard to such districts
the question arises to what extent the unhealthiness is inevitable,
and to what extent it would be remediable.... As an illustration of
the necessity of Government interference in this matter, it may be
stated, on the very first authority, that, after a campaign perhaps
one of the most arduous and successful on record, and when the
smallness of the British force and the season of the year required
every sanitary precaution to be taken for the preservation of the
force, a certain earnest, energetic Officer appointed a sanitary
inspector to attend to the cleansing of a captured city, and to the
burial of some thousand dead bodies of men, horses, asses,
bullocks, camels, and elephants, which were poisoning the air. The
Bombay Government, to which the appointment was referred, "would
not sanction it," "_because there was no precedent for it_"! In
future, it ought to be the duty of the Indian Government to require
no precedents for such procedure. The observance of Sanitary laws
should be as much part of the future _régime_ of India as the
holding of Military positions or as Civil government itself. It
would be a noble beginning of the new order of things to use
hygiene as the handmaid of civilization.
Everything that Miss Nightingale thus said should be done, was done; and
to the doing of it, she supplied, first, the propelling force, and,
then, much of the detailed direction.
First came the movement for getting the appointment of a Royal
Commission agreed to in principle. Miss Nightingale's reference to Lord
Stanley as her "unjust judge" need not be taken too seriously. He was
her very good friend, as we know;[9] and it was when he was transferred
from the Colonial to the India Office (1858) that she felt her time to
have come. And Lord Stanley agreed at once to her suggestion of
appointing _a_ Commission. It was when the consideration of _the_
Commission was reached that the delay began. Who should approach Lord
Stanley on the details? And how should it be done? Miss Nightingale and
what I have called her cabinet of reformers were equally interested in
the Sub-Commissions still sitting on Army Sanitation at home. Lord
Stanley wanted Mr. Herbert to undertake the chairmanship of the India
Commission. Should he accept it, at risk of diverting some of his
attention from these other reforms? Miss Nightingale and her friends hit
upon a plan, as she hoped, for killing two birds with one stone. It was
intimated to Lord Stanley that Mr. Herbert would accept the chairmanship
on condition that the pending reforms at home were hastened. I do not
know if the Indian Secretary came to terms with the War Secretary in
that sense; if he did, I fear that General Peel interpreted "haste" as
_festina lente_. Anyhow, Mr. Herbert accepted the chairmanship, and then
some months were spent in arranging the membership and the terms of
reference. There were to be three sanitary experts, a statistician, and
two members of the India Council. Of the two latter, one (Sir R. Vivian)
was a friend of Miss Nightingale's uncle, Mr. Smith; and of Sir Proby
Cautley she had heard good reports. The sanitarians--Drs. Sutherland,
Martin, and Alexander--and Dr. Farr, the statistician, were all of her
inner circle. At the last moment there was a fresh delay. The list was
submitted for the royal approval, and Her Majesty required that "a
Queen's officer of acknowledged experience in India" should be added to
the Commission. Mr. Herbert asked Miss Nightingale to supply a suitable
man, by which he meant a man whose acknowledged experience included some
belief in sanitary science. She took great pains, and employed some wile
in obtaining the best opinions. She wrote, for one thing, to her uncle,
telling him (May 19, 1859) to get at Sir John Lawrence, through his
friend Sir R. Vivian, and ask for suggestions. "Vivian must be soaped,"
she added, "so as not to let him think that we undervalue _his_
opinion." Sir John Lawrence did not, however, on this occasion prove
very resourceful; Miss Nightingale sent in the name of an officer,
Colonel E. H. Greathed, who had been commended to her through another
channel, and he was duly added to the Commission. At an earlier stage
she had thrown out the interesting suggestion that John Stuart Mill,
lately retired from the East India House, should be asked to serve, but
this did not meet with favour. "Our business," wrote one of her circle,
"is with spades and wheelbarrows," and he doubted whether "Compte" [sic]
could be put to such purposes. Miss Nightingale always thought that this
ally of hers, though invaluable in many ways, was a little wanting in
soul. So then the Commission was appointed. The Warrant was issued on
May 31, 1859. The Commission reported on May 19, 1863. There were some
changes in its personnel from death and other causes. On the overthrow
of the Derby Government, Mr. Herbert went to the War Office, and he
presently resigned the chairmanship. Lord Stanley succeeded him. The
members of the Commission on whom both Mr. Herbert and Lord Stanley most
relied were Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Farr, and a third, who was yet not a
member--Miss Nightingale. And among these three the lion's share of the
work was done by her.
[9] See Vol. I. p. 339.
II
She had not waited for the actual appointment of the Commission to begin
collecting, preparing, and digesting evidence for it. Her first concern
was to draft a circular of inquiry which should be sent to all the
Stations in India. It lacked nothing, as will be supposed, in requiring
fulness of statistical detail. When she had prepared it, she sent it in
proof to Sir John McNeill for his suggestions, asking him also (May 9,
1859) "kindly to give an opinion as to the general direction which the
Enquiry should take." In cases where she was personally acquainted with
Governors or high military or medical officers in India, she wrote
soliciting their good offices. Sir Charles Trevelyan, then Governor of
Madras, promised cordial co-operation. Then she and Dr. Farr set to work
on such statistical records as were obtainable from the East India
House. There is a bundle of correspondence amongst her Papers relating
to the difficulties she encountered, and surmounted, in obtaining
official sanction for clerical work in this regard. Dr. Farr's appetite
for statistics was as insatiable as hers, and she had taken means to lay
in ample supplies:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Dr. Farr._) HIGHGATE, _June_ 2, [1859]. Your
Commission was gazetted on May 31 and Mr. Herbert is in town. As it
will be necessary to obtain the Statistics of Sickness, Mortality,
and Invaliding of the Indian Army from the Medical Boards there,
would not some of the proposed forms for the Army Medical Dep. be
better than any other, filled up for each station with the Diseases
annually for a period say of 10 years? Or would it be necessary to
provide others? We must, of course, have the most minute
Statistics--both for Soldiers and Officers in the Queen's,
Company's and native troops. And these we should get by this method
for 10 years. I suppose the Medical Boards have the Presidency
Medical Book Records. Would it be necessary to get the Returns for
each Corps separately? Would it not be important to get the
ages--age and time of service at Death or Invaliding?
HAMPSTEAD, _Dec._ 6 [1859]. In consequence of your intemperate
desire to have the Indian Medical Service Regulations, we have
applied at the Great House for copies. And the answer is that they
have only one Office copy, and if we want any we must send to
India. Knowing their weakness, we had (in our "Queries") previously
sent to two hundred Stations in India for copies of all
"Regulations," and we hope the result will satisfy your literary
appetite.
Dr. Farr, then, was being fed with statistics. Officials in India were
being kept busy with forms to be filled up, and with the preparation of
other written evidence. In November 1859 the Commission began taking
oral evidence in London, but this was a comparatively minor part of its
labours, and during 1860 no public sittings were held. They were resumed
in 1861. Lord Stanley had then succeeded Mr. Herbert in the chair, but
Miss Nightingale's grip upon the Commission was not relaxed. Two of the
Commissioners, Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Farr, were in close touch with
her. The former was with her almost every day; the latter asked her to
send him questions which he should put to witnesses. As in the case of
the former Royal Commission, so now Miss Nightingale saw some of the
witnesses before they gave their evidence. Among her visitors in this
sort was Sir John Lawrence, as already mentioned, and a friendship began
which had important consequences. Seeing that everything was thus in
good train, Miss Nightingale was able during the years 1859-60-61 to
devote her main work to those other matters with which we have been
concerned in preceding Parts. In 1862, her main interest was in the
Indian Commission, and the amount of work which she gave to it during
1862-1863 was enormous.
Her manner of life during these years was similar to that described in a
previous chapter. Work for the Commission required her constant
attendance in London or within easy distance of it. In 1862 she lived
either in a hotel (Peary's, 31 Dover Street), a hired house (9
Chesterfield Street), or Sir Harry Verney's house in South Street.
During August and September she took a house in Oak Hill Park,
Hampstead. In 1863 she divided her time between Hampstead, hired houses
in Cleveland Row, and Sir Harry Verney's. Her affectionate friend,
Mrs. Sutherland, did all the house-hunting for her. Cleveland Row was
selected for its nearness to the War Office; and the convenience of the
site so far constrained Dr. Sutherland's sanitary conscience that he
declared Cleveland Row to be "the airiest place in London."
III
Few of my readers have come to close quarters, I suppose, with the
_Indian Sanitary Commission's Report_. It is a very formidable thing,
consisting of two bulky volumes, containing respectively 1069 and 959
pages--in all 2028 pages, mostly in small print. Of this mountainous
mass, the greater part bears in one way or another the impress of Miss
Nightingale. It was she, in the first place, as already stated, who
drafted the questions which were sent to every military station in
India. The replies, signed in each case by the commanding officer, the
engineer officer, and the medical officer, occupy the whole of the
second volume. The replies, as they came in from India, were sent to her
to analyse. There were van-loads of them, she said, which cost her
£4:10s. to move whenever she changed houses. With the analysis made by
her and Dr. Sutherland, these replies anticipated, as she afterwards
noted,[10] the Statistical Survey of India which Lord Mayo ordered ten
years later. It was said at the time that such a complete picture of
life in India, both British and native, was contained in no other book
in existence. In October 1861 she was formally requested by the
Commission to submit remarks on these Stational Reports. She had
completed the task by August 1862. The "Observations by Miss
Nightingale," which occupy twenty-three pages of the Report, are among
the most remarkable of her Works, and in their results among the most
beneficent. They are also extremely readable; and to make them more
instructive, she included a number of woodcuts illustrating, not only
Indian hospitals and barracks, but native customs in connection with
water-supply and drainage.[11] The Treasury--horrified perhaps at the
idea of popularizing a Blue-book--made some demur to the cost, but Miss
Nightingale was allowed to solve the difficulty by paying for the
printing, as well as for the illustrations, out of her private purse.
[10] In her _marginalia_ to Sir William Hunter's _Earl of Mayo_ (1891).
[11] Indian officers (and especially Colonel Young) supplied her with
sketches, some of which were touched up by her cousin, Miss Hilary
Bonham Carter.
She made full use of the opening which the niggardliness of the Treasury
gave her. She hurried the printers, and had a large number of her
"Observations" struck off for private use. "I have looked once more,"
wrote Lord Stanley (Nov. 21), "through your Remarks, and like them
better the oftener I read them. The style alone (apart from the
authority which your name carries with it) will ensure their being
studied by many who know nothing of the subject. They will admirably
relieve the dryness of our official Report. I hope every Indian and
English newspaper will reprint them, in extracts at least. They must be
circulated with our Report, separately from the too voluminous mass of
evidence which we can't help appending. You have added one more to your
many and invaluable services in the cause." "Miss Nightingale's Paper,"
wrote Dr. Farr to Dr. Sutherland (Dec. 1), "is a masterpiece, in her
best style; and will rile the enemy very considerable--all for his good,
poor creature."[12] But it was not only among the Commissioners that she
circulated her Paper. She sent it confidentially to many of her
influential friends. "The picture is terrible," wrote Sir John McNeill
(Aug. 9), "but it is all true. There is no one statement from beginning
to end that I feel disposed to question, and there are many which my own
observation and experience enable me to confirm." A copy went to John
Stuart Mill, who was much pleased with the "Observations," and was
certain that "the publication of them would do vast good." Miss
Nightingale had a copy bound for the Queen, and sent it--as also a copy
of her Paper on Sidney Herbert--through Sir James Clark, who marked
passages for the Queen to read. Her Majesty, he found from conversation,
had not confined her reading to those passages. The Queen in return sent
a copy of her Collection of Prince Albert's Speeches. "The Queen," wrote
Miss Nightingale to M. Mohl (Feb. 14, 1863), "has sent me her book with
such a touching inscription. She always reminds me of the Greek chorus
with her hands clasped above her head wailing out her irrepressible
despair."[13] Miss Nightingale sent her "Observations" also to Sir John
Lawrence, who studied them closely, and corresponded with her on the
subject. Another copy went to Sir Charles Trevelyan.[14] "Having," he
wrote (Oct. 31, 1862), "undertaken the duties of Financial Member of the
Council of India, I may now be able to give some help in carrying the
recommendations of your Commission into practical effect. You must not
expect from me as much as Sidney Herbert did, for my power will not be
the same. The Governor-General and the local Governors will alone be in
that position. But I shall do _what I can_. Perhaps you will send me a
copy of your Abstract of the Evidence, and direct my attention to the
points of more immediate importance. I shall be obliged for any hints."
Miss Nightingale responded by sending him papers enough to occupy all
his time on the voyage. She seems at this time to have entertained some
hope that her health would permit her, when the Report was out, to visit
India in person; for one of Sir Charles's letters refers to such a
visit, and expresses the pleasure which it would give to Lady Trevelyan
and himself to receive her as their guest, and in every way to assist
her mission. But this was not to be. Her knowledge of India and Indian
questions was already great, and presently it became so minute as to
encourage a legend that she herself had once been there.[15] But she
never saw the country. It is not always either the "life-long resident,"
or, on the other hand, "Padgett, M.P.," who is better qualified than the
student to perceive and serve a country's need.
[12] A true prediction: see Sir Bartle Frere's saying, below, p. 158.
[13] The inscription is: "To Miss Florence Nightingale in recollection
of the greatest and best of Princes from the beloved Prince's
broken-hearted Widow, Victoria R. Osborne, Jan. 13, 1863."
[14] He had been recalled from Madras in 1860.
[15] "It will be remembered that Miss Florence Nightingale came to this
country and was impressed with the idea that if India needed
anything it was village sanitation. She collected a mass of facts
and has since been agitating in England": _Amrita Bazar Patrika_
(Calcutta), June 29, 1892, reprinted in the _Indian Spectator_,
July 10.
Miss Nightingale's "Observations" form a synopsis of the whole subject.
Giving chapter and verse from the Stational reports for each of her
statements, she shows, first, that the prevailing diseases were camp
diseases such as she had seen in the Crimean War--largely due to the
selection of unsuitable sites. Among the causes were Bad Water, Bad
Drainage, Filthy Bazaars, Want of Ventilation, and Surface Overcrowding
in barrack-huts and sick-wards. Her remarks under these several heads
are often characteristically racy. "Where tests have been used, the
composition of the water reads like a very intricate prescription,
containing nearly all the chlorides, sulphates, nitrates, and carbonates
in the pharmacopoeia, besides silica and quantities of animal and
vegetable matter, which the reports apparently consider nutritive." "If
the facilities for washing were as great as those for drink, our Indian
army would be the cleanest body of men in the world." "There is no
drainage, in any sense in which we understand the word. The reports
speak of cesspits as if they were dressingrooms." "Except where the two
Lawrences have been--there one can always recognize their traces--the
bazaars are simply in the first savage stage of social savage life."
Under the head of "Overcrowding," she brings together various instances
with figures and woodcuts; she quotes one report which said that the men
(300 men per room!) "are generally accommodated in the barrack without
inconvenient overcrowding," and she asks, "What is _convenient_
overcrowding?" "At some stations the floors are of earth, varnished over
periodically with cow-dung: a practice borrowed from the natives. Like
Mahomet and the mountain, if men won't go to the dunghill, the dunghill,
it appears, comes to them." Her next section, on "Intemperance," is
scathing. In India, as at home,[16] it was a current opinion of the time
that the soldier is by nature a drunken animal; the only question seemed
to be as to how he had better get drunk. At one station, though the men
were reported as "mostly temperate," she found that on a ten years'
average one man in three was admitted into hospital directly from drink.
"The men are killed by liver disease on canteen spirits to save them
from being killed by liver disease on bazaar spirits. May there not be
some middle course whereby the men may be killed by neither?" Under
"Diet," she notes the absurdity of a uniform ration, in amount and
quality, in all seasons and climates; and ventures to doubt whether
cesspits are desirable adjuncts of kitchens. Her next head is "Want of
Occupation and Exercise"--a fruitful source of vice and disease. It is a
most interesting chapter, full of valuable hints and illustrated by an
amusing drawing, sent to her by Colonel Young, of "Daily Means of
Occupation and Amusement _passim_." Here, as in much else of Miss
Nightingale's work, she collected all the better opinions; she picked
out from the returns before her any hopeful experiments; enlarged upon
them, and drove the moral home. Her chapter on "Indian Hospitals" is
naturally very full and detailed. She discusses the prevalent structural
defects; suggests improvements in the internal arrangements; and notes
that there were "neither trained orderlies nor female nurses." On the
subject of "Hill Stations," Miss Nightingale's "Observations" show a
fear lest too much reliance should be placed upon their superior
salubrity. She quotes instances of terrible sanitary defects on hill
stations, and enforces the moral that "the salvation of the Indian army
must be brought about by sanitary measures everywhere." After discussing
"Native Towns," "Soldiers' Wives," and "Statistics," Miss Nightingale
insisted generally on the importance of instituting a proper system of
sanitary service in India. Henceforth, to the end almost of her long
life, she regarded herself, and in large measure was able to act, as a
sanitary servant to the army and peoples of India.
[16] See Vol. I. p. 277.
Miss Nightingale's "Observations" were only part of her share in the
labours of the Commission. They were followed in the Report by an
Abstract, arranged under Presidencies, of the Returns on which the
"Observations" were founded. This analysis, occupying nearly a hundred
pages, was drawn up, as already stated, by Miss Nightingale and Dr.
Sutherland. The manuscript of it, preserved amongst her papers, is
mainly in her handwriting. And she did much more, as will presently be
related.
IV
When the Commission of the Army in India was nearing the end of its
labours, an event happened which seemed to Miss Nightingale of crucial
importance. On April 14, 1863, she heard from Sir Harry Verney that Sir
George Lewis, the Secretary for War, had died suddenly on the previous
day. Sir Harry added that at the Service Clubs, Lord de Grey was talked
of as a probable successor, but that Lord Panmure's name was also
mentioned. From another and a better-informed source she heard that Lord
de Grey hoped to get the appointment, but that there were believed to be
two difficulties in the way. The Queen might object to the War Office
being given to a Minister who had not yet been in the Cabinet, and
pressure might be put upon Lord Palmerston from other quarters not to
appoint a Peer. Should either or both of these factors prevail,
Mr. Cardwell was believed to be the most probable successor. Now it
seemed to Miss Nightingale all-important that, when the Report on the
health of the army in India came out, the Secretary of State for War
should be a proved sanitarian. She did not want to have once more to
"bully the Bison," and she did not know much of Mr. Cardwell. She did
know Lord de Grey, and she knew him as a sympathiser in her cause.
Without a moment's delay she set herself to bring to bear in his favour
such influence as she might possess, either on her own account or as the
public legatee, as it were, of Sidney Herbert. A telegram written _en
clair_ and preserved by the recipient shows how a good press was secured
for Lord de Grey's appointment:--
_From_ Florence Nightingale to Harriet Martineau.--Agitate,
agitate, for Lord de Grey to succeed Sir George Lewis.
The world was duly informed next day (April 17) through the columns of
the _Daily News_ that public opinion expected the appointment of Lord de
Grey. But Miss Nightingale took other measures. She wrote a letter to
Lord Palmerston, and to his principal colleague, Mr. Gladstone, she sent
a copy of it. Mr. Gladstone, in reply, did not doubt that Lord
Palmerston had a very high opinion of Lord de Grey, but added on his own
part that he saw great difficulty in not having the head of the War
Office, with its vast expenditure, in the House of Commons. The letter
to Lord Palmerston, meanwhile, was delivered by a special messenger, who
had been strictly charged to make sure that the Minister read it at
once. The sequel, describing a somewhat curious scene, had better be
given in Sir Harry Verney's own words:--
CLEVELAND ROW, _Ap._ 15 [2.30]. From Hampstead I returned to South
Street, and found your letter. Thence to Cambridge House. Lord
Palmerston was so good as to admit me. I said that I had seen you
this morning, and that by your desire I requested him to allow me
to read a letter to him from you. He said, "Certainly"; and I read
it to him rather slowly. Having read it, I said that you had
mentioned this morning that within a fortnight of Lord Herbert's
death, he had said to you more than once that he hoped Lord de Grey
might be his successor. I then added, "I have not to request any
reply or observations on Miss Nightingale's letter. I have only to
thank you for your kindness in allowing me to read it." He took
the letter and put it in his pocket. He then asked how you are,
and where, and I told him. There is a Cabinet at 5.30 this
afternoon. I think that if Gladstone has your note before going to
it, it might be well.
She had anticipated Sir Harry's suggestion, as we have seen. The Prime
Minister put her letter into his pocket, but it did not stay there. He
took it with him to Windsor and read it to the Queen. On April 22 it was
announced that Her Majesty had been pleased to approve the appointment
of Lord de Grey as Secretary of State for War.
V
Miss Nightingale thus felt assured that when the Indian Report came out
she would have a sympathetic chief at the War Office, and she turned
with the greater zest to the next stage in her labours; namely, the
preparation of the Report by the Commissioners. The manuscript of the
first page or two (explaining the delay in issuing the Report and the
procedure of the Commission) is in Lord Stanley's handwriting (preserved
among Miss Nightingale's papers). He entrusted the preparation of the
first draft of the rest of the Report, for statistics to Dr. Farr, and
for the rest to Miss Nightingale and Dr. Sutherland. She had written a
first draft of the greater part of her sections of the Report as early
as April 1862. By August it was in type and corrected by Lord Stanley,
who "pledged himself to carry it through the Commission next month."[17]
But Dr. Farr's section was not so far advanced, and there were other
delays at which Miss Nightingale chafed not a little. In May 1863 the
last stage was reached. "I have done and shall do all in my power," Lord
Stanley wrote to her (July 10), "to make it public that to Dr.
Sutherland and you we mainly owe it that the Report has assumed its
present shape." Among her papers is a collection of proofs of the Report
in various stages; some corrected by Dr. Farr and Dr. Sutherland, others
corrected and re-corrected by her. The descriptive portion of the Report
is in substance a repetition of her "Observations," in the colder
language which is held to add weight and dignity to such documents;
though here and there Miss Nightingale's touch may be felt. The
magnitude of the evils which needed to be remedied is put in an
arresting way. "Besides deaths from natural causes [9 per 1000], 60 head
per 1000 of our troops perish annually in India. It is at that expense
that we have held dominion there for a century; a company out of every
regiment has been sacrificed every twenty months. These companies fade
away in the prime of life; leave few children; and have to be replaced,
at great cost, by successive shiploads of recruits." The cost of
preventable sickness in the Indian army was calculated at £388,000 a
year. The list of Recommendations with which the Report concludes may be
described as a Sanitary Charter for the Army in India--a Charter which
during many successive years was gradually put into force.
[17] Letter to Sir J. McNeill, Aug. 8, 1862.
Last of all came what Miss Nightingale considered the most vital point
of all--namely, the suggestion of practical machinery by which, if the
Government adopted it, the recommendations of the Commission might be
carried out. At this crucial point, she had a very stiff fight. The
machinery, as she had devised it, was to be twofold. First, there were
to be Sanitary Commissions appointed for each Presidency in India. On
this point, all the Commissioners seem to have been agreed; but it was
different with Miss Nightingale's second point. The reports which she
had read and marked from the Indian stations filled her with a fear that
if the whole of the initiative were left to India the work would in some
cases be negligently or unintelligently done. There had not yet been in
that country the same education of public opinion amongst the governing
class in the science of sanitation that had been in progress in England.
She deemed it essential that the machinery recommended by the Commission
should in one way or another include provision to secure for India the
experience already obtained in dealing with all kinds of sanitary
questions in England. She had formulated her own plans to this end at an
early stage of the Commission. What she first suggested was a Sanitary
Department at the India Office, and this, as we shall hear in a later
chapter (p. 153), was ultimately established. It had been well if the
suggestion had been accepted from the beginning, for the compromise
which was substituted led to some confused friction between the War
Office and the India Office. As the second-best plan, Miss Nightingale
wanted the standing Sanitary Committee at the War Office,[18] reinforced
by one or two representatives of India, to be invested with authority
over Indian sanitation, and she wanted, secondly, a Sanitary Code to be
issued for India by the Home Government. She had named the two Indian
officials, and had urged the addition of Mr. Rawlinson, at that time the
leading sanitary engineer in England.[19] But on all this there was some
difference of opinion. She was kept informed from day to day of the
currents of thought among the Commissioners, and of the course of the
discussions. The letters, minutes, memoranda in which she urged her
views are many. She had first to persuade Lord Stanley, and this in
personal interviews she succeeded in doing. She begged him to open the
subject to Sir Charles Wood, the Secretary for India, who did not take
the suggestion amiss. There were still, however, some contrary opinions,
but ultimately her policy prevailed. "I cannot help telling you, in the
joy of my heart," she wrote to Harriet Martineau (May 19), "that the
final meeting of the Indian Sanitary Commission was held to-day--that
the Report was signed--and that after a very tough battle, lasting three
days, to convince these people that a Report was not self-executive, our
Working Commission was carried, not quite in the original form proposed,
but in what may prove a better working form because grafted on what
exists. This is the dawn of a new day for India in sanitary things, not
only as regards our Army, but as regards the native population." But
Miss Nightingale was never content to let the light steal in gradually;
she wanted to secure for the Report of the Commission the fullest
possible glare of publicity.
[18] The Barrack and Hospital Commission, re-named the Army Sanitary
Committee in 1865; see p. 65.
[19] Her nominations were, in the end, all approved. The Indian
representatives were Sir Proby Cautley and Sir James Ranald Martin.
Her first concern was to get early notices of the Report in the
newspapers. The daring, the celerity, the energy of her moves might
excite the admiration even of the greatest experts in this sort of our
own day. The gist of the Report, so far as its statement of the facts
was concerned, was contained in her own "Observations"; and, as
explained above, she had already circulated these both in India and at
home. Having thus, as it were, salted the ground, she prepared for the
official publication. As one of the principal authors of the Report, she
was obviously entitled to some copies. She obtained a note from Lord
Stanley, the Chairman, to that effect. The Queen's printer,
Mr. Spottiswoode, was her very good friend, having been associated with
her in more than one philanthropic enterprise, and, after seeing Lord
Stanley's note, he promised to use every expedition and to let Miss
Nightingale have some of the very earliest copies. She sent them off
immediately; to various influential friends (Sir John Lawrence among the
number), but principally to writers for the press; and with regard to
these latter, there was no reason why she should tell each recipient of
the special early copy that he was not the only individual so favoured.
A Blue-book of 2028 pages is not mastered in a minute, and people
wondered how so many of the newspapers and magazines were able to notice
the Report so fully on the instant. "Mr. Baker [the Clerk to the
Commission] has regained his equanimity," wrote the printer (July 23);
"but for three days he could not recover the shock of your rapid
action." Miss Nightingale's celerity may well have seemed indecent to
the leisurely official mind; for six months were allowed to pass before
the Government of India was officially provided with copies of the
Report! This delay may seem incredible to those not well versed in such
affairs, but it is recorded in a Government Dispatch,[20] and an
investigation made by Miss Nightingale into another delay of a like kind
may perhaps afford an explanation.[21] Meanwhile, in July 1863, she
had, for some days previous to the issue of the Report, been arranging
for reviews in newspapers and magazines, in Edinburgh and Dublin as well
as in London. Mr. W. R. Greg was especially helpful; he contributed
notices to three important periodicals--the _Economist_, the _National
Review_, and the _Spectator_. Miss Nightingale was diligent also in
coaching Harriet Martineau, writing at great length to explain the
points on which public opinion might most usefully declare itself. Miss
Martineau wrote on the Report in the _Daily News_, _Macmillan's
Magazine_, and _Once a Week_; and on her own part she had a contribution
to make to the cause. She was an old friend of Lord and Lady Elgin.
Should she write to them? The indefatigable Miss Nightingale at once
sent her the heads of a letter on the subject which should go
immediately to the Viceroy.
[20] "On the 5th February 1864, the Government of India informed the
Secretary of State that, in consequence of the non-arrival of the
Report of the Royal Commission, it had not been possible to carry
out the measures indicated in the despatch of the 15th August, but
that having just received a few copies, &c., &c." (_Memorandum on
Measures adopted for Sanitary Improvements in India up to the end
of 1867_, p. 2).
[21] See below, p. 49 _n._
Though Miss Nightingale attached importance to notices in the press, she
was equally eager that the Report itself should attract the attention of
influential individuals in and out of Parliament. And here at the outset
she met with a severe check which, however, by her energy and resource
was turned to the greater advantage of the cause. The Blue-books were of
enormous bulk, and a smaller edition had been prepared, apparently by
the Clerk. Owing to what was officially described as "a mistake," it was
this smaller edition that was "presented to both Houses of Parliament by
command." It alone was placed on sale to the public; the 1000 copies of
the complete work (of which the printer had been ordered to break up the
type) were reserved for the press and for official purposes. They could
be obtained (on application) by members of Parliament, but were not
accessible to the public. The smaller edition, which the officials
designed for public use, did not contain Miss Nightingale's
"Observations" (though these were referred to in the Report) and did not
contain the evidence from the Indian Stations. It gave instead a "précis
of evidence" made by the Clerk. This, as Miss Nightingale thought, was
badly done, and, moreover, referred in the margin to passages which
again were not accessible to the public. Miss Nightingale was naturally
and justly indignant at a proceeding which thus left the
recommendations of the Commission unsupported, so far as the public were
concerned, by the essential facts. She set herself with characteristic
energy to rectify the official "mistake," or, as she suspected, to
circumvent the design. If indeed there were any intention to withhold
from the public eye the full extent of the terrible state of things in
India, the authors of the design had counted without the formidable
Lady-in-Chief. As for the partial suppression of her own "Observations,"
that was easily rectified. Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Farr, incensed at the
treatment which she had received, promptly made arrangements with a
publisher for the separate issue of her "Observations."[22] This little
"red book" had a large sale, and was widely reviewed in the press.
Thereby the subject received a second series of notices. "It is not a
book," said one of the reviewers, "but a great action." But Miss
Nightingale herself was more concerned with the wide circulation of the
Blue-books themselves. First, she wrote round to every member of
Parliament whom she knew, informing them of the facts and begging them
to apply for the unmutilated edition. One of the answers she received
was from Lord Shaftesbury (Aug. 22): "I will immediately apply for the
copy of evidence you mention, but ought we not to insist when Parliament
meets that it be fully circulated like any other document? Sir C. Wood
may have made a 'mistake,' but a far greater mistake would be to bury
this important matter in the 'tomb of all the Capulets.' ... You have
achieved very grand things; and you must thank God that He has called
you to such a work, and has so blessed it. I have much to talk to you
about."[23] Secondly, she extracted a promise that inquirers at
Hansard's office should be informed that copies of the unmutilated
edition could be obtained by the public on application at the Burial
Board Office.[24] She took very good care that they should not be buried
there. She prompted all sorts and conditions of persons among her
acquaintances to apply, and there was a run on the book. Next, and
chiefly, she was anxious that the essential parts of the Report should
come under the notice of every officer and every official in India who
was in any degree responsible for the health of the army and who might
be brought by a knowledge of the facts to further the cause of sanitary
reform. The way in which she achieved her purpose was characteristic.
Miss Nightingale had a personal grievance in this matter; and she used
it, as on a previous occasion she had used her personal prestige, to
gain a public end. To an intimate friend in the War Office, she was
downright: "Done in some way or other, I am determined it shall be." But
to the great men above him, she was suave--insidiously and dangerously
suave. She entirely agreed that it would be expensive to reprint, and
absurd to circulate widely, two enormous Blue-books of 2028 pages.
Nobody would read them. But on the other hand was it not a little unfair
to her to circulate an abridged edition, from which was excluded all the
material upon which, at the request of the Commission, she had spent
years of labour? But what was to be done? She knew how busy all
Government officials were; but she would willingly undertake the task of
putting together an amended edition of the smaller issue. Would the
Treasury object to the cost? If so, she would bear it. In one way and
another, she said, she had spent £700 in connection with the former
Report on the British Army; the cost of similar work in connection with
India would be less, and she would gladly defray it. Lord de Grey
authorized her to proceed on August 26, and for the next three months
she was busy in preparing the Report in the form in which it was to be
circulated among military and medical officers.[25] But she was not
quite satisfied yet. She had provided means for bringing her horses to
water, but who was to make them drink? Her amended report was to be
circulated amongst the Army in India, but would it be read? She was
afraid not, unless the Secretary of State specially commended it to the
attention of his subordinates. Did the War Office shrink from taking
initiative in a matter which also concerned the India Office? "But
surely Sir Charles Wood will be very grateful to you for remedying his
mistake." The Minister assented, and a preface was added to Miss
Nightingale's edition of the Report, in which the Secretary for War
explained that it was circulated "with a view of affording information
on the subject to Commanding, Engineering, and Medical Officers." Of
course there were official delays, and this edition of the Report was
not issued till August 1864, but it gave Miss Nightingale opportunity of
organizing yet another press crusade. Through Sidney Herbert's friend,
Count Strzelechi, who was also a friend of Delane, she was able to
secure a series of articles in the _Times_ on the sanitary needs of
India.[26] The Count was very proud of what he had been able to do for
her. None of Miss Nightingale's official works obtained a wider
circulation than the "Observations"; nor, I suppose, did any Blue-book
on such a subject ever attain a greater amount of publicity.
[22] Bibliography A, No. 34.
[23] Miss Nightingale's letter to Lord Shaftesbury is printed in his
_Life_, p. 581.
[24] This was not designedly a practical joke. The Clerk to the
Commission held a post in the Board.
[25] See Bibliography A, No, 33 (3).
[26] A leading article appeared on August 23, introducing a series of
"special articles" which began on the following day.
VI
But all this was only a preliminary. Public attention had been aroused,
and every one said vaguely that something must be done. It remained for
Government to do it. The steps which Miss Nightingale took to this end,
the obstacles which she encountered, the measure of success which she
attained, will be described in the next chapter.
The work, which has been described in foregoing pages and which Miss
Nightingale continued during the following year, was very heavy, and it
was all done under grievous physical disability. In 1857-58, when she
was doing like work in connection with the Royal Commission on the Home
Army, though she was in very delicate health, she had yet been able to
move about. When Sidney Herbert could not come to see her, she could go
to see him. But now in 1863, when work for the Commission on the Indian
Army was at its height, she was bedridden. When she invited a nursing
friend to her house, the formula was "Will you come and spend Saturday
to Monday in bed with me?" She could only receive her visitors, if at
all, in her own room, and all her writing was done in bed. She was
sustained through these disabilities partly, it may be, by the
consciousness of power and by satisfaction in its exercise, but
principally by passionate devotion to her cause. And there was another
feeling which gave her strength, as appears from many a passage in her
private letters. She was carrying out, as best she could alone, the
"joint work" which had been left "unfinished" at Sidney Herbert's death.
"There is no feeling more sustaining," Sir John McNeill had said to her,
when Arthur Clough was also taken from her, "than that of being alone."
So, in some sort, I think, she found it. And sometimes, as to one who
stretches out his hands in yearning for the further shore, there seemed
to come to her voices of encouragement. "I heard the other day," she
said in 1863, "of two Englishmen who were nearly lost by being caught by
the tide on the coast of France, and a little French fisher-girl ran all
along the wet sands to show them the only rock, half a mile from the
shore, which the tide did not cover, where of course she was obliged to
stay with them. It got quite dark, the water rose above their knees, but
presently they heard a sound, faint and far off, and the little girl
said, 'They think the tide is turning, they are shouting to cheer us!' I
often think I hear those on the far-off shore who are shouting to cheer
me."
CHAPTER III
SETTING REFORMERS TO WORK
(1863-1865)
I am more hopeful than you appear to be in regard to the good
likely to be effected by the Report. Although our Indian
administration has great difficulties to contend with owing to the
nature of the country and the people, it is both honest and able;
and I never knew a public measure, the advantage of which was
generally admitted, which ultimately was not properly taken in
hand.--SIR CHARLES TREVELYAN (_Letter to Florence Nightingale_,
Aug. 24, 1862).
In the last chapter we traced Miss Nightingale's hand throughout the
famous Report of the Indian Sanitary Commission. We saw how she worked
for the inclusion, in the Commissioners' recommendations, of machinery
for getting the other recommendations adopted; we saw, too, how cleverly
she man[oe]uvred to obtain wide publicity and discussion for the whole
subject. But this was not enough for her. She had created a favourable
atmosphere; she had provided suitable machinery; it remained to set the
wheels going round. "Reports are not self-executive": she applied her
words in this fresh direction; and, as in the case of the Home
Commission five years before, so now she gave not a moment's rest to
herself or to anybody else whom she could influence until reforms,
recommended by the Report, were set on foot.
Miss Nightingale was as eager, in as great a hurry to begin, as
determined to have her way, as before; but the difficulties were now
greater. In the case of the Home Army, only one department (though that,
to be sure, was a dual one) was concerned; in the case of Sanitary
measures for the Army in India, there were the India Office and the
Government of India to be considered as well as the War Office. And
everybody, who knows anything about public affairs, knows what it means
to the cause of prompt efficiency if departments begin wrangling with
each other. And then Miss Nightingale had no longer her "dear master."
Lord Stanley, the Chairman of the Indian Commission, was friendly, and
sincerely desirous to see things done; but he was not an enthusiast. His
temperament was cool; his judgment, critical. But, as I have already
said, he had a great belief in Miss Nightingale, and though she did not
always find him an easy man to drive, she did it. The moment the Report
was signed she was up and at him. He must do as Sidney Herbert did; that
is, go at once to Ministers and insist on immediate steps being taken to
put the recommendations of the Report into operation. Otherwise, all
their labour might dissolve in air. Lord Stanley proposed to wait and
see:--
(_Lord Stanley to Miss Nightingale._) _July_ 10, 1863. ... Do not
fear that Lord Herbert's work will be left unfinished: sanitary
ideas have taken root in the public mind, and they cannot be
treated as visionary. The test of experience is conclusive. The
ground that has been gained cannot be lost again.----_July_ 12....
The first step is to ask what the War and India departments will
do. If on consideration they consent to the appointment of the
commissions recommended with or without modification of our plan,
the thing is fairly started. I am inclined to believe that they
will be found willing. But we must give them time to read the
report. If they object to do anything, other methods may be tried.
We have friends in the Indian Council, and Lord de Grey is a
Sanitarist. I quite agree in what you say as to its being a duty to
help the ministry of the day in working out their plans.
Practically I have acted on this rule. Few matters pass in the
India Office that do not come before me. But such help cannot be
offered by an outsider--it must be asked by those who are
responsible. If Sir C. Wood desires assistance in giving effect to
the sanitary projects, I will not refuse it. There is ample time to
consider all this.
So Lord Stanley was waiting to be asked. Then it became Miss
Nightingale's business to contrive that he should be asked. She saw Lord
de Grey, begged him to go forthwith to the India Office, and to suggest
to Sir Charles Wood that he should talk matters over with Lord Stanley.
The thing was done:--
(_Lord Stanley to Miss Nightingale._) _July_ 24. I have had several
conversations with Sir C. Wood, and from the language he now holds,
I consider it settled that the report of the commissioners will be
acted upon--the W.O. Commission being enlarged for the purpose of
dealing with Indian questions. I have also arranged with him for
the settlement of all personal claims arising out of our
enquiry.[27] I hope, therefore, that we may look on our work as
done for the present. It is probable that difficulties will arise
out of the conflicting claims of the Indian and home authorities:
but these we must be prepared for, and deal with as they come
up. So far, all has gone well.
[27] Mr. Herbert had promised, but apparently only by word of mouth,
that the services rendered by Dr. Farr and Dr. Sutherland to the
Commission should be paid. Miss Nightingale was able to confirm the
promise.
The Duke of Newcastle wrote to her to like effect (Aug. 31): "The Report
on the Indian Army is attracting much attention, and I have no doubt it
will do a great deal of good, tho' there is supposed to be still a very
strong obstructive power in the India Office." For a time, it seemed as
if official measures would be taken with reasonable celerity. Two
members, to represent India, were added to the Barrack and Hospital
Improvement Commission. The Secretary for India sent a dispatch (Aug.
15) suggesting the formation of Sanitary Commissions as recommended in
the Report. Miss Nightingale was asked to draft a code of suggestions
which might be sent out to India. But soon there was a hitch. The
military element in the India Office quarrelled with the Report, and it
was intimated that there might be similar criticism from the military
element in the Government of India. The accuracy of Dr. Farr's
statistics was to be impugned; and it was to be objected that Miss
Nightingale's "Observations" did not in all cases reflect the present
state of the Indian stations. As if reports, which had taken and must
have taken months and months to collect, could possibly have been
brought up to the last moment! And as if the mere fact that such reports
had been called for was not likely to lead to some improvement! These
things need not detain us. They were, as Miss Nightingale put it, "the
Crimea over again," "these and those" protesting that things were not so
bad as they had been painted, and that in any case it was not A who was
to blame, but B. But meanwhile everything was hung up. Lord Stanley, the
Chairman of the Commission, whose Report was impugned, was in the
country. Miss Nightingale "urged and baited him" (so she described it)
to come up to London and return to the charge. He came in November, and
had an interview with her before seeing Sir Charles Wood.
II
And now an event occurred which was followed by results of consequence
to her cause. Lord Elgin, the Viceroy, while travelling in the
Himalayas, was stricken down by a heart complaint from which he was not
expected to recover. The question of a successor became urgent. The
minds of many turned to Sir John Lawrence, but, with one exception, no
Indian civilian since Warren Hastings had permanently held the office of
Viceroy. Miss Nightingale had unbounded admiration for him. The
soldier's heart in her loved his heroic deeds. "What would Homer have
been," she once said, "if he had had such heroes as the Lawrences to
sing?"[28] Personal intercourse had filled her with closer admiration
for what Lord Stanley called "a certain heroic simplicity" in the man,
for his unaffected piety, his rugged honesty, his deep sympathy with
human suffering. In later years a photograph of Watts's portrait of
Lawrence always hung in Miss Nightingale's room. At the moment with
which we are now concerned, she regarded him as the indispensable man
for India, not more on account of the threatening border war on the
north-west frontier (the consideration which doubtless most moved Lord
Palmerston), than on account of his sympathy with the cause of sanitary
reform. An opportunity came for putting in her word. Sir Charles Wood
consulted his predecessor at the India Office, and Lord Stanley in turn
talked matters over with Miss Nightingale. She urged him with fervent
eagerness to do everything in his power to promote the appointment of
Sir John Lawrence. Lord Elgin died on November 20. Lawrence was
appointed on November 30, and was to start for India immediately:--
(_Lord Stanley to Miss Nightingale._) _Dec._ 1. I saw Sir C. Wood
yesterday. The sanitary question was gone into, tho' not so fully
as I could have wished. Sir J. Lawrence's appointment is a great
step gained. He knows what is wanted, and has no prejudices in
favour of the existing military administration. I shall see him
to-night and shall probably be able to have some talk with him on
the subject. But why should not he see you? The plans are in the
main yours; no one can explain them better: you have been in
frequent correspondence with him. I believe there will now be but
little difficulty in India.... Let me repeat--you must manage to
see Sir John Lawrence. He does not go till the 10th. Your position
in respect of this whole subject is so peculiar that advice from
you will come with greater weight than from anyone else.
[28] Letter to Harriet Martineau (Feb. 2, 1865).
Miss Nightingale was among the first to offer congratulations to the new
Viceroy; the terms in which she addressed him expressed what she
sincerely and intensely believed:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Sir John Lawrence._) Among the multitude of
affairs and congratulations which will be pouring in upon you,
there is no more fervent joy, there are no stronger good wishes,
than those of one of the humblest of your servants. For there is no
greater position for usefulness under heaven than that of the
government of the vast Empire you saved for us. And you are the
only man to fill it. So thought a statesman with whom I worked not
daily, but hourly, for five years, Sidney Herbert--when the last
appointment was made. In the midst of your pressure pray think of
us, and of our sanitary things on which such millions of lives and
health depend.[29]
[29] From the _Life of Lord Lawrence_, by R. Bosworth Smith, 1885,
vol. ii. p. 278.
Prompted by Lord Stanley, Miss Nightingale asked the new Viceroy to
call. He was the first of a succession of high Indian officials who made
a point of coming to Miss Nightingale before leaving for their posts.
The interview took place on December 4. Miss Nightingale never forgot
either the interview itself or Lord Stanley's kindly anxiety that it
should take place. Thirty years later (Feb. 17, 1893), in sending
Aitchison's Memoir of Lord Lawrence to Sir Harry Verney, she wrote: "How
many touches--short but sweet--I could add to the book! The real tale of
Sir J. Lawrence's appointment as Viceroy will never be told. During the
only ten days left to Lawrence before he started, he came to see me. How
kind it was of Lord Stanley. He came like a footman to my door, and,
without giving his name, sent up to ask whether Sir John Lawrence was
coming. The interview was one never to be forgotten."
Sir John Lawrence discussed the sanitary question with Miss Nightingale
in all its bearings, and they exchanged views further by correspondence
before he left London:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Dr. Farr._) _Dec._ 10. I have had the great joy
of being in constant communication with Sir John Lawrence, and of
receiving his commands to do what I had almost lost the hope of
being allowed to do--viz. of sending out full statements and
schemes of what we want the Presidency Commissions to do. I should
be glad to submit to you copies of papers of mine which he desired
me to write and which he took out with him, as to the constitution
of the Presidency Commissions, if you care to see them. They are,
of course, confidential. I have also seen Lord Stanley more than
once during these busy days. And with Sir John Lawrence's command,
we feel ourselves empowered to begin the Home Commission,[30] and
to further our plans upon it. Sir John Lawrence, so far from
considering our Report exaggerated, considers it under the mark.
[30] That is the Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission (Army
Sanitary Committee), reinforced by India Office representatives,
which was to issue Sanitary Suggestions for the Government of India.
Thus was preparation made for putting the Report into execution in
India. During Lawrence's Viceroyalty, Sir Bartle Frere was governor of
Bombay. "Men used to say," he told Miss Nightingale, "that they always
knew when the Viceroy had received a letter from Florence Nightingale:
it was like the ringing of a bell to call for sanitary progress."
III
Within a month of his arrival in India, Sir John Lawrence had set the
Sanitary Commissions on foot, and nothing was wanting except hints and
instructions from home:--
(_Sir John Lawrence to Miss Nightingale._) CALCUTTA, _Feb._ 5
[1864]. I write a line to say that we have commenced work by
establishing our Sanitary Committees for Calcutta, Madras, and
Bombay. They are composed of five members. A Civilian is at their
head, and a Medical Officer as Secretary. I hope that you will
expedite the transmission to India of the codes and rules and plans
which have been approved of for home and the colonies. We shall
then have an idea in a practical shape of the main features of the
sanitary system, and can readily adapt it to the peculiar
circumstances of the country. Without such a guide we shall often
be perhaps working in direct opposition to your views. Where we
differ, it will become our duty to set forth the grounds for so
doing, in sending our plans and reports home. Pray excuse this
hurried scrawl, and believe me, Sincerely yours, JOHN LAWRENCE.
It was not Miss Nightingale's fault that this plea for expedition was
necessary. In December 1863 Lord de Grey had again asked her to draft a
letter to the India Office, as from the War Office, on the measures
recommended by the Royal Commission, and she had done it. But days,
weeks, months passed, and nothing happened. In January 1864 her
"Suggestions in regard to Sanitary Works required for the Improvement of
Indian Stations,"[31] written at the urgent request of the
Governor-General, were ready, Dr. Sutherland, Dr. Farr, and
Mr. Rawlinson collaborating with her. Again months passed and nothing
happened. The Barrack and Hospital Improvement Committee had been
officially informed in December of the appointment of the Indian
members, and requested to report on any matters which might be referred
to it by the Secretary for India or the Secretary for War; but as yet no
Indian reference had been made. Miss Nightingale chafed sorely at the
needless delay. The Governor-General wrote to her again and again
pressing for the Suggestions. She had done her part long ago; the War
Office had been in possession of her Draft for months. She tried plain
pressure, and pressure barbed with sarcasm. "Poor man!" she wrote in
forwarding to the War Office one of the Governor-General's letters
(March 10); "he really expects despatch. He thinks we can write a letter
in three months! He must be more fit for a Lunatic Asylum than for a
Governor-Generalship." Or, when the Government had been having a close
division in the House,[32] she tried to play the India Office against
the War Office. "You will all be 'out' this session," she wrote to the
War Office (March 7, 1864); "after which I shall be able to get what I
like from Lord Stanley [I.O.], but _you_ will not be able to get what
you like from Gen. Peel [W.O.]. It is therefore very desirable that this
letter should be written now at once while you are still 'in.'" It
turned out that the reason of the delay was this: the War Office _had_
sent a preliminary letter to the India Office, and the India Office
resented it. Sir Charles Wood, it was explained to Miss Nightingale, had
"snubbed" Lord de Grey. The War Office was sulking in its tents
accordingly. The India Office, on its part, was standing on its dignity,
and was not going to place itself in the humiliating position of taking
action proposed to it by the War Office. And this was the reason why
Miss Nightingale's Suggestions, for which the Governor-General was
asking, were still pigeon-holed. As for minor recommendations in the
Royal Commission's Report, it was quite true that many of them could be
carried out by administrative order, and some of them were; but the
difficulty in the case of others was that it had hitherto passed the wit
of man to discover with whom the power, or the responsibility, of making
the order lay. Well may Miss Nightingale have written, as she did in
more than one letter of this time (Jan. 1864): "No impression in all my
life was ever 'borne in upon me' more strongly than this, that the
Ministers have never considered the respective jurisdictions of the W.O.
and the I.O., and that I.O., W.O., Horse Guards at home,
Commander-in-Chief in India, Governor-General in India are as little
defined as to the respective powers and duties as if India were the
Sandwich Islands."
[31] Bibliography A, No. 24.
[32] On March 1, on a debate on the Yeomanry, the majority had been 1.
On the major matter, the dispatch of sanitary suggestions to guide the
Indian authorities, Miss Nightingale now resolved that the delay should
come to an end. She had drafted an ultimatum to the War Office,
threatening an attack in the House of Commons, when Lord Stanley, a
prominent member of the Opposition, appeared on the scene. He had
forewarned Miss Nightingale, as we have heard, that departmental
jealousies would cause some delay; but seven months had now passed since
the Report of his Commission had been issued, and he seems to have
thought that this was time enough to allow for the two offices to let
off steam between themselves. He wrote to Miss Nightingale suggesting
that he should come to see her, and offering, if she approved, to put
pressure either upon Lord de Grey or upon Sir Charles Wood. Miss
Nightingale loyally gave her friends at the War Office a last chance,
but they did not care to take it. Lord Stanley saw Sir Charles Wood
accordingly, promised him parliamentary support in any action which he
might take, and matters were at last arranged. Miss Nightingale's draft
"Suggestions" were submitted to the Barrack and Hospital Improvement
Commission, and with slight alterations were adopted by that body. It
was a War Office Commission, but the dignity of the India Office was
consulted by the statement on the title-page of the Blue-book, that the
Suggestions had been prepared by the said Commission "in accordance with
Letters from the Secretary of State for India in Council." The fact was
that they were prepared by Miss Nightingale in accordance with the
wishes of Sir John Lawrence.
When once the "Suggestions" had been passed officially, it was within
her power, by the simple expedient of laying in a stock of early copies,
to prevent a moment's further delay. She used the power; and could not
deny herself a few genial taunts at her official friends. "I beg to
inform you," she wrote to Captain Galton at the War Office (Aug. 8),
"that by the first mail after signature I sent off by H.M.'s book-post,
at an enormous expense (I have a good mind to charge it to you!), to Sir
John Lawrence direct no end of copies of _Suggestions_ (also to the
Presidency Commissions); and that, as he is always more ready to hear
than you are to pray (you sinners!), I have not the least doubt that
they will have been _put in execution_ long before the India Office has
even begun to send them."[33] She was not far wrong; six or seven weeks
elapsed before the official copies were sent,[34] and meanwhile Miss
Nightingale was able to get in another gibe. She heard from Sir John
Lawrence that he had ordered the _Suggestions_ to be reprinted in India.
"It might be as well," she wrote to the War Office, "to hurry your
copies for the India Office, who will otherwise receive them first from
India."
[33] This was no idle taunt. The Government of India had already put in
force some of the recommendations of the Royal Commission before it
had officially received copies of the Report: see above, p. 34 and
_n._
[34] Miss Nightingale conducted a secret inquiry, which would have done
credit to a detective-inspector, into the causes of this delay.
According to "information received," the first cause was that the
final printing order was delayed while communications went to and
fro between the War Office and the India Office upon the number of
copies required. Then the supply ultimately ordered by the latter
passed leisurely from one sub-department to another. Finally, the
stock reposed a while at a warehouse across the water, until there
were sufficient official papers to fill certain regulation cases of
a regulation size.
IV
In India itself, advance, with Sir John Lawrence at the helm, was rapid.
The President and the Secretary of each Sanitary Commission were
required to devote their whole attention to the work. They were charged
to "consider and afford advice and assistance in all matters relative to
the health of the Army, and to supervise the gradual introduction of
sanitary improvements in Barracks, Hospitals, and Stations, as well as
in Towns in proximity to Military Stations." Of every step taken, Miss
Nightingale was kept informed. Sir John wrote to her frequently to
report progress; he described to her the condition of all the Stations
he had inspected on his way up to Simla; he applied to her for
information on special points. His private secretary, Dr. Hathaway, who
also had seen Miss Nightingale before he left England, wrote yet more
fully and frequently. The President of the Bengal Commission was
Mr. Strachey.[35] He, too, had made Miss Nightingale's acquaintance, and
they corresponded at great length. Dr. J. P. Walker, a surgeon in the
Indian Army, was in England in December 1863. He wrote to Miss
Nightingale, as a devoted follower of her school. He went out to India,
was appointed Secretary of the Bengal Commission, and at every stage
consulted her and reported to her. Mr. R. J. Ellis, President of the
Madras Commission, and Dr. Leith, President of the Bombay one, also
corresponded with her. To any official in India, from the
Governor-General downwards, who was ready to listen, Miss Nightingale
had much to say. The correspondence with Sir John Lawrence is the most
interesting:--
(_Sir John Lawrence to Miss Nightingale._) SIMLEH, _June_ 12
[1864]. It was truly kind of you to write and give me so nice an
account of my children.... What an exciting time must Garibaldi's
visit to England have been. He is indeed a noble fellow, and fully
worthy of all our sympathies. I only trust that he will be
persuaded to keep quiet and bide his time. A good day for his
country, if the people only deserve it, must surely come. I am
doing what I can to put things in order out here; but it is a very
uphill work, and many influences have to be managed and overcome. I
often think of the last visit I paid you before leaving England and
of your conversation on that occasion. You will recollect how much
I dwelt on the difficulties which meet one on every side. These
have been exemplified in a way I could scarcely understand or
anticipate, by the good folks of England really believing that I
had sanctioned an attack on the religion of the Hindoos, because I
desired to improve the health of the people in Calcutta!
[35] John Strachey (1823-1907); afterwards Chief Commissioner of
Oudh, Lieut.-Governor of the N.W. Provinces, financial member of
the Governor-General's Council; knighted, 1872; G.C.S.I., 1878; and
member of the Secretary of State's Council.
(_Miss Nightingale to Sir John Lawrence._) 32 SOUTH STREET, _Sept._
26 [1864]. MY DEAR SIR JOHN LAWRENCE--I always feel it a kind of
presumption in me to write to you--and a kind of wonder at your
permitting it. I always feel that you are the greatest figure in
history, and yours the greatest work in history, in modern times.
But that is my very reason. We have but one Sir John Lawrence. Your
Bengal Sanitary Commission is doing its work, like men--like
martyrs, in fact,--and what a work it is! All we have in Europe is
mere child's play to it. Health is the product of civilization,
_i.e._ of real civilization. In Europe we have a kind of
civilization to proceed upon. In India your work represents, not
only diminished Mortality as with us, but increase of energy,
increase of power of the populations. I always feel, as if God had
said: mankind is to create mankind. In this sense you are the
greatest creator of mankind in modern history....
Would there be any impropriety in your Sanitary Commissions sending
copies of their printed Minutes to the Barrack and Hospital
Improvement Commission here, through the India Office--merely for
information? As far as your Bengal Commission goes: these men don't
want urging: they have not now to be taught. Anything which might
even appear to interfere with the responsibilities of your
Commissions, unless at their own request, is not only undesirable:
but, as far as the Bengal Comm^n. is concerned, useless. But, if
you saw no objection to sending the Minutes for information to the
War Office Commission here, I am sure they would very much like it.
Or, if that would be too formal and official (as regards the India
Office here), if they, the Minutes, might be sent to me, with
permission to shew them to one or two, such as Lord Stanley (our
late Chairman of the Royal Commission), Dr. Sutherland, and Capt.
Galton, of the War Office, &c., it would answer the same purpose.
The India Office here does not shew _now_ the least jealousy of the
Barrack and Hosp^l. (War Office) Commission. On the contrary, one
can scarcely help smiling at the small things it is glad to throw
off its responsibility for upon said Commission.
There are three glaring (tho' lesser) evils in Calcutta about which
I know you have been employed--lesser tho' they are--and your
attention and Dr. Hathaway's have been aroused by them. These are:
(1) The Police Hospitals (or state of Hosp^l. accommodation) for
sick poor at Calcutta. The Police establishments seem about as bad
as possible. Indeed the poor wretches are brought in mostly to die.
The Parisian system of relief is very good: every Police station at
Paris has means of temporary help in cases of emergency until the
sufferers can be removed to Hospital. Some such arrangement with a
thorough reform of the Hospitals, and such additional accommodation
as may be wanted, might meet Calcutta's case.
(2) The condition of Jails and Lunatic Asylums in India. Certainly
it is not for me to draw your attention or Dr. Hathaway's to this.
Probably he knows more about them than any man living. The reports
and recommendations of one or two of the Jail Inspectors shew that
they want experience: as I am sure Dr. Hathaway will agree with me.
Perhaps we might help you by sending out such Reports on the
subject as may be useful.
(3) The seamen at the great Ports. You have already done so much.
But Rome can't be built in a day. Bad water, bad food bought in
Bazaars, and bad drinks cause a vast amount of disease and death.
Self-supporting Institutions, such as our Sailors' Homes (of which,
indeed, I believe you have already founded more than one), would
give the men wholesome food and drink, and lodgings and day-rooms
at little cost. So many men perish for want of this kind of
accommodation at Calcutta, where the evil seems greatest.
It seems to me so base to be writing while you are doing. Oh that I
could come out to Calcutta and organize at least the Hospital
accommodation for the poor wretches in the streets. There is
nothing I should like so much. But it is nonsense to wish for what
is an impossibility. I am sure you will be glad to hear that one of
my life-long wishes, viz. the nursing of Workhouse Infirmaries by
proper Nurses, is about to be fulfilled. By the munificence of a
Liverpool man (who actually gives £1200 a year for the object, but
desires not to be named), we undertake next month the Liverpool
Workhouse Infirmary (of 1000 beds)--the first Workhouse that ever
has been nursed--with 15 Head Nurses, trained by ourselves, and a
Lady (Volunteer) Matron (who underwent a most serious course of
training at our Nurses' School at St. Thomas' Hospital), 15
Assistants, and 52 ex-pauper women, whom we are to train as
Nurses.[36] I am sure it is not for us to talk of Civilization. For
I have seen, in our English Workhouse Infirmaries, neglect,
cruelty, and malversation such as can scarcely be surpassed in
semi-barbarous countries. And it was then I felt I must found a
school for Nurses for Workhouses, &c. The opportunity has come too
late for me to do the Workhouse Nursing myself. But, so it is well
done, we care not how. I think with the greatest satisfaction upon
your re-union with Lady Lawrence and (some of) your children. God
bless you.--I am yours devotedly, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
_P.S._--The Calcutta Municipality does not seem yet to have wakened
up to a sense of its existence. It does not know that it exists:
much less, what it exists for. Still, you are conquering India anew
by civilization, taking possession of the Empire for the first time
by knowledge instead of by the sword.--F. N.
[36] On this subject, see below, p. 128.
The Commander-in-Chief in India, Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn) was
hardly less helpful in the cause than the Governor-General. The War
Office had sent to him, through the Horse Guards, a letter inviting his
attention to the regimental recommendations in the Royal Commission's
Report. His reply was most sympathetic, and his period of command was
marked, amongst other things, by two reforms specially near to Miss
Nightingale's desires: he introduced regimental workshops and soldiers'
gardens in cantonments. The War Office forwarded his letter to Miss
Nightingale. "It is quite worth while," she wrote in reply (Aug. 11,
1864), "all that has been suffered,--to have this letter from Sir Hugh
Rose. And I forgive everybody everything." "I sing for joy every day,"
she had written previously (June 6), "at Sir John Lawrence's
Government." She made public thanksgiving. To the Social Science
Congress at Edinburgh in October 1863, she had contributed a paper,
entitled, "How People may Live and not Die in India," in which she gave,
in concise and popular form, a _résumé_ of the Royal Commission's
Report. The reading of her paper had been followed by "Three Cheers for
Florence Nightingale." She now (Aug. 1864) republished the Paper, with a
Preface, in which, as it were, she gave "Three Cheers for Sir John
Lawrence." She described how the Commissions of Health had been
appointed in India, and how they had now been put in possession of all
the more recent results of sanitary works and measures which had been of
use at home. Then she turned to the military authorities, and described
how "several of the worst personal causes of ill-health to which the
soldier was in former times exposed have been, or are being, removed."
"The men," she wrote, "have begun to find out that it is better to work
than to sleep and drink, even during the heat of the day. One regiment
marching into a Station, where cholera had been raging for two years,
were chaffed by the regiments marching out, and told they would never
come out of it alive. The men of the entering battalion answered, they
would see; we _won't_ have cholera, they think. And they made gardens
with such good effect that they had the pleasure, not only of eating
their own vegetables, but of being paid for them too by the
Commissariat. And this in a soil which no regiment had been able to
cultivate before. And not a man had cholera. These good soldiers fought
against disease, too, by workshops and gymnasia."[37] She gave account
of trades, savings' banks, games, libraries; noting what had been done
and what yet remained to be done. "In the meantime the regulation two
drams have been reduced to one. A Legislative Act imposes a heavy fine
or imprisonment on the illicit sale of spirits near cantonments. Where
there _are_ recreation rooms, refreshments (prices all marked) are
spread on a nice clean table." All these things, which in 1864 were new
or exceptional, became in later years well-established and the rule. The
main causes of disease among the Army in India were, however, as Miss
Nightingale went on to say, want of drainage, want of proper
water-supply, want of proper barracks and hospitals. But in these
respects she had set the reformers to a work which has continued from
that day to this.
[37] This incident was told in Sir Hugh Rose's letter.
There was, indeed, some criticism at the start, but this touched only
the past, and did not seriously affect the future. Indian officials felt
aggrieved, as I have already said, at the strictures contained in the
Report of the Royal Commission, and this movement came to a head in two
documents--one, a counter-Report by Dr. Leith, the Chairman of the
Bombay Sanitary Commission (Oct. 1864); the other, a dispatch (Dec. 8)
from the Government of India (Sir John Lawrence on an important point
dissenting). Lord Stanley thought that Dr. Leith ought to be answered at
once, and wrote to Miss Nightingale (Oct. 25) for her advice on the
subject. She suggested that the answer should be sent in the form of a
Report on Dr. Leith's letter by the Barrack and Hospital Improvement
Commission--an ingenious plan, as it gave opportunity to that expert
body for giving further advice to one of the Presidency Commissions.
Miss Nightingale and Dr. Sutherland drafted the Report, which was
adopted by the Commission on January 6, 1865. "I have pleasure," wrote
Lord Stanley to her (Dec. 26), "in sending back the draft reply to Dr.
Leith with only one or two verbal amendments suggested. It seems to me
well done, moderate in tone, and conclusive in argument." A reply to the
Indian Government's Dispatch, signed by Lord Stanley, Dr. Farr, and Dr.
Sutherland, was sent on May 20. Miss Nightingale in her eagerness was
much annoyed by these criticisms,[38] and Lord Stanley often told her
that she made too much of what were only temporary ebullitions. "Don't
be discouraged, dear Miss Nightingale," he wrote (Jan. 22) when the
Government of India's dispatch arrived; "the practical work may go on
while the controversy is proceeding. My idea of the matter is that the
Indian authorities only want time to set things a little in order--that
they are willing to mend, but not inclined to give us the credit of
having first put them in the right way. That is human nature." Lord
Stanley was a true prophet. The Indian authorities did mend; and so
successfully has the work been carried out by a long line of Commanders,
Administrators, and Engineers that the death-rate from preventable
disease among the British Army in India has fallen far below the figure
which the Royal Commission named as a counsel of perfection.[39]
[38] If any reader should desire to follow up the criticisms and the
replies, he will find the Reply to Dr. Leith in Parliamentary
Papers, 1865, No. 329; and the Government of India's dispatch
with the Reply, in Nos. 108 and 324. Dr. Leith's Report does not
appear to have been reprinted as a Parliamentary Paper. A copy of
it, printed at Bombay, 1864, is among Miss Nightingale's papers.
[39] The Commission looked forward to a rate of not more than 10 per
1000. The rate in 1911 was, as already stated, 5.04.
V
In this work of "salvation" Miss Nightingale was for many years to play
a part as consultant, and sometimes as inspirer. In November 1864 the
Governor-General in Council intimated his readiness to consider a scheme
for the employment of nurses in Military Hospitals, and thereupon the
Bengal Sanitary Commission requested Miss Nightingale to aid them by her
advice. She wrote in collaboration with Sir John McNeill a comprehensive
series of Suggestions in the following February.[40] Throughout the year
(1865) Miss Nightingale was engaged from time to time in Indian sanitary
business; and her house served as headquarters for the sanitary
reformers. Mr. Ellis, the President of the Madras Commission, came home
in the middle of the year in order to study sanitary reforms in this
country. Miss Nightingale invited him to use her rooms; sent Dr.
Sutherland to accompany him on visits of inspection to hospitals and
barracks; arranged meetings between him and Lord Stanley; conferred with
him on changes which Sir John Lawrence was proposing to make in the
constitution of the Presidency Commissions. The Governor-General himself
communicated with her freely on the same subject. The Secretary of the
Bengal Commission applied to her for information on trustworthy tests
for the discovery of organic matter in water. Being unable to obtain
what was wanted from Dr. Parkes, she applied to Dr. Angus Smith
(inventor of an air-test also), who wrote a pamphlet for her on the
subject. It was printed at her expense. She had it approved by the War
Office Sanitary Committee, and a large number of copies was distributed
throughout India. She had impressed upon the Governor-General the
importance of stirring up the Indian municipalities. The Indian Towns
Municipal Improvement Bill (1865) was submitted for her criticism, and
she wrote a "Note on the relations which should exist between the powers
of raising and spending taxes proposed to be granted to local
authorities, and the proper execution of sanitary works and measures in
India." Her friend, Sir Charles Trevelyan, retired from the post of
Financial Minister in India in 1865, and she made the acquaintance of
his successor, Mr. W. N. Massey. She was very jubilant when she "got a
vote of seven millions for my Indian barracks." She was depressed when
the Governor-General wrote to her from time to time saying that the
great obstacle in the way of speedier reform was want of money; but she
made excuses for her hero. "Sir John Lawrence," she wrote to Madame Mohl
(March 20, 1865), "is just as much hampered with the Horse Guards out
there as I am here. He is always writing to me to apologize for the
little progress he makes. By the very last mail he says I shall think
him 'timid and perhaps even time-serving.' I could not help laughing.
Certainly Sir J. Lawrence is the only man who ever called Sir J.
Lawrence a time-server,--except in the highest possible sense, of
serving his country at her greatest time of need in the highest possible
way." She was constantly corresponding with Lord Stanley, urging him to
win points for her from the Indian Secretary. "I have just seen Sir
Charles Wood," wrote Lord Stanley (Feb. 10). "He agrees as to the
expediency of sending home a yearly report of the sanitary stations in
each Presidency." "Pray never speak of being troublesome," he wrote
again (May 15): "it is a real pleasure to me to help you a little in the
great work: I know no other way in which my time can be made equally
useful." He frequently saw Sir Charles Wood on matters which she urged,
and he won what was almost her highest praise. "Lord Stanley," she said,
"is a splendid worker." His cool common sense was perhaps a wholesome
antidote sometimes to her almost feverish eagerness. "Publicity," he
said (Aug. 17), "will in the long-run do what we want. People won't
stand being poisoned when they know it." The annual Reports from the
Presidencies, obtained by Miss Nightingale some years later (p. 155),
were submitted for her "Observations"; and in many other ways, as we
shall hear, it was remarkable how close a touch upon the course of
sanitary reform in India was maintained by this lady from a bedroom in
Mayfair. But essentially Miss Nightingale's work was that of inspirer
and pioneer. These chapters will have shown, I think, that a compliment
paid to her by the Chairman of the Indian Sanitary Commission was no
less true than graceful:--
(_Lord Stanley to Miss Nightingale._) ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, _July_ 25
[1864]. I don't wonder that the delays of the "savage tribe" should
try your patience; and I admire the more the care and success with
which you keep outward show of annoyance to yourself. I had rather
be criticised by any one rather than you! I am only passing through
town to-day, there being nothing left to do; but shall be again in
this place on Thursday, and ready to wait upon you if any matters
want settling. If not, I can only wish you health--success is sure
to come--and beg that you will remember the value of your own
public service, and not by overwork endanger its continuance. Pray
excuse a caution which I am sure I am not the first to give. Every
day convinces me more of two things: first, the vast influence on
the public mind of the Sanitary Commissions of the last few
years--I mean in the way of speeding ideas which otherwise would
have been confined to a few persons; and next, that all this has
been due to you, and to you almost alone.
[40] Bibliography A, No. 44. For the subsequent fate of this scheme, see
below, p. 157.
In one of many moments of vexation at the delays of the "savages" in
their red-tape, Miss Nightingale wrote thus to Captain Galton (June 23,
1864): "The Horse Guards say that they were quite aware of Sir John
Lawrence's application and of the delay, but that 'it is Sir J.
Lawrence's one and only object of interest, while it is _one out of a
thousand_ of the War Office's.' They ought to have the V.C. for their
cool intrepidity in the face of truth. I have told Sir J. Lawrence of
the opinion of these dining-out _freliquets_ as to his hard work. And I
think I shall publish it after my death." But "unlicked cubs," as she
said at Scutari, "grow up into good old bears"[41]; and it is not in
order to pay off a score against the "puppies" that I quote this letter.
Behind the remark which excited Miss Nightingale's righteous anger there
was an element of unconscious truth, and it is one which sums up this
and the preceding chapter. It was, indeed, an ignorant untruth to say
that Sir John Lawrence had no other work or interest than the promotion
of sanitary improvements for the Army in India; and it would be untrue
also, as later chapters will show, to say the same thing of Miss
Nightingale. Yet it made all the difference for the promotion of that
work in India that there was at the head of affairs a man whose heart
and soul were in it. And at home, it made all the difference that there
was one resolute will, combined with a clear head, determined to give
impetus and direction to the work. It was probably quite true to say
that to many, perhaps to most, of the men at the War Office and the
Horse Guards this question of Army sanitation in India appeared as only
"one out of a thousand" questions. To Miss Nightingale it was, in a very
literal and instant sense, a matter of life and death; and it was her
passionate conviction that supplied the initiating and driving force
which compelled reform. If the Governor-General of the time had been
hostile or apathetic, even her persistence might yet have been foiled.
But, as things were, the co-operation between Sir John Lawrence and
Florence Nightingale was as beneficent in its results upon the welfare
of the British Army in India, as the co-operation between her and Sidney
Herbert had been in the case of the Army at home.
[41] See Vol. I. p. 184.
CHAPTER IV
ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE WAR OFFICE
(1862-1866)
We are trying to reduce chaos into shape. It is three years to-day
since I first felt what an awful wreck I had got myself into. I
interfering with Government affairs; and the captain of my ship,
without whom I should never have done it, dying and leaving me, a
woman, in charge. What nonsense people do talk, to be sure, about
people finding themselves in suitable positions and looking out for
congenial work! I am sure if any body in all the world is most
unsuited for writing and official work, it is I. And yet I have
done nothing else for seven years but write Regulations.--FLORENCE
NIGHTINGALE (_Letter to Julius Mohl_, Jan 1. 1864).
Though Miss Nightingale's main work during these years was connected
with the Army in India, she was also continuously engaged in work for
the War Office in relation to the army at home. Indeed in some respects
the work was as constant, and it was quite as varied, if not as
far-reaching in range, as in the days when Sidney Herbert was Secretary
of State. She was a kind of Advisory Council to the War Office on all
subjects within her sphere, and on some outside it; but the references
to her were far more frequent than is commonly the case with those
somewhat shadowy bodies; and besides she was a privileged person, with
the right of initiating suggestions. The picture of her relations to the
War Office as it is disclosed in her papers is remarkable. There are
scores of letters from the Ministers. There are hundreds from one of the
(non-political) Under-Secretaries. Her own letters in reply are equally
numerous. There is a large collection of Drafts, Minutes, Warrants,
Regulations. Her private letters tell of frequent interviews with one of
the Ministers. Was there ever another case in which nearly every vexed
question in War Office administration (other than of a purely military
kind) was referred almost as a matter of course to a private lady, and
that lady an invalid in her bed? It is not likely that the situation
will ever exist again; and it becomes of interest to trace "the
Nightingale power" in this matter to its sources.
* * * * *
The primary explanation is simple. In a large class of questions which
were occupying the attention of the War Office at this time Miss
Nightingale was regarded as the first expert of the day. One sees this
in the fact that she was consulted in connection with work, within her
sphere, for other departments than the War Office. Thus in 1865 Mr. R.
S. Wright (afterwards the judge) was appointed by the Colonial Office to
prepare a Report on the condition of Colonial Prisons. He went to Miss
Nightingale, asking (April 27) "to be allowed to submit to you for your
criticism the conclusions at which I may arrive. Supposing them to be
approved by you, it will be a great advantage if I may state that you
approve them."[42] Then, in the second place,--to repeat a phrase which
I have already applied to her, she was the official legatee of Sidney
Herbert. Everyone who was behind the scenes knew that his work had also
been her work, and Sidney Herbert's repute as a reformer stood very
high. The official Army world at this time was divided into two
camps--those who desired to complete Herbert's work, and those who tried
to undo it. Miss Nightingale, as the repository of the Herbert
tradition, was the indispensable ally of the former party against the
latter. Her friend, Lady Herbert, put the case from her point of view,
when she wrote (March 7, 1862), in reply to a letter telling of much
weakness and weariness, "If you never wish to live for your own sake,
yet bear to live, dearest, for a time to carry out his work, and to keep
his memory fresh in the hearts of men." Some questions of reform arose
to which Sir Benjamin Hawes had raised copious objections. "Would Miss
Nightingale oblige the Political Under-Secretary by suggesting an answer
to Hawes's points?" Sometimes she was the only person who possessed the
necessary documents. "Have you got a copy of the Report of the Committee
on the Organization of a Medical School? The War Office actually have
_no_ copy, and the Army Medical Department only a proof not signed and
supposed to have been altered?"
[42] Miss Nightingale must have enjoyed the correspondence that ensued;
for not only was Mr. Wright sound on sanitary matters ("it is no
part of a prisoner's sentence that he should be black-holed"), but
he wrote to her in a racy style. "I send you (Oct. 23) a specimen
of the materials sent home by colonial prison authorities with the
endorsement of a colonial Governor:--_Question_: What is the mode
of treating lunatic or maniacal prisoners? _Answer_: Maniacles is
not nor ever has been in use in this prison."
But besides all this there were personal factors in the case. Miss
Nightingale had no longer, it is true, an intimate friend at the head of
the War Office, and with Lord Herbert's successor, Sir George Lewis, she
was not otherwise than by correspondence acquainted. Early in 1862 he
had made overtures through Sir Harry Verney, desiring to be given the
honour of making Miss Nightingale's personal acquaintance. She was,
however, too ill to receive him, and knowing perhaps her proficiency in
the classics he sent her some of his _jeux d'esprit_. The offering had
anything but a propitiatory effect. Many of her letters express
indignation that the Secretary for War should be writing trifles in
Latin instead of reforming the War Office. She was equally indignant
when he presently published learned works on Ancient Astronomy and
Egyptology. Mr. Jowett was somewhat of the same mind: "I agree with you
about Sir G. Lewis and his book. I felt the same disgust at Gladstone
for writing nonsense about Homer while the East India Bill was passing
through the House." It does not seem to follow, however, that
Mr. Gladstone would have been the more interested in the East India Bill
if he had not been engaged in finding the Trinity on Mount Olympus, or
that Sir George Lewis would have been any more in the mood to reorganize
the War Office if he had not been applying the Egyptological method to
modern history, or turning "Hey diddle diddle" into Latin verse. There
is a keener point in another of Miss Nightingale's reflections on the
Minister (Feb. 19, 1863): "If Sir George Lewis, instead of writing a
'Dialogue on the Best Forms of Government' would write (or rather
silently act) a _Monologue_ on the Dual Form being the Worst form of
Government, the War Office would be much the gainer." But during his
term of office the Under-Secretary was Lord de Grey; and with him she
was on very friendly terms, and he, as is obvious from the
correspondence, had the highest opinion of her knowledge, her ability,
and her influence. The part she played in Lord de Grey's appointment as
Secretary of State, after the death of Sir G. Lewis, has already been
described. Then in Captain Galton she had throughout these years a
standing ally within the War Office, and her daily attendant, Dr.
Sutherland, was a member of the Army Sanitary Committee. And in the last
resort, if a difficulty worthy of such adjustment arose, she had the ear
of the Prime Minister.
II
Such occasion did arise when, on May 15, 1862, death removed from the
War Office Miss Nightingale's old opponent Sir Benjamin Hawes, the
Permanent Under-Secretary. She had tried to reorganize him into
insignificance in 1861, but "Ben had beaten Sidney Herbert."[43] Now was
a chance of carrying out the plan which Mr. Herbert and she had often
discussed--of breaking the bureaucracy, and of dividing up the office.
Hitherto the Departments had reported through the Permanent
Under-Secretary; the reform scheme was that they should report direct to
the Secretary of State. Sir E. Lugard, Military Under-Secretary, was
already in part-possession. Let Captain Galton resign his commission,
and take the other half, as a civilian (and, what was equally in her
mind, a convinced and professional sanitarian). She carried the case to
the Prime Minister, and convinced him. Lord Palmerston told her
afterwards that when the appointment was first mentioned to the Horse
Guards they said it was "simply impossible." But the Prime Minister
advised Sir George Lewis to make the appointment nevertheless:--
(_Miss Nightingale to her Father._) 9 CHESTERFIELD STREET, _Poor
Queen's Birthday_, 1862. I must tell you the first joy I have had
since poor Sidney Herbert's death. Lord Palmerston has forced Sir
G. Lewis to carry out Mr. Herbert's and my plan for the
reorganization of the War Office _in some measure_. Hawes's place
is not to be filled up. Galton is to do his work as Assistant
Under-Secretary. This brings with it some other reforms. Lord de
Grey says that he can reorganize the War Office with Captain
Galton, because Sir G. Lewis will know nothing about it and never
inquires. Sir G. Lewis wrote it (innocently) to the Queen
yesterday, and Captain Galton was appointed to-day, resigning the
Army of course. No, Sir Charles Trevelyan would not have done at
all [in Hawes's place]. It would have been perpetuating the
principle (which I have been fighting against in all my official
life, _i.e._, for eight years) of having a dictator, an autocrat,
irresponsible to Parliament, quite unassailable from any quarter,
immovable in the middle of a (so-called) constitutional government,
and under a Secretary of State who is responsible to Parliament.
And, inasmuch as Trevelyan is a better and abler man than Hawes, it
would have been _worse_ for any reform of principle. I don't mean
to say that I am the first person who has laid down this. But I do
believe I am the first person who has felt it so bitterly, keenly,
constantly as to give up life, health, joy, congenial occupation
for a thankless work like this.... It has come too late to give
happiness to Galton, as it has come too late for me. He seems more
depressed than pleased. And I do believe, if he feels any pleasure,
it is that now he can carry out Sidney Herbert's plans in some
measure. And it may seem to you some compensation for the enormous
expense I cause you that, if I had not been here, it would not have
been done. Would that Sidney Herbert could have lived to do it
himself! Would that poor Clough could have lived to see it! He
wished for it so much--for my sake....
[43] See Vol. I. p. 405.
The high hopes which Miss Nightingale entertained from this slight
reorganization were doomed to disappointment. Neither as
Under-Secretary, nor after April 1863, when he became Secretary of
State, did Lord de Grey manage, and I do not know that he seriously
attempted, to reform the War Office root and branch.[44] He and Captain
Galton had, according to Miss Nightingale, "miscalculated their power."
She preached the necessity of reform to them unceasingly--in season and,
as they may sometimes have thought, out of season too, for she was a
very persistent person; and, with Dr. Sutherland's assistance, she
provided them with detailed schemes. Her principles were as admirable,
as was her criticism scathing when any breach of them came under her
notice. There must in all things, she said, be a clear definition of
responsibility, with a logical differentiation of functions; and the
business of the War Office was to prepare for war--not to jog along with
an organization which might hold together in peace, but would break down
in the field. Some papers were submitted to her criticism (June 1862).
"What strikes me in them," she wrote, "is the black ignorance, the total
want of imagination, as to a state of _war_ in which the _War_ Office
seems to be. Really if it was a Joint Stock Company for the manufacture
of skins, it could not, as far as appears, be less accustomed to
contemplate or to imagine or to remember a state of war." I am afraid
that most of us have lived through times when the same criticism could
have been made. Let us hope that it is all a matter of ancient history
now. Papers were sent to her dealing with the questions of Purveying and
Commissariat. The Commissariat had hitherto been the bankers of the
army, and some of the permanent officials saw no reason for a change.
From her experience in the Crimea she gave them the reason. The
confusion of functions worked badly in the field.[45] As it was bound to
do, for it was absurd. "Is a man who buys bullocks the best man to be a
banker? Would it not be better to have a separate Treasurer for the Army
to receive all moneys and issue them to all departments? In private life
nobody makes his steward or butler his banker. It would not be
economical. Finance is as much a specialty as marketing, and as much so,
to say the least of it, in the Army as in private life."
[44] There is a succinct account of organizations and reorganizations
between 1854 and 1868 in a _Memorandum on the Organization of the
War Office_ by Captain Galton, dated November 1868.
[45] See Vol. I. p. 231.
III
Complete reform of the War Office was, then, to remain a task for the
future; but Miss Nightingale thought that Lord de Grey and Captain
Galton did the administrative work well. Much of it was done with her
assistance. From Miss Nightingale's point of view, the most important
thing done under the Lewis-De Grey régime was the placing on a permanent
footing of the Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission. It was
important, first, as keeping sound sanitary principles to the forefront
in the execution of new works at home. It also, as already explained,
provided machinery for promoting sanitary improvements in India. The
point, next to its permanence, on which she most insisted was that the
Commission should not be under the Army Medical Department, but should
be directly responsible to the Secretary of State. "Lord de Grey said,"
wrote Captain Galton (June 25, 1862), "that he had adopted exactly your
Minute about the Instructions to the Commission." With its Secretary,
Mr. J. J. Frederick, Miss Nightingale was on very friendly terms, and
Dr. Sutherland was its most active member. Most of the plans for new
barracks or hospitals were submitted to her, and her inspection and
criticism of them were searching. Then in 1862 the Government was about
to build a new Military General Hospital at Malta. With Dr. Sutherland's
aid, she went into every detail, and her Report on the plans occupies
twenty-four pages of manuscript. In 1865 Sir Hope Grant succeeded Sir
Richard Airey as Quarter-master General, and in that capacity as
chairman of the Barrack Commission, the name of which was now changed to
the Army Sanitary Committee. He went to see Miss Nightingale, "proud to
think that she remembered him"; and the conversation must have been
satisfactory; for "our new President is a Trump," reported Dr.
Sutherland to her.
In examining plans, she always had a thought for the horses. When the
plans for some cavalry barracks were sent for her criticism she put in a
plea (June 4, 1863) for windows in the loose-boxes out of which the
horses could see. "I do not speak from hearsay," she wrote to Captain
Galton, "but from actual personal acquaintance with horses of an
intimate kind. And I assure you they tell me it is of the utmost
importance to their health and spirits when in the loose-box to have a
window to look out at. A small bull's-eye will do. I have told Dr.
Sutherland but he has no feeling." To which Dr. Sutherland added: "We
have provided such a window and every horse can see out if he chooses to
stand on his hind legs with his fore-feet against the wall. It is the
least exertion he can put himself to, and if your doctrine is right, he
will no doubt do it." Miss Nightingale had learnt to love the army
horse in the Crimea. Many years later, some very bad barracks were
closed in Ireland, and men and horses were moved to the Curragh. It was
the horses, she wrote, who had done it. "If we are not moved, they said,
we shall mutiny. _Military_ horses are quite capable of organizing
movements. Did you ever hear of Jack? Jack was a riderless horse (his
master having been killed) at the Charge of Balaclava. And he was seen
collecting about 30 riderless horses, and at the head of his troop
leading them back to, I suppose, Cavalry Headquarters. I have failed to
discover whether Jack allowed horseless men to mount some of his horses.
These men certainly returned on horseback--but when they found that a
comrade, or an officer, was missing, they rode back, one and another,
mounted the wounded man, and fought their way out of the Russian melée,
but many died in the attempt--a glorious death. And when I see in the
hansom-cabs horses who by their beautiful legs must have been hunters or
even racers, galloping up Park Lane as long as they can stand, I say too
'a glorious death'; and horses should teach _us_, not we them, duty--do
you think."[46]
[46] Letter of April 12, 1896, to Mrs. Henry Bonham Carter.
All regulations for military hospitals and for their nursing staff were
similarly submitted to Miss Nightingale. She had a poor opinion of the
capacity of the male mind to frame rules for female nurses. "By the
united skill," she wrote (Feb. 16, 1863), of "Mess^{rs.} ---- and ----,
the following Regulations for Female Hospitals were put together:--(1)
Kennel your nurses and chain them up till wanted; (2) When the number of
Patients does not exceed----, chain up the Nurses without food; (3) Let
the number of Nurses vary every day as the number of Patients varies. I
send you an _amended_ copy which, if you approve, might be put into
type." She was constantly appealed to in connection with disputes caused
at Netley by the difficult temper of Mrs. Shaw Stewart, the
Superintendent of the Female Nursing Staff. She and Miss Nightingale
were no longer close friends, but Miss Nightingale's sense of justice
was strong, and she continuously supported Mrs. Stewart's authority.
IV
Another large batch of the semi-official correspondence is concerned
with Miss Nightingale's favourite child, the Army Medical School, and
with the position of the Army doctors generally. The troubles of the
professors were still many; the relation of the School to the Secretary
of State on the one hand, and to the Army Medical Department on the
other, was much vexed; and, when the School was moved to Netley (1863),
a fresh set of difficulties cropped up. Miss Nightingale was constantly
appealed to, sometimes by the staff, sometimes by the War Office, to
smooth over difficulties, to suggest ways out, to settle disputed
questions. She was recognized by the War Office as a kind of
super-professor. One of the staff sought official sanction for a book on
the work of the School: "Lord de Grey wants to know whether he is
capable; also whether his proposed syllabus is good. Also to have any
critical suggestions upon it which Miss Nightingale could kindly
communicate." Her verdict was favourable. I have been told that some
Army doctors of to-day, knowing little about Miss Nightingale except
that she found fault with medical arrangements in the Crimea, suppose
her not to have been their friend. Nothing could be further from the
truth. What she blamed was not the doctors (for most of whom she had the
greatest admiration), but the system. From first to last, she was the
most efficient friend that the Army Medical Service ever had. In 1862-63
there is a long series of letters from her to the War Office, in which
she persistently pleaded for improvement in their status and emoluments.
It was in connection with this matter that she wrote to Captain Galton
(Dec. 24, 1863): "_In re_ Medical Warrant, I am meek and humble, but 'I
cut up rough.' I am the animal of whom Buffon spoke, _Cet animal féroce
mord tous ceux qui veulent le tuer_. You must do something for these
doctors; or they will do for you, simply by not coming to you." A series
of letters to Sir James Clark in the following year shows with what
pertinacity she fought the battle of the Army doctors, and how
indignant she was at any slights cast upon them:--
_April_ 6 [1864]. I have written threatening letters both to Lord
de Grey and to Captain Galton about the [Medical Officers']
Warrant; and after pointing out that both restoration of Warrant
and increase of pay are now necessary, I have shown how, when we
are exacting duties from the Medical Officer, such as sanitary
recommendations to his Commanding Officer, which essentially
require him to have the standing of a gentleman with his Commanding
Officer,--we are doing things, such as dismounting him at parade,
depriving him of presidency at Boards, etc., which in military
life, to a degree we have no idea of in civil life, deprive him of
the weight of a gentleman among gentlemen.
_April_ 7. The W.O. seem now willing to listen to some kind of
terms. They are frightened. They sent me your letter. It was very
good, very firm. Don't be conciliatory.
_April_ 9. I wrote _for the tenth time_ a statement of eight pages,
with permission to make any use of it they pleased, with my
signature, as to Lord Herbert's intentions. But I positively
refused to write to Mr. Gladstone, who certainly ought not to grant
me what the Secretary of State of War does not urge.
_April_ 11. What is wanted is to put a muzzle on the Duke of
Cambridge, and to tell him that he _must not_ alter a Royal
Warrant.
_April_ 15. You may think I am not wise in being so angry. But I
assure you, when I write civilly, I have a civil answer--_and
nothing is done_. When I write furiously, I have a rude
letter--_and something is done_ (not even then always, _but only
then_).
In the following year there was a debate in the House of Lords upon the
Military Hospitals which greatly interested, and personally affected,
Miss Nightingale. Early in March Lord Dalhousie (the Lord Panmure of
earlier days)[47] gave notice of a motion to call attention to the
expenditure on the Netley Hospital and the Herbert Hospital
respectively, and it was rumoured that the ex-Minister intended to
deliver a set attack upon two of his successors, the late Lord Herbert
and Lord de Grey. The War Office, in order to be fully prepared, sent to
Miss Nightingale for a brief. She gladly supplied it, and she entered
into the fray with great spirit. She was very angry that the memory of
her "dear master" should be assailed, but I think that she enjoyed not a
little the prospect of yet another encounter with "the Bison." She had
beaten him before, and was determined that he should be beaten now. She
advised Lord de Grey to avoid giving an advantage to the enemy by
withholding any credit to which he was justly entitled. She recalled
that at the last time they met, Lord Panmure had complained to her that
she ascribed every sanitary reform in the Army to Sidney Herbert, though
some of the reforms had been started by himself. She admitted, and
advised Lord de Grey to admit, that Lord Panmure had deserved well of
the Army by the measures which he took in the Crimea, and by initiating
some steps for reducing the mortality at home. These things being
admitted, the defence of Lord Herbert would carry the more weight.
Having armed the Secretary of State with materials to meet any attack
that might be made, Miss Nightingale turned to organize a second line of
defence. Sir Harry Verney was dispatched to ask Mr. Gladstone's advice.
Mr. Gladstone thought that Lord Harrowby should be retained for the
defence, and he was approached. Miss Nightingale sent watching briefs
also to her own friends, Lord Shaftesbury and Lord Houghton.[48] When
Lord Dalhousie's motion was taken, the rumours turned out to be well
founded. He extolled his Netley (the non-"pavilion" hospital) as
perfect, and criticized the Herbert Hospital ("pavilion") as a costly
toy in the "glass-and-glare" style, and in a long speech attacked the
"wasteful" system which Lord Herbert had introduced by paying attention
to "hygienists who had carried their opinions too far." He had, I
suppose, "that turbulent fellow," Miss Nightingale, in his mind when "he
could not help thinking that all these unnecessary knick-knacks in
hospitals were introduced partly from the habit, which prevailed at the
War Office, of consulting hygienists not connected with the army." The
personal animus in the attack was thought so obvious that the speech
fell very flat. And Lord de Grey's reply--"quite admirable" according to
Miss Nightingale--was so courteous, yet so conclusive, that her
"counsel" were unanimously of opinion that not another word was
necessary. Apart from any personal question, Lord Dalhousie's speech[49]
has a certain historical interest as embodying some of the prejudices
against which Miss Nightingale as a Hospital Reformer had to contend. A
little later in the year a military attack on the sanitarians was
threatened in the House of Commons, but this only took the form of
questions about the vote under which payment by the War Office to Dr.
Sutherland appeared.[50] Miss Nightingale sent a note to the War Office,
setting forth the facts and emphasizing the value of his services in the
cause of sanitary improvement.
[47] He had succeeded to the earldom of Dalhousie on the death of his
cousin, the 10th earl and first marquis, in Dec. 1860.
[48] Mr. R. Monckton Milnes had been created Baron Houghton in 1863.
[49] It is in _Hansard_ on March 6, 1865.
[50] _Hansard_, June 19 and 30, 1865.
V
These were subjects in which Miss Nightingale was directly concerned,
but questions of many other kinds were referred to her. I find in the
correspondence with the War Office during these years that, in addition
to matters otherwise mentioned in this chapter, her advice was asked
upon such subjects as an Apothecaries' Warrant, barracks for Ceylon,
"Fever Tinctures," Instructions for Cholera, fittings for Military
Hospitals, the proposed amalgamation of the Home and Indian Medical
Services, the organization of Hospitals for Soldiers' Wives, Sanitary
Instructions for New Zealand, revision of soldiers' rations, staff
appointments at Netley, appointment of West Indian staff surgeons, an
outbreak of Yellow Fever in Bermuda, the relation of Commissariat
Barracks and Purveying at Foreign Stations, victualling on transports
and the Mhow court-martial.[51] On one occasion she was asked to send
hints for a speech in the House of Commons. Lord Hartington, then
Under-Secretary for War, would have to defend a large increase in the
votes for Hospital and Medical Service. The Crimean War and Miss
Nightingale's crusade had raised the expenditure from £97,000 in 1853-54
to £295,000 in 1864-65. "Could you send me a paragraph for Lord
Hartington's speech," she was asked, "to show the salient points of what
the nation gets for its money? Something pithy, put in your best
manner." "There is nothing in the world I should like so much," she
replied (Feb. 29, 1864), "as to have to do Lord Hartington's speech and
stand in his shoes on such an occasion." She sent some pithy
comparisons; and, in case the Minister wanted something heavier, a
detailed memorandum. I suppose Lord Hartington chose the heaviness and
rejected the pith; for when Miss Nightingale read the parliamentary
report, she thought the speech a poor performance.[52] The same kind of
references to Miss Nightingale went on when in 1866, on Lord de Grey's
transference to the India Office,[53] Lord Hartington became Secretary
of State for War. "Can you throw light," she was asked (June 21, 1866),
"on the position of the medical officers of the _Guards_? This is very
pressing. The whole matter is an awful mess, and Lord Hartington is
anxious to leave it in some way of settlement." On the following day a
lucid and exhaustive Memorandum on the subject went in from her.
[51] The history of this affair, which excited a prodigious interest in
Parliament and the press, may be read by the curious in vol. xxxiii.
of the Parliamentary Papers of 1863, and vol. xxxv. of those of
1864. Miss Nightingale's good offices were asked by the War Office
to parry an attack by "Jacob Omnium," for whose part in the affair
see _Essays on Social Subjects_, by Matthew John Higgins, 1875,
pp. lvi.-lx.
[52] It certainly was dull: see _Hansard_, March 3, 1864.
[53] See below, p. 108.
In July 1864 Miss Nightingale was engaged on a piece of work for the War
Office which was closely associated with her Crimean experiences and
with her European repute. It was in August of that year that the
international congress was held which framed the famous Geneva
Convention. The British delegates were Miss Nightingale's friend, Dr.
Longmore, and Dr. Rutherford, and she drafted their Instructions. The
principle of the Convention was the neutralization of the wounded under
the Red Cross. Societies formed under the Red Cross were soon organized
throughout Europe, and the movement led to a great development of
volunteer-nursing in war time.
Sometimes Miss Nightingale sent in suggestions on her own account. She
was in close touch with soldiers and sailors, and a woman's sympathetic
insight appears in this letter:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Captain Galton._) _Sept._ 21 [1863]. People
are complaining that when a Regiment sails, many of their wives and
children are left behind, and the soldiers are unable to make any
provision for their support until they have reached their
destination, say China or Calcutta (after a four months' voyage
round the Cape), and have been able to send money through their
Captains to their families at home. Meanwhile the families have
gone through five or six months of distress. For sailors leaving a
port in England or Ireland, the Admiralty provides power to leave a
standing order that a certain amount of pay is to be sent regularly
to their families. The W.O. objects that a similar arrangement
would "involve a change in their book-keeping." It would involve no
change. It would involve a small addition. I am willing to go the
length of 6d. to furnish an account-book to the W.O., which would
enable them to keep these additional accounts. The W.O. also
objects that it would deprive the Captain of the chance of fining
the soldiers for any military offence. But they can learn the
Admiralty system; and whilst there are other ways of "doing" the
soldiers, their pay is the only means of providing bread for their
families starving (or doing worse) at home. Surely the soldiers
might be allowed to leave, for the probable duration of their
voyage, and for a month or two beyond it, a sum to be paid weekly
to their representatives at home. Sir E. Lugard has been tried and
failed. Pray set this right. But the W.O. would not be the W.O., if
such things as these were not. And when they have ceased to be, the
War Office will have ceased to be.
Satire was not the only weapon which Miss Nightingale employed in order
to get things done. Sometimes she appealed to the motive of rivalry. Was
the Minister hanging back? Well, all she could say was that Sidney
Herbert would have done the thing in a moment. There were difficulties
in the way, were there? The subordinate officials were piling up what
they were pleased to call "reasons" to the contrary, were they? Well,
"on this day many years ago," she wrote (June 18, 1862), "the French
guns kept coming up again and again to get us out of the yard at
Hougomont, and we answered in strong language, often repeated, till we
kept the ground that we had won. I never heard the French guns called
reasons. And I advise you to answer in the same way, because there is
no other way of answering. Lord de Grey's Minute is the gun which just
has to be fired over again." And sometimes she resorted, as of old, to a
little bullying. "I send you," she wrote (March 26, 1863), "my protest
about the Medical School. Make what use of it you like. But, if we fail,
I shall refer it to Lord Palmerston who, as you know, befriended us on a
former occasion (after Hawes's death)"--a home thrust, this, as it was
by a personal reference to Lord Palmerston that she had secured Captain
Galton's appointment.
There was one occasion when, for a wonder, the pressure to be prompt and
decided came not from her, but from the War Office. The Governorship of
the Woolwich Hospital fell vacant; she had been sent a list of names
with a request to advise upon them, and she had not immediately replied.
"I wrote," she explained (Feb. 11, 1863), "to various authorities the
very moment your and Lord de Grey's letters were put into my hands. The
answers cannot be long delayed. But what would you think of my opinion
if I volunteered it about men whom I know only by name? Had you asked me
about Lord William Paulet or Colonel Storks or Sir Richard Airey, I
could have given you an opinion off-hand with the utmost want of
modesty. The very moment I have any reliable information you shall have
it. But it takes some time to make such an inquiry, or what would it be
worth? And Woolwich, I suppose, is not on fire, or with the enemy at the
gates?" But for some reason or other, the War Office was in a hurry, and
the appointment was made before her inquiries were completed. Her
conscientiousness thus lost her the chance of deciding a piece of
patronage. Not, indeed, that she felt any loss in such a case. She was
nothing of a jobber. She pulled wires, as I have told, in some special
appointments where she believed that a high public cause was at stake;
but she was never actuated by personal favouritism, or by the love of
personal influence on behalf of individuals. For this very post, she had
received fifty letters of application, she said, but she had taken no
action upon them. Only once, she said on another occasion, had she
solicited anything as a personal favour from the War Office. It was an
appointment for a Presbyterian Chaplain, who was not personally known
to her, but whose hard and deserving case (as she thought it) had been
brought to her notice. She was once sent a list of the Army Medical
Service, and asked by a Minister to mark the names, for his private and
confidential use, with her approbation or otherwise. This she
respectfully declined to do. When she was asked a specific question
about an officer whom she had known in the Crimea or elsewhere, she gave
an opinion freely, and generally managed to put it pointedly; as of a
certain Commandant: "As you often see in those round-headed, red-faced
men, he has a great deal of conscience and very little judgment."
VI
A subject, in which Miss Nightingale took great and painful interest
during these years, was the State regulation of vice. The legislation of
1864, 1866, and 1869 was already being promoted and considered in 1862.
The subject was odious to Miss Nightingale, but her experiences in
foreign hospitals and at Scutari had made her peculiarly familiar with
it. Her private correspondence with doctors and military officers shows
that for some years before 1862 she had given much thought and study to
the question, and had carefully tested conclusions drawn from her
personal observations by statistics and by the opinions of other
persons. She hated the system of regulation on moral grounds, but she
was equally convinced that the case for it had not been satisfactorily
established by statistical evidence on hygienic grounds. On this point,
two of the medical men, upon whose judgment she placed most
reliance--Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Graham Balfour (the head of the Army
Statistical Department)--agreed with her. With their assistance she
worked up the case against the continental system, and at the request of
Sir George Lewis, who was considering the matter in 1862, she wrote a
private paper, which was circulated among some members of the Government
and others. "Your facts," wrote Captain Galton to her (April 29, 1862),
"have shaken Lord de Grey's views on the subject of police inspection."
With Mr. Gladstone, she was less successful. He found her Paper "of
deep interest and full of important fact and argument," and said that,
as a result of reading it and her letters, he should approach the
subject "with much of circumspection as well as of anxiety"; but he
"doubted the possibility of making a standing army a moral institution."
Therein she profoundly differed, and she urged, in rejoinder, that
nothing should be done on his assumption, at least until the other had
been given a fair trial--by increasing the soldiers' facilities for
marriage, by giving them better opportunities for instruction and
recreation, by encouraging physical exercise and manual handicrafts.
Official opinion steadily hardened, however, in the direction of
regulation; and presently public opinion was tested by a series of
articles in the _Times_ in favour of the continental system. Miss
Nightingale thereupon supplied Harriet Martineau with facts and figures,
and the _Times_ was answered by the _Daily News_. Miss Nightingale also
printed her own Paper for a more extended, though still "private and
confidential," circulation. Dr. Sutherland chivalrously assumed the sole
authorship, and was acrimoniously attacked by some of his professional
brethren. The Army Medical Department was working hard for regulation,
and some person therein, suspecting Miss Nightingale as the real leader
of the opposition, disgraced himself by sending her an anonymous letter
of vulgar abuse. This of course did not deter her, and, when legislation
was proposed, she lobbied indefatigably (through correspondence) against
it. The opinion of the House of Commons was, however, overwhelmingly in
its favour. When the legislation was passed, the War Office invited her
assistance in the selection of medical officers under the Act; but she
refused to touch what she regarded as an accursed thing. It was left to
another of the remarkable women of the nineteenth century, to secure,
after a struggle of sixteen years, the repeal of the Acts; but though
Miss Nightingale shrank from taking a public part in that crusade, she
gave support privately to Mrs. Josephine Butler. At a later time,
however, Miss Nightingale somewhat modified her views.[54]
[54] Below, p. 408.
Miss Nightingale's failure during the years 1862-64 to arrest the
movement of public opinion in the direction which she detested,
increased her eagerness to promote what she considered the more
excellent way. She was the life and soul at headquarters of the movement
for increasing the supply of Reading-rooms, Soldiers' Clubs,
Recreation-rooms, and facilities for useful employment. "I will tell
you," she wrote to the Reverend Mother of the Bermondsey Convent (Jan.
3, 1864), "how I spent my Christmas Day and the Sunday after, those
being two holidays: in preparing a scheme, by desire of Lord de Grey,
for employing soldiers in trades." She wrote a Memorandum on "Methods of
Starting an Exhibition (Soldiers' Trades)," and such an exhibition was
held at Aldershot in the summer of 1864.[55] Whenever there was a
difficulty to be overcome, or an opportunity to be seized, Miss
Nightingale was appealed to. For instance, there was a fight for a
certain disused Iron House at Aldershot. Miss Nightingale's party
(supported at the War Office) wanted it for a Men's Recreation Room; the
Horse Guards wanted it for an Officers' Club. A promise had already been
given in favour of the former, but Sir George Lewis was wavering. "Lord
de Grey thinks," wrote Captain Galton (April 29, 1862), "that the best
course for the Iron House is for Sir H. Verney to ask Sir G. L. in the
House about it, alluding to his former promise, and if it could be
arranged that Monckton Milnes, Gen. Lindsay, or any other persons could
cheer or support the proposals, it would pledge Sir G. L. to act at
once." Miss Nightingale set her parliamentary friends to work, and the
fight for the Iron House was won. Lord de Grey succeeded in getting a
vote on the Estimates for the encouragement of such places. Miss
Nightingale revised for him a set of Regulations for Reading-Rooms. She
also, at his request, drew up (in concert with Captain Pilkington
Jackson) an inventory of the appropriate furniture and other fitments.
Her zeal in this matter was known abroad; at Montreal and Halifax and
Gibraltar commanding-officers who were trying to start or develop
instructions of the kind applied to her. She often succeeded in
obtaining War Office grants for them, and these she supplemented by
gifts of her own. No inconsiderable portion of her resources at this
time went in subscriptions of this sort, either in money or in kind
(carpentering equipment, bagatelle boards, books, prints, and the like).
It is pleasant to read the letters in which the non-commissioned
officers and men of regiments, which had been served by Miss Nightingale
in the Crimea, sent thanks, through their commanding officers, to "that
noble lady for her continued interest in the welfare of the British
soldiers."
[55] Attention was called to it, and the moral was pointed, by a leading
article in the _Daily News_ (July 8), doubtless written by Harriet
Martineau.
It was a cause of great pleasure to Miss Nightingale that in 1864 her
old friend of the Scutari days, General Storks, who had encouraged her
there in work of this kind,[56] was appointed to the command at Malta.
"I am very grateful to you," he wrote (Nov. 10), "for seeing me the
other day, and can only express the great gratification I experienced on
that occasion. I can never forget the time when I was associated with
you in the great work which has produced such satisfactory results, and
for which the whole army will ever thank you. When one reflects on the
condition of the soldier ten years ago and what it is now, there is
cause for wonder at the difficulties you have overcome, and the results
you have achieved.... (Nov. 18.) All the arrangements contemplated at
Malta, both legislative (if necessary) and administrative, shall be
submitted for your consideration and approval in draft before they are
acted upon, and I need not say how grateful I shall be for your kind
assistance." In later years Miss Nightingale took a friendly interest in
the Soldiers' Institute at Portsmouth, founded by Miss Sarah Robinson. A
meeting was held in its support at the Mansion House in 1877, at which
Lord Wolseley presided, and a letter from Miss Nightingale was read. "If
you knew," she said, "as I do (or once did), the difference between our
soldiers cared for in body, mind, and morals, and our soldiers uncared
for--the last, 'hell's carnival' (the words are not my own), the first,
the finest fellows of God's making; if you knew how troops immediately
on landing are beset with invitations to bad of all kinds, you would
hasten to supply them with invitations to, and means for, good of all
kinds: remembering that the soldier is of all men the man whose life is
made for him by the necessities of his Service. We may not hope to make
'saints' of all, but we can make men of them instead of brutes. If you
knew these things as I do, you would forgive me for asking you, if my
poor name may still be that of the soldiers' ever faithful servant, to
support Miss Robinson's work in making men of them at Portsmouth, the
place of all others of temptation to be brutes."
[56] See Vol. I. p. 279.
VII
Even the multifarious interest described in preceding pages and chapters
do not tell the whole tale of Miss Nightingale's labours during this
time. It was not only the British soldiers at home and in India whom she
took under her protection; nor only the War Office and the India Office
with which she had some connection. She was open to any human appeal for
help, and her acquaintance with Sir George Grey led her, through a
friendly Minister at the Colonial Office, to make an attempt for the
protection of the aboriginal races in the British Dominions. She had met
Sir George Grey in 1859 and 1860, and he had talked to her about the
gradual disappearance of those races when brought into touch with
civilization. This was a subject which appealed strongly to Miss
Nightingale. Her mission in life was to be a "saviour" of men. It shamed
her to think that her country in colonizing so large a part of the world
should so often come into contact with inferior races only to destroy
them. In the course of conversation with Sir George Grey, the question
was raised whether the disappearance of the aboriginal races was in any
degree due to the effect of European school usages and school education.
Miss Nightingale determined to investigate the matter. She drew up
schedules of inquiry, and the Duke of Newcastle (then Colonial
Secretary) officially circulated them to Colonial Schools and Colonial
Hospitals (1860). As each return came in during following years, it was
forwarded from the Colonial Office to Miss Nightingale. Her inquiries
were far more searching and detailed, I notice on looking through the
papers, than were the answers. There were not many passionate
statisticians in those days among the schoolmasters or doctors attached
to native schools or hospitals in distant colonies, and the results of
Miss Nightingale's researches in this obscure field were somewhat
disappointing. She summarized the information in a Paper which she
contributed to the Social Science Congress at Edinburgh in 1863, and
which she printed as a pamphlet.[57] The Duke of Newcastle sent the
pamphlet to colonial governors and other officials, and invited their
remarks. To the Congress in 1864 Miss Nightingale contributed a further
Paper (also printed as a pamphlet[58]), embodying the substance of some
of the later information thus obtained. The documents which she received
from the Colonial Office during several years are preserved amongst her
papers, and form what is, I suppose, a unique collection of information
on a curious subject. Though her researches did not lead to any positive
conclusions in relation to the effect of education as such upon the
deterioration of the wild races, they disclosed much neglect of sanitary
precautions. She pointed out mistakes that were made in the kind of
clothing into which in the name of decency the native children were put.
She applied in a wider way the principle that their open-air habits
should be remembered, insisting especially on the importance of physical
and manual training. The returns from colonial hospitals showed again
that preventable causes--bad drainage, bad water, and so forth--were to
blame for much of the mortality. "Incivilization with its inherent
diseases, when brought into contact with civilization without adopting
specific precautions for preserving health, will always carry with it a
large increase of mortality on account of the greater susceptibility of
its subjects to those causes of disease which can, to a certain extent,
be endured without as great a risk by civilized communities born among
them." But principally Miss Nightingale based upon the results of her
inquiries a moral appeal to the conscience of popular opinion and
governments in the Colonies and in Downing Street. "The decaying races
are chiefly in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and perhaps in certain
parts of South Africa. They appear to consist chiefly of tribes which
have never been civilized enough, or had force of character enough, to
form fixed settlements or to build towns. Such tribes have few fixed
habits or none. But the papers show that they are naturally, in their
uncivilized condition, possessed of far stronger stamina, and that they
resist the effects of frightful wounds and injuries far better than
civilized men. This latter fact tells strongly against any natural
proclivity to diseased action." The course of history does not show that
such appeals as Miss Nightingale's have been wholly successful. It seems
to be, as Mr. Froude said, that with men, as with orders of creation,
only those wild races will survive who can domesticate themselves into
servants of the newer forms. Where there is such ability, where the
labour of the coloured races is required by the white men, the
aboriginal races survive, and even thrive and multiply; where those
conditions do not exist, they do not survive. So far, however, as the
extinction of native races has been arrested, Miss Nightingale was among
the pioneers in pointing out the way. Her clear intelligence, acting
upon the mass of evidence which she had collected, perceived certain
principles which have guided all practical statesmen who sought to
protect aborigines, and to free civilization from one of its disgraces.
She urged that "provision of land should be made for the exclusive use
of existing tribes." She pleaded passionately for the suppression of the
liquor traffic.[59] She argued that in the formal education, and in all
other means of endeavouring to improve the natives, "there should be as
little interference as possible with their born habits and conditions,"
that interference should be wise and gradual, and that above all
"physical training and a large amount of out-door work are essentially
necessary to success." She did not succeed in arresting the decline of
the aboriginal races; but she contributed something to their protection.
[57] Bibliography A, Nos. 39 and 40.
[58] _Ibid._ No. 47.
[59] A letter to her on this subject (Dec. 6, 1864) from the permanent
Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office is printed in _Letters of
Frederick Lord Blachford_, 1896, p. 251.
VIII
Thus, then, in all the various ways described in this chapter did Miss
Nightingale labour, but especially in the cause of the British Army. The
rôle of the Soldiers' Friend which she had filled in the Crimea was
enacted on a conspicuous stage. Her work was now all done behind the
scenes; and done, as I have already described, under heavy physical
disability. Much of the work was, moreover, dull and even uncongenial;
but she fed her soul on higher things:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Mrs. Moore._) 32 SOUTH STREET, _Dec._ 15
[1863]. DEAREST REVD. MOTHER--I am here, as you see--(My
brother-in-law's house--where you were so good as to see me last
year--to think of that being more than a year ago) and have been
here a good bit. But I have had all your dear letters. And you
cannot think how much they have encouraged me. They are almost the
only earthly encouragement I have. I have been so very ill--and
even the little change of moving here knocks me down for a month.
But God is so good as to let me still struggle on with my business.
But with so much difficulty that it was quite impossible to me to
write even to you. And I only write now, because I hear you are
ill. I have felt so horribly ungrateful for never having thanked
you for your books. S. Jean de la Croix's life I keep thankfully. I
am never tired of reading that part where he prays for the return
for all his services, _Domine, pati et contemni pro te_. I am
afraid I never could ask that. But in return for very little
service, I get it. It is quite impossible to describe how
harassing, how heart-breaking my work has been since the beginning
of July. I have always, with all my heart and soul, offered myself
to God for the greatest bitterness on my own part, if His (War
Office) work could be done. But lately nothing was done, and always
because there was not one man like Sidney Herbert to do it.... I
don't think S. Jean de la Croix need have prayed to be dismissed
from superiorships before he died. For as the Mère de Bréchard
says, there are more opportunities to humble oneself, to mortify
oneself, to throw oneself entirely on God, in them than in anything
else. I return the life of S. Catherine of Genoa. I like it so
much. It is a very singular and suggestive life. I am so glad she
accepted the being Directress of the Hospital. For I think it was
much better for her to make the Hospital servants go right than to
receive their "injures"--however submissively--much better for the
poor Patients, I mean.
I am quite ashamed to keep Ste. Thérése so long. But there is a
good deal of reading in her. And I am only able to read at
night--and then not always a large, close-printed book. Pray say if
I shall send her back. And I will borrow her again from you perhaps
some day. I am so sorry about poor S. Gonzaga's troubles. I know
what those Committees are. I have had to deal with them almost all
my life.
My strength has failed more than usually of late. And I don't think
I have much more work in me--not, at least, if it is to continue of
this harassing sort. God called me to Hospital work (as I fondly
thought, for life)--but since then to Army work--but with a promise
that I should go back to Hospital--as I thought as a Nurse, but as
I now think, as a Patient. But St. Catherine of Siena says: "Et
toutesfois je permets cela luy advenir, afin qu'il soit plus
soigneux de fuyr soi mesme, & de venir & recourir à moy ... et
qu'il considère que par amour je luy donne le moyen de tirer hors
le chef de la vraye humilité, se reputant indigne de la paix &
repos de pensée, comme mes autres serviteurs--& au contraire se
reputant digne des peines qu'il souffre," etc.
My sister and her family come to spend here two or three nights
occasionally to see friends. But I was only able to see her for ten
minutes, and my good brother-in-law, who is one of the best and
kindest of men, not at all--nor his children.... I sent you back
St. Francis de Sales, with many thanks. I liked him in his old
dress. I like that story where the man loses his crown of
martyrdom, because he will not be reconciled with his enemy. It is
a sound lesson. I am going to send you back S. Francis Xavier. His
is a life I always like to study as well as those of all the early
Jesuit fathers. But how much they did--and how little I do.... Ever
my dearest Revd. Mother's loving and grateful, F. N.
Miss Nightingale never lost sight of the end in the means. She was doing
"God's work" in the "War Office." She thought it was "little" that she
did, for it is often the hardest workers who thus deem themselves the
most unprofitable servants. And the work was often drudgery; yet through
it all she had inspiration from her memories of heroism in the Army, for
whose "salvation" she was working. "I have seen to-day [from my
window]," she wrote to her mother in 1863, "the first Levée, since all
are dead whom I wished to please. A melancholy sight to me. Yet I like
the pomp and pageant of the old veterans covered with well-earned
crosses. To me who saw them earned, no vain pageant. It is like the Dead
March in _Saul_--to me, who heard it on the battle-field, no vain sound,
but full of deep and glorious sadness."
CHAPTER V
HELPERS, VISITORS, AND FRIENDS
(1862-1866)
To be alone is nothing; but to be without sympathy in a crowd, this
is to be confined in solitude. Where there is want of sympathy, of
attraction, given and returned, must it not be a feeling of
starvation?--FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE: _Suggestions for Thought_
(1860).
Friendship should help the friends to work out better the work of
life.--BENJAMIN JOWETT (1866).
The years of Miss Nightingale's life, described in this Part, were
perhaps those of her hardest and most unremitting work. Throughout these
years, until August 1866, she lived entirely in London or immediately
near to it.[60] Her quarters were in lodgings or in hired houses, until
November 1865, when her father took a house for her for a term of years
in South Street (No. 35), near her married sister. This house (No. 10
when the street was renumbered) was the one that she occupied till her
death. I think that there was not a single day during the period from
1862 to 1866 upon which she was not engaged in one part or another of
the manifold work described in preceding chapters. And there was much
other work as well, begun in these years, but brought to completion
later, which will be described in a subsequent Part. She gave account of
her days to Madame Mohl (Jan. 24, 1865), and recalled what "a poor woman
with 13 children, who took in washing, once said to me--her idea of
heaven was to have one hour a day in which she could do nothing." Yet
all that Miss Nightingale did was done forcefully. "I am completely
reassured as to the state of your health," wrote her old friend
Mr. Reeve (Jan. 21, 1865), in reply to some communication on Indian
affairs, "by the Homeric frame of mind you are in. You will live an
hundred years. You will write a Sanitariad or a Lawrentiad in 24 books,
and Lord Derby will translate you into all known languages. Stanley will
be Lord Derby then, but this will only make the thing more appropriate."
But her work, though very vigorous, was very hard. It was done, not as
in the Crimean war, in the excitement of immediate action, nor, as in
the years succeeding her return, with the daily aid and sympathy of her
"dear Master." It was her hardest work for another reason, already
mentioned: she was for a large part of this later period, almost
bedridden. She would get up and dress in order to receive the more
important of her men-visitors, but the effort tired her greatly.
[60] Her places of residence in 1862 and 1863 have been given above,
p. 24. In 1864 she lived at 32 (now No. 4) South Street, the
Verneys' house (Jan.); at 115 Park Street (Feb.-July); at 7 Oak
Hill Park, Hampstead (Aug.-Oct.). She was at 27 Norfolk Street
from Nov. 1864 to May 1, 1865. During May and June 1865 and again
in Oct., she was at 34 (now No. 8) South Street; in July-Sept.,
she was at Hampstead.
The amount of work which she did under these conditions is
extraordinary, and the question arises how she did it. A principal
explanation is to be found in Dr. Sutherland. The reader may have
noticed once or twice in letters written by Miss Nightingale such
expressions as "We are doing" so and so, or "Can such and such be sent
to us." The plural was not royal; it signified she had explained at an
earlier time to Sidney Herbert, "the troops and me;" but it also
signified, during the years with which this Part is concerned, herself
and Dr. Sutherland. She wrote incessantly, but even so she could hardly
have accomplished her daily tasks without some clerical assistance. She
knew an immense deal about the subjects with which she dealt, and her
memory was both precise and tenacious; but there were limits to her
powers of acquisition, and cases often arose in which personal
inspection or personal moving about in search of information were
essential. In all these ways Dr. Sutherland's help was constant. He
wielded a ready pen. He was one of the leading sanitary experts of the
day. His professional and official connections gave him access to
various sources of information. His regular work was on the Army
Sanitary Commission; and for the rest, he placed himself at Miss
Nightingale's beck and call. Mrs. Sutherland was her private secretary
at this time for household affairs, such as searching for lodgings and
engaging servants; her accounts were still kept, and much of her
miscellaneous correspondence conducted by her uncle, Mr. Sam Smith;[61]
but in all official business, her factotum was Dr. Sutherland. A large
proportion of the notes, drafts, and memoranda, belonging to these
years, among her papers, is in Dr. Sutherland's handwriting, and
sometimes it is impossible to determine how much of the work is hers and
how much his. Often he took down heads from her conversation, and put
the matter into shape; at other times he submitted drafts for her
approval or correction, and took copies of the letters ultimately
dispatched.
[61] She was still so beset by begging letters, that Mr. Smith had a
notice inserted in the _Times_ of April 29, 1864, to the effect
that she could not answer them or return any papers enclosed to her.
How indispensable to her was Dr. Sutherland's help comes out from some
correspondence of 1865. Captain Galton had sent private word that there
was talk at the War Office of appointing Dr. Sutherland Commissioner to
inquire into an outbreak of cholera at some of the Mediterranean
Stations. Miss Nightingale was greatly perturbed. "We are full of Indian
business," she wrote (Nov. 1), "which must be settled before Parliament
meets. Lord Stanley has consented to take it up. And I have pledged
myself to have it all ready--a thing I should never have done if I had
thought Dr. Sutherland would be sent abroad. You are yourself aware that
Calcutta water-supply has been sent home to us (at my request), and Dr.
S. told me this morning that _he and I_ should have to write the
Report." And again (Dec. 15): "For God's sake, if you can, prevent Dr.
Sutherland going." She had begged that at any rate nothing should be
said to Dr. Sutherland himself about it unless the mission were
irrevocably decided upon: "he is so childish that if he heard of this
Malta and Gibraltar business he would instantly declare there was
nothing to keep him in England." The "child"--the "baby" of some earlier
correspondence[62]--only liked a little change sometimes. Indispensable
though he was to his task-mistress, he yet, as in former days, vexed
her. She thought him lacking in method, and with her this was one of the
unpardonable sins. He sometimes forgot what he had done with, or had
promised to do with, a particular Paper; he was even capable of
mislaying a Blue-book. He was often behind hand with tasks imposed upon
him. His temperament was a little volatile, and in one impeachment he is
accused of "incurable looseness of thought." If this were so (which I
take leave to doubt), the defect must have been congenital, or long
service under Miss Nightingale would have cured it.
[62] See Vol. I. pp. 370, 383.
Partly because Dr. Sutherland's manner sometimes teased her, partly
because he was deaf, and partly owing to her own physical disabilities,
Miss Nightingale developed at this time a method of communicating with
him which, during later years, became familiar to all but her most
privileged friends. The visitor on being admitted was ushered into a
sitting-room on the ground-floor, and given pencil and paper. It were
well for him that what he wrote should be lucid and concise. The message
was carried upstairs into the Presence, and an answer, similarly
written, was brought down. And to such interchange would the interview
be confined. With Dr. Sutherland, Miss Nightingale had many personal
interviews; their business was often too detailed, too intricate, too
confidential, to be conducted otherwise; but there are hundreds of
letters, received from other people, upon which (in blank spaces or on
spare sheets) there are pencilled notes conveying answers or messages to
Dr. Sutherland. "Well, you know I have already said that to Lord
Stanley. I can't do more." "Yes, you _must_." "Oh, Lord bless you,
_No_." "You want me to decide in order that you may do the reverse."
"Can you answer a plain question?" "You have forgotten all we talked
about." "I cannot flatter you on your lucidity." "I do not shake hands
till the Abstract is done; and I do not leave London till it is done."
"You told me positively there was nothing to be done. There is
everything to be done." "Why did you tell me that tremendous _banger_?
Was it to prevent my worrying you?" "Nothing has been done. I have been
so anxious; but the more zeal I feel, the more indifferent you."
Sometimes he strikes work, or refuses to answer, signing his name by a
drawing of a dry pump with a handle marked "F.N.": "Your pump is dry.
India to stand over." Sometimes he makes fun of her business-like
methods, and heads his notes "Ref.000000/000." Sometimes he pleads
illness. "I am very sorry, but I was too ill to know anything except
that I was ill." Often he received visitors for her, or entertained them
on her behalf at luncheon or dinner. "These two people have come. Will
you see them for me? I have explained who you are." "Was the luncheon
good? Did he eat?" "Did he walk?" "Yes." "Then he's a liar; he told me
he couldn't move." In 1865-66 Dr. and Mrs. Sutherland had moved house
from Finchley to Norwood. Miss Nightingale complained of this
remoteness. Dr. Sutherland dated his letters from "The Gulf." He stayed
there sometimes, complaining of indisposition, instead of coming up to
South Street where business was pressing. Miss Nightingale did not take
the reason kindly, and his letters begin, "Respected Enemy" or "Dear
howling epileptic Friend." One morning (June 23, 1865) Dr. Sutherland
went to the private view of the Herbert Hospital--a great occasion to
Miss Nightingale. In the afternoon he called and sent up to her a short
note of what he had seen. "And that is all you condescend to tell me.
And I get it at 4 o'clock." Of course, they understood each other; they
were old and intimate friends. But I think that the man who thus served
with Miss Nightingale must have had a great and disinterested zeal for
the causes in which they were engaged; and that there must have been
something at once formidable and fascinating in the Lady-in-Chief.
II
The pressure of work during these years caused Miss Nightingale to close
her doors resolutely. She did indeed see her father often; her mother
and sister occasionally, though she did not press them to come. Other
relations and many of her friends felt aggrieved that she would not
accept help which they would have liked to give. But she had a rule of
life to which she adhered firmly. There was so much strength available,
likely enough (as she still supposed) to be ended by early death; there
was so much public work to be done; there was no strength to spare for
family or friends, except in so far as they helped, and did not hinder,
the public work. She saw nurses and matrons from time to time: they were
parts of her life-work. She saw Lady Herbert and Mrs. Bracebridge: they
were parts of her work in the past. She never omitted to write to Lady
Herbert on the anniversary of Lord Herbert's death, though their
friendship lost something of its former intimacy when in 1865 Lady
Herbert joined the Church of Rome. Other friends were seldom admitted.
Letters to an old friend, who was sometimes received and sometimes
turned away, explain Miss Nightingale's point of view:--
(_To Madame Mohl._) 115 PARK STREET, _July_ 30 [1864]. You will be
doing me a favour if you come to me. August 2 is a terrible
anniversary to me. And I shall not have my usual solace, for
Mrs. Bracebridge has always come to spend that day with me, and I
am sure she would have come this year, but I could not tell whether
I should be able to get Sir John Lawrence's things off by that
time. It does me good to be with you, as with Mrs. Clive, because
it reduces individual struggles to general formulæ. It does me
harm, intensely alone as I am, to be with people who do the
reverse. But it is incorrect to say, as Mrs. Clive does, that "I
will not let people help me," or, as others do, that "no one can
help me." Any body could have helped me who knew how to read and
write and what o'clock it is.
_June_ 23 [1865], SOUTH STREET. CLARKEY MOHL DARLING--How I should
like to see you now. But it is quite, quite, quite impossible. I am
sure no one ever gave up so much to live, who longed so much to
die, as I do and give up daily. It is the only credit I claim. I
will live if I can. I shall be so glad if I can't. I am overwhelmed
with business. And I have an Indian functionary now in London,
whose work is cut out for him every day at my house. I scarcely
even have half an hour's ease. Would you tell M. Mohl this, if you
are writing, about the Queen of Holland's proposed visit to me? I
really feel it a great honour that she wishes to see me. She is a
Queen of Queens. But it is quite, quite, quite impossible....
(_Oct_. 4 [1865]). I am so weak, no one knows how weak I am.
Yesterday because I saw Dr. Sutherland for a few minutes in the
afternoon, after the morning's work, and my good Mrs. Sutherland
for a few minutes after him, I was with a spasm of the heart till 7
o'clock this morning and nearly unfit for work all to-day.
In the case of one distinguished visitor to London, Miss Nightingale
made an exception. This was Garibaldi. She was a sworn Garibaldian, as
we have heard. He wished to see her; she was famous in Italy, and she
had subscribed to his funds. Friends told her that she might be able to
influence the hero in the direction of her own interests, and with some
trepidation she prepared herself to receive him. "I think," wrote
Mr. Jowett, "that we may trust God to give us his own calmness and
clearness on any great occasion such as this is. I hope you will inspire
Garibaldi for the future and not pain him too much about the past. Ten
years more of such a life as his might accomplish almost anything for
Italy in the way of military organization and sanitary and moral
improvement--if he could only see that his duty is not to break the yet
immature strength of Italy against Austrian fortresses." Miss
Nightingale prepared for the "great occasion" by jotting down in French
what she would try to say. "Eh bien! in five years you have made
Italy--the work of five centuries. You have worked a miracle. But even
you, mon Général, could not make a steam-engine in five minutes. And
Italy has to be consolidated into a strong machine, like those which you
have been seeing at Bedford," and so forth, and so forth. She tried to
keep the fact of the interview secret, but it was chronicled in the
newspapers[63]:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Harriet Martineau._) 115 PARK ST., _April 28_
[1864]. You may have heard that I have seen Garibaldi. I resisted
it with all my might, but I was obliged to do it. I asked no one to
look at him--told no one--and he came in my brother-in-law's
carriage, hoping that no one would know. But it all failed. We had
a long interview by ourselves. I was more struck with the greatness
of that noble heart--full of bitterness, yet not bitter--and with
the smallness of the administrative capacity, than even I expected.
He raves for a Government "like the English." But he knows no more
what it is than his King Bomba did. (It was for this that I was to
speak to him.) One year of such a life, as I have led for ten
years, would tell him more of how one has to give and take with a
"representative Government" than all his Utopia and his "ideal."
You will smile. But he reminds me of Plato. He talks about the
"ideal good" and the "ideal bad"; about his not caring for
"repubblica" or for "monarchia": he only wants "the right." Alas!
alas! What a pity--that utter impracticability! I pity _me_ very
much. And of all my years, this last has been the hardest. But now
I see that no _man_ would have put up with what I have put up with
for ten years, to do even the little I have done--which is about a
hundredth part of what I have tried for. Garibaldi looks flushed
and very ill, worn and depressed--not excited. He looks as if he
stood and went thro' all this as he stood under the bullets of
Aspromonte--a duty which he was here to perform. The madness of the
Italians here in urging him is inconceivable.
[63] See the _Times_, April 18, 1864. The interview took place on Sunday
afternoon April 17. On the day before, Garibaldi had been at
Bedford.
Miss Nightingale, we may safely infer, did not inspire Garibaldi with
divine fervour for sanitary reform or any merely administrative
progress. Administration in any sort was foreign to his genius. But she
felt, after the interview no less than before, that it was a great
occasion to her. The interview took place at 115 Park Street, a house
belonging to the Grosvenor Hotel, and she presented the Hotel with a
bust of Garibaldi as a memento of the occasion.
Another of her heroes was Abraham Lincoln, of whom she wrote this
appreciation[64]:--
34 SOUTH STREET, _June_ 20 [1865]. DEAR SIR--I have not dared to
press in with my feeble word of sympathy upon your over-taxed time
and energy, when all Europe was pouring in upon you with its heartfelt
sympathy. My experience has been infinitesimally small. Still, small
as it is, it has been of historical events. And I can never remember
the time--not even when the colossal calamity of the Crimea was first
made known to us,--not even when we lost our own Albert (and our
Albert was no common hero--remember that it was no Sovereign, but it
was Washington, whom he held up as an example to himself and his)--I
can never remember the time when so deep and strong a cry of feeling
has gone up from the world, in all its length and breadth, and in all
its classes, as has gone up for you and yours--in your great trial:
Mr. Lincoln's death. As some one said of him, he will hold "the
purest and the greatest place in history." I trust and believe that
the deed which will spring up from that noble grave will be worthy of
it. I will not take up your time with weak expression of a deep
sympathy. Sincerely yours, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
[64] In a letter to Mr. Dennis R. Alward.
At home, the political event which most moved her was the death of Lord
Palmerston:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Dr. Farr._) 34 SOUTH STREET, _Oct._ 19 [1865]
Ld. Palmerston is a great loss. I speak for the country and myself.
He was a powerful protector to me--especially since Sidney
Herbert's death. I never asked him to do anything--you may be sure
I did not ask him often--but he did it--for the last nine years. He
did not do himself justice. If the right thing was to be done, he
made a joke, but he did it. He will not leave his impress on the
age--but he did the country good service. Except L. Napoleon, whose
death might be the greatest good _or_ the greatest evil, I doubt
whether there is any man's loss which will so affect Europe.... He
was at heart the most liberal man we had left. I have lost, in him,
a powerful friend. I hear spoken of as his successors--Clarendon,
Russell, Granville. Ld. Clarendon it is said the Queen wishes--and
she has been corresponding with him privately--perhaps by Ld.
Palmerston's own desire. But I believe the real question is, under
which (if any) of these, your Mr. Gladstone will consent to remain
in office and be Leader of the Ho. of C. Not one of these men will
manage the cabinet as Ld. Palmerston did. But I daresay you have
more trustworthy information than I have. I would Ld. Palmerston
had lived another Session. We should have got something done at the
Poor Law Board, which we shall not now.[65] Ld. Russell is so
queer-tempered. I quite dread his Premiership, if it comes.
[65] On this subject, see below, p. 133.
III
Miss Nightingale's interest in the working classes led her in 1865 to
draft a scheme which, in some aspects of it, forestalled ideas of a
later generation of social reformers. Mr. Gladstone had recently passed
an Act enabling a depositor's accumulations in the Post Office Savings
Bank to be invested in the purchase either of an Annuity or an
Insurance. It would be very advisable, she suggested, to add to these
methods of saving facilities for the purchase of small freeholds. There
was nothing that the working men more coveted than the ownership of a
house or a piece of land. An extension of small ownership would satisfy
a legitimate craving, increase the motives to thrift, and raise the
social position and independence of the working classes. If the adoption
of the scheme would necessitate the enfranchisement of leaseholds, so
much the better. Such were Miss Nightingale's ideas, and under different
forms and by different methods they have occupied the attention of
social reformers to this day. She submitted her scheme to Mr. Villiers,
President of the Poor Law Board, who seems to have been somewhat
favourable to it. Then she tackled the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
artfully suggesting that her scheme was merely, on the one hand, a
slight development of his "most successful Savings Bank measures," and,
on the other, an indirect means of meeting his earnest desire to extend
the suffrage. But Mr. Gladstone was not to be cajoled. "It would not
do," he told her, "for Government to become land-jobbers"--an opinion
which has not been shared, it would seem, by some of Mr. Gladstone's
successors. He had further suggested that the scheme should be
submitted, in its legal aspects, to his friend Mr. Roundell Palmer, and
Mr. Palmer, after reading it, opined that the law already gave adequate
facilities for the purchase of freeholds by working men and others. Miss
Nightingale then took other legal opinions with a view to meeting
objections; but she presently gave up this addition to her schemes. "It
was certainly," she said, "the wildest of ideas for me to undertake it
just now when I can scarcely do what I have already undertaken."
IV
Though Miss Nightingale saw little of her friends or relations at this
time, she constantly corresponded with them. There are many letters
which tell of her grief at the death of her cousin, Miss Hilary Bonham
Carter: "the golden bowl is broken," she wrote to Madame Mohl (Sept. 8,
1865), "and it was the very purest gold I have ever known." There are
letters from many correspondents--Lady Augusta Bruce, for instance, and
Mrs. William Cowper--which show how deeply they had been touched by Miss
Nightingale's letters of condolence. Her own griefs left room for
sympathy with those of others:--
(_To Dr. Farr._) HAMPSTEAD, _August_ 5 [1864].... I am sorry to
hear of your griefs. I do not find that mine close my heart to
those of others--and I should be more than anxious to hear of
_yours_--you who have been our faithful friend for so many years. I
had heard of your father's death, but not of any other loss. Sidney
Herbert has been dead three years on the 2nd. And these three years
have been nothing but a slow undermining of all he has done (at the
W.O.). This is the bitterest grief. The mere personal craving after
a beloved presence I feel as nothing. A few years at most, and that
will be over. But the other is never over. For me, I look forward
to pursuing God's work soon in another of his worlds. I do not look
forward with any craving to seeing again those I have lost (in the
_very_ next world)--sure that that will all come in His own good
time--and sure of my willingness to work in whichever of His worlds
I am most wanted, with or without those dear fellow-workers, as He
pleases. But this does not at all soothe the pain of seeing men
wantonly deface the work _here_ of some of His best workers. But I
shall bear your faith in mind--that good works never really die.
Alas! good Tulloch. But I think his work was done. Pray, if you
speak of him, remember--had it not been for him, where would our
two Army Sanitary enquiries have been?
Miss Nightingale's large circle of correspondents kept her in touch with
the literary, as well as with the political, world. She suffered greatly
from sleeplessness and read much at night. She seldom read a book
without finding something original or characteristic to say about it.
"Lately," she wrote to M. Mohl (Jan. 24, 1865), "I have read an English
translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The way it interests me is
theologically. Otherwise he seems a poor weak mixture of Mahomet and a
Mephistopheles. But the arguments which he despises seem to me just the
real arguments, the only arguments, if only we believe in a Perfect God,
for eternal existence. Do tell me a little about this, and about the
Sufis and Firdausi--as regards their belief in a God, and whether the
God was good or bad, if any." Omar was new to M. Mohl. Miss Nightingale
lent him Fitz-Gerald's version,[66] and M. Mohl read the original. "The
tidings," she wrote (April 21), "that you may perhaps print Al Khayyám's
quatrains is diffusing joy among a (not large but) select circle, I
having communicated it in the 'proper quarter' (see how we are all
tarred with the same official stick). If you send me a copy, I shall
immediately become a personage of importance." "I read some of Madame
Roland's _Memoires_," she wrote to Madame Mohl (May 20, 1865): "but, do
you know, I was so disappointed to find out that her patriotism was
inspired by a lover. Not that I care much about virtue: I do think
'virtue' by itself a very second-rate virtue. But because I did hope
that here was one woman who cared for _respublica_ as alone, or as
chief, among her cares." "Do" (to Madame Mohl, Sept. 8, 1865), "read if
you have not read Swinburne's _Atalanta in Calydon_. Forgive it its
being an imitation of a Greek play. That is its worst fault. As you said
of Macaulay's _Lays_, They are like an old man in a pinafore; or as I
should say of this, It is like a Puritan togged out as a Priest going to
say mass. But read it. The Atalanta herself, though she is only a sort
of Ginn and not a woman at all, has more reality, more character, more
individuality (to use a bad word) than all the jeunes premières in all
the men novelists I ever have read--Walter Scott, Lytton Bulwer, and all
of them. But then Atalanta is not a sound incarnation of any 'social or
economic principle'--is she? So men will say."
[66] The copy in question was lent by Tennyson to Jowett, and by him to
Miss Nightingale.
V
On higher themes the correspondent to whom Miss Nightingale wrote most
fully from her heart was from this time forth Mr. Jowett. Their
acquaintance, at first confined to paper, had begun, as described in an
earlier chapter, with correspondence about her _Suggestions for
Thought_. The work had greatly interested him, and from time to time he
continued to write to her about it. He wished her to do something with
her "Suggestions," but to rewrite them in a more connected form and a
gentler mood, and he sometimes gave hints for an irony less bitter than
hers. Her letters to him are no longer in existence, except in the case
of a few of which she preserved copies; but it is clear from the tenor
of the correspondence on the other side that she was already (1862)
giving to him much of her intimate confidence. She had now met a new
friend who was capable of entering into her inmost and highest thoughts,
not indeed always with agreement, but always with a sympathetic
understanding. "As you have shown me so much confidence," he presently
wrote, "I feel the strongest wish to help you in any way that I can
without intruding." And again: "I cannot but wish you (as sincerely as I
ever desired anything) unabated hope and trust and resolve to continue
your work to the end, and many rays of light to cheer the way." A little
later, drawing a bow at a venture, Mr. Jowett wondered whether she was
engaged about Indian sanitary matters? He had "a reason for being
interested about them which is that I lost my two brothers in India."
Miss Nightingale, as we have heard, was interested in nothing else so
intently at this time, and here was a fresh bond of sympathy. She asked
whether, knowing what he did of her religious views, he would come and
administer the Sacrament to her, as she was entirely unable to leave her
room. "I shall be very glad," he wrote (Oct. 3), "to give you the
Sacrament. I am sure that many other clergymen would be equally glad.
Would you like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, or any of their family, to join you?"
The Sacrament was often thus administered, and Miss Nightingale's most
intimate friends--such as Mrs. Bracebridge--or some of her family,
generally partook of the rite with her. On one of the earlier of these
occasions, Mr. Jowett met her parents, and in 1862 paid the first of his
visits, which afterwards became frequent, to them in the country. He
often figures in their letters as "that great and good man," or "that
true saint, Mr. Jowett." And from this date also began his frequent
visits--usually many times a year--to Miss Nightingale herself; indeed
he was seldom, if ever, in London without spending an afternoon with
her. If she had friends staying in her house--such as M. and Madame
Mohl--he would sometimes come in to dine with them.
"Dear Miss Nightingale," wrote Mr. Jowett (Oct. 28), "I shall always
regard the circumstance of having given you the Communion as a solemn
event in my life which is a call to devote myself to the service of God
and men (if He will give me the power to do so). Your example will often
come before me, especially if I have occasion to continue my work under
bodily suffering. There is something that I want to say to you which I
hardly know how to express." And then followed the first of what became
a long series of spiritual admonitions. Mr. Jowett had, it is clear, a
very high opinion of Miss Nightingale's genius, the most sincere
admiration for her self-devotion, and a deep affection for her. But he
thought that she was in some ways not using her life to the best
advantage, and that her state of physical and mental suffering was in
some measure the result of a too impetuous temper. In letter after
letter, full of a beautiful and delicate sympathy, he whispered into her
ears counsels of calm, of trust, of moderation. She seems to have kept
him informed of every move in her crusades, and he was constantly afraid
that she would fight too fiercely or even (in this case a quite needless
fear) come out into the open. "The gift of being invisible," he wrote
(April 22, 1863), "is much to be desired by any one who exercises a good
influence over others. Though Deborah and Barak work together, Sisera
the Captain of the Host must not suspect that he has been delivered into
the hands of a woman." "I hope" (March 1865) "that you won't leave your
incognito. It would seriously injure your influence if you were known to
have influence. (Did you know the Baron Stockmar whom Sir Robert Peel
called one of the most influential persons in Europe? Hardly any one in
England excepting Kings and Queens knew of his existence. That was a
model for that sort of life.) If you answer (anonymously, as I hope, if
at all), may I beg you to answer with facts only and without a trace of
feeling?" When he applauds some stroke, he urges her to find rest and
comfort in the victory. "All this," he wrote (Feb. 26, 1865), "I firmly
believe would not have been accomplished but for your clearness of sight
and intensity of purpose. Is not this a thing to thank God about? I was
reading in Grote an account of an attempted Spartan revolution in the
times of Agesilaus. One of the great objects of the Ephori was to keep
the Spartan youth from getting under the influence of a woman (name
unknown) who was stirring the rebellion. Do you not think that woman may
have been you in some former state of existence?" Miss Nightingale,
perhaps in some justification for her eagerness in action, opened her
heart fully to Mr. Jowett about her sense of loss in Sidney Herbert's
death; explaining her loneliness in work, and yet her overmastering
desire to complete, while strength was still granted to her, the "joint
work" of her friend and herself. "I have often felt," he replied (Aug.
7, 1865), "what a wreck and ruin Lord Herbert's death must have been to
you. You had done so much for him and he had grown so rapidly in himself
and in public estimation that there seemed no limits to what he might
have effected. He might have been one of the most popular and powerful
Prime Ministers in this country--the man to carry us through the social
and ecclesiastical questions that are springing up. And you would have
had a great part in his work and filled him with every noble and useful
ambition. Do not suppose that I don't feel and understand all this. (And
you might have made me Dean of Christ Church: the only preferment that I
would like to have, and I would have reformed the University and bullied
the Canons.) But it has pleased God that all this should not be, and it
must please us too, and we must carry on the struggle under greater
difficulties, with more of hard and painful labour and less of success,
still never flinching while life lasts." Never flinching, but never
fretting or fuming: that was the burden of Mr. Jowett's exhortations. "I
sometimes think," he had written (July 9, 1865), "that you ought
seriously to consider how your work may be carried on, not with less
energy, but in a calmer spirit. Think that the work of God neither
hastes nor rests, and that we should go about it in the spirit of order
which prevails in the world. I am not blaming the past (who would blame
you who devote your life to the good of others?). But I want the peace
of God to settle on the future. Perhaps you will feel that in urging
this I really can form no notion of your sufferings. Alas, dear friend,
I am afraid that this is true. Still I must beg you to keep your mind
above them. Is that motive vain of being made perfect through
suffering?" It is an idle speculation to wonder whether persons who
have done great things in the world would have done as much or more or
better if they had been other than they were. Calm is well; but it is
not always the spring of action. If Miss Nightingale had been less eager
and impetuous, she might, after her return from the Crimea, have done
nothing at all. But perhaps already, in moments of weariness during the
battle, and increasingly as the shadows lengthened into the pensive
evening of her days, she may have felt that there was some truth in the
soothing counsels of Mr. Jowett's friendship.
That Miss Nightingale reciprocated his feelings of affectionate esteem
is shown very clearly by the way in which she received his admonitions.
She was not usually meek under even the gentlest reproaches of her
friends; but, so far as Mr. Jowett's letters tell the story, she never
resented anything he said; she expressed nothing but gratitude. I do not
suppose that she never retorted. He advised her, as he advised
everybody, to read Boswell. I gather from one of his letters that she
may have reminded him of Dr. Johnson's love of a good hater, for
Mr. Jowett promises to try and satisfy her a little better in that
respect in the future. And, as far as it was in him to do so, he seems
to have kept his word. "Hang the Hebdomadal Council," he wrote; or, of a
certain meeting of another body, "I was opposed by two fools and a
knave." There are passages about "rascals" and "rogue Elephants" and
"beasts," which are almost as downright as was Miss Nightingale herself
in this sort. She returned to the full the sympathy which he gave to
her. She was solicitous about his health. He promised to cut down his
hours of reading, and never to work any more after midnight. "I cannot
resist such a remonstrance as yours. I think that you would batter the
gates of heaven or hell. Seriously, I shall think of your letter as long
as I live, dear friend." She asked to be kept informed of every move in
the academical disputes which concerned him, the judgment in the case of
_Essays and Reviews_, the dispute about the Greek Professorship, and so
forth. He told her even of stupidities at College meetings--"not to be
beaten," he said of one, "even by your War Office." "I think you are the
only person," he wrote (1865), "who encourages me about my work at
Oxford. I cannot be too grateful for your words." "I am delighted," he
wrote again (Oct. 27, 1866), "to have a friend who cares two straws
whether I succeeded in a matter at Oxford." She, as is clear from his
letters, wrote to him, not only about her struggles and interests, but
also about his; and he, on his side, discussed all her problems. He
wanted her to spend herself no longer "on conflicts with Government
offices," but to devote her mind to some literary work in which
successful effect would depend only on herself. In such work, moreover,
he could perhaps help her. She, on her side, would like to help him with
a sermon, the preparation of which was teasing him, and there is a long
draft amongst her papers of the heads of a discourse, suggested by her,
on the relation of religion to politics. "I sometimes use _your_ hints,"
he had written earlier. "A pupil of mine has a passion for public life,
and having the means, is likely to get into Parliament. I said to him,
'You are a fanatic, that cannot be helped, but you must try to be a
"rational fanatic."'" Each of the friends thought very highly of the
powers and services of the other. "There is nothing you might not
accomplish," he says to her. He turns off what she must have said of him
with playful deprecation: "About Elijah--you must mean the Honble.
Elijah Pogram. There is no other Elijah to whom I bear the least
resemblance." And each valued the friendship as a means of enabling them
both to serve God more truly. "The spirit of the twenty-third Psalm and
the spirit of the ninetieth Psalm should be united in our lives."
Her friendship with Mr. Jowett was, I cannot doubt, Miss Nightingale's
greatest consolation in these strenuous years. She was immersed in
official drudgery, never forgetful, it is true, of the end in the means,
but sorely vexed and harassed by the difficulties and disappointments of
circumstance. Her friend's letters and conversation raised her above the
conflict into a purer and calmer atmosphere. Not indeed that Mr. Jowett
was a quietist; she would little have respected him had he been so; but
though in the world, he was not of it; he was unsoiled by the dust of
the great road. She had, it is true, other and yet more unworldly
friends--nuns in convents and matrons or nurses in hospitals. With them,
too, she exchanged intimate confidences in spiritual matters; but their
standpoint was not hers, and the exchange could only be with mental
reservations on her part. To Mr. Jowett she was able to open
unreservedly her truest thoughts. And then, too, the dearest of her
other friends paid her an almost adoring worship, whilst some who were
estranged offered only unsympathetic criticism. It was from Mr. Jowett
alone that she heard the language of affectionate and understanding
remonstrance. She heard it gladly, because she knew that it was
sympathetic, and because she felt that her friend's character was
attuned to her own highest ideals.
Thirty years after the date at which we have now arrived (1866), Miss
Nightingale read through the hundreds of letters she had received and
kept from Mr. Jowett. She made copious extracts from them in pencil, and
sent several to his biographers. Many of his letters to her were
included in his _Life_, though the name of the recipient was not
disclosed. She was jealous in her life-time of the privacy of her life.
She rebuked Mr. Jowett once for accepting a copy of her cousin's
statuette of her. He explained that he had placed it where it would not
be observed. "I consider you," he had already written, "a sort of Royal
personage, not to be gossiped about with any one." The letters to her,
hitherto published, were selected to throw light upon his views. In this
Memoir, in which it has been decided to give (if it may be) a truthful
picture of her life and character, I select rather those letters which
show the influence of his character upon hers. The following was noted
by Miss Nightingale as "one of the most beautiful, if not the most
beautiful, of the whole collection":--
ASKRIGG, _July_ [1864]. I am afraid that hard-working persons are
very bad correspondents, at least I know that I am, or I should
have written to you long ago, which I have always a pleasure in
doing. But Plato, who is either my greatest friend or my greatest
enemy, and has finally swelled into three large volumes (you will
observe that I am proud of the size of my baby), is to blame for
preventing me. This place, at which I shall be staying for about
five weeks longer, is at the head of Wensleydale, high among
mountains in a most beautiful country, and what, I think, adds
greatly to the charm of the country, very pleasing for the
simplicity and intelligence of the people. Among the enjoyments
which I have here, which notwithstanding Plato are really very
great, I cannot help remembering you at 115 Park Street. I wish you
would venture to see something more of the sights and sounds of
nature. You will never persuade me that your way of life is
altogether the best for health any more than I could persuade you
into Mr. Gladstone's doctrine of the salubrity of living over a
churchyard.
As to the rest, I have no doubt that you could not be better than
you are. I don't wish to exaggerate (for you are the last person to
whom I should think of offering compliments), but I certainly
believe that it has been a great national good that you have taken
up the whole question of the sanitary condition of the soldier and
not confined yourself to hospitals. The difficulties and
stupidities would have been as great in the case of the hospitals,
and the object really far inferior in importance. Besides you could
never have gained the influence over medical men with their
professional jealousies that you have had over the War Office and
the Indian Government. Also, if your life is spared a few years
longer, a great deal more may be done. There are many resources
that are not yet exhausted. Therefore never listen to the voice
that tells you in a moment of weariness or pain that you ought to
have adhered to your old vocation.
I suppose there have been persons who have had so strong _a sense
of the identity of their own action with the will of God as to
exclude every other feeling, who have never wished to live nor
wished to die except as they fulfil his will_? Can we acquire this?
I don't know. But _such a sense of things would no doubt give
infinite rest and almost infinite power_. Perhaps quietists have
been most successful in gaining this sort of feeling, but the
quietists are not the people who have passed all their lives
rubbing and fighting against the world. But _I don't see why active
life might not become a sort of passive life too, passive in the
hands of God and in the fulfilment of the laws of nature. I
sometimes fancy that there are possibilities of human character
much greater than have been realized_, mysteries, as they may be
called, of character and manner and style which remain to be called
forth and explained. One great field for thought on this subject is
the manner in which character may grow and change quite late in
life.... [The rest of the letter is about the politics of the day.]
The passages which I have printed in italics are those which Miss
Nightingale had specially marked. "Can we help one another," he wrote in
the following year (March 5, 1865), "to make life a higher and nobler
sort of thing--more of a calm and peaceful and never-ending service of
God? Perhaps--a little." The marked passages show in what way Miss
Nightingale found in Mr. Jowett's friendship a source of comfort, and a
fresh inspiration towards her own spiritual ideals. In her meditations
of later years, a greater "passivity in action" was the state of
perfection which she constantly sought to attain.
* * * * *
Mr. Jowett, as will have been noted, sought to reassure her about her
concentration for the most part upon work for the Army and for India.
And indeed she was herself intensely devoted to it, nor was it ever
deposed from a principal place in her thoughts and interests. Yet there
were times, as shown in a letter already quoted (p. 82), when she felt
that this work, insistently though it appealed to her, though it was
bound up with some of her fondest memories, was all the while, if not a
kind of desertion, yet at best only a temporary call. Her first "call
from God" had been to service in another sort, and she was anxious to
make peace with "those first affections." In January 1864 she sent these
instructions to Mrs. Bracebridge, who directed that if Miss Nightingale
should survive her they were to be handed on to Mrs. Sutherland:--
You know that I always believed it to be God's will for me that I
should live and die in Hospitals. When this call He has made upon
me for other work stops, and I am no longer able to work, I should
wish to be taken to St. Thomas's Hospital and to be placed _in a
general ward_ (which is what I should have desired had I come to my
end as a Hospital matron). And I beg you to be so very good as to
see that this my wish is accomplished, whenever the time comes, if
you will take the trouble as a true friend, which you always have
been, are, and will be. And this will make me die in peace because
I believe it to be God's will.
It was not so to be. But we shall find, on opening the next Part in the
story of Miss Nightingale's long life, that she was presently to have
time for helping forward the movement, which she had promoted as a
Reformer of Hospitals and as the Founder of Modern Nursing, into a new
and a wider field.
CHAPTER VI
NEW MASTERS
(1866)
Among new men, strange faces, other minds.
TENNYSON.
The year 1866 was one of stirring events both at home and abroad. It saw
the downfall of the Whig Administration which, with a brief interval
(1858-59), had held office under different chiefs since December 1852.
In March Mr. Gladstone, now leader of the House of Commons, introduced a
Reform Bill, of which the fortunes were uncertain owing to the dissent
of the Adullamites under Mr. Lowe. On April 27 the second reading was
carried by a majority of five only. On June 18 the Government was
defeated in Committee on Lord Dunkellin's amendment, and resigned. On
the day before Lord Russell's Government was defeated war was declared
between Austria and her allies on the one side, and Prussia and Italy on
the other. Prussia, armed with her new breech-loading gun, quickly
defeated Austria. The foundation of the future German Empire under the
hegemony of Prussia was laid, and Italy, as part of the price of a
victory not hers, received from Austria the province of Venetia. Of
these great events, some brought consequences with them to causes in
which Miss Nightingale was deeply interested, whilst others made direct
demands on her exertions.
The earlier months of the year were thus a period of continuous and
almost feverish activity on her part. Two of her letters--the former
written when the fate of the Government was still trembling in the
balance, the latter written when the new Government had been installed
and when the war was raging on the continent--will serve to introduce
the subjects of this chapter:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Harriet Martineau._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _May_ 2
[1866].... We have been rather in a fever lately because Ministers
were hovering between in and out. Mr. Villiers promised us a Bill
quite early in the year for a London uniform Poor Rate for the
_sick_ and consolidated hospitals under a central management. (This
was before we got our Earls and Archbishops and M.P.'s together to
storm him in his den.) We shall not get our Bill this session, for
Mr. Villiers is afraid of losing the Government one vote. But we
shall certainly get it in time. "In 1860 the consolations of the
future never failed me for a moment. And I find them now an equally
secure resource." Can you guess who wrote those words? They are in
a note from Mr. Gladstone written the morning of his speech on the
Franchise Bill. Could you have believed he was so much in earnest?
I could not. And yet I knew him once very well. His speech (he was
ill) impressed the House very much. "And e'en the ranks of Tuscany
could scarce forbear to cheer." ...
(_Miss Nightingale to Julius Mohl._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 12
[1866]. I have been in the thick of all these changes of
Government. I should like, if you had been in England, to have
shown you the notes I have had from those going out, and those
coming in--especially from my own peculiar masters, Lord de Grey
and Lord Stanley. They are so much more serious and anxious than
the world gives them credit for. I used to think public opinion was
higher than private opinion. I now think just the reverse. As for
the _Times_ and about all these German affairs--I believe the
_Times_ to be a faithful reflection of the public opinion of our
upper classes: see what it is. Last week Prussia and Bismarck were
the greatest criminals in Europe. This week the needle-gun (I mean
Prussia and Bismarck--no, I mean the needle-gun) is a
constitutional Protestant--or a Protestant constitution, I am not
sure which.... But I was going to tell you: Lord Stanley has taken
the Foreign Office (how he or anybody could take willingly the
Foreign Office, England having now so little weight in European
councils, in preference to the India Office which Lord Stanley
created[67] and where we _create_ the future of 150 millions of
men, one can't understand). Lord Stanley accepted the Foreign
Office solely because he could not help it--Lord Clarendon (which
I saw under his own hand) having "unhesitatingly declined" it,
although Lord Derby made the most vehement love to him, even to
offering to him the nomination of half the places in the Cabinet.
This I heard from Lord Clarendon himself.... Like you, I can't
sleep or eat for thinking of this War. I can't distract my thoughts
from it--because, you know, it is my business. I am consulted on
both sides as to their Hospital and sanitary arrangements.... And
then those stupid Italians publish parts of my letter--just the
froth at the end, you know, while I had given them a solid pudding
of advice at their own request--publish it cruelly, without my
leave, with my address--since which my doors have been besieged by
all exiles of all nations asking to be sent to Italy, and women
threatening to "_accoucher_" (_sic_) in my passage. I sometimes
think I must give up business, _i.e._ work, or life. It would take
two strong policemen to keep my beggars in check. No one could
believe the stories I should have to tell--people who beg of me
whom I might just as well beg of ... [a sheet missing]. Of course
now I have to begin again at the very beginning with Mr. Gathorne
Hardy at the Poor Law Board, to get our Metropolitan Workhouse
Infirmary Bill. It was a cruel disappointment to me to see the Bill
go just as I had it in my grasp. Also: a Public Health Service
organization for Sir John Lawrence in India which I lost by 24
hours!! owing to Lord de Grey's going out. However, I am well nigh
done for. Life is too hard for me. I have suffered so very much all
the winter and spring, for which nothing did me any good but a
curious new-fangled little operation of putting opium in under the
skin, which relieves one for 24 hours, but does not improve the
vivacity or serenity of one's intellect. When Ministers went out, I
had hopes for a time from a Committee of the House of Commons (on
which serves John Stuart Mill) "on the special local government of
the Metropolis." At their request I wrote them a long letter. Then
because it is July and they are rather hot, they give it up for
this year. The change of Ministers, which brings hard work to us
drudges, releases the House of Commons men. Alas! (There is a
pathetic story of Balzac's, in which a poor woman who had followed
the Russian campaign, was never able to articulate any word except
_Adieu, Adieu, Adieu!_ I am afraid of going mad like her and not
being able to articulate any word but _Alas! alas! alas!_)--F. N.
[67] Lord Stanley had been President of the Board of Control in 1858, in
which capacity he conducted the India Bill through the House of
Commons, and on its passage he became the first Secretary of State
for India.
II
Of the events over which Miss Nightingale cried alas! in this letter,
the one which came first was the loss of Mr. Villiers's Poor Law Bill.
The loss, however, as she rightly surmised in writing to Miss Martineau,
was only temporary. The whole subject is connected with a distinct
branch of Miss Nightingale's work, of which a description must be
reserved for the next chapter. She was in large measure, as we shall
hear, the founder of Sick Nursing among the Indigent Poor, and a pioneer
in Poor Law Reform.
The next event is connected with a subject with which we have already
made acquaintance. Miss Nightingale "lost by 24 hours the opportunity of
organizing a Public Health Service in India for Sir John Lawrence." The
story of this lost opportunity and its retrieval illustrate the truth of
something said already;[68] namely, the difference it made that there
was in London, in the person of Miss Nightingale, a resolute enthusiast,
to whom the question of Indian sanitation was not "one of a thousand
questions," but the one question of absorbing interest. That the
opportunity of which she spoke was lost, was not, as by this time the
reader will hardly need to be told, in any way whatever the fault of
Miss Nightingale. It is a curious story, and is the subject of a great
mass of correspondence amongst her Papers--a mass eloquent of the eager
interest and infinite trouble which she devoted to the matter; but the
story itself admits of being told succinctly. A few words, however, are
first necessary on the essential issues; it was not a case of much ado
about nothing. The whole future of sanitary progress in India was, or
might reasonably be thought to be, at stake. Under the energetic rule of
Sir John Lawrence, a good start had been made. The Governor-General
continued to report progress to Miss Nightingale, and suggestions which
she sent were communicated by him to his officers. But the larger
questions of organization had still to be settled. Sir John's eagerness
as a sanitary reformer was in some measure held in check by shortage of
money. "Sanitary works," as Lord Salisbury remarked at a later stage of
the affair, "are uniformly costly works." Miss Nightingale's view was
that whether advance was to be slower or quicker, the organization
should be on lines which would ensure the importance of advance being
constantly kept in mind. She insisted that the Public Health Service in
India should be a separate service, responsible to the Governor-General
in Council, not a subordinate branch tucked away under some other
department. This is the burden of many letters and memoranda from her
hand.
[68] Above, p. 58.
Early in 1866 a double opportunity seemed to offer itself to Miss
Nightingale for advancing her cause. At the beginning of February Sir
Charles Wood resigned office, and her friend, Lord de Grey, became
Secretary of State for India in his place. At the same time she had
received an important letter from the Governor-General (dated Calcutta,
Jan. 19). Her friend, Mr. Ellis, who had been in conclave (as we have
heard) with her and her circle, had shortly before submitted proposals
to him. Sir John Lawrence wrote to her: "As regards the reconstruction
of our sanitary organizations, we are sending home to the Secretary of
State a copy of Mr. Ellis's note which he sent me, and are proposing a
further change somewhat in accordance with his plan. I have no doubt
that you will see the dispatch, and therefore I had better not send it
to you." He then went on to give a summary of its contents. The summary
was brief, and allowed of different opinions as to the ultimate bearing
of the Governor-General's proposals. He had assumed as a matter of
course that she would be shown his dispatch, and she applied to her
official friends for a sight of it. They would be delighted if they had
it, but they had received no such dispatch; perhaps it would come by the
next mail. But it did not, nor by the next, nor the next, for a very
simple reason, as will presently appear. Miss Nightingale put on her
friend Mr. Ellis, who as the head of a Presidency Health Commission had
a direct _locus standi_, to inquire and even to search at the India
Office. "They swear by their gods," he reported, "that they have no such
dispatch." Miss Nightingale was becoming desperate. She was perfectly
certain that Sir John Lawrence must have sent it. Meanwhile the Home
Government was tottering to its fall; the new Secretary of State might
be one who knew not Miss Nightingale. She entreated that a further
search should be made. On May 5 she was told that "at last the Sanitary
Minute had been found, and a copy of it was sent for her consideration.
It had been attached to some papers connected with the Financial
Department and thus had escaped attention. Lord de Grey begged Miss
Nightingale to let him have the benefit of her opinion upon it as soon
as possible." She afterwards learnt that it was the Secretary of State
himself who, with his own hands, had searched for and found the
Governor-General's Minute. It had "escaped attention" for nearly four
months. The incident did not raise Miss Nightingale's opinion of
government offices, or lessen her sense of responsibility in the duty of
keeping the sanitary question to the fore. She was ill when the
Minister's message arrived; but she at once set to work, and on May 7
she sent in a memorandum giving a summary of her views, and pointing out
wherein the Governor-General's proposals seemed to require revision if
the recommendations of the Royal Commission were to be carried out
effectually. The Minister was busy with many things. His own fate and
that of his colleagues were in peril every day. A month intervened
before the next move was taken. On June 11 Miss Nightingale was asked by
Lord de Grey, through Captain Galton, to develop her views further and
to draw up, in consultation with Dr. Sutherland, "a draft letter which
he could submit to the Indian Council as his reply to Sir John
Lawrence." The letter was to take the form either of "a practical scheme
to propose to Sir John Lawrence for the sanitary administration of
India" or of "such a description of the requirements as would draw from
Sir J. L. a practical scheme." It was suggested that perhaps it would be
best if the letter (1) shadowed out the requirements and (2) sketched a
scheme of administration for carrying them out. This was a large order
and took time. On June 19 Miss Nightingale sent in her draft. She was
"24 hours" too late, for on June 18 the Government had been defeated.
There was, however, a short period of grace owing to the absence of the
Queen at Balmoral and to her unwillingness to accept Lord Russell's
resignation.[69] Lord de Grey had no time to pass the letter through the
Secretary of State's Council, but he did what he could. He left on
record at the India Office, he told Miss Nightingale, a Minute[70]
closely following the lines of her Memorandum. If his successor let the
matter go to sleep again, Lord de Grey would be ready to call attention
to it in Parliament. He assured Miss Nightingale that his interest in
such questions would remain as warm as ever, and as she was now more
likely than he to know what was going on, he begged her to keep him
informed.
[69] In one of Mr. Jowett's letters to Miss Nightingale (June 1866)
there is this story of Lord Russell. "On the evening of the crisis
he was not to be found. He had gone down to Richmond to hear the
Nightingales (your cousins)! 'And the provoking thing,' as he wrote
to a friend, 'was that they did not sing that night.'"
[70] The substance of it may be found at p. 11 of the _Memorandum_ (as
cited above, p. 34 _n._).
III
So, then, she had been too late. "I am furious to that degree," she
wrote to Captain Galton (June 23), "at having lost Lord de Grey's five
months at the India Office that I am fit to blow you all to pieces with
an infernal machine of my own invention." She threw some of the blame
upon Dr. Sutherland, whose mission to the Mediterranean she had not been
able to cancel, and who, for weeks at a time during this year, was
absent at Malta and Gibraltar or in Algiers. Algiers, indeed, she wrote
tauntingly, "why not Astley's?" That would be quite as good a change for
him. Sometimes she varied the figure, and Dr. Sutherland and his party
figured in her letters as Wombwell's Menagerie. "The Menagerie, I hear,"
she wrote (Jan. 26), "including three ladies, H.M. Commissioners, and
two ladies' maids, has gone after a column in the interior." Had he
stayed at home, he might have been able to find the missing dispatch;
and in any case they could have written at leisure, from the hints in
Sir John Lawrence's letter to her, the Memorandum which they ultimately
had to write in haste. The truant seems to have foreseen what a rod in
pickle was awaiting him on his return. "I have been thinking," he wrote
to her from Algiers (Jan. 28), "Will she be glad to hear from me? or
Will she swear? I don't know, but nevertheless I will tell her a bit of
my mind about our visit to Astley's." And he goes on to write an
admirable account of his experiences, in which he ingeniously emphasizes
the vast importance of his inquiries in connection with their Indian
work. Nor was this only an excuse; Dr. Sutherland's Report on Algeria,
and the French sanitary service there, was a most valuable piece of
work. It is impossible to read his writings--whether in published
reports or in his manuscripts among Miss Nightingale's papers--without
perceiving how well based was the reliance which she placed upon his
collaboration. His wife stayed at home and saw much of Miss Nightingale.
Mrs. Sutherland must have reported the state of things in South Street;
for a month later Dr. Sutherland wrote thus to Miss Nightingale (Feb.
20): "The mail which ought to have arrived yesterday came in to-day, and
I am trying to save the out mail, which leaves the harbour at 12,
without much prospect of success. I have had a letter to-day from home
about you, and if it had come yesterday, Ellis and I would certainly
have been embarking to-day for England. After the account of your
suffering, and of the pressure of business under which you are sinking,
I feel wild to get away from this. To-night we leave Algeria, and by the
time you get this we will be on our way home. God bless you and keep you
to us. Amen." Well, I can only hope that Dr. Sutherland enjoyed
his trip while it lasted; for I fear that he may have had a bad
quarter-of-an-hour when he reported himself at South Street on his
return. She had complained of his absence to another of her close
allies, Dr. Farr. "I have all Dr. Sutherland's business to do," she
wrote (Jan. 19), "besides my own. If it could be done, I should not
mind. I had just as soon wear out in two months as in two years, so the
work be done. But it can't. It is just like two men going into business
with a million each. The one suddenly withdraws. The other may wear
himself to the bone, but he can't meet the engagements with one million
which he made with two. Add to this, I have been so ill since the
beginning of the year as to be often unable to have my position moved
from pain for 48 hours at a time. But to business...."
One good stroke of business, however, Miss Nightingale had been able to
do during Dr. Sutherland's absence. She reported it to Dr. Farr: "The
compensation to my disturbed state of mind has been a convert to the
sanitary cause I have made for Madras--no less a person than Lord
Napier. I managed to scramble up to see him before he sailed." The
"conversion" means not necessarily that Lord Napier needed to find
salvation, but refers rather to the fact that his predecessor in the
governorship of Madras had been unsympathetic. Lord Napier, on receiving
the appointment, had expressed a desire to learn Miss Nightingale's
views. He had been secretary to the British Embassy at Constantinople
during the Crimean War, and had there formed a high opinion of her
ability and devotion. She now wrote to him about Indian sanitary reform,
and he at once replied:--
(_Lord Napier to Miss Nightingale._) 24 PRINCES GATE, _Feb._ 16
[1866]. I beg you to believe that I am far from being impatient of
your communication or indifferent to your wishes. I have read your
letter with great interest, and I regret that you had not time and
strength to make it longer. You will confer a great favour on me by
sending me the 8vo volume of which you speak, and I would not
stumble at the two folio blue books.... The Sanitary question like
the railway question or the irrigation question will probably
remain subordinated in some degree to financial requirements, to
the necessity of shewing a surplus at the end of the year; but
within the limits of my available resources I promise you a zealous
intervention on behalf of the cause you have so much at heart. You
say that you do not know me well; but you cannot deprive me of the
happiness and honor of having seen you at the greatest moment of
your life in the little parlour of the hospital at Scutari. I was a
spectator, and I would have been a fellow-labourer if any one would
have employed my services. I remain at your orders for any day and
hour.--Very sincerely yours, NAPIER.
Their interview took place three days later. Lord Napier, during his
governorship of Madras, which lasted six years, tried hard to fulfil his
promise. To other matters he attended also; but it was to questions
connected with the public health that he devoted his most particular
attention, and throughout his residence in India he kept up a
correspondence with Miss Nightingale about them.
IV
Meanwhile on the immediate question of the moment she had been too late,
and her political friends were out. She was a Whig and a keen Reformer;
but she was a sanitarian before she was a politician, and as soon as the
Whigs fell she was on the alert to make friends for her causes with the
mammon of unrighteousness. She was eager to hear the earliest political
news:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Captain Galton._) _June_ 27.... Now do write
to a wretched female, F. N., about _who_ is to come in _where_.
Does Gen. Peel come to the War Office? If so, will he annihilate
our Civil Sanitary element? Is Sutherland to go all the same to
Malta and Gibraltar this autumn? Will Gen. Peel imperil the Army
Sanitary Commission? I _must_ know: ye Infernal Powers! Is Mr. Lowe
to come in to the India Office? It is all unmitigated disaster to
me. For, as Lord Stanley is to be Foreign Office (the only place
where he can be of _no_ use to us), I shall not have a friend in
the world. If I were to say more, I should fall to swearing, I am
so indignant.--Ever yours furiously, F. N.
Captain Galton replied that he had it from Mr. Lowe himself that he
would not join the Tories; that of the actual appointments he had not as
yet heard; but that as the Secretary of State's was an impersonal
office, Dr. Sutherland's commission to visit the Mediterranean would
still hold good--or bad. "You say the S. of S. is an impersonal
creature," replied Miss Nightingale (July 3); "I wish he wuz!" When the
names of the new Ministers were announced, Captain Galton threw out a
suggestion tentatively that Lord Cranborne[71] (India Office) might be
approachable through Lady Cranborne. "I have a much better
recommendation to him than that," wrote Miss Nightingale in some triumph
(July 7), "and have already been put into 'direct communication' with
him, _not_ at my own request." The letters tell the story of her
introduction to new masters at the India Office and the Poor Law
Board:--
(_Lord Stanley to Miss Nightingale._) ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, _July_ 6.
I shall see Lord Cranborne to-day (we go down to be sworn in) and
will tell him the whole sanitary story, and also say that I have
advised you to write to him as you have always done to me to my
great advantage. You will find him shrewd, industrious, and a good
man of business.
[71] Better known as the Marquis of Salisbury, to which title he
succeeded in 1868.
(_Miss Nightingale to Lord Cranborne._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 17.
Lord Stanley had the kindness to advise me to write to you, and to
tell _me_ that he would tell _you_ that he had "advised" me "to
write to" you as I "have done to" him. This is my only excuse for
what would otherwise be a very great impertinence and what I fear
may seem to you such even now, viz. my present application to you
on the India Public Health question. I know I ought to begin, "Miss
Nightingale presents her compliments to Lord Cranborne." But the
"third person" always becomes confused. Lord Stanley has probably
scarcely had the time to tell you my long story. I fear, therefore,
I must introduce myself, by saying that my apology for what you may
(justly) consider an unwarrantable interference must be--the part I
have taken in the Public Health of the Army in India for the last 8
years, having been in communication with Lord Stanley, Sir C. Wood,
and Lord de Grey about it, and being now in constant communication
with Sir John Lawrence and others in India on the same subject.
When Lord de Grey left office, Lord Stanley, of his own accord,
kindly asked whether he should "put" me "in direct communication"
with you.
This is my general apology. My particular one is: that by last mail
I received some very pressing letters from India on the subject of
the introduction of an efficient Public Health administration into
India, which is after this wise:--the spirit of the very general
recommendations made by the R. Commission which reported in 1863
(presided over by Lord Stanley) had never been completely acted up
to--there have been difficulties and clashings in consequence. A
Minute (of January 9, 1866) was sent home by Sir John Lawrence
proposing to connect the Public Health Service with the
Inspectorship of Prisons. The proposal appears to have been made
without due consideration of the importance and greatness of the
duties; if it were carried out, it would put an end, we believe, to
any prospect of efficient progress. (I think I am correct in saying
that Lord Stanley concurs in this view.) Lord de Grey was deeply
impressed with this defect in the scheme; he drew up a Minute (just
before he left office) in order to leave his views on record for
you, setting forth generally the duties, and asking for a
reconsideration of the subject in India, before the
organisation was finally decided on--of the Public Health Service. I
would now venture to ask your favourable consideration for this
proposal, because, on the organisation of a service adequate for the
object, depends the entire future of the Public Health in India.
We commit ourselves into your hands.
(_Lord Cranborne to Miss Nightingale._) INDIA OFFICE, _July 17_. I
am much obliged to you for your letter; and especially for your
kindness in relieving me from the literary effort of composing a
letter or series of letters in the third person. Lord Stanley spoke
to me about the sanitary question some days ago, and told me I
should probably hear from you. I have made enquiries as to the
Despatch you mention, and find that it is in the office still
awaiting decision. No confirmation of it shall take place until I
have communicated further with you upon the subject. I shall not be
able to go into the sanitary question until I have disposed of the
claims of the Indian officers, which, according to all the best
authorities, are very urgently in need of immediate settlement. But
as soon as that is done with, I hope that the sanitary question may
be taken up without delay.
(_Mr. Gathorne Hardy to Miss Nightingale._) POOR LAW BOARD, _July_
25. You owe me no apology for calling my attention to material
points connected with the subject in the consideration of which you
are so much engaged. I should say this to any one who wrote in the
same spirit as yourself, but I am really indebted to you who have
earned no common title to advise and suggest upon anything which
affects the treatment of the sick. Your note arrived at the very
instant when a gentleman was urging me to lay before you questions
relating to Workhouse Infirmaries, and I should not have hesitated
to do so if needful even without the cordial invitation which you
give me to ask your assistance. At present I have not advanced very
far from want of time, as while Parliament is sitting I am
necessarily very much occupied with other business, and I am
anxious to remedy, if possible, present and urgent grievances
before I enter thoroughly upon legislation for the future. I shall
bear in mind the offer which you have made and in all probability
avail myself of it to the full.
So, then, perhaps Miss Nightingale would not be left wholly friendless
after all. She was to have new masters. Would they, or would they not,
accept her service? We shall hear in due course.
V
Meanwhile Miss Nightingale had been very busily engaged with the
correspondence and other tasks thrown upon her by the outbreak of war in
Europe. "Saw Florence for half an hour this morning," reported her
father (June); "over-fatigued certainly, but speaking with a voice only
too loud and strong. Princess [Alice of] Hesse writes to her to ask for
instructions for the hospitals there, and Sutherland's joke is 'There's
nothing left for _you_, all is gone to Garibaldi.'" She had been applied
to by representatives of all three combatants. Prussia, as usual, was
the better prepared, and the Crown Princess had written to Miss
Nightingale in March (three months before hostilities actually began)
asking for her assistance and advice about hospital and nursing
arrangements. A Prussian manufacturer communicated with her about the
best form of hospital tents for field-service. The two sisters of the
British Royal House were on opposite sides in this war, for
Hesse-Darmstadt had thrown in its lot with Austria; but it was not till
after the outbreak of hostilities that the Princess Alice wrote to Miss
Nightingale through Lady Ely[72] for advice about war hospitals. Miss
Nightingale at once sent it. Her Memorandum, she was told (July 3), had
been forwarded to Prince Louis for use at Headquarters, and the Princess
begged her to send further information for use by the hospital
authorities in Darmstadt. The Italians had been earlier in "going to
Miss Nightingale." The Secretary of the "Florence Committee for helping
the Sick and Wounded" had written to her for advice in May. Her reply
caused great delight, as an English correspondent at Florence recorded.
"I have read the letter," he wrote, "which will be translated and
inserted in the _Nazione_. Miss Nightingale gives, with her accustomed
clearness and precision, excellent advice to the Committee, which some
of them very much need. At the same time she expresses her cordial
sympathy with the Italian cause. She recalls the admirable condition in
which the Sardinian army was landed in the Crimea, and the praise which
its appearance extorted from Lord Clyde. And she concludes her letter by
saying that if the sacrifice of her poor life would hasten their cause
by one half-hour, she would gladly give it them. But she is a miserable
invalid."[73] The Committee had asked whether she would not come to
Italy "were it but for one day" in order to inspire them by her
presence. Her piece of "froth" (as she called it) was widely printed in
the Italian press. She had deplored the outbreak of the war, but when it
resulted in an extension of the boundaries of free Italy she felt that
there were compensations. Miss Nightingale also joined the Committee of
the "Ladies' Association" formed in this country "for the Relief of the
Sick and Wounded of all nations engaged." She advised the Committee on
the form of aid most requisite, and at the end of the war, in thanking
the Crown Princess of Prussia for a letter, she gave Her Royal Highness
an account of what had been done by the English Committee. The
correspondence with the Princess was long, and it formed a new tie
between Miss Nightingale and Mr. Jowett, who was a great favourite with
the Crown Princess and who entertained a very high opinion of her
abilities. The answering letter from the Princess covers eighteen pages,
containing (as Dr. Sutherland said of it) "just the kind of practical
information which a person who has had experience in these matters
desires to obtain." A characteristic extract or two from the
correspondence on each side must here suffice:--
(_Miss Nightingale to the Crown Princess of Prussia._) 35 SOUTH
STREET, _Sept._ 22 [1866].... I think your Royal Highness may be
pleased to hear even the humble opinion of an old campaigner like
myself about how well the Army Hospital Service was managed in the
late terrible war. Information reached me through my old friends and
trainers of Kaiserswerth. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem took
charge of all the Deaconesses and all the offers of houses and rooms
made to them. The system seems to me to have been admirably
managed--especially the sending away the wounded in hundreds to
towns where rooms and houses and nursing were offered. The
overcrowding and massing together of large numbers of wounded is
always more disastrous than battle itself. From many different
quarters I have heard of the great devotion, skill and generous
kindness of the Prussian surgeons--to all sides alike.... On this,
the day of Manin's death nine years ago, the exiled Dictator of
Venice and one of the purest and most far-seeing of statesmen, who
fought so good a battle for the freedom of Venice, but who did not
live to see its accomplishment, I cannot but congratulate your
Royal Highness, at the risk of impertinence, at seeing the
fulfilment of that liberation brought about by Prussian arms.
[72] Lady Ely as lady-in-waiting on Queen Victoria had made Miss
Nightingale's acquaintance at Balmoral in 1856.
[73] _Daily Telegraph_ (foreign intelligence), June 12, 1866.
(_The Crown Princess of Prussia to Miss Nightingale._) NEW PALACE,
POTSDAM, _Sept._ 29. I was delighted to receive your long and
interesting letter yesterday, and hasten to express my warmest thanks
for it. Every appreciation of Prussia in England can but give me the
greatest pleasure.... As you are such an advocate for fresh air, I
cannot refrain from telling you what I have myself _seen_ in
confirmation of your opinion on the subject, and what I am sure would
interest dear Sir James Clark, who is your great ally on this point.
In a small well-kept Hospital, where wounded soldiers had been taken
care of for some time, the wounds in several cases did not seem to
improve, the general state of health of the patients did not show
any progress. They were feverish, and the appearance of the wounds
was that of the beginning of mortification. In the garden of the
Hospital there was a shed or summer-house of rough boards, with a
wooden roof; the little building was quite open in front and on the
other sides closed up with boards but with an aperture of two feet
all the way under the roof--so that it was like being out of doors.
Six patients were moved down into this shed (sorely against their
will, they were afraid of catching cold). The very next day they
got better; the fever left them, the condition of the wounds became
healthy; they enjoyed their summer-house--in spite of two violent
storms which knocked down the tables; and all quickly recovered! I
had seen them every day upstairs and saw them every day in the
garden; the difference was incredible.... The Crown Prince wishes
me to say what pleasure it gives him to hear you speak in praise of
our Prussian army surgeons.... I remain ever, dear Miss
Nightingale, yours sincerely, PRINCESS ROYAL.
Among other details, a particular kind of field-ambulance was mentioned
by the Crown Princess as having proved very useful. Miss Nightingale at
once put Dr. Longmore, of our own hospital service, in possession of the
facts.
It will have been seen that Miss Nightingale's experience was much
requisitioned in the War of 1866; but the organization of war-nursing
under the Red Cross had not then attained full development owing to the
fact that the Austrian Government had not ratified the Geneva Convention
of 1864. In 1867 a gold medal was awarded to Miss Nightingale by the
Conference of Red Cross Societies at Paris. In 1870 (March 31) the
Austrian Patriotic Society for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers elected
her an Honorary Member.
VI
The year 1866 was, then, one of great activity with Miss Nightingale;
but by the middle of August her work was not at such high pressure as in
the preceding months. Parliament was up, and the new Ministers, with
whom she had established friendly relations, were turning round. At this
time a home call came to Miss Nightingale. Her mother was reported to be
ailing. She was disinclined to make the usual move with her husband from
Hampshire to Derbyshire; so, while the father went to Lea Hurst, Miss
Nightingale decided to stay with her mother at Embley. It was an event
in the family circle, for Florence had not been to either of the homes
for ten years. There was much correspondence and many preparations.
Father and mother were equally delighted, and the journey in an invalid
carriage did the daughter no serious harm. She stayed at Embley from the
middle of August till the end of November. It was the first holiday she
had taken, for ten years also; but it was not much of a holiday either.
She set to work on the health of Romsey, the nearest town, and of
Winchester, the county town. She wrote up to her friend Dr. Farr at the
Registrar-General's Office for the mortality tables, found the figures
for those towns above the average, and bade the citizens look to their
drains. Then she commanded Dr. Sutherland to Embley for the transaction
of business in view of next year's session. She found her mother happy
and cheerful. "I don't think my dear mother was ever more touching or
interesting to me," she wrote to Madame Mohl (Aug. 21), "than she is now
in her state of dilapidation. She is so much gentler, calmer, more
thoughtful." She was a little critical, however, of her mother still,
and thought her habits self-indulgent. Poor lady! she was 78; she had
been shaken and bruised in a carriage accident, and was threatened with
the loss of her eye-sight. Certainly, Florence was not always able to
make due allowances for other people. But if she was critical of others,
she was yet more severe with herself. During this holiday at Embley, she
resumed those written self-examinations and meditations for which,
frequent in her earlier years, she seems to have found little time
during the strenuous decade 1856-66. "I never failed in energy," she
said once in later years; "but to do everything from the best
motive--that is quite another thing." In reviewing her past life on
October 21, 1866, the anniversary of her departure for the Crimea, and
on subsequent days, she seems to have had a like thought. Her
meditations were not so much of what she had done as of what she had
done amiss; her resolutions were of greater purity of motive, and
greater peace, through a more entire trust in God: "Called to be the
'handmaid of the Lord,' and I have complained of my suffering life! What
return does God expect from me--with what _purity of heart_ and
_intention_ should I make an offering of myself to Him! The word of the
Lord unto thee: He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth.... But, when we are ill, how can we be like God? I look up
and see the drops of dew, blue, golden, green, and red, glittering in
the sun on the top of the deciduous cypress--_that_ is like God. We see
Him for a moment--we perceive His beauty. It lights us, even when we lie
here prostrate.... Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God--in all temptation, trials, and aridities, in the agony and bloody
sweat, in the Cross and Passion: this is not the prerogative of the
future life, but of the present."
PART VI
MANY THREADS
(1867-1872)
I beg of you and pray you to look back upon the past with
thankfulness and upon the future with hope--when there has been so
much done and there is so much to do ... many beginnings and
ravelled threads to be woven in and completed.--BENJAMIN JOWETT
(_Letter to Miss Nightingale_, 1867).
CHAPTER I
WORKHOUSE REFORM
(1864-1867)
From the first I had a sort of fixed faith that Florence
Nightingale could do anything, and that faith is still fresh in me;
and so it came to pass that the instant that name entered the lists
I felt the fight was virtually won, and I feel this still.--
H. B. FARNELL, Poor Law Inspector (Dec. 1866).
Fifty years ago the state of things which Miss Nightingale had seen, and
cured, in the military hospitals during the Crimean War was almost
equalled, and was in some respects surpassed in scandal, by the
condition of the peace hospitals for the sick poor at home. Those
hospitals were the sick wards or infirmaries of workhouses, for the
hospitals usually so-called skim only the surface of sickness in any
great town. The state of the Metropolitan workhouses, as reported upon
by the Poor Law Board in 1866, showed that the sick wards were for the
most part insanitary and overcrowded; that the beds were insufficient
and admirably contrived to induce sores; that the eating and drinking
vessels were unclean; that there was a deficiency of basins, towels,
brushes and combs; that the food for the patients was cooked by paupers
and frequently served cold; that although the medical officers did their
duty to the best of their ability, the attendance given and the salaries
paid were inadequate to the needs of the sick. As for the nursing, it
was done by paupers, many of whom could neither read nor write, whose
love of drink often drove them to rob the sick of stimulants, and whose
treatment of the poor was characterized neither by judgment nor by
gentleness. This is the restrained euphemism of an official report.[74]
Sometimes a patient would miss the ministration of a nurse for days
because the pauper charged to give it was herself bed-ridden. The rule
of one nurse was to give medicine three times a day to the very ill and
once to the rather ill. It was administered in a gallipot; the nurse
"poured out the medicine and judged according." Cases were reported in
which a patient's bed was not made for five days and nights; in which
patients had no food from 4 o'clock in the afternoon of one day to 8
o'clock in the morning of the next; in which patients died, or, to speak
more correctly, were killed, by the most wanton neglect.
[74] Mr. Farnall's Report, 1866, summarized in the Majority Report of
the Poor Law Commission, 1909, p. 239. The statements which follow
above are from _An Account of the Condition of the Infirmaries of
London Workhouses, Printed for the Association for the Improvement
of Infirmaries_, 1866.
The dawn of a better day came with the passing of the Metropolitan Poor
Act of 1867, an Act which figures in histories of the Poor Law in this
country as "the starting-point of the modern development of Poor Law
medical relief." Many persons contributed to this reform. In the case of
London, a "Commission," instituted by the _Lancet_, under Mr. Ernest
Hart, which afterwards developed into the "Association for the
Improvement of the Infirmaries of London Workhouses," should especially
be mentioned. But the person who inspired the proper nursing of the sick
poor, and who, behind the scenes, was a prime mover in the legislation
of 1867, was Florence Nightingale.
II
The reform began in Liverpool, and the initiative was due to a
philanthropist of that city, Mr. William Rathbone. He used to speak of
Miss Nightingale as his "beloved Chief"; and she, when he died, sent a
wreath inscribed "In remembrance and humblest love of one of God's best
and greatest sons." His voluminous correspondence with her began in 1861
when he was desirous of introducing a system of District Nursing among
the poor of Liverpool. There were no trained nurses anywhere to be had,
and he consulted Miss Nightingale. She suggested to him that Liverpool
had better train nurses for itself in its own principal hospital, the
Royal Infirmary. Mr. Rathbone took up the idea, and built a Training
School and Home for Nurses. This institution provided nurses both for
the Royal Infirmary and for poor patients in their own homes. Miss
Nightingale gave to all Mr. Rathbone's plans as close and constant
consideration "as if she were going to be herself the matron."[75] The
scheme was started in 1862, and it proved so great a success that
Mr. Rathbone was encouraged to attempt an extension of his benevolent
enterprise. The Workhouse Infirmary at Liverpool was believed to be
better than most places of its kind; but there, as elsewhere, the
nursing--if so it could be called--was done by able-bodied pauper women.
Able-bodied women who enter workhouses are never among the mentally and
morally efficient; and in a seaport like Liverpool they were of an
especially low and vicious kind. The work of the nurses, selected from
this unpromising material, "was superintended by a very small number of
paid but untrained parish officers, who were in the habit, it was said,
of wearing kid gloves in the wards to protect their hands. All night a
policeman patrolled some of the wards to keep order, while others, in
which the inmates were too sick or infirm to make disturbance, were
locked up and left unvisited all night."[76] On Jan. 31, 1864, Mr.
Rathbone wrote to Miss Nightingale, propounding a plan for introducing a
staff of trained nurses and promising to guarantee the cost for a term
of years if she would help with counsel and by finding a suitable Lady
Superintendent. He asked for two letters--"one for influence," to be
shown to the Vestry, the other for his private advice.[77] She and Dr.
Sutherland drew up the required documents; she arranged that twelve
"Nightingale Nurses" should be sent from St. Thomas's Hospital; and she
selected a Lady Superintendent--a choice on which, as both she and
Mr. Rathbone felt, everything would depend. The Vestry agreed in May to
accept Mr. Rathbone's scheme, but many months passed before it was
actually launched. "There has been as much diplomacy," wrote Miss
Nightingale to the Mother of the Bermondsey Convent (Sept. 3, 1864),
"and as many treaties, and as much of people working against each other,
as if we had been going to occupy a kingdom instead of a Workhouse." The
correspondence forms one of the bulkiest bundles among Miss
Nightingale's Papers.
[75] Rathbone's _Organization of Nursing in a Large Town_, p. 30.
[76] _William Rathbone: a Memoir_, p. 166.
[77] The public letter (Feb. 5, 1864) is printed in Mr. Rathbone's
_Workhouse Nursing: The Story of a Successful Experiment_
(Macmillan, 1867).
The Lady Superintendent--the pioneer of workhouse nursing--was Miss
Agnes Jones, an Irish girl, daughter of Colonel Jones, of Fahan,
Londonderry, and niece of Sir John Lawrence. She was attractive and
rich, young and witty, but intensely religious and devoted to her
work.[78] "Ideal in her beauty," Miss Nightingale said of her;[79] "like
a Louis XIV. shepherdess." She was one of the many girls who had been
thrilled by Miss Nightingale's volunteering for the Crimea. "Perhaps it
is well," she wrote, when entering St. Thomas's Hospital, "that I shall
bear the name of a 'Nightingale Probationer,' for that honoured name is
associated with my first thought of hospital life. In the winter of
1854, when I had those first longings for work and had for months so
little to satisfy them, how I wished I were competent to join the
Nightingale band when they started for the Crimea! I listened to the
animadversions of many, but I almost worshipped her who braved them
all." In 1860 Miss Jones followed in her heroine's steps to
Kaiserswerth. In 1862 she introduced herself to Miss Nightingale, who
advised her to complete her apprenticeship by a year's training at St.
Thomas's. "Hitherto," the Matron reported to Miss Nightingale (Feb. 25,
1863), "I have had no lady probationer equal on all points to Miss
Jones." After completing her year's training at St. Thomas's she took
service as a nurse in the Great Northern Hospital, and she was there
when the invitation came to Liverpool. Miss Jones was at first
diffident, but after an interview with Miss Nightingale "the conviction
was borne in upon her," as she wrote, that it was God's call and
therefore must be obeyed in trust and with good hope.
[78] See "Una and the Lion," in _Good Words_, June 1868 (Bibliography A,
No. 51).
[79] Letter to Madame Mohl, June 13, 1868.
In the history of modern nursing in this country the Sixteenth of May
1865 is a date only less memorable than the Twenty-fourth of June 1860.
On the earlier day the Nightingale Training School was opened at St.
Thomas's; on the latter twelve trained Nightingale nurses began work in
the Liverpool Infirmary, and the reform of workhouse nursing was therein
inaugurated. Miss Jones herself had arrived a few weeks earlier.
Mr. Rathbone felt the importance of the occasion, and marked it by a
pretty attention to Miss Nightingale. "I beg," he wrote (May 12, Miss
Nightingale's birthday), "to be allowed to constitute myself your
gardener to the extent of doing what I have long wished--providing a
flower-stand for your room and keeping it supplied with plants. I hope
you will not be offended with my presumption or refuse me the great
pleasure of thinking that in your daily work you may have with you a
reminder of my affectionate gratitude for all you have done for our town
and for me. If the plants will only flourish, as the good seed you have
planted here is doing, they will be bright enough; and as for my
personal obligations, you can never know how great they are to you for
guiding me to and in this work." Mr. Rathbone and other kindly Liverpool
men (among whom Mr. J. W. Cropper should be remembered) were equally
thoughtful of Miss Jones. At their own expense they furnished rooms for
her in the workhouse, and made them bright with flowers and pictures.
But it was a formidable task to which she was called, and the
pleasantness of her rooms made the workhouse wards look yet more
terrible, she said, by contrast. A young woman, well-bred, sensitive,
and refined, accustomed as yet only to well-appointed hospitals, was
thrown into the rough-and-tumble of great pauper wards, where the
officials, though well-intentioned, had necessarily caught something of
the surrounding atmosphere. "Your kind letter," she had written to Miss
Nightingale, after a preliminary visit (Aug. 1864), "came in answer to
earnest prayer, and gave me courage so that even now while waiting for
the committee I do not feel nervous. The governor has promised me every
co-operation and told me 'not to be down-hearted if the undertaking
seemed formidable at first, as he would pull me through everything.'
You will laugh when I tell you how at first his want of refinement
prejudiced me, but his earnest hearty initiative in the whole work has
quite won me." Their relations afterwards were only indifferently good.
Miss Jones's standard was too strict, he thought, for rough workhouse
ways.
The greatest shock to Miss Jones, however, was the nature of the human
beings whom she was sent to nurse. Sin and wickedness, she said, had
hitherto been only names to her. Now she was plunged into a sink of
human corruption. The foul language, the drunkenness, the vicious
habits, the bodily and mental degradation on all sides appalled her. The
wards, she said in her first letter from the workhouse, are "like
Dante's _Inferno_." "Una and the Lion"[80] was the title given by Miss
Nightingale to her account of Agnes Jones and her paupers, "far more
untamable than lions." She had, it is true, the help of twelve trained
nurses, devoted alike to her and to their work; but there were 1200
inmates, and of the other "nurses" some were probationers of an
indifferent class, and the rest "pauper nurses," of whom Miss Jones had
to dismiss 35 in the first few months for drunkenness. Then, the
standard of workhouse cleanliness was sadly low. She found that the men
wore the same shirts for seven weeks. Bed-clothes were sometimes not
washed for months. The diet was hopelessly meagre compared to a hospital
standard. It is "Scutari over again," wrote Miss Nightingale, and Miss
Jones was strengthened by the thought that the disciple was experiencing
some of the difficulties which had beset the Mistress. By way of
smoothing things over, Miss Nightingale had written to the governor of
the workhouse saying, in effect, that the eyes of the world were upon
him as the leader in a great reform; and he "seemed so gratified and
flattered by your letter," reported Miss Jones. Miss Nightingale was
constant in advice and encouragement to her disciple. "No one ever helps
and encourages me as you do." "I could never pull through without you."
"God bless you for all your kindness." Such expressions show how
welcome and how unfailing was Miss Nightingale's help. And in every
detail she was consulted. There was all the friction which usually
accompanies a new experiment. There were disputes of every kind, and all
were referred to Miss Nightingale--sometimes by Mr. Rathbone, sometimes
by Miss Jones, sometimes by both. When things seemed critical, Mr.
Rathbone would come up to see Miss Nightingale in person; on less
serious occasions he would write. Miss Nightingale and Dr. Sutherland
would then sit as a kind of Conciliation Board, and see how matters
could be adjusted. In one of Dr. Sutherland's draft judgments submitted
for Miss Nightingale's concurrence there is a blank left for her to
fill, as the note explains, with "soft sawder." His breezy manner may
sometimes have been of comfort to his friend. On one occasion, when
everything at Liverpool seemed to be at sixes and sevens, his note to
Miss Nightingale was: "I don't despair by any means. The entire
proceeding has in it the elements of an Irish row, for they are all more
or less Hibernian there, and they will cool down." And so they did. Miss
Jones, who was at first a little too stiff-necked, soon found out a more
excellent way, and there is "the Nightingale touch" in many of her later
reports. "To-day they were a little cross, but I got my way all the
same." She is "much amused at the manner in which she now gets all she
asks for." She suggests things. She is laughed at. She persists. A
decent interval is allowed to elapse; and then the things are suggested
to her by the officials; she says the suggestions are excellent, and the
things are done. It is obvious to Miss Nightingale and Dr. Sutherland
that sooner or later the powers of the Lady Superintendent must be
better defined; obvious, too, that the worthless probationers and
drunken pauper "nurses" must be cleared out; but that is just one of the
things that the experiment is meant to prove, and meanwhile it is enough
to drive in the thin end of the wedge. So well does Miss Jones do her
work that opinion, in the workhouse and outside, begins even to be
impatient for the thicker end. The experiment has so far been limited to
the male wards. The doctors go to Miss Jones and ask eagerly when she
and more Nightingale nurses are to be given charge of the female wards
also. Old women who go in to see their husbands or brothers report
wonderful changes in the House since "the London nurses" came. Visiting
ladies report to the same effect. The experiment is becoming popular;
and the Liverpool Vestry begins to wonder whether the cost hitherto
borne by Mr. Rathbone's private purse should not be thrown upon the
rates. Miss Nightingale has good cause to be pleased. She has been
throwing herself into the work, not only in order to make the particular
experiment a success, but also because she wants to use it as a lever
for promoting larger reforms.
[80] See Book I. chap. iii. stanzas 4 _seq._ of _The Faerie Queene_:--
"Her angel's face
As the great eye of heaven shyned bright,
And made a sunshine in the shady place, etc."
III
Liverpool had shown the way, and Miss Nightingale resolved in her own
mind that the way should be followed in London. The struggle was long
and arduous; the fortune of political war went at a critical moment
against her; the victory of 1867 was only partial, and indeed there are
other parts of her designs which even to this day await fruition. But
the insight with which from the very first, as her Papers show, she
seized the essential positions was masterly. I can understand how it was
that Mr. Charles Villiers, not usually given to such outbursts of
admiration, exclaimed to a friend: "I delight to read the Nightingale's
song about it all. If any of them had the tenth part of her vigour of
mind we might expect something."
The opening move in her campaign was made in December 1864. There had
been an inquest on the death of one Timothy Daly, which had figured in
the newspapers as "Horrible Treatment of a Pauper." The facts, as
ultimately sifted, were not in this particular case as bad as they were
painted in the press, but the circumstances were distressing and public
opinion was excited. The situation was in that favourable condition for
moving Ministers when there is a feeling in the air that "something must
be done." Miss Nightingale seized the opportunity to open communications
with the President of the Poor Law Board, Mr. Villiers. She did not in
this first letter disclose her whole scheme, though she said just enough
to show that she had considered the subject in its larger bearings. She
knew the art of beginning on a moderate, and even a humble, note. She
presumed to write because the case involved a question of nursing, in
which matter she had had some practical experience; she had, moreover,
been "put in trust by her fellow-countrymen with the means of training
nurses." She described what was to be done in the Liverpool Infirmary by
a Matron who had been trained under the "Nightingale Fund," and she
invited the Minister's attention to the possibility of preventing the
scandals, with which the newspapers were ringing, by starting some
scheme of a like kind in London. This letter, in the composition of
which Dr. Sutherland had a hand, went straight to its mark. Mr. Villiers
at once replied (Dec. 31, 1864) that he would like to communicate with
Miss Nightingale personally on the subject. In January the interview
took place, and this was the beginning of a long series of personal and
written communications between them during the next few years. On one
occasion early in 1865 Mr. Villiers, being prevented by official
business from keeping an appointment with Miss Nightingale, begged her
to receive in his place his right-hand man, Mr. H. B. Farnall, Poor Law
Inspector for the Metropolitan district. Mr. Farnall called, and he and
Miss Nightingale became as thick as conspirators in no time. For Poor
Law purposes he soon became the Chief of her Staff. Mr. Farnall was a
man after her own heart. He not only knew the facts with which he had to
deal, but he felt them, with something of her "divine impatience." "It's
intolerable to me," he said, "to know that there are some 12,000 gasping
and miserable sick poor whom we might solace and perhaps in some 5000
cases save, and yet that we have to let them wait while the world gets
ready to get out of bed and think about it all." He was a keen and
broad-minded reformer, and Miss Nightingale's ideas were upon lines
which he too had considered. He was an old official hand, but he hated
official obstruction: "all this is treason to King Red Tape, but I know
that the old King is always happy _after_ a change, though he gets very
red while the change progresses." Miss Nightingale instantly set her new
ally to work. Here, as in all that she undertook, she knew that the
first thing needful was to collect the facts. She drew up a schedule of
inquiries, to be filled up with regard to all the sick-wards and
infirmaries in London. "I will immediately issue your Forms," wrote
Mr. Farnall (Feb. 16, 1865). He required them to be filled up in
duplicate, and Miss Nightingale's set of them is preserved amongst her
Papers. Throughout the year she and Mr. Farnall were engaged in the work
of inspiring and incensing Mr. Villiers in the direction of radical
reform. He was throughout very willing, but he was becoming an old man,
he had many other things to think about, and he was apt to see lions in
the path. Moreover, not all the officials at the Poor Law Board were
reformers; there were those, more highly placed than Mr. Farnall, who
were of a very different opinion; and some of the medical officers were
inclined to dispute the necessity of any radical changes. However, on
the subject of workhouse nursing, Mr. Villiers promptly authorized
Mr. Farnall to press upon the Guardians the importance of employing
competent nurses, and he told the House of Commons (May 5) that "in
consequence of communications lately received at the Poor Law Board from
Miss Nightingale, who was now taking much interest in the matter," he
was hopeful that great reforms in nursing might come about. She,
however, knew perfectly well that the only way to such reform was by
reform also in administration and finance. In the following month
Mr. Farnall persuaded his Chief to insinuate into an innocent little
"Poor Law Board Continuation Bill," a clause which would enable the
Board to _compel_ Guardians to improve their workhouses; but the clause
was struck out, Mr. Farnall was disappointed, and Miss Nightingale wrote
to reassure him. They must work all the harder to secure, not by a
side-wind, but by a direct move in the next session of Parliament, a
full and far-reaching measure of reform. "Your kind note," said
Mr. Farnall (July 3), "has done me a world of good; there is not a
single expression or hope in it which I cannot make my own. So we hope
together for next year's ripened fruit. I hope, too, that we may really
taste it. I pledge myself to you to relax in nothing till the task is
done. It is something to live for, and something to have heard you say
that such a victory will some day be claimed by me. It is a pleasant
thing to think of, and I shall think of it as a soldier thinks of his
Flag."
So, then, Miss Nightingale set to work, with the help of Mr. Farnall and
Dr. Sutherland, in elaborating a scheme for 1866. There are several
drafts in her handwriting for the Memorandum finally submitted to
Mr. Villiers, and many notes and emendations by Dr. Sutherland. The
scheme was sent also (at a later date) to Mr. Chadwick (one of the few
survivors of the famous Poor Law Commission of 1834) in order that he
might submit it to John Stuart Mill, whom Miss Nightingale sought to
enlist in the cause.[81] The essential points and considerations were
these:--
A. To insist on the great principle of separating the Sick, Insane,
"Incurable," and, above all, the Children, from the usual
population of the Metropolis.
B. To advocate a single Central Administration.
C. To place the Sick, Insane, etc., under a distinct
administration, supported by a "General Hospital Rate" to be levied
for this purpose over the whole Metropolitan area.
These are the ABC of the reform required.
(A) So long as a sick man, woman, or child is considered
_administratively_ to be a pauper to be repressed, and not a
fellow-creature to be nursed into health, so long will these most
shameful disclosures have to be made. The care and government of
the _sick_ poor is a thing totally different from the government of
paupers. Why do we have Hospitals in order to cure, and Workhouse
Infirmaries in order _not_ to cure? Taken solely from the point of
view of preventing pauperism, what a stupidity and anomaly this
is!... The past system of mixing up all kinds of poor in workhouses
will never be submitted to in future. The very first thing wanted
is classification and separation.
(B) Uniformity of system is absolutely necessary, both for
efficiency and for economy.
(C) For the purpose of providing suitable establishments for the
care and treatment of the Sick, Insane, etc., consolidation and a
General Rate are essential. To provide suitable treatment in each
Workhouse would involve an expenditure which even London could not
bear. The entire Medical Relief of London should be under one
central management which would know where vacant beds were to be
found, and be able so to distribute the Sick, etc., as to use all
the establishments in the most economical way.
[81] Mill was at the time a member of a Select Committee on the Local
Government and Local Taxation of the Metropolis; see above, p. 106.
The Committee did not, however, touch Poor Law Administration.
Miss Nightingale elaborated her views in detail, going into the
questions of Hospitals, Nursing, Workhouse Schools, etc. The cardinal
point was what Mr. Farnall spoke of to her as "your Hospital and Asylum
Rate." The Minister was favourable to the idea. "I have conferred with
Mr. Villiers," wrote Mr. Farnall (Dec. 12), "and he has decided on
adopting your scheme. He thinks it will be popular and just, and I think
so also, but I think too that it will be the means of my carrying out a
further reform some of these days. That is my hope and belief. If your
plans are carried my struggle is half over. Under these circumstances I
shall to-morrow commence a list of facts for you on which those who are
to support your plan in print will be able to hang a considerable amount
of flesh, for I shall furnish a very nice skeleton." Miss Nightingale
had already, through an intermediary, interested the editor of the
_Times_ in the matter, and he had been to see Mr. Villiers. Further
public support came from the Association above mentioned (p. 124), which
sent a deputation to the Poor Law Board. Mr. Villiers in reply (April
14, 1866) foreshadowed legislation on Miss Nightingale's lines, and he
appointed Mr. Farnall and another of her friends, Dr. Angus Smith, to
inspect all the Infirmaries. Their Report has already been cited. Public
opinion was ripe for radical reform; but the Whig Ministry was
tottering, no fresh contentious legislation was deemed advisable, and in
June 1866 Mr. Villiers was out. The opportunity had passed, and Miss
Nightingale was left crying, "Alas! Alas! Alas!"
IV
She was not one, however, to waste much time in empty lamentations. She
had to begin over again, that was all; and she wrote at once, as we have
heard,[82] to the new Minister. She also procured an introduction for
Mr. Farnall to Lord Derby, and the Prime Minister seemed sympathetic.
Mr. Hardy had answered politely, but did not follow up his letter, and
his first move seemed sinister. He dismissed Mr. Farnall from Whitehall
and sent him to the Yorkshire Poor Law District. The anti-reform party
was believed to have gained the ascendant. But now a fortunate thing
happened. Mr. Hardy made a speech in which he implied that the existing
laws were adequate, if properly enforced, to meet the case. Technically
there was a measure of truth in this statement, but in practice it was
fallacious;[83] and in any case Mr. Hardy's remark was a reflection on
his predecessor's administration. This nettled Mr. Villiers greatly; he
was "not going to sit down under it," he said; he became red-hot for
reform; very much on the alert, too, to trip his successor up. Miss
Nightingale did not fail to add fuel to the flame. Mr. Villiers
corresponded with her at great length; saw her repeatedly; reported all
he was able to learn of how things were going at Whitehall, and begged
her to do the like for him. "The public are led to infer," he said to
her, "that nothing was needed but a touch from Mr. Hardy's wand to set
all things straight." The public, thought Miss Nightingale also, would
soon discover his mistake. Mr. Hardy would find that he had either to do
nothing, or to legislate; unless indeed the Tory Ministry were
overthrown first.
[82] Above, p. 115.
[83] Previous legislation had _empowered_ Guardians to separate the
sick, etc., but had set up no administrative or financial machinery.
Now, Miss Nightingale was a Whig, and she, too, would have been glad
enough to see the Tories out and Mr. Villiers in again at the Poor Law
Board. But there was something that she cared about a great deal more,
namely, that the neglect of the sick poor should be remedied at the
earliest possible moment; and as the Tories might after all weather the
storm, she must see what she could do to get a Poor Law Bill out of
them. In the autumn Mr. Hardy appointed a Committee, mainly composed of
doctors, to report "upon the requisite amount of space, and other
matters, in relation to workhouses and workhouse infirmaries." One of
the "other matters" was nursing, and the Committee, instead of
expressing an opinion on the subject themselves, asked Miss Nightingale
to send them a Paper. In this Memorandum, dated Jan. 19, 1867, she made
full use of her opportunity; for she pointed out that the question of
nursing could not, either in logic or in effective practice, be
separated from that of administration. "In the recent inquiries," she
wrote, "the point which strikes an experienced hospital manager is not
the individual cases which have been made so much of (though these are
striking enough), but the view which the best Matrons, the best Masters,
and other officials of the workhouses give from their own lips (in
evidence) of what they considered their duties. These bore as little
reference to what are usually considered (not by me alone, but by all
Christendom) the duties of hospital superintendents as they bear to the
duties of railway superintendents. Your Committee is probably well
acquainted with the administration of the _Assistance Publique_ at
Paris. No great stretch of imagination is required to conceive what they
think of the system or no system reigning here.[84] I allude to the
heaping up aged, infirm, sick, able-bodied, lunatics, and sometimes
children in the same building instead of having, as in every other
Christian country, your asylum for aged, your hospital for sick, your
lunatic asylum, your union school, &c., &c., &c., each under its proper
administration, and your able-bodied quite apart from any of these
categories. This point is of such vital importance to the introduction
and successful working of an efficient nursing system that I shall
illustrate it...." And she went on to outline her general scheme. In
accordance with her usual custom, Miss Nightingale had copies of her
Paper struck off separately, and circulated them among influential
people. The Committee had given her a platform, but its own Report was
only of subsidiary value. She put her point of view with a touch of
exaggeration characteristic of her familiar letters to Captain Galton,
one of the members of the Committee. "I look upon the cubic space as the
least of the evils--indeed as rather a good, for it is a very good thing
to suffocate the pauper sick out of their misery." Meanwhile she thought
it wholesome that the "ins" should know that the "outs" did not mean to
let the subject of Poor Law Reform be shelved. "I have had a great deal
of clandestine correspondence," she wrote to a friend who might pass
the information on (Oct. 28, 1866), "with my old loves at the Poor Law
Board these last two months. The belief among the old loves is that the
new master is bent on--doing nothing. There is only one thing of which I
am quite sure. And that is that Mr. Villiers will lead Mr. Gathorne
Hardy no easy life next February."
[84] M. Husson, Director of the _Assistance Publique_, had been in
London in 1865. Miss Nightingale had procured him various
introductions and facilities, and he had reported his impressions
to her.
V
Mr. Hardy kept his own counsel and made no sign. As the session drew
near, Miss Nightingale became anxious and she poured in letters and
memoranda upon him. In one of these she made what turned out to be an
unfortunate mistake. She was too frank. She was pressing upon
Mr. Hardy's attention the importance of the Liverpool experiment, and in
the course of her exposition she said incidentally that there had been
difficulties. Mr. Hardy misinterpreted the remark and made use of it to
explain in the House of Commons why he did not propose to take any
direct action in the matter of nursing reform. Indirectly, however, his
proposals did a great deal. On February 8, 1867, Mr. Hardy introduced
his Bill. So, legislation had, after all, been found necessary to meet
the demand that something must be done. To that extent, then,
Mr. Villiers had no need to make Mr. Hardy's life a burden to him. The
question was, How much did the Bill do? and was what it did, good or
bad? Those who had been working for reform were anxious to know what
Miss Nightingale thought. "I should amazingly like to hear," wrote
Mr. Villiers to her, "what you say to this seven months' child born in
the workhouse at Whitehall." Mr. Ernest Hart's Association, whose
attitude was summed up by Mr. Villiers as "silenced but not satisfied,"
applied for her opinion. Her journalistic friends wanted hints. Dr.
Sutherland was told, in a note requiring his instant attention, that "X.
wants to know in what tone he is to write his article in the _Daily
News_," and that "Y. will write an article in the _Pall Mall_ in any
sense we wish." Now, whenever a Bill is introduced touching a question
which demands, or admits of, large reforms, there are two points of
view from which it may be regarded. One man compares what is proposed
with the existing state of things, and asks himself, Is there any
decided improvement? Another, comparing the proposals with what might
exist in the future, asks, Does the Bill approximate to the ideal? The
former is the view which "practical politicians" take; the latter, the
view which is apt to be taken by administrative enthusiasts. Miss
Nightingale's administrative mind saw chiefly, and at first saw only,
the points at which, and the measure in which, Mr. Hardy's Bill fell
short of logical perfection. It was a tentative measure; it was largely
permissive; it did something to separate the sick and the children from
the ordinary paupers, but it did not do all. Moreover, so far as direct
and express enactment went, it did nothing to improve workhouse nursing.
Miss Nightingale pronounced the Bill, therefore, "a humbug." Its
principles were "none"; its details, "beastly." She tried hard to get
the Bill amended and extended. Sir Harry Verney, who might perhaps be
described as "Member of Parliament for Miss Nightingale," gave every
assistance that was possible; and Mr. Mill, inspired largely by his old
friend Mr. Chadwick (with whom Miss Nightingale also was in constant
correspondence), took a prominent part in the debates to the same end.
But he seldom pressed his points to a division, and there was little
life in the opposition. Mr. Villiers was as critical as he could
reasonably be, but the real fact was that the Bill made a great and a
surprising step in the direction which Miss Nightingale had pressed upon
him. These were days in which Disraeli was educating his party in the
political art of dishing the Whigs, and the difficulty was, as
Mr. Jowett wrote to Miss Nightingale, to discover any clear difference
between a Tory and a Radical. Mr. Mill, with the candour that became a
philosopher, "had no doubt that the Bill would effect a vast
improvement"; Mr. Villiers, with the determination of the politician to
score a point, admitted that "the Bill would set the ball rolling," and
reflected that anything might presently come from a party which had been
converted "from pure Conservatism to Household Suffrage in 48 hours";
and Mr. Hardy, in his conduct of the measure, was careful to conciliate
the other side. He agreed to all the objections "in principle," pleaded
the difficulty of doing everything in a moment, and claimed for his Bill
that it was "only a beginning." And so, in fact, it turned out; while,
even at the time, the reforms made by the Bill, which became an Act on
March 29, 1867, were sufficiently beneficent. The whole of the unions
and parishes in London were formed, by an Order under the Act, into one
district, "The Metropolitan Asylum District," for the treatment of
insane, fever, and small-pox cases, which had hitherto been dealt with in
the workhouses. Separate infirmaries were formed for the non-infectious
sick, with a greatly enlarged cubic space per inmate. Dispensaries were
established throughout the metropolis. Above all, the "Metropolitan
Common Poor Fund" (the "Hospital and Asylum Rate" of Miss Nightingale's
Memorandum) was established, and to it were charged the maintenance of
the "asylums," medicines, etc., and the maintenance of pauper children
in separate schools. When the battle was lost--or won--Miss Nightingale
counted up the gains, and said, "This is a beginning; we shall get more
in time."[85] And such has been the case. The Act of 1867 was the
foundation on which many improvements in medical relief under the Poor
Law have been laid,[86] and the principles implied in the Act--the
separation of the sick from the paupers, and in the case of London the
making medical relief a common charge--are likely to receive yet further
recognition. They are the principles for which Miss Nightingale
contended. Her influence in forming the public opinion which made the
legislation of 1867 possible was referred to in both Houses of
Parliament.[87]
[85] Letter to the Rev. Mother of Bermondsey, March 1867.
[86] The history of the matter is succinctly told in the Majority Report
of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, pp. 235 _seq._
[87] By Mr. Villiers in the House of Commons, February 21; and in the
House of Lords on March 19 by the Earl of Devon, who, in moving the
second reading of Mr. Hardy's Bill, said: "It would be improper on
such an occasion to omit reference to the improved feeling on the
subject which had resulted from the admiration the country must feel
for the exertions of that excellent and gifted woman, Miss
Nightingale, whose name would always be received with that respect
which was due to her Christian activity and self-devotion."
VI
Soon after the Act of 1867 came into operation, to the improvement of
London workhouses, the pioneer of improved workhouse nursing died in
Liverpool. The work of Miss Agnes Jones, whose early difficulties have
been described above, had gone ahead with ever-increasing success. The
difficulties indeed continued, and throughout 1867 Miss Nightingale was
still busy in giving encouragement and advice; but the results of the
work were so satisfactory that in March 1867 the Liverpool Vestry
decided to extend the trained nursing to the female wards and to throw
the whole cost upon the rates. When the strain of the increased work was
at its severest point, Miss Jones was attacked by fever, and she died on
February 19, 1868. To _Good Words_ in the following June Miss
Nightingale contributed a touching paper in memory of her friend and
disciple:--
She died as she had lived, at her post in one of the largest
workhouse infirmaries in the Kingdom. She lived the life, and died
the death, of the saints and martyrs; though the greatest sinner
would not have been more surprised than she to have heard this said
of herself. In less than three years she had reduced one of the
most disorderly hospital populations in the world to something like
Christian discipline, such as the police themselves wondered at.
She had converted a vestry to the conviction of the economy as well
as humanity of nursing pauper sick by trained nurses. She had
converted the Poor-Law Board--a body, perhaps, not usually given to
much enthusiasm. She had disarmed all opposition, all sectarian
zealotism; so that Roman Catholic and Unitarian, High Church and
Low Church, all literally rose up and called her "blessed." All, of
all shades of religious creed, seemed to have merged their
differences in her, seeing in her the one true essential thing,
compared with which they acknowledged their differences to be as
nothing. And aged paupers made verses in her honour after her
death.
In less than three years--the time generally given to the ministry
on earth of that Saviour whom she so earnestly strove closely to
follow--she did all this. She had the gracefulness, the wit, the
unfailing cheerfulness--qualities so remarkable but so much
overlooked in our Saviour's life. She had the absence of all
asceticism, or "mortification," for mortification's sake, which
characterized His work, and any real work in the present day as in
His day. And how did she do all this? She was not, when a girl, of
any conspicuous ability, except that she had cultivated in herself
to the utmost a power of getting through business in a short time,
without slurring it over and without fid-fadding at it;--real
business--her Father's business. She was always filled with the
thought that she must be about her "Father's business." How can any
undervalue business-habits? as if anything could be done without
them. She could do, and she did do, more of her Father's business
in six hours than ordinary women do in six months, or than most of
even the best women do in six days.... What she went through during
her workhouse life is scarcely known but to God and to one or two.
Yet she said that she had "never been so happy in all her life."
All the last winter she had under her charge above 50 nurses and
probationers, above 150 pauper scourers, from 1290 to 1350
patients, being from two to three hundred more than the number of
beds. All this she had to provide for and arrange for, often
receiving an influx of patients without a moment's warning. She had
to manage and persuade the patients to sleep three and four in two
beds; sometimes six, or even eight children had to be put in one
bed; and being asked on one occasion whether they did not "kick one
another," they answered, "Oh, no, ma'am, we're so comfor'ble." Poor
little things, they scarcely remembered ever to have slept in a bed
before. But this is not the usual run of workhouse life. And, if
any one would know what are the lowest depths of human vice and
misery, would see the festering mass of decay of living human
bodies and human souls, and then would try what one loving soul,
filled with the spirit of her God, can do to let in the light of
God into this hideous well (worse than the well of Cawnpore), to
bind up the wounds, to heal the broken-hearted, to bring release to
the captives--let her study the ways, and follow in the steps of
this one young, frail woman, who has died to show us the
way--blessed in her death as in her life.
The death of Miss Jones involved Miss Nightingale in much anxiety and
additional responsibility. "The whole work of finding her successor has
fallen upon me," she wrote to Madame Mohl (March 20); "and in addition
they expect me to manage the Workhouse at Liverpool from my bedroom."
And again (April 30): "I have seven or eight hours a day additional
writing for the last two months about this Liverpool workhouse." The
bundle of correspondence on the subject makes this statement quite
credible. "I believe I have found a successor[88] at last. I don't
think anything in the course of my long life ever struck me so much as
the deadlock we have been placed in by the death of one pupil--combined,
you know, with the enormous _jaw_, the infinite female ink which England
pours forth on 'Woman's Work.' It used to be said that people gave their
_blood_ to their country. Now they give their _ink_." Miss Nightingale's
first concern was to put heart and strength into the nurses who were now
deprived of their Chief. Writing as their "affectionate friend and
fellow-sufferer," she called upon them to fight the good fight without
flinching. "Many battles which seemed desperate while the General lived
have been fought and won by the soldiers who, when they saw their
General fall, were determined to save his name and win the ground he had
died for. And shall we fight a heavenly battle, a battle to cure the
bodies and souls of God's poor, less well than men fight an earthly
battle to kill and wound?" "The nurses have been splendid," she was able
to report presently. Miss Nightingale concluded her paper in _Good
Words_ with a stirring appeal to others--Poor Law officials, on their
part, and devoted women, on theirs--to go and do likewise. "The Son of
God goes forth to war, who follows in his train? Oh, daughters of God,
are there so few to answer?" The appeal awoke a response in at least one
heart. One of the most valued of Miss Nightingale's disciples ascribed
her call to this article in _Good Words_. "Some of us," she says, "who
were children in the days of the Crimean War when Miss Nightingale's
most famous work was done, were responsible girls at home, nursing as
occasion arose in our families, by the light of her _Notes_, to the
music of Longfellow's verse, when once again she came before us,
flashing out of her retirement with the trumpet-call of 'Una.'" Many are
now called to such work, but few, I suppose, are chosen--in the sense of
being found worthy to do the work in the spirit of Agnes Jones. The
Liverpool experiment, rendered successful by her devotion, rapidly made
its mark. In ten years' time the system of employing pauper inmates as
nurses had been entirely superseded, in all sick asylums and separate
infirmaries, by paid nurses. In 1897 the employment of pauper nurses in
any workhouse was forbidden, and the training of the paid nurses has
been continuously improved.[89] To Miss Nightingale, here as in all her
undertakings, each point gained was only a step on the road to
perfectibility. Among some communings with herself, written in 1867,
there is this entry: "Easter Sunday. Never think that you have done
anything effectual in nursing in London till you nurse, not only the
sick poor in workhouses, but those at home."
[88] Miss L. Freeman.
[89] For details on this subject, see Majority Report, 1909, pp. 240-242.
CHAPTER II
ALLIANCE WITH SIR BARTLE FRERE
(1867-1868)
Truly these poor people will have cause to bless you long after
English Viceroys and dynasties are of the past.--SIR BARTLE FRERE
(_Letter to Miss Nightingale_, May 6, 1869).
When Sidney Herbert died, his work as an army reformer was in part
arrested because he had never put in what Miss Nightingale called "the
main-spring." He had failed to reform the War Office. There had thus been
no such effective organization set up as would ensure even the permanent
possession of ground already gained and much less a continuous advance.
There was now some danger of a like state of things in connection with
Public Health in India, and Miss Nightingale turned her thoughts to
avert it.
There had been many improvements; but there was as yet no consistent
scheme of organization, and in some respects there had already been
backsliding. The Sanitary Commissions had been reduced on the ground of
expense to two officers (a President and a Secretary) in each case, and
a further retrenchment was now in contemplation. Under each Local
Government there was to be one sanitary officer, and it was proposed
that this officer should be the Inspector-General of Prisons. A
"Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India" would remain, who
would not combine that duty with an inspectorship of prisons; but such a
scheme would assuredly not supply any "mainspring" for sanitary
improvement. Meanwhile Sir John Lawrence's term of office was coming to
an end; and Miss Nightingale, regarding him as the indispensable man,
looked upon the end of his viceroyalty as an event almost comparable to
the death of Sidney Herbert. The same error must not be made a second
time. Before Sir John Lawrence retired, the mainspring of the machinery
for sanitary progress in India must be inserted. Miss Nightingale had a
clear policy in her mind, and she secured most of her points with a
celerity and a completeness which entitle this episode to rank among her
most brilliant campaigns. It will make the moves more easily
intelligible if the main points are indicated at once. What Miss
Nightingale sought to attain was an efficient machine which would turn
out sanitary improvement in accordance with the best knowledge of the
day and of which the working would be subject to the propelling force of
public opinion. She, therefore, set herself to secure, if by any means
she could, (1) an executive sanitary authority in India, (2) an expert
controlling (and, incidentally, an inspiring) authority in London, and
(3) the publication of an annual report on the work done, so as to make
both parts of the machinery amenable to public inspection.
On the first of these points, Miss Nightingale was doomed to some
disappointment. Neither at the time with which we are here concerned,
nor in her later years, nor yet to the present day, has any supreme and
executive sanitary machinery been established in India. "It was true,"
said the Secretary of State during a debate in the House of Lords on
Indian sanitation in 1913 (June 9), "that the present system fell very
far short of a great independent Sanitary Department supreme over the
Provincial Governments and forming one of the main departments of the
Government of India." That was Miss Nightingale's ideal at this time,
though in later years, as we shall learn,[90] she recognized that
sanitary progress in India could not be turned out by clockwork; but
at the opposite pole stood the scheme by which she was threatened in
1867 for consigning sanitary administration in the Local Governments to
a sub-head of the prison department. She had the satisfaction before Sir
John Lawrence left India of seeing another scheme adopted, which was at
any rate as far removed from the Prison as from her Ideal. On the other
two points, stated above, she was at the time completely successful.
She had in all this a valuable ally; and it was her way to see something
like special providence in fortunate circumstances. The most logical
mind sometimes admits exceptions; yet there was in fact no exception.
Providence, according to her belief, is Law; and it had become a law
that men interested in her interests should go to her. Hence it was that
she made at this time a friendship with one whose disinterested devotion
to the cause of sanitary reform in India equalled her own, and whose
co-operation was to prove of the greatest value. The new friend was Sir
Bartle Frere.
[90] See below, p. 405.
II
For a year and more the question of the Public Health Service in India
had slumbered, so far as organization was concerned. Sir John Lawrence's
dispatch had been lost at the India Office for some months (p. 109).
Then, when it had been found and Miss Nightingale had drafted the reply,
Lord de Grey had gone out of office before the reply could be sent
(p. 110). She had opened communications with his successor, Lord
Cranborne (p. 114); but his stay at the India Office was brief, for when
Disraeli's Franchise Bill was introduced, he resigned. He was succeeded
by Sir Stafford Northcote, with whom as yet Miss Nightingale had no
acquaintance. She had been diligent in writing to Sir John Lawrence, who
continued to ask her advice and send her papers; but she had held her
hand on this side. The reason was that all her friends told her that
"the Tories would be out in a week." Dr. Sutherland, greatly daring,
went further and talked treason against Sir John Lawrence: "He is our
worst enemy," and "we had better wait." Miss Nightingale ascribed this
ribaldry to a desire of Dr. Sutherland to be off cholera-hunting in the
Mediterranean, and reproached him in some impromptu rhymes.[91] Sir
John Lawrence was her hero. If he did amiss sometimes (as she had to
admit), she put it down, I suppose, to his Council, with whom he was
notoriously not on good terms; whatever was done aright was his doing.
And meanwhile the weeks passed and the Tories did not go out; they
looked, on the contrary, very much like staying in. Miss Nightingale
determined to wait no longer. She announced her determination in a
letter to Captain Galton (May 28, 1867). He was in touch with Indian
sanitary business as a member of the War Office Sanitary Committee, to
which such business was often referred, and she attached considerable
weight to his judgment. "Our Indian affairs," she wrote, "are getting as
drunk as they can be"; she was resolved to have them put straight. She
had been "strongly advised to communicate direct with Sir Stafford
Northcote"; advised, I imagine, by Mr. Jowett (for was not Sir Stafford
a Balliol man, and therefore specially amenable to reason?) What did
Captain Galton advise? He agreed that things were not going well, and
was glad that she meant to move. He would give her an introduction, if
she liked, to Sir Stafford, and he advised her to see Sir Bartle Frere,
"as I fancy you could make him useful." He had just returned from the
governorship of Bombay, and had been given a seat on the India Council
in London. A fortnight later (June 14) he and Miss Nightingale met:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Captain Galton._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _June_ 16
[1867]. I have seen Sir Bartle Frere. He came on Friday by his own
appointment. And we had a great talk. He impressed me
wonderfully--more than any Indian I have ever seen except Sir John
Lawrence; and I seemed to learn more in an hour from him upon
Indian administration and the way it is going than I did from Ellis
in six months, or from Strachey in two days, or from Indian
Councils (Secretaries of State and Royal Commissions and all) in
six years. I hope Sir B. Frere will be of use to us. I have not yet
applied to you to put me into communication with Sir S. Northcote.
Because why? Your Committee won't sit. It won't sit on Monday
because Monday is Whit Monday. And Tuesday is Whit Tuesday. And
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. And Thursday is Ascension Day. And
Friday is Good Friday. And Saturday is the Drawing Room. And Sunday
is Sunday. And that's the way that British business is done. Now
you are come back, you must send for the police and make the
Committee do something. As for Sutherland, I never see him. Malta
is the world. And Gibraltar is the "next world." And India is that
little island in the Pacific like Honolulu.
[91] Free as air.
I don't care.
Go away
To Malta-y.
I don't care.
Let Sir John Hall
Be Director-Genera_ll_.
I don't care.
As for India-y
Let her have her way.
I don't care.
Free as air.
I don't care.
Miss Nightingale must have impressed Sir Bartle Frere as greatly as he
had impressed her. He now became one of her constant visitors, and a
busy correspondence began between them. He and his family became friends
too of Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale, whom they visited at Embley. "There are
amongst his papers for 1867 and the five following years considerably
more than a hundred letters, short or long, from Miss Nightingale to
him, mostly upon sanitary questions affecting India."[92] The letters
from him to her are not less numerous. "I will make 35 South Street the
India Office," he said, "while this affair is pending." Miss Nightingale
took note of his conversations, principally for communication to Dr.
Sutherland, but also for her own guidance. But if she had much to learn
from him, he also must have found something to learn, and some
inspiration to derive, from her. The work which she had done for the
Royal Commission had given her a great knowledge of sanitary, or rather
insanitary, details in India; and on the principles of sanitation she
was an acknowledged expert. Her acquaintance with the official history
of the Indian Public Health question was unique, for no other person had
so continuously been in intimate touch with it. The clearness of her
mind and her breadth of view impressed every one who saw her. And then
something must be allowed, in considering her successive "conquests" (as
Mr. Jowett used playfully to call them), to the personal factor. The
administrators and ministers who sought or were invited to audience of
her would have been more (or less) than men if they had not felt a
certain pleased curiosity in meeting this famous woman, who rose from an
invalid's bed to receive them. Each of them speedily discovered that her
enthusiastic devotion to humanitarian causes was equalled by her
soundness of judgment, and that remarkable powers of brain were
accompanied by all of a woman's graciousness "She is a noble-minded
woman," said Mr. Lowe of her, "and so charming."
[92] _Life of Sir Bartle Frere_, vol. ii. pp. 38, 39.
Encouraged by Sir Bartle Frere's sympathy, Miss Nightingale set to work
in earnest. The first thing was to obtain a colourable starting-point.
This she found in some Indian papers, sent to her by friends on the War
Office Sanitary Committee, on the question of "Doors _versus_ Windows."
She determined to attack simultaneously the Governor-General and the
Secretary of State on this question. To the Governor-General she wrote
immediately; but with regard to the India Office there was a preliminary
difficulty. "Dr. Sutherland is so very etiquettish," she wrote to
Captain Galton (June 24, 1867), "that he says, But how are you to have
seen these papers? I don't know. It seems to me that the cat has been
out of the bag so long that it is no use tying the strings now. I will
say, if you like, that Broadhead of Sheffield gave me £15 to steal them
and to blow you up.[93] I am going ahead anyhow." Captain Galton put
aside Dr. Sutherland's etiquette. It had been an established practice
for years, he said, as every official person knew, to send Indian
sanitary papers to Miss Nightingale; and in the very improbable event of
anybody objecting in this case, he, Captain Galton, would assume full
responsibility. Miss Nightingale then proceeded to draw up an
indictment, and to suggest reform, basing her case upon the "Doors
_versus_ Windows" papers. Upon the merits of the controversy I am
happily not called upon to offer an opinion. To Miss Nightingale and the
War Office Sanitary Committee the ventilation of barracks or hospitals
by open doors was a pestilential heresy; to the Government of India it
was the ark of the covenant for salvation in hot weather. Sir John
Lawrence in reply to Miss Nightingale's remonstrance told her bluntly
that nothing but an imperative order from home would make him close the
doors, and even then that he would first send the most energetic
protest. But, though she attached some importance to the matter on its
merits, her real object was something different. She objected to the
manner in which the case had been handled. The sanitary experts at home
had said that new barracks and hospitals should be ventilated by open
windows, and their report to that effect had been sent to India. Then
the matter had been referred in succession to the Government of India,
the local governments, sanitary commissions, medical authorities,
military authorities, district authorities, and then to the Government
of India again. Next it had come back to London, where the experts were
still of their original opinion. There seemed no reason why the travels
of the "Doors and Windows" papers should ever come to an end. If every
sanitary question were to be treated in the same way, no sanitary
progress could be made; and the idea of "sanitary administration by
universal suffrage" was impossible. Sir John Lawrence hardly made proper
allowance for her way of putting things when he assured her in reply
that she was mistaken in thinking that such matters were referred to a
vote in India. The case showed conclusively, it seemed to her, that the
time had come for organizing the health service on a business-like
footing. She suggested schemes on the basis of the Three Points already
defined--a Sanitary Department in India to do the work; a Sanitary
Department at the India Office to control the work; and annual
publication of what work had been done. With regard to the second point,
she regarded the War-Office-cum-India-Office Sanitary Committee as only
a makeshift, as we have seen.[94] She knew whom she wanted at the head
of a separate India Office Sanitary Department. "If only," she had
written to Captain Galton (July 24), "we could get a Public Health
Department in the India Office to ourselves with Sir B. Frere at the
head of it, our fortunes would be made."
[93] For William Broadhead and the rattening outrages at Sheffield, see
M^cCarthy's _History of our own Times_, vol. iv. p. 156.
[94] Above, p. 33.
III
Such was the substance of successive letters which Miss Nightingale now
sent to the Secretary of State. The first of them is an admirable
document; closely reasoned; with a pleasant pungency of phrasing here
and there, such as might occur in a despatch by Lord Salisbury; with a
touch of emotion kept well in reserve. She begged the minister to go
back to the point at which the matter had been left when Lord de Grey
went out, and "to put the Indian Health Service once for all on a
satisfactory footing. This would indeed be a noble service for a
Secretary of State to render to India." She submitted her letter to Sir
Bartle Frere, who pronounced it excellent. He carried it off, and
delivered it to the minister in person. This was on July 27. On July 30
Sir Stafford Northcote answered, promising early attention to the
subject, and adding, "I attach great weight to any suggestions from one
who is so well qualified to speak with authority as yourself." Without
going into the question, he made the general remark that "due regard
should be had to local information." This criticism was just what she
wanted; it afforded an opening for unfolding her schemes in greater
detail. Sir Stafford Northcote must have been impressed by the letters;
for he gave the matter immediate study, and then, on August 19, wrote to
know if he might call for "a little conversation." Miss Nightingale told
Mr. Jowett of this new opening. "I am delighted to hear," he wrote (Aug.
20), "that you are casting your toils about Sir Stafford Northcote. Do
you know that he was elected a scholar of Balliol with A. H. Clough? I
think that you may do him as well as the cause immense service. May I
talk to you as I would to one of our undergraduates? Take care not to
exaggerate to him (I mention this because it is really difficult to
avoid when you are deeply interested). You will make him feel, I have no
doubt, that you can really help him. Of course he will have heard things
said against you by the officials; and you will have to produce just the
opposite impression to these reports. But I don't really suppose that
the art of influencing others can be reduced to rules. I commend you and
your work to God, and am quite sure that 'it will be given you what to
say,' because (I am afraid this is very rationalistic) you know what you
mean to say." The interview (Aug. 20), somewhat dreaded on Miss
Nightingale's side, had already taken place when Mr. Jowett's letter
came. "Much more satisfactory to my hopes," she wrote to Sir Bartle
Frere (Aug. 21) "than I expected. I think you have imbued him with your
views on Indian administration more than you know. We went as fully
into the whole subject as was possible in an hour, seeing that India is
rather a big place." Her notes of the conversation show that she had
found the minister very keen and sympathetic. "I don't know," she told
Dr. Sutherland, "that he saw how afraid I was of him. For he kept his
eyes tight shut all the time. And I kept mine wide open." Afraid or not,
she had done a great stroke of business:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Captain Galton._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _August_
22 [1867]. I saw Sir S. Northcote on Tuesday. He came of his own
accord--which I think I partly owe to you. The result is (that is,
if he does as he says) that there will be a Controlling Committee
at the India Office for sanitary things with Sir B. Frere at the
head and Sir H. Anderson at the tail, and your War Office
Commission as the consulting body. As to the Public Health Service,
I told him that we want the Executive Machinery in India to do it,
and the Controlling Machinery at the I.O. to know that it is being
done. The work of the Controlling Committee will really be
introducing the elements of civilization into India. Sir S. N. said
something about having Gen. Baker and Sir E. Perry on as members
and an assistant-secretary to Sir H. Anderson. (I wish I could
choose the members as I did in Sidney Herbert's time.) But I have
the greatest faith in Sir B. Frere, and he asked me to let him
bring Sir H. Anderson here; so we shall have the Chairman and the
Secretary on our side. I liked Sir S. Northcote; but he appears to
me to have much the same calibre of mind as Lord de Grey. He has
none of the rapid, unerring perception of Sidney Herbert; none of
the power of Sir J. Lawrence; none of the power and keenness of Sir
B. Frere. He talks about "talking it all over with Lord Clinton."
Do you know Lord Clinton, and does he know anything about it? But
my principal reason for writing to you now is this: I went as fully
as I could with Sir S. N. into this, that no time should be lost in
sending R. Engineers intended for service in India to examine and
make themselves acquainted with improvements in sewerage, drainage,
water-supply of towns, and in application of sewage to agriculture,
and with improvements in Barrack and Hospital construction, etc.,
as carried out here. Now, there is no one but you who can properly
advise Sir S. N. in this way. Pray do so.
Sir Stafford Northcote did all, and more than all, that at this
interview he had promised. She was impressed by his sincerity at the
time. "I believe," she told Dr. Sutherland, "he will carry out exactly
what he consents to do." But other friends advised her to leave nothing
to good intentions, to strike while the iron was hot, and to continue
jogging the minister's elbow until the things were actually done.
Presently an occasion offered itself. The Governor-General had written
her a long private letter about the ravages of cholera among the troops
in the N.W. Provinces. She sent the substance of this letter to Sir
Stafford Northcote, and invited him to concur in her opinion that such
things ought not to be. But could they ever be prevented until the
Public Health Service was placed on a proper footing? The minister, in
acknowledging her letter (Oct. 18), said that, the pressure of other
business being relaxed, he was now able to give full attention to
sanitary questions, and that he would like to have another conversation.
The interview was on October 23. On this occasion the minister came
full-handed. He told her, first, as appears from her notes and letters,
that he had definitely decided to appoint a Sanitary Committee at the
India Office. He read out the list of names; with Sir Bartle Frere,
according to promise, as chairman, and Sir H. Anderson as secretary. He
then asked her advice with regard to the relations between this
Committee and the War Office Sanitary Committee, for there was, as he
explained (and as she knew only too well), great jealousy between the
two offices. She advised that the India Office Committee should be the
controlling and responsible body, and the War Office Committee
consultative only; "but I shall be much surprised," she wrote in
explaining things to Captain Galton, "if Sir Bartle Frere does not refer
many more matters to you than has previously been the case." She had
thus won the second of her Three Points.
The minister next handed to Miss Nightingale a dispatch dated August 16,
which he had received from the Government of India, and to which an
immediate answer was requested. This was not news to her (though she was
doubtless too discreet to say so), for the Governor-General had also
written to her on August 16 to like effect. In this dispatch the
appointment of medical officers in each Local Government for the
exclusive duty of Principal Health Officers, paid by the Central
Government, was suggested. The Secretary of State left the dispatch with
Miss Nightingale, and requested her to favour him in writing with her
views on the whole subject, suggesting, if she cared to do so, what
answer should be sent to the Government of India. The new proposal of
Sir John Lawrence's Government was not all or exactly what she wanted.
The local Officers of Health would be advisory only; and the
Commissioner with the Government of India would remain in a like
position. What she had wanted was a distinct Executive Department, both
central and local, for Public Health. Still, the appointment of State
Officers of Health was a step in the right direction, and a great
advance on the Prisons scheme. She must see to it that the better
opinion was made to prevail, while Sir John Lawrence was still at the
helm in India and the Secretary of State in London was friendly to her.
The new policy would win some part of her First Point. It remained to
secure Annual Health Reports; and the Secretary of State had given her
an opening by inviting her to make suggestions at large.
She had now a spell of very hard work. At the end of it she had sent to
Sir Stafford Northcote (1) a draft for immediate reply to the Indian
Government, approving the appointment of the Health Officers. This was
sent to India on November 29. (2) Secondly, a digest of the Indian
Sanitary Question from 1859 to 1867. This was printed in a Blue-book
issued by the Secretary of State in 1868. (3) Thirdly, a memorandum on
the whole subject full of suggestions and advice. This was sent out to
the Indian Government, and printed in the same Blue-book. It was printed
anonymously, though there are tell-tale phrases (such as "The result
will be the civilization of India"); the manuscript of the "review," in
Miss Nightingale's hand, is amongst her papers. (4) Fourthly, and
principally, the heads of a dispatch on the whole subject which, she
suggested, might be sent to the Government of India. "Of course I cannot
say," she wrote, "how far these heads may meet with your concurrence."
The heads, in her hand, are also amongst her papers, and a comparison of
this manuscript with Sir Stafford Northcote's dispatch of April 23,
1868, shows that they all met with his concurrence; they were adopted
for the most part in her own words. The suggestions of this dispatch
constitute one of Miss Nightingale's best services to the cause of
Public Health in India. It begins with calling for a Report on Sanitary
Progress. It then reverts to the famous "Suggestions in regard to
Sanitary Works" of 1864, which Miss Nightingale had so large a hand in
writing (above, p. 48). "I consider these Suggestions," wrote the
Secretary of State, "to be of very great practical value and to
constitute a good foundation for sanitary inquiry and work in India."
The dispatch invites particular attention to some of the Suggestions
seriatim, and calls for a report on any progress that has been made in
carrying them out. It also includes Miss Nightingale's later suggestion
(above, p. 152) that Engineer Officers should be sent to England to
study sanitary questions. The whole dispatch, whilst leaving full
executive authority to the Government of India, was directed to
stimulating its zeal in the cause of Public Health.
The adoption by Sir Stafford Northcote of Miss Nightingale's "heads" for
this dispatch secured the last of her Three Points. The reports for
which the minister called were duly forwarded. They were printed in the
Blue-book above mentioned, together with the other Papers, and with the
dispatch itself. This Blue-book[95] was the first of an Annual Series of
Indian Sanitary Reports. So, then, Miss Nightingale's intercourse with
Sir Stafford Northcote had, with the limitations already explained,
secured all her points.
[95] For its title, etc., see Bibliography A, No. 52.
"I hope, in this recourse to Sir Stafford Northcote," she had written
three months before,[96] "as a last hope. Hope was green, and the donkey
ate it (that's me)." "I am inclined to think," Mr. Jowett had written to
her at the same time (July 18), "that you have really made a
considerable step. I talked about Sir Stafford Northcote to some people
who know him. They say, besides what I told you, that he works really
hard at Indian affairs. Now, you must get hold of him and fuse him and
Sir Bartle Frere and Sir John Lawrence into one by some alchemy or
wicked wit of woman, and then something will be accomplished." And this
was what had now been made possible; though perhaps the only secret on
the woman's part was the combination of singleness of purpose, fulness
of knowledge, clearness of insight, and a resolute will.
[96] To Captain Galton (July 16).
IV
Sir Stafford Northcote's dispatch, and the accompanying memorandum, did
not immediately have the effect which Miss Nightingale hoped so far as
the Supreme Government was concerned. The Government of India somewhat
resented the process of hustling by the India Office at home. Miss
Nightingale had kept her faith in Sir John Lawrence, but it was put to
some severe trials. For some time she had been more ready to praise and
pray than he to do her bidding:--
(_Sir John Lawrence to Miss Nightingale._) CALCUTTA, _Feb._ 7
[1867]. Many thanks for your very kind note of the 26th of
December. I am quite sure that I in no wise deserve your blessings;
nevertheless I am grateful to you for them, perhaps the more so
when I bear in mind my own demerits. It is not a very pleasant duty
talking to the "Kings of the East," for though they receive all
which one in my position may say with gravity and politeness, it
makes but a wretched impression on them. You will be glad to hear
that the death-rate among the English troops in India for 1866 was
only 20.11, while it was 24.24 in 1865. This seems to me a very
satisfactory result.... I have had an envoy down in Calcutta for
some time, from the King of Bokhara, asking for aid against Russia.
How strange it will be if Russia and England meet in Central Asia!
I hope, if it is to be so, that it will be in amity. There is ample
verge and room enough for both powers; and if both would only see
this we might be a help instead of an injury to each other.
(_Sir John Lawrence to Miss Nightingale._) SIMLEH, _July_ 9
[1867].... [A passage dwelling on the many difficulties he had to
encounter.] I do what I can to further the objects to which you
have devoted your life--no doubt with slow and faltering steps, but
still as fast as circumstances will permit.
Then on August 16 the Governor-General sent her a letter which must have
very seriously shaken her faith. He had asked her (p. 55) to formulate
a scheme for female nursing. With her habitual good sense, she had
contemplated an experiment in a single hospital and had drawn up a
scheme on that basis. Instead of accepting her basis, the
Governor-General referred the matter to his medical advisers, who
elaborated a scheme for introducing female nursing into seven hospitals.
The cost of this larger scheme was prohibitive; and the Government of
India, instead of falling back upon Miss Nightingale's proposals, vetoed
the whole thing. Sir John McNeill, who had assisted her with her
proposals, was very angry, and sent her a hot indictment of the Indian
officials. "You must wait for a new Governor-General. Sir John Lawrence
has greatly disappointed me." Then, afraid, I suppose, lest she might
adopt some of his scathing phrases in replying to Sir John Lawrence, he
wrote again, suggesting that dignified silence would be the better
course. "It would be mere waste of time and hardly consistent with your
name and position to argue with men who flounder about in such a
hopeless slough of unreason. I would not even point out their
inconsistencies. Both the Governor-General and you are high powers, and
your correspondence ought, I think, to be conducted with the reserve
that is proper to such persons when your opinions do not coincide. I
would merely say, etc. etc." What Sir John McNeill suggested she adopted
with some slight modifications. In her reply to the Governor-General
(Sept. 26, 1867) she thanked him for his letter and for the documents he
enclosed; explained that she had submitted a scheme only because he had
asked her to do so; remarked that the scheme which the Government of
India had vetoed was not hers, nor anything like it; and added that if
at any future time the question should be revived, she would again be
willing, if desired, to give any advice or assistance in her power.
V
This incident did not interfere with the continuance of frequent and
friendly correspondence between the two "high powers," and Miss
Nightingale's persistence may not have been without some effect.
She frequently sent sanitary papers and suggestions to the
Governor-General, and these he always referred to some appropriate
official for report, whose remarks (sometimes in manuscript, sometimes
printed for official use) were in turn forwarded to her. There is one
long printed paper of the kind, headed "Dr. Farquhar's Notes on Miss
Nightingale's Questions relative to Sanitation in Algeria and India,
April 20, 1867."[97] Miss Nightingale forwarded the "Notes" to Sir
Bartle Frere, who wrote a long memorandum in rejoinder. He agreed with
Miss Nightingale that there was no reason why India should not be
brought up to the Algerian standard. The "Notes" were a compendium, he
thought, of the errors that impede sanitary reform in India. But though
Sir John Lawrence's officials were critical, and her suggestions were
not at the moment effectual, they may have had their influence in the
end. Sir Bartle Frere was once asked by a member of Miss Nightingale's
family to what her influence in India was due, and what had set the
sanitary crusade in motion? Not the big Blue-book, he replied, which
nobody reads, but "a certain little red book of hers on India which made
some of us very savage at the time, but did us all immense good."[98]
Sir Bartle Frere had by no means lost faith in Sir John Lawrence, and
urged Miss Nightingale to write to him, telling him in advance of the
Memorandum which would shortly come to him from the India Office. "I
have often known," he said, "a scrap of paper on which you had written a
few words--or even your words printed--work miraculously." The scrap of
paper was sent, urging Sir John Lawrence once more to appoint an
Executive Sanitary Department in the Government of India, but it did not
prevail:--
(_Sir John Lawrence to Miss Nightingale._) _October_ 25 [1868]. It
may seem to you, with your great earnestness and singleness of
mind, that we are doing very little, and yet in truth I already see
great improvement, more particularly in our military cantonments,
and doubtless we shall from year to year do better. But the
extension of sanitation throughout the country and among the
people must be a matter of time, especially if we wish to carry
them with us ... (_November_ 23). I think that we have done all we
can do at present in furtherance of sanitary improvement, and that
the best plan is to leave the Local Governments to themselves to
work out their own arrangements. If we take this course we shall
keep them in good humour. If we try more we shall have trouble. I
don't think we require a commission. Mr. John Strachey, a member of
Council, has special charge of the Home Department under the
Government of India, and all sanitary matters have been transferred
to that department, so that when I am gone there will still be a
friend at court to whom you can refer.
[97] She had made use, after all, it will be observed, of Dr.
Sutherland's visit to "Astley's" (above, p. 110).
[98] The "little red book" was the reprint of Miss Nightingale's
_Observations_; see above, p. 36.
Miss Nightingale found cold comfort in this promised friend at court,
for Sir John Lawrence forwarded at the same time a letter to himself
from Mr. Strachey, in which the latter expressed himself in indignant
terms about the India Office's memorandum. It was full, he complained,
of things which they were said to have left undone, and gave them no
credit for what they had done; and it advocated a forward policy in
sanitation which might be attended by grave dangers in forcing sanitary
reform upon unwilling people. "Well," said Miss Nightingale to Dr.
Sutherland, "this is the nastiest pill we have had, but we have
swallowed a good many and we're not poisoned yet." They replied to
Mr. Strachey's criticisms in a final letter to the Governor-General. An
"admirable" letter, Sir Bartle Frere thought it; "my letter to Sir J.
L.," wrote Miss Nightingale in her diary, "to bless and to curse" (Dec.
4, 1868). I hope, and I expect, that the blessing was the larger half.
For, in truth, she had obtained during Sir John Lawrence's term of
office at least as much for her cause as could reasonably be expected.
When Sir John Lawrence returned to London, one of the first things he
did was to call at South Street, and leave, with a little note, "a small
shawl of the fine hair of the Thibet goat." He did not presume, he said,
to ask to see her without an appointment, but would call another day if
she cared to give him one. Three days later (April 3, 1869), he came,
and all Miss Nightingale's admiration returned on the instant. She made
a long note of his conversation, which ranged over the whole field of
Indian government. On the subject of Public Health she recorded with
pleasure his saying to her: "You initiated the reform which initiated
Public Opinion which made things possible, and now there is not a
station in India where there is not something doing." But "in the first
place," she wrote, "when I see him again, I see that there is nobody
like him. He is Rameses II. of Egypt. All the Ministers are rats and
weasels by his side." And to a friend she afterwards said:[99] "Peace
hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew. He has left his mark
on India. Wherever superstition or ignorance or starvation or dirt or
fever or famine, or the wild bold lawlessness of brave races, or the
cringing slavishness of clever feeble races was to be found, there he
has left his mark. He has set India on a new track which--may his
successors follow!--
Knight of a better era
Without reproach or fear,
Said I not well that Bayards
And Sidneys still are here!"
[99] Letter to Madame Mohl, March 26, 1869.
CHAPTER III
PUBLIC HEALTH MISSIONARY FOR INDIA
(1868-1872)
There is a vast work going on in India, and the fruits will be
reaped in time. Not all at once. We must go on working in faith and
in hope.--DR. JOHN SUTHERLAND (_Letter to Miss Nightingale_, August
16, 1871).
"By dint of remaining here for 13 months to dog the Minister I have got
a little (not tart, but) Department all to myself, called 'Of Public
Health, Civil and Military, for India,' with Sir B. Frere at the head of
it. And I had the immense satisfaction 3 or 4 months ago of seeing
'Printed Despatch No. 1' of said Department. (I never, in all my life
before, saw any Despatch, Paper or Minute under at least No. 77,981).
Still you know this is not the meat, but only the smell of the meat.
What we want is an Executive out there to do it, and a Department here
to see that it is being done. The latter we now have; the former must
still rest with the Viceroy and Council out there." Thus did Miss
Nightingale, in a letter to M. Mohl (Feb. 16, 1868), sum up the results
of the campaign described in the last chapter. Her life, for some years
to come, was now largely occupied with the affairs of the "little
Department all to herself." The Department may have been little, but she
interpreted her duties, as we shall see, in a large sense. Her work in
connection with the War Office, though it did not entirely cease, was no
longer absorbing. She had ceased to have direct communications with the
Secretaries for War. In 1868 there was one of the periodical
reorganizations of the War Office, followed in the succeeding year by
the retirement of Captain Galton.[100] She had thus no longer a
confidential intimate in the Department. She could have made one,
perhaps, if she had so desired; for her Scutari friend, Sir Henry
Storks, had now been appointed to the newly organized post of
Controller-in-Chief, and presently became Surveyor-General of Ordnance.
But her Indian preoccupations, coupled with the never-ceasing strain of
work as Adviser-in-General on Hospitals and Nursing, used all her
strength. In the present chapter we shall follow the course of her life
during the years 1868-72, with special reference to Indian work; in the
next, we shall follow the development of her work in connection with
hospitals and nursing.
[100] He retired at the end of 1869, and was appointed to a post in the
Office of Works. Miss Nightingale intervened (through
representations to Lord de Grey and Mr. Cardwell) to secure his
continuance as a member of the Army Sanitary Committee.
* * * * *
The long strain, mentioned in the letter to M. Mohl, had told severely
upon Miss Nightingale's strength, and at the end of December 1867 she
went, leaving no address behind (except with Dr. Sutherland), for a
month's rest-cure under Dr. Walter Johnson at Malvern. Upon her return
to London she was busily engaged in the preparation of the Indian
"Memorandum" described in the last chapter. The death of Miss Agnes
Jones and the anxieties which it entailed (chap. i.) told greatly upon
her health and spirits. Mr. Jowett, after seeing her early in July, was
seriously alarmed at her state of physical weakness and mental
despondency. She had half promised him that she would go for rest and
change to Lea Hurst; but only if the rest were accompanied by a duty of
affection. If her mother were at Lea Hurst, she would go; if not, she
would not. So Mr. Jowett wrote privately to Mrs. Nightingale, who
arranged her plans accordingly, and begged her daughter to come and be
with her. They were together at the old home for three months (July
7-Oct. 3), and for a week of the time Mr. Jowett was with them. The
mother and the daughter had seldom been on such affectionate and
understanding terms as now. "Mama," wrote Miss Nightingale to Madame
Mohl (July 20), "is more cheerful, more gentle than I ever remember
her." The daughter's note of conversations shows that they talked of
misunderstandings in the past, and that the mother was ready to blame
herself: "You would have done nothing in life, if you had not resisted
me." For many years to come, Miss Nightingale repeated such visits to
the country homes of her parents. They were now old; her father was 74
in 1868, her mother 80. The daughter desired to be with them so far as
her work allowed. Perhaps something was due also to the persistent
counsels of Mr. Jowett. Continuous drudgery in London was not good, he
pleaded, either for her body or for her soul. They were supposed to have
entered into a compact not to overwork. He avowed that he was faithfully
keeping his side of the bargain, and put her upon her honour to do her
part in return. It was an unhealthy life, he pleaded, to be shut up all
the year in a London room. There was still much for her to do, and she
would do it all the better for some relaxation of daily effort. Perhaps
he persuaded her. At any rate, from 1868 for some years onwards there
was more of the country in Miss Nightingale's life--less of incessant
drudgery, more leisure for reading, more marge for meditation. In 1869
she was at Embley for three months in the summer; in 1870, at Embley for
one month, and at Lea Hurst for three; in 1871, there was a similar
division of time; in 1872 she was at Embley for eight months.
II
Mr. Jowett was often a visitor on these occasions for a few days at a
time. He continued in frequent letters to urge her to attempt some
sustained writing. She had a talent for it, he insisted, and she was
possessed of great influence. He suggested as a subject suitable to her
a Treatise on the Reform of the Poor Law, and he sent her a memorandum
of his own ideas on the subject. There are one or two of Mr. Jowett's
ideas, and occasionally a phrase of his, in what she ultimately wrote.
She endeavoured to take his advice, and a resolve is recorded in her
diary for 1868 to devote an hour a day to writing. The projected work
went to no further length than that of a magazine article entitled "A
Note on Pauperism." Nothing that she ever wrote--with one
exception[101]--cost her so much worry and trouble. She did what is
always trying to an author's equanimity and often prejudicial to the
effect of his work: she admitted collaboration. Dr. Sutherland had a
hand in it--that goes without saying, and his assistance was always
useful: he knew exactly within what limits he could really help his
friend. But her brother-in-law was an authority on the subject and Lady
Verney claimed (and not without justice) to be an authority on the style
appropriate to magazine articles. She took much well-meant trouble, and
transcribed her sister's first draft in her own hand, with corrections
of her own also. The authoress was in despair, and sent again for Dr.
Sutherland: "I have adopted _all_ your corrections, and _all_ Parthe's,
and _all_ Sir Harry's; and they have taken out all my _bons mots_ and
left unfinished sentences on every page; and this _kind_ of work really
takes a year's strength out of me; and now you _must_ help me." So, Dr.
Sutherland patched up the broken sentences and harmonized the
corrections, and the article was ready. Miss Nightingale was as timid
and perplexed as any literary beginner about placing her paper. After
much consultation she decided to submit it to Mr. Froude, with whom as
yet she had no acquaintance. She was as pleased as any literary beginner
when the editor replied immediately that he would be delighted to print
the paper in his next number. In _Fraser_ for March 1869 it appeared
accordingly--the first of several contributions which she made to that
magazine. The "Note" is somewhat disconnected in style and slight in
treatment, but is full of far-reaching suggestions. She begins by
insisting on a reform of which we have heard much in a previous chapter:
the separation of the sick and incapable from the workhouse. Then she
goes on to argue that the thing to do is "not to punish the hungry for
being hungry, but to teach the hungry to feed themselves." She attacks
the _laisser faire_ school of economists, "which being interpreted means
Let bad alone." Political economy speaks of labour as mobile, and she
quotes a leading article in the _Times_ which had talked about "the
convenience in the possession of a vast industrial army, ready for any
work, and chargeable on the public when its work is no longer wanted."
She stigmatizes such talk as false, in the first case, and wicked, in
the second. The State should endeavour to facilitate the organization of
labour. "Where work is in one place, and labour in another, it should
bring them together." Education should be more manual, and less
literary. Pauper children should be boarded out and sent to industrial
schools. The condition of the dwellings of the poor is at the root of
much pauperism, and the State should remedy it. There should be
State-aided colonization, so as to bring the landless man to the manless
lands. Some of all this was not so familiar in 1869 as it is to-day, and
Miss Nightingale's "Note" attracted much attention. Among those who read
it with hearty approval was Carlyle. "Last night," wrote Mr. Rawlinson
(March 11), "I spent several hours with Mr. Carlyle, and amongst talk
about Lancashire Public Works, modern modes of government, modern
Political Economy and Social Morality, he brought to my notice your
'Note on Pauperism' as in his opinion the best, because the most
practical, paper he had read of late on the question. I wish you could
have been present to have listened to the great man alternately pouring
forth a living stream of information, and then bursting into a rhapsody
of passionate denunciation of some thick-headed blundering statesmanship
or indignant tirade against commercial rascality." Dr. Sutherland called
to express his pleasure that the article had gone off so well. "Well!"
she said; "it's not well at all. The whole of London is calling here to
tell me they have got a depauperizing experiment, including that horrid
woman." A large bundle of correspondence testifies to the interest which
her paper aroused. Some of it was not disinterested. All the emigration
societies read the paper with the gratitude which looks to
subscriptions. The article was very expensive to her; for she gave away
the editor's fee many times over in such contributions. For some years
following, she took great interest in schemes for emigration, and
nothing angered her more in the politics of the day than the absence of
any Colonial Policy in the schemes and speeches of Liberal Ministers.
[101] See below, p. 196.
Miss Nightingale had sent some of her correspondence on colonization to
an old friend at the Colonial Office--Sir Frederick Rogers (Lord
Blachford). "See what a thing," he replied (July 26, 1869), "is a bad
conscience! You, conscious of a life spent in bullying harmless
Government offices, think that I must read your (beautiful) handwriting
with horror. Whereas I, conscious of rectitude, have sincere pleasure in
receiving your assaults." This was a preface to an essay in which the
Under-Secretary demonstrated, in the manner habitual to the Colonial
Office in those days, the utter undesirability, impropriety, and
impossibility of doing anything at all. Lord Houghton raised a
conversation on the subject in the House of Lords, but confessed to Miss
Nightingale that he was half-hearted, and nothing came of it. She formed
a large heap of newspaper cuttings, collected facts from foreign
countries, made many notes, and intended to follow up the suggestions,
thrown out in her paper, into greater detail, and then perhaps to
publish a book. She gave much time during 1869 to the subject, and in
December Mr. Goschen, the President of the Poor Law Board, came to see
her. They had a long discussion, and her note of it begins with an
_aperçu_ of the Minister--a little severe, perhaps, but not
undiscriminating. "He is a man of considerable mind, great power of
getting up statistical information and political economy, but with no
practical insight or strength of character. It is an awkward mind--like
a pudding in lumps. He is like a man who has been senior wrangler and
never anything afterwards." He seemed to Miss Nightingale to see so many
objections to any course as to make him likely to do nothing; and his
economic doctrines paid too little regard, she thought, to the actual
facts. "You must sometimes trample on the toes of Political Economists,"
she said,[102] "just to make them feel whether they are standing on firm
ground." That she was deeply interested in the whole subject is shown by
a testamentary document, dated September 19, 1869, in which she
earnestly begged Dr. Sutherland to edit and publish her further "Notes
on Pauperism."[103] She lived in full possession of her faculties for at
least a quarter of a century after this date, but she never put the
Notes into printable shape. As I have said before, she lacked
inclination to sustained literary composition. Besides, her hands were
full of other things.
[102] In a letter to Madame Mohl, March 26, 1869.
[103] In the same document Dr. Sutherland is begged to do the like for
her (1) _Notes on Lying-in Hospitals_ (published in 1871; see
below, p. 196), and (2) "Paper on selling lands with houses in
towns" (see above, p. 92). At a later time she sent the second
batch of Pauperism Notes to Dr. Sutherland; but he was of opinion
that they required complete rewriting.
III
Miss Nightingale's main work during these years may be described as that
of a Health Missionary for India. She carried on her mission in three
ways. She endeavoured by personal interviews and correspondence to
incense with a desire for sanitary improvement all Indian officials,
from Governors-General to local officers of health, whom she could
contrive to influence. She made acquaintance with natives of India and
strove to spread her gospel among them in their own country. And through
her "own little Department" in co-operation with Sir Bartle Frere she
did a large amount of official work in the same direction.
On her return to London at the beginning of October 1868, she found work
awaiting her under the first of the foregoing heads. Sir John Lawrence's
term of office of Governor-General was coming to an end, and Disraeli
had appointed Lord Mayo to succeed him. On October 22 he wrote asking to
be allowed to see Miss Nightingale before he sailed for India:--
(_Sir Bartle Frere to Miss Nightingale._) INDIA OFFICE, _Oct._ 23
[1868]. I think you will hear from Lord Mayo, who I know is anxious
to see you, if you can grant him an interview next week. Could you
in the meantime note down for him, as you did (when describing what
the folk in India should now do) in a note to me a few weeks ago,
the points to which he should give attention? I think you will like
him very much. In appearance he is a refined likeness of what I
remember of O'Connell when I went as a boy (with a proper horror of
his principles) to hear him before he got into Parliament. Lord
Mayo is very pleasing in manner, with no assumption of "knowing all
about it," and evidently better informed on many subjects
connected with sanitary reform than many men of greater pretension.
He has a great sense of humour, too, which is a great help. I wish,
when you see him, you would ask to see Lady Mayo.
The interview with Lord Mayo was on the 28th, and a few days later Miss
Nightingale saw Lady Mayo also. On the morning of the 28th Dr.
Sutherland was summoned to South Street. He was in a hurry and hoped
there was "nothing much on to-day." "There is a 'something,'" ran the
message sent down to him, "which most people would think a very big
thing indeed. And that is seeing the Viceroy or Sacred Animal of India.
I made him go to Shoeburyness yesterday and come to me this afternoon,
because I could not see him unless you give me some kind of general idea
what to state." Dr. Sutherland, thus prettily flattered, stayed, and
they discussed what should be said to the Sacred Animal. Next day she
reported the conversation to Dr. Sutherland:--
What he said was not unsensible but essentially Irish. He said that
he should see Sir J. Lawrence for two days before he (Sir J. L.)
left. And he said he should ask Sir J. L. to call upon me the
moment he returned, and to ask _me_ to write out to _him_ (Lord
Mayo) anything that Sir J. L. thought "a new broom" could do. That
was clever of him. But he asked me (over and over again) that I
should now at once before he goes write down for him something (he
said) "that would guide me upon the sanitary administration as soon
as I arrive." And "especially (he said) about that Executive." He
asked most sagacious questions about all the men.
Miss Nightingale took counsel with Sir Bartle Frere and Dr. Sutherland
and then wrote a Memorandum for the new Viceroy. She covered the whole
ground of sanitary improvement, dwelling much on questions of irrigation
and agricultural development as aids thereto. "A noble and a most
complete Paper," said Sir Bartle Frere (Nov. 1), "and it will be
invaluable to India." Perhaps it impressed the new Viceroy also. At any
rate Lord Mayo's administration was marked by some improvement in
sanitary conditions, and by extension of irrigation works.[104] He also
initiated two of the indispensable preliminaries to sanitary progress:
the Census, and a statistical survey of the country. In an
autobiographical note detailing her relations with successive Viceroys,
Miss Nightingale says that Lord Mayo's policy in sanitary and
agricultural matters was in accord with lines which Sir Bartle Frere and
she desired. "I say nothing," she adds, "of his splendid services in
foreign policy, in his Feudatory States and Native Chiefs policy, in
which doubtless Sir B. Frere helped him. I saw him more than once before
he started, and he corresponded with me all the time of his too brief
Viceroyalty. I think he was the most open man, except Sidney Herbert, I
ever knew. I think it was Lord Stanley who said of him, 'He did things
not from calculation, but from the nature of his mind.' Lord Mayo said
himself that his Irish experience with 'a subject race' was so useful to
him in India. He said that he was certainly the only Viceroy who had
sold his own cattle in the market." "Florence the First, Empress of
Scavengers, Queen of Nurses, Reverend Mother Superior of the British
Army, Governess of the Governor of India" was Mr. Jowett's address when
he heard of the interviews with Lord Mayo. "Empress of Scavengers" was
M. Mohl's title for her at this time. "Rather," she said, "Maid of all
(dirty) work; or, The Nuisances Removal Act: that's me."
[104] For the former point, see the Annual Sanitary Reports; for a
summary of the latter works, see Sir William Hunter's _Earl of
Mayo_, pp. 177-8.
Miss Nightingale's greatest ally in India at this time was, however,
Lord Napier, Governor of Madras. "I remember Scutari," he wrote (June
24, 1868), "and I am one of the few original faithful left, and I think
I am attached to you irrespective of sanitation." He was firm in her
cause even where Sir John Lawrence had seemed unfaithful. The
Governor-General had abandoned a scheme for female nursing (p. 157);
Lord Napier carried one through in Madras, and corresponded at some
length with Miss Nightingale on the subject. Sir John Lawrence had
refused her advice to send some Engineer Officers home to study sanitary
works; he had "none to spare." Lord Napier adopted the advice, and sent
Captain H. Tulloch, whose visit to England and association with
Mr. Rawlinson resulted in reports on urban drainage and the utilization
of sewage. Lady Napier gave letters of introduction to Miss Nightingale
to other officials from Madras, and Lord Napier reported progress to her
constantly:--
(_Lord Napier to Miss Nightingale._) KODAIKANAL, _Sept._ 22 [1867].
I write to you from one of the Arsenals of Health in Southern
India, from the Palni Hills, the most romantic and least visited of
these salubrious and beautiful places.... I have deferred writing
to you till I could announce that some sanitary good had really
been secured worthy of your attention. I cannot say that such is
yet the case, but something has been proposed and designed. We are
building central jails to empty the district jails, and we are
remodelling the district jails and rebuilding two or three. We are
aerating and enlarging the lock-ups. I have stirred up the doctors
in the general hospital at Madras. I have proposed to take the
soldiers out of it and build them a new separate military Hospital
(not yet sanctioned). I have endeavoured to raise the little native
dispensaries and hospitals out of their sordid baseness and
poverty. I am trying to get a new female hospital sanctioned for
women, both European and native, with respectable diseases, and the
others taken out and settled apart. I don't think my action has
gone beyond a kind of impulse and movement. But we may effect
something more important in the coming year. My wife has taken an
active interest in the Magdalen Hospital, the Lying-in Hospital,
and the orphanages of various kinds. We want money, zeal, belief;
and knowledge in many quarters.
(_Lord Napier to Miss Nightingale._) MADRAS, _Sept._ 3 [1868]. I am
truly happy to find that I can do something to please you and that
you will count me as a humble but devoted member of the Sanitary
band, of _your_ band I might more properly say! Do you know that I
was sent by Lord Stratford to salute and welcome you on your first
arrival at Scutari and that I found you stretched on the sofa where
I believe you never lay down again? I thought _then_ that it would
be a great happiness to serve you, and if the Elchi would have
given me to you I would have done so with all my heart and learned
many things that would have been useful to me now. But the Elchi
would never employ any one on serious work who was at all near
himself, so I spent the best years of my life at a momentous crisis
doing nothing when there was enough for all! But if I can do
something now it will be a late compensation ... [report on various
sanitary measures then in hand]. I have read the beautiful account
of "Una" last evening driving along the melancholy shore. I send it
to Lady Napier, who is in the Hills. I will write again soon, as
you permit and even desire it, and I am ever your faithful,
grateful and devoted Servant, NAPIER.
(_Lord Napier to Miss Nightingale._) MADRAS, _June_ 3 [1869]. ...
Now I have a good piece of news for you. We are framing a Bill for
a general scheme of local taxation in this Presidency, both in
municipalities and in villages, and the open country, to provide
for three purposes--local roads, primary education, and
Sanitation--such as improvement of wells, regulation of pilgrimages
and fairs, drainage, &c. It will be very unpopular I fear in the
first instance, for the people wish neither to be taught nor cured,
but I think it is better on the whole to force their hands. We are
driven to it, for I see clearly that we must wait a long time for
help from the Supreme Government.... I was pleased and flattered to
be mentioned by you in the same sentence with Lord Herbert. Indeed
I am not worthy to tie the latchet of his shoe, but there are
weaknesses and illusions which endure to the last, and I suppose I
never shall be indifferent to see myself praised by a woman and
placed in connection, however remote, with a person of so much
virtue and distinction. You shall have the little labour that is
left in me.[105]
[105] The other day in a bookseller's catalogue of "Association Books" I
found this item: "Florence Nightingale's _Notes on Lying-in
Institutions_. Presentation copy, with autograph inscription, 'To
His Excellency the Lord Napier, Madras, this little book, though on
a most unsavoury subject, yet one which, entering into His
Excellency's plans for the good of those under his enlightened
rule, is not foreign to his thoughts--is offered by Florence
Nightingale, London, Oct. 10, '71.'"
A subject on which Miss Nightingale wrote both to Lord Napier and to
Lord Mayo was the inquiry into cholera in India ordered by the Secretary
of State in April 1869. She had made the proposition many months before.
Indian medical officers were absorbed in propounding theories; Miss
Nightingale wanted first an exhaustive inquiry into the facts. Even if
such an inquiry did not establish any of the rival theories, it must
lead, she thought, to much sanitary improvement. Sir Bartle Frere
strongly supported the idea, and it was arranged that the War Office
Sanitary Committee should make the suggestion and elaborate the scheme
of procedure to be followed in India. The Committee meant for such a
purpose Dr. Sutherland, and Dr. Sutherland meant in part Miss
Nightingale. Sir Bartle Frere constantly wrote to her to know when the
India Office might expect the Instructions, and Miss Nightingale as
constantly applied the spur to Dr. Sutherland. On April 3 she delivered
an ultimatum: "Unless the Cholera Instructions are sent to me to-day, I
renounce work and go away." At last they arrived, and her friend
received a withering note: "_April_ 13, 1869. I beg leave to remark that
I found a letter of yours this morning dated early in Dec., which I mean
to show you, in which, with the strongest objurgations of me, you told
me that you could not come because you intended to get the Cholera
Instructions through by _December_ 12, 1868. My dear soul, really Sir B.
Frere could not have known the exhausting labour he has put you all to;
to produce that in four months must prove fatal to all your
constitutions! He is an ogre." Dr. Sutherland's Instructions are
admirably exhaustive, and may well have taken some time to prepare. The
remaining stages of the affair were quick, and the Secretary of State's
dispatch went out to the Government of India on April 23, followed by
private letters from Miss Nightingale. The Sanitary Blue-books of
successive years contain copious reports and discussions upon this
"Special Cholera Inquiry." It furnished much material for scientific
discussion, by which Miss Nightingale sometimes feared that what she
regarded as the essence of the matter was in danger of being overlaid.
She and the Army Sanitary Committee took occasion more than once to
point out that "whatever may be the origin of cholera, or whatever may
ultimately be found to be its laws of movement, there is nothing in any
of the papers except what strengthens the evidence for the intimate
relation which all previous experience has shown to exist between the
intensity and fatality of cholera in any locality and the sanitary
condition of the population inhabiting it."[106] The origin of cholera
is now said to be a micro-organism identified by Koch, but the laws of
its movement and activity remain inscrutable. Meanwhile, all subsequent
experience has confirmed the doctrine which Miss Nightingale continually
preached, that the one protection against cholera consists in a standing
condition of good sanitation.
[106] Blue-book, 1870-71, p. 5; and see Bibliography A, No. 127.
IV
At the very time when Dr. Sutherland was hard at work upon the Cholera
Instructions, Miss Nightingale heard a report (on good authority) which
filled her with anger and consternation. Mr. Gladstone was engaged in
cutting down the Army Estimates; the Army Medical Service was believed
to be marked for retrenchment, and the War Office Sanitary Commission
for destruction. When she told this to Dr. Sutherland, he took the
matter with nonchalance and said (as men are sometimes apt to say in
such cases, especially if there is a woman to rely upon) that he did not
see that anything could be done. Very different was the view taken by
Miss Nightingale, when she contemplated, not merely the interruption of
Dr. Sutherland's useful work,[107] but the possibility of all Sidney
Herbert's work being undermined. Nothing to be done indeed! There was
everything to be done! She could write to the Prime Minister himself.
She could write to Lord de Grey (Lord President). She could get this
friend to approach one Minister, and that friend to approach another.
She could even claim a slight acquaintance, and write to Mr. Cardwell
(Secretary for War). She could write to all her friends among the
Opposition and give them timely notice of the wicked things intended by
their adversaries. She ultimately wrote to Lord de Grey, enclosing a
letter which he was to hand or not, at his discretion, to Mr. Cardwell.
The intervention was successful, and Lord de Grey asked her for
Memoranda to "post him up" in the work of the Army Sanitary Commission
and in the Sanitary Progress in India. Lord de Grey interceded with
Mr. Cardwell also on behalf of the Army Medical School and it was
spared. The Army Sanitary Committee was not touched, and for nearly
twenty years more (till 1888) Dr. Sutherland continued his work upon it.
Miss Nightingale's reports submitted to Lord de Grey are summarized in
a letter to M. Mohl (Nov. 21, 1869):--"I am all in the arithmetical
line now. Lately I have been making up our Returns in a popular form for
one of the Cabinet Ministers (we are obliged to be very 'popular' for
them--but hush! my abject respect for Cabinet Ministers prevails). I
find that every year, taken upon the last four years for which we have
returns (1864-7), there are, in the Home Army, 729 men alive every year
who would have been dead but for Sidney Herbert's measures, and 5184 men
always on active duty who would have been 'constantly sick' in bed. In
India the difference is still more striking. Taken on the last two
years, the death-rate of Bombay (civil, military and native) is lower
than that of London, the healthiest city of Europe. And the death-rate
of Calcutta is lower than that of Liverpool or Manchester![108] But this
is not the greatest victory. The Municipal Commissioner of Bombay
writes[109] that the 'huddled native masses clamorously invoke the aid
of the Health Department' if but one death from cholera or small-pox
occurs; whereas formerly half of them might be swept away and the other
half think it all right. Now they attribute these deaths to dirty foul
water and the like, and openly declare them preventable. No hope for
future civilization among the 'masses' like this!"
[107] Captain Galton took occasion in 1876 to render a tribute to
Dr. Sutherland's services. "Possessed of high general culture, of
remarkably acute perception, of a very wide experience, and of a
perfectly balanced judgment, he has been the moving mind in the
proceedings of the Army Sanitary Commission since its formation."
(_Journal of the Society of Arts_, vol. xxiv. p. 520).
[108] According to the Sanitary Blue-book for 1869-70, the death-rates
per 1000 were: Bombay 19.2, London 23.3, Calcutta 31.9, Liverpool
36.4. In 1910 the order was very different: London 12.7,
Liverpool 17.7, Calcutta 23.0, Bombay 35.7. In four years (1864-8)
the death-rate in Bombay had fallen from 31.3 to 19.2; the rise in
modern times is due to the industrialization of the town.
[109] To Miss Nightingale; in the Blue-book (p. 186) it is similarly
stated that "in three years the masses have begun to learn that
such scourges as cholera, fever and the like can be prevented by
the ordinary processes of sanitation."
V
In December 1869 Miss Nightingale made a new friend. Lord Napier of
Magdala[110] was passing through London, and wrote to Sir Bartle Frere
saying that it "would make him very happy if he could have the privilege
of paying his respects to Miss Nightingale before he left." Sir Bartle
begged Miss Nightingale to grant the favour, as Lord Napier was devoted
to their cause and was likely to be employed in India again--as quickly
came to pass, for in the following month he was appointed
Commander-in-Chief.[111] Lord Napier called on December 14, in order (as
he wrote to her in making the appointment) "to have an opportunity of
saying how much I have felt indebted to you for the assistance that your
precepts and example gave to all who have been concerned with the care
of soldiers and their families." He spent some hours with her, and she
was charmed with him. "I felt sure," wrote Sir Bartle Frere (Dec. 23),
"that you would like Lord Napier of Magdala. He always seemed to me one
of the few men fit for the Round Table." A long note which she recorded
of the conversation shows how congenial it must have been to her, for
Lord Napier talked with strong feeling of the importance and the
practicability of improving the moral health of the British soldier. The
administrators and the men of action always appealed to her more than
the politicians, and Lord Napier of Magdala was now added to her
list of heroes. "When I look at these three men (tho' strangely
different[112])--Lord Lawrence, Lord Napier of Magdala and Sir Bartle
Frere--for practical ability, for statesmanlike perception of where the
truth lies and what is to be done and who is to do it, for high aim, for
noble disinterestedness, I feel that there is not a Minister we have in
England fit to tie their shoes--since Sidney Herbert. There is a
simplicity, a largeness of view and character about these three men, as
about Sidney Herbert, that does not exist in the present Ministers. They
are party men; these three are statesmen. S. Herbert made enemies by
not being a party man; it gave him such an advantage over them." Lord
Napier of Magdala came to see Miss Nightingale again in the following
year (March 18, 1870), spending in conversation with her his last hours
before leaving London to take up his appointment in India. She and Sir
Bartle Frere attached high importance to this interview. Lord Napier was
a convinced sanitarian. He was bent upon introducing many reforms in the
treatment of the soldiers. He believed in the possibility of improving
both their moral and physical condition, by means of rational recreation
and suitable employment. Sir Bartle Frere suggested to Miss Nightingale
that after seeing the Commander-in-Chief she should write to the Viceroy
so as to prepare his mind for what Lord Napier would propose. Lord
Napier himself begged her to do so. "Everything in India," he said to
her, "depends on what is thought in England, and it was you who raised
public opinion in England on these subjects." Preparation of the
Viceroy's mind was held to be the more necessary because a letter,
lately received by Miss Nightingale from him, seemed to show that his
sanitary education was by no means complete. So Mr. Jowett's "Governess
of the Governors of India" took her pupil again by the hand, and, with
Dr. Sutherland's assistance, drew up a further Memorandum on the Indian
sanitary question at large. Referring him to the Royal Commission's
Report, she pointed out that the causes of ill-health among the troops
were many, and that there was no single panacea; that if other causes
were not concurrently removed, the erection of new barracks could not
suffice; that fever may lurk beneath and around "costly palaces" (for so
Lord Mayo had called some of the new barracks) even as around hovels;
that expense incurred in all-round sanitary improvement can never be
costly in the sense of extravagant, because it is essentially saving and
reproductive expenditure; and so forth, and so forth.[113] Miss
Nightingale, before sending her letter, submitted it to Sir Bartle Frere
(March 25). "I have nothing to suggest," he said, "in the way of
alteration, and only wish that its words of wisdom were in print, and
that thousands besides Lord Mayo could profit by them. They are in fact
exactly what we want to have said to every one connected with the
question from the Viceroy down to the Village Elder." Sir Bartle begged
her to consider whether she could not write something to the same effect
which would reach the latter class. Mr. Jowett had suggested something
of the sort a few years before. "Did it ever occur to you," he had
written (March 1867), "that you might write a short pamphlet or tract
for the natives in India and get it translated? That would be a curious
and interesting thing to do. When I saw the other day the account of
Miss Carpenter in India, I felt half sorry that it was not you. They
would have worshipped you like a divinity. A pretty reason! you will
say. But then you might have gently rebuked the adoring natives as St.
Paul did on a similar occasion, and assured them that you were only a
Washerwoman and not a Divine at all; that would have had an excellent
effect." Presently she found an opportunity of doing something in the
kind that Mr. Jowett and Sir Bartle Frere had suggested.
[110] Robert Cornelius Napier (1810-90), created Baron Napier of
Magdala, 1868. Miss Nightingale's other friend, the Governor of
Madras, Baron Napier (in the Scottish peerage), was created Baron
Ettrick in the United Kingdom peerage, 1872. In first signing
himself "Napier and Ettrick" in a letter to Miss Nightingale, he
begged "the high priestess of irrigation" to observe that his new
title was "watery."
[111] In succession to Sir William Mansfield (Lord Sandhurst). On his
return from India Lord Sandhurst came to see Miss Nightingale
(July 8, 1870), and they corresponded afterwards.
[112] Of Lord Lawrence and Sir Bartle Frere, Miss Nightingale wrote to
Madame Mohl (March 26, 1869): "You can ask Sir Bartle Frere about
Sir John Lawrence if you like. But they are so unlike, yet each so
roundly perfect in his own way, that they can never understand each
other--never touch at any point, not thro' eternity. I love and
admire them both with all my mind and with all my heart, but have
long since given up the slightest attempt to make either understand
the other. But each is too much of a man, too noble, too
chivalrous, to denigrate the other."
[113] The substance of much of her Memorandum to Lord Mayo was embodied
in the "Observations" which she contributed to the Indian Sanitary
Blue-book, 1869-70; see especially p. 43.
Meanwhile, Lord Mayo had introduced Dr. J. W. Cunningham to Miss
Nightingale, and they became great allies. When he returned to resume
his duties as "Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India," he
corresponded with Miss Nightingale regularly, telling her where things
were backward and where a word in season from her would be helpful. In
every question she took the keenest interest, sparing no pains to
forward, so far as she could, every good scheme that was laid before
her. In 1872 Mr. W. Clark, engineer to the municipality of Calcutta,
came to see her about great schemes of water-supply and drainage. She
obtained an introduction to Sir George Campbell, the Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal, in order to commend to his notice Mr. Clark's plans. For many
years she was thus engaged in correspondence with sanitary reformers and
officials in various parts of India, sending them words of encouragement
when they seemed to desire and deserve it, words of advice when, as was
frequently the case, they invited it. When such officials came home on
furlough, most of them came also to Miss Nightingale. Dr. Sutherland, in
his official capacity on the War Office Sanitary Committee, would often
see them first; he would then pass them on to her, dividing them into
two classes: those "whom you must simply lecture" and those "whose
education you had better conduct by innocently putting searching
questions to them." Miss Nightingale was never backward in filling the
part of governess to those who in sanitary matters governed India.
VI
Sanitary improvement depended, however, on the governed as well as on
the governors; and Miss Nightingale had for some time been extending her
influence in India by making the personal acquaintance of Indian
gentlemen. "I have been quite beset by Parsees," she wrote to M. Mohl
(Feb. 16, 1868); "and after all I saw your Manochjee Cursetjee, that is,
the 'Byron of the East.' Sir B. Frere says that few men have done so
much for the education of their own race. He talked a good deal of
Philosophy to me, while my head was entirely in Midwifery! He is (by his
own proposal), if I can send out the Midwives, to take them in at the
house of his daughters, of whom one married a Cama, and the other is the
first Parsee lady who ever lived as an English single lady might do."
Many other Indian ladies and gentlemen were introduced to Miss
Nightingale personally or in correspondence by Miss Carpenter. In 1870
Miss Nightingale was elected an Honorary Member of the Bengal Social
Science Association, the Council of which body was mainly composed of
Indian gentlemen. She wrote a cordial letter of thanks (May 25). "For
eleven years," she said, "what little I could do for India, for the
conditions on which the Eternal has made to depend the lives and healths
and social happiness of men, as well Native as European, has been the
constant object of my thoughts by day and my thoughts by night." She
eulogized the work that had been done by many private gentlemen of
India; she put before them a vision of vast schemes of drainage and
irrigation; she sent a subscription to the funds of the Association, and
promised a contribution to its Proceedings. In this contribution,[114]
sent in June 1870, Miss Nightingale did what Sir Bartle Frere desired:
she addressed the Village Elder. "I think," said Dr. Sutherland, who had
submitted a draft for Miss Nightingale to rewrite in her own language,
"that this is the most important contribution you have made to the
question." In simple and terse language, she described the sanitary
reforms which might be carried out by the people themselves--pointing
out in detail the nature of the evils, and the appropriate remedies for
them, and then appealing to simple motives for sanitary improvement. "As
we find in all history and true fable that the meanest causes
universally multiplied produce the greatest effects, let us not think it
other than a fitting sacrifice to the Eternal and Perfect One to look
into the lowest habits of great peoples, in order, if we may, to awaken
them to a sense of the injury they are doing themselves and the good
they might do themselves. Much of the willingness for education is due
to the fact, appreciated by them, that education makes money. But would
not the same appreciation, if enlightened, show them that loss of
health, loss of strength, loss of life, is loss of money, the greatest
loss of money we know? And we may truly say that every sanitary
improvement which saves health and life is worth its weight in gold."
This address to the Peoples of India was the most widely distributed of
all Miss Nightingale's missionary efforts. The Association translated it
into Bengali. Sir Bartle Frere had it translated into other Indian
languages.
[114] Bibliography A, No. 56.
VII
Miss Nightingale's third sphere of missionary work was in the Sanitary
Department at the India Office, to which, through her alliance with Sir
Bartle Frere, she was a confidential adviser. Her action, in making
suggestions and in seeking to influence officials in India, has been
illustrated already. Her constant work was in helping to edit and in
contributing to the Annual Blue-book containing reports of "measures
adopted for sanitary improvements in India." The importance which Miss
Nightingale attached to the publication of such an annual has been
explained in general terms already (p. 145). She saw in it two useful
purposes. First, the fact that reports from India were required and
published each year acted as a spur to the authorities in that country;
and, secondly, the introductory memorandum, and the inclusion of reports
on Indian matters by the War Office Sanitary Committee, gave
opportunity, year by year, for making suggestions and criticisms. The
Annual was issued by the Sanitary Department at the India Office and
edited by Mr. C. C. Plowden, a zealous clerk in that office with whom
Miss Nightingale made friends; Sir Bartle Frere, as head of the
Department, instructed him to submit all the reports to Miss Nightingale
who in fact was assistant-editor, or perhaps rather (for her will seems
to have been law) editor-in-chief. It was she who had prepared for the
Royal Commission the analysis of sanitary defects in the several Indian
Stations; who had written the "Observations" on them; who had taken a
principal part in drafting the "Suggestions" for their reform. It was
natural that she should be asked to report on the measures actually
taken to that end. She was a very critical reporter. "Sir Bartle Frere
hesitates a little," she was told on one occasion (1869), "as to the
omission of all terms of praise, and says that the Indian Jupiter is a
god of sunshine as well as thunder and should dispense both; he,
however, sanctions the omission in the present case." Miss Nightingale's
papers show that during the years 1869-74 she devoted great labour to
the Annual. She read and criticised the abstracts of the local reports
prepared by Mr. Plowden; she discussed all the points that they
suggested with Dr. Sutherland; she wrote, or suggested, the introductory
memorandum. She did this work with the greater zeal because it kept her
informed of every detail; and the knowledge thus acquired gave the
greater force to her private correspondence with Viceroys, Governors,
Commanders-in-Chief, and Sanitary Commissioners. Her share in the first
number of the Annual has been already described (p. 155). In the
following year Mr. Plowden wrote (May 22, 1869): "I forward a sketch of
the Introductory Memorandum to the Sanitary volume. You will see that
the greater part of it is copied verbatim from a memorandum of your own
that Sir Bartle Frere handed over to me for this purpose." "I can never
thank you sufficiently," wrote Sir Bartle himself (July 5), "for all the
kind help you have given to Mr. Plowden's Annual, at the cost of an
amount of trouble to yourself which I hardly like to think of. But I
feel sure it will leave its mark on India." She took good care that it
should at any rate have a chance of doing so. She had discovered that
the 1868 Report, though sent to India in October of that year, had not
been distributed in the several Presidencies till June 1869. She now saw
to it that copies of the 1869 Report were sent separately to the various
stations by book-post. She continued to contribute in one way or another
to successive volumes[115]; and that for 1874 included a long and
important paper by her.
[115] See Bibliography A, Nos. 57, 62.
VIII
Ten years before Miss Nightingale had popularized the Report of her
Royal Commission in a paper entitled "How People may Live and Not Die in
India." The Paper was read to the Social Science Congress in 1863. In
1873 she was again requested to contribute a Paper to the Congress. She
chose for her title "How some People have Lived, and Not Died in India."
It was a summary in popular form of ten years' progress, and this was
the Paper which the India Office reprinted in its Blue-book of 1874.
Miss Nightingale glanced in rapid detail at the improvements in various
parts of India; took occasion to give credit to particularly zealous
officials; and noticed incidentally some of the common objections. One
objection was that caste prejudice must ever be an insuperable obstacle
to sanitary improvement. She gave "a curious and cheerful" instance to
the contrary. Calcutta had "found the fabled virtues of the Ganges in
the pure water-tap." When the water-supply was first introduced, the
high-caste Hindoos still desired their water-carriers to bring them the
_sacred_ water from the _river_; but these functionaries, finding it
much easier to take the water from the new taps, just rubbed in a little
(vulgar, not sacred) mud and presented it as Ganges water. When at last
the healthy fraud was discovered, public opinion, founded on experience,
had already gone too far to return to dirty water. And the new
water-supply was, at public meetings, adjudged to be "theologically as
well as physically safe." Then there was the objection of expense, but
she analysed the result of sanitary improvements in statistics of the
army. The death-rate had been brought down from 69 per 1000 to 18. Only
18 men died where 69 died before. A sum of £285,000 was the money saving
on recruits in a single year.
The course of sanitary improvement, and the results of it, among the
civil population cannot be brought to any such definite test; no Indian
census was taken till 1872, registration of births and deaths was only
beginning and was very imperfect; and India is a country as large as the
whole of Europe (without Russia). It was the opinion of a competent
authority that the sanitary progress which had been made in India during
the years covered by Miss Nightingale's review "had no parallel in the
history of the world";[116] but the progress was relative of course to
the almost incredibly insanitary condition of the country when she began
her crusade. The progress had been made along many different lines.
First, in connection with the health of military stations, the
Government of India established committees of military, civil, medical
and engineering officers, of local magistrates and village authorities
to regulate the sanitary arrangements of the neighbourhood. Sanitary
oases for British troops were thus established in the midst of
insanitary deserts. Then, sanitary regulations were issued for fairs and
pilgrimages--each of these a focus of Indian disease. Institutions in
India--hospitals, jails, asylums--had been greatly improved; and the
municipalities of the great cities had made some sanitary progress. Ten
years before, Miss Nightingale had reported to the Royal Commission that
no one of the seats of Presidencies in India had as yet arrived at the
degree of sanitary civilization shown in the worst parts of the worst
English towns. Now, Calcutta had a pure-water supply and the main
drainage of most of the town was complete. Bombay had done less by
municipal action, but thanks to a specially vigorous Health Officer, Dr.
Hewlett, sanitation had been improved. Madras had improved its
water-supply and was successfully applying a part of its sewage to
agriculture. The condition of the vast regions of rural India showed
that the teaching of the Sanitary Commissioners was beginning to take
some effect. Hollows and excavations near villages were being filled up;
brushwood and jungle, removed; wells, cleaned. Surface refuse was being
removed; and tanks were being provided for sewage, to prevent it going
into the drinking-tanks. From reports of particular places, Miss
Nightingale drew her favourite moral. There was a village in South India
which had suffered very badly from cholera and fever. It was in a foul
and wretched state, and had polluted water. Then wells were dug and
properly protected; the surface drainage was improved; cleanliness was
enforced; trees were planted. The village escaped the next visitation of
the scourge. Miss Nightingale had many hours of depression, and many
occasions of disappointment, as Health Missionary for India; but in her
Paper of 1874 she bore "emphatic witness how great are the sanitary
deeds already achieved, or in the course of being achieved, by the
gallant Anglo-Indians, as formerly she bore emphatic witness against the
then existing neglects." Only the fringe of the evil had been touched;
but at any rate enough had been done to show that the old bogey, "the
hopeless Indian climate," might in course of time be laid by wise
precautions. "There is a vast work going on in India," said Dr.
Sutherland; and in this work Miss Nightingale had throughout played a
principal, and the inspiring, part. It was the opinion of an
unprejudiced expert who, though he admired her devotion, did not always
agree with her views or methods, that "of the sanitary improvements in
India three-fourths are due to Miss Nightingale."[117]
[116] Captain Galton, "On Sanitary Progress in India," 1876 (_Journal of
the Society of Arts_, vol. xxiv. pp. 519-534.) This is the best
_short_ account of the matter that I have come across. It is more
detailed than Miss Nightingale's Paper of 1874. For further
particulars, a reader should, of course, refer to the Annual
Sanitary Blue-books.
[117] So Sir Bartle Frere reported to Miss Nightingale that Sir John
Strachey had said to him; and Sir John wrote in much the same sense
to Miss Nightingale herself.
But here, as in all things, her gaze was fixed upon the path to
perfection. In her own mind she counted less the past advance than the
future way. There was an Appendix to her Paper in which she preached the
supreme importance of Irrigation--of irrigation, that is, combined with
scientific drainage. Only by that means, she held, could yet more people
"live and not die in India," and could the country be raised to its full
productive power. A letter which Sir Stafford Northcote sent her (April
29, 1874), in acknowledgment of her Paper on "Life or Death in India,"
exactly expressed her own feelings. "How much," he said, "you have done!
and how little you think you have done! After all, the measure of our
work depends upon whether we take it by looking backwards or by looking
forwards, by looking on what has been accomplished or on what has
revealed itself as still to be accomplished. When we have got to the top
of the mountain, are we much nearer the stars or not?"
CHAPTER IV
ADVISER-GENERAL ON HOSPITALS AND NURSING
(1868-1872)
We are your Soldiers, and we look for the approval of our
Chief.--MISS AGNES JONES (_Letter to Miss Nightingale_).
From a correspondent in the North of England: "I have got a colliery
proprietor here to co-operate with the workmen to build a Hospital for
Accidents. Will you kindly give your opinion on the best kind of
building?" From a correspondent in London: "We are proposing to form a
British Nursing Association. May we ask for your advice and
suggestions?" These letters are samples of hundreds which Miss
Nightingale received, and to all such applications she readily replied.
She constituted herself, or rather she was constituted by her
fellow-countrymen, a Central Department for matters pertaining to
hospitals and nurses.
From all parts of the country, from British colonies and from some
foreign countries, plans of proposed General Hospitals, Cottage
Hospitals, Convalescent Homes were submitted to her. She criticised them
carefully. When she was consulted at an earlier stage, she often
submitted plans of her own. In all such cases, there were experts among
her large circle of friends--architects, sanitary engineers, military
engineers, hospital superintendents and matrons--to advise and assist
her. And here a curiously interesting thing may be noticed. Miss
Nightingale had begun her work as a Reformer with the military
hospitals. So high was now their standard that she often went to them
for models. Many plans for ideal hospitals were drawn for her at this
time by Lieutenant W. F. Ommamney, R.E., at the War Office. The
improvement of buildings and of nursing went on concurrently, and Miss
Nightingale used her influence in each department to improve the other.
If she were consulted only about buildings, she would answer: "These
plans are all very well, as far as they go; but your Hospital will never
be efficient without adequate provision for a supply of properly trained
nurses." If she were asked to furnish a supply of nurses, she would say:
"By all means; but you must satisfy me first that your buildings are
sanitary." Thus, when she was asked to send nurses to the Sydney
Infirmary, she stipulated that plans of the buildings should be
submitted; and when the War Office was negotiating for a supply of
nurses for Netley, there was a voluminous correspondence about the
improvement of the wards and of the nurses' quarters.
There was a great extension during these years of societies for the
training of nurses, and of the introduction of trained nurses into
infirmaries and other institutions. All this involved a large addition
to Miss Nightingale's correspondence. As the nursing system extended,
many questions arose with regard to the relation between the medical and
the nursing staffs, and she was constantly referred to for suggestions
and advice. She printed a code of "Suggestions" in 1868 dealing with
such matters,[118] and three years later she and Dr. Sutherland drew up
a Code for Infirmary Nursing which was approved by Mr. Stansfeld, the
President of the newly-formed Local Government Board. Her correspondence
was as extensive with individuals as with institutions. Hundreds of
girls who thought of becoming nurses applied to her, and she generally
answered their letters; but the supply of nurses barely kept pace with
the demand. Miss Nightingale was impressed in particular by the lack of
suitable applicants for the higher posts. There were many women anxious
to take up nursing as a profession. There were few who possessed the
social standing, the high character, trained intelligence, and personal
devotion which were necessary to make them successful Lady
Superintendents; and much of Miss Nightingale's correspondence during
these years was to friends in various parts of the country who were
begged to enlist promising recruits.
[118] Bibliography A, No. 49 (note).
II
Among the women who sought out Miss Nightingale for advice were Queens
and Princesses. She guarded very jealously, however, the seclusion which
was necessary to enable her to do her chosen work, and she did not allow
it to be invaded at will even by the most exalted personages. Her
position as a chronic invalid gave her the advantage. She could pick and
choose by feeling a little stronger or a little weaker. She made two
rules which she communicated to her influential friends. She would not
be well enough to see any Queen or Princess who did not take a personal
and practical interest in hospitals or nursing; and she would never be
well enough to receive any who did not come unattended by ladies or
lords in waiting. Any interview must be entirely devoid of ceremonial;
it must be simply between one woman interested in nursing and another.
In 1867 the Queen of Prussia was paying a visit to the English court,
and Queen Victoria asked Miss Nightingale through Sir James Clark to see
Queen Augusta. Miss Nightingale was assured that the Queen had given
much personal attention to hospitals. Miss Nightingale saw her (July 6)
and found that the assurances were well founded:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Julius Mohl._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 28
[1867]. I am a little unhappy because the Queen of Prussia's
Secretary told Mad. Mohl that I had seen the Queen. I liked her. I
don't think the mixture of pietism and absolutism is much more
attractive at the Court of Prussia than at the Court of Rome.
Still, I am always struck, especially with our own Royal family,
how superior they are in earnestness and education to other women.
I know no two girls of any class, of any country, who take so much
interest in things that are interesting, as the Crown Princess of
Prussia and Princess Alice of Darmstadt--especially in theological
matters and administration.
The Queen of Holland, it will be remembered, had not been received; but
at a later time Miss Nightingale saw her, in November 1868 and again in
March 1870. "I think of you," wrote Queen Sophie (March 29, 1870), "as
one of the highest and best I have met in this world." The Princess
Alice asked for an interview in 1867 through Lady Herbert, who was able
to inform Miss Nightingale that "the Princess has been to see most of
the hospitals in London with a view to learn all about them so as to
improve those in Darmstadt." Miss Nightingale saw the Princess in June,
and in subsequent years there was much correspondence between them. But
the royal lady who made the greatest impression on Miss Nightingale was
the Crown Princess Victoria. It had been explained to Miss Nightingale
by one of the Princess's ladies that "H.R.H. has always thought a life
devoted to the comfort of fellow-beings and the alleviation of their
sufferings the one most to be envied," and that "she knows your Notes on
Hospitals and Notes on Nursing almost by heart." The Princess was in
England at the end of 1868, and was full at the time of schemes for a
new hospital at Berlin, for lying-in hospitals, for a training-school
for nurses. She showed her practical purpose by sending to Miss
Nightingale in advance her architect's plans. They had two long
interviews in December, and Miss Nightingale had a very busy fortnight
with Dr. Sutherland in collecting statistics about various lying-in
hospitals and in preparing plans, with the assistance of the Army
Medical Department and War Office Sanitary Committee, on the best model.
Miss Nightingale was delighted with her visitor. "She took every point,"
she told Dr. Sutherland, "as quick as lightning." "I have a fresh
neophyte," she wrote to Sir John McNeill (Dec. 25, 1868), "in the person
of the Crown Princess of Prussia. She has a quick intelligence, and is
cultivating herself in knowledge of sanitary (and female) administration
for her future great career. She comes alone like a girl, pulls off her
hat and jacket like a five-year-old, drags about a great portfolio of
plans, and kneels by my bedside correcting them. She gives a great deal
of trouble. But I believe it will bear fruit." That the inquiries of the
Princess were searching, and her commissions exacting, appears from the
correspondence:--
(_Miss Nightingale to the Crown Princess of Prussia._) 35 SOUTH
STREET, _Dec._ 21 [1868]. MADAM--In grateful obedience to Your Royal
Highness's command, directing me to forward to Osborne before the
24th the commissions with which you favoured me, I send (1) the
Portfolio of plans for the Hospital near the Plotzen See, and, in this
envelope, the criticism upon the plans. Also, in another envelope
(2) a sketch of the Nursing "hierarchy" required to nurse this
Hospital (with a Training School attached), even to ages
desirable--as desired by Your Royal Highness. Also (3) the methods
of continuous examination in use (with full-sized copies of the
Forms) to test the progress of our Probationers (Probe-Schwestern).
Also (4) lists of the clothing and underclothing (even to changes
of linen) we give to and require from our Probationers and Nurses,
and of the changes of sheets. Your Royal Highness having directed
me to send patterns "in paper" of our Probationers' dress, I have
thought it better to have a complete uniform dress such as our
Probationers wear, for in-doors and out-doors, made for Your Royal
Highness's inspection, even to bonnet, cap, and collar, which will
arrive by this Messenger in a small box and parcel. I am afraid
that the aspect of these papers will be quite alarming from their
bulk. But I can only testify my gratitude for your Royal Highness's
great kindness by fulfilling as closely as I can the spirit of your
gracious will. I am sorry to say that I have not yet done
encumbering your Royal Highness. The plans for Lying-in Cottages
had to be completed at the War Office and are not quite ready. But
they shall be forwarded "before the 24th." I think we have
succeeded in producing a perfectly healthy and successful Lying-in
Cottage, by means of great _sub-division_ and incessant cleanliness
and ventilation, which includes the not having _any_ ward
_constantly_ occupied. In one of these Huts we have had 600
Lyings-in consecutively without a single death or case of puerperal
disease or casualty of any kind. (This experience is, I believe,
without a fellow, but will, I trust, have many fellows before
long.) Believe me, your Royal Highness's enquiry about these things
does the greatest good, not only with regard to what is proposed in
Prussia, but in stirring up the War Office, the Medical
authorities, and other officials _here_ to consider these vital
trifles more seriously. And thus thousands of lives of poor women,
of poor patients of all kinds, will be saved, even in England,
through your Royal Highness's means. Hitherto Lying-in Hospitals
have been not to cure but to kill. As I have again to trouble your
Royal Highness about these subjects, I will not now enter into two
or three other little things with which I was commissioned. May I
beg always to be considered, Madam, the most faithful, ready and
devoted of Your Royal Highness's servants.
(_The Crown Princess of Prussia to Miss Nightingale._) OSBORNE,
_Dec._ 24 [1868]. I don't wish to lose a _minute_ in thanking you
for your great kindness and for all the trouble you have taken for
me. Your letter is so _excellent_, and all the information you give
is _most_ valuable, and will be of untold use, not only to _me_ as
a guide in my humble endeavours to promote a _serious_,
_conscientious_, and _rational_ spirit in the treatment of sanitary
matters, but to many others in Germany. Your precious time has
_not_ been wasted while you were writing for me, I assure you. The
dress I think _very_ neat and nice, and not clerical looking (which
is, in my eyes, an advantage). I was so vexed that I forgot to tell
you the other day how much I admired _Una and the Lion_. I read it
this summer in Germany, and thought it touching and lovely in the
extreme. I "colported" it right and left! After I have arrived at
Berlin and had leisure thoroughly to go into every detail of the
materials you have given me, I will write to you again. These few
lines are only to express my earnest thanks. The Crown Prince
wishes me to say how sorry he is never to have seen you. He shares
my feelings when your name is mentioned. I trust that the next time
I am in this country I shall see you again. I remain, dear Miss
Nightingale, yours gratefully, VICTORIA.
Negotiations with the Nightingale Fund were presently opened, and the
Crown Princess sent Fräulein Fuhrmann, who afterwards superintended the
Victoria Training School for Nurses in Berlin (p. 204), to receive her
own training as a Nightingale Nurse at St. Thomas's.
III
The Nightingale Training School had for many years been extending the
area of its influence, and Miss Nightingale herself, in spite of her
incessant work in other fields, never lost general control and
supervision of it. Year after year, she kept up correspondence, both
voluminous and intimate, with Mrs. Wardroper, the Matron. Her
brother-in-law, Sir Harry Verney, was now Chairman of the Council of the
Nightingale Fund; her cousin, Mr. Henry Bonham Carter, had succeeded
Mr. Clough as Secretary--a duty which he continues to discharge to this
day. Sir Harry Verney saw Miss Nightingale frequently with regard to the
business of the School. Between Mr. Bonham Carter and her there is a
great mass of correspondence extending over forty years and more;
conducted sometimes by an exchange of letters through the post,
sometimes by notes of question and answer at her house, as in the case
of Dr. Sutherland. Mr. Bonham Carter, alike as Secretary of the Fund and
as a cousin devoted to Miss Nightingale personally, gave his time and
zeal without stint to the work; but he had independence of character. He
was once asked how he contrived to do other things besides serve Miss
Nightingale. "When it was getting late," he explained, "I used to say,
Now I must go home to dinner." His devotion, good sense, and
business-like habits contributed largely to the success of the
undertaking, and saved Miss Nightingale much trouble in matters both of
detail and of general administrative policy; but questions of what may
be called the superior direction of the School were always referred to
her, and there were many occasions on which her personal influence was
felt to be indispensable. It was especially brought to bear whenever a
contingent of Nightingale Nurses was sent from St. Thomas's to occupy
new ground. The phrase quoted at the head of this chapter, from a letter
by Miss Agnes Jones, when she was thus sent to pioneer work in the
Liverpool Workhouse, exactly expresses one side of the relationship
between the nurses and Miss Nightingale. But she was more to them than a
Chief. She was not a distant and almost impersonal abstraction like "The
Widow at Windsor." The Lady in South Street was not only the queen of
the Nightingale Nurses, she was also their mother. The principal
lieutenants who went out on important service, and many members of the
rank and file, maintained constant correspondence with her--sending to
her direct reports, consulting her in difficulties, looking to her, and
never in vain, for counsel and encouragement. Miss Nightingale took
especial pains to help and to influence the Lady Superintendents who
went from St. Thomas's in command of nursing parties. Among her earlier
papers containing thoughts about her future work, there is more than one
reference to "Richelieu's 'Self-multiplication.'" She strove to extend
her work by creating lieutenants in her own image.
One of the most important of the missionary voyages of the Nightingale
Nurses during these years was to New South Wales. Miss Nightingale had
for some time been in correspondence with Sir Henry Parkes, then
Colonial Secretary in New South Wales, about the nursing in the Sydney
Infirmary, and in December 1867 Miss Osburn sailed with five nurses to
take up the position of Lady Superintendent. The nurses arrived in time
to nurse Prince Alfred, when he was shot during his visit to the Colony.
There is a letter from Sir William Jenner to Miss Nightingale (July 4,
1868) saying, "I have received the Queen's commands to tell you how very
useful they were. Her Majesty says, 'She is sure this information will
give Miss Nightingale much pleasure.'" In one respect the nurses were
more successful than Miss Nightingale desired. At first all went well.
There were difficulties with the doctors and others, of course, but Sir
Henry Parkes was always helpful. There was "no flirting," Miss Osburn
reported (May 20), "and all the nurses cling round me in difficulties
like true Britons." But they did not cling for long. Their services were
too much appreciated. In a few years' time all the five had either
married or received valuable appointments outside the Infirmary, and
Miss Osburn had to recruit her staff from the Colony itself. Miss
Nightingale thought that the expedition had thus "failed"; but there was
something to be said on the other side, and the diffusion of the
Nightingale band did much to promote the extension of trained nursing in
the Colony.
Another expedition of great importance was an extension of the Liverpool
experiment to London. In 1868 Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Wyatt, the
leader of a reform party in St. Pancras, had entered into correspondence
with Miss Nightingale with regard to the new Infirmary (built under the
Act of 1867) at Highgate; he submitted the plans of the building, and
suggested the introduction of Nightingale Nurses. She approved the
plans, encouraged him in his good work, and in the following year (1869)
Miss Elizabeth Torrance was appointed matron, with nine nurses under
her. The experiment was presently extended, and a training school for
nurses was established at the Infirmary. There are about one hundred
letters from Miss Torrance a year, a figure which will give some idea of
the close touch which Miss Nightingale kept with important lieutenants.
She considered Miss Torrance "the most capable Superintendent they had
yet trained" (1870), and the letters bear out the estimate. They are
those of a canny, capable and devoted woman--taking everything quietly
as part of the day's work, with no fussiness or needless
self-importance. "I have never seen such nurses," wrote the Medical
Superintendent, when Miss Torrance and her staff had been at work for
some months; "they are so thoroughly conversant with disease that one
feels quite on one's mettle in practice. What strikes me most is the
real interest they take in the work, and this is the secret of their
success"--not attainable by the pauper nurses whom they displaced.
Inspectors, Guardians, and other officials would have done well to feel
quite on their mettle in Miss Torrance's presence also; for her letters
show her to have been possessed of a humorous shrewdness which took the
measure of men, by no means always at their own valuation. Miss Torrance
amongst other reforms introduced useful work into the occupation of the
inmates. "The achievement I am most proud of," she wrote (1871), "is
getting the men's suits cut out and made. I found a tailor in No. 2 Ward
who cut out some, and I sent them into Nos. 1 and 4 to be made, but
there was a tailor in No. 1 who made difficulties, 'You see, ma'am, it's
such a very old-fashioned cut.'" Once a week at least the Matron wrote
reporting progress or difficulties to Miss Nightingale, who replied with
advice, books, presents. Nurses, of whom the Matron reported well, came
in batches to see Miss Nightingale. "They returned," wrote Miss
Torrance, of one occasion of the kind, "beaming with delight, but as
they all talked about it at once I did not gather very clearly what
passed. Sister A., however, feared that Sister B. 'must have tried Miss
Nightingale.'" Sister B., it seems, had the same fear about Sister A.
Nurses and Matron alike regarded their reception by Miss Nightingale as
a high privilege. "I always feel refreshed _for months_," wrote
Mrs. Wardroper (March 1871), "after one of those affectionate receptions
you accord me." None of Miss Nightingale's "soldiers" left her cabinet
without feeling a better and a braver woman. Miss Torrance presently
fell from grace in Miss Nightingale's eyes by becoming engaged to be
married. At a critical period of the engagement, she failed to keep
some appointments at South Street, and Miss Nightingale did not recover
equanimity till she recalled to herself a saying of Mr. Clough's:
"Persons in that case should be treated as if they had the scarlet
fever."
In November 1869 there were receptions in South Street such as a
sovereign sometimes accords to warriors or statesmen on the eve of a
great emprise. A Superintendent of Nurses (Mrs. Deeble) and a staff of
six Ward Sisters were setting out from St. Thomas's to take charge of
the War Office Hospital at Netley. Miss Nightingale received them all,
gave them presents and addressed words of encouragement. "That I have
'seen Miss Nightingale'" wrote one of them, "will be one of the white
mile-stones on my road, to which I shall often look back with feelings
of gratitude and pleasure. I trust that I shall never forget some of the
things you said to me, and that 'looking up' I may be enabled to show by
my future life that your great kindness has not been thrown away." "The
Netley sisters," wrote Mrs. Wardroper, "are overflowing with love and
gratitude for all the interest and trouble you have so kindly taken for
and in them. Your reception, pretty presents, and good advice have quite
won their hearts. To know you, and to have heard from your own lips,
that each one has your best wishes and prayer for success will do much
to cheer and help them." "I have been preaching to them four hours a
day," wrote Miss Nightingale to M. Mohl (Nov. 21), "and expounding
Regulations. Some of them are very nice women. One was out with Dr.
Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie on the Zambesi Mission. One, a woman
who would be distinguished in any society, accidentally read my little
article on 'Una,' and wrote off to us the same night offering to go
through our training (which she did) and join us."
"Expounding Regulations" was always a part of Miss Nightingale's
exhortation on such occasions. In this particular case she had a hand in
making the Regulations. In other cases she often found them very stupid.
They were generally made by men, who were incapable, she thought (as we
have heard already), of devising suitable regulations for women. "Oh,
how I wish there were no men," she wrote on one occasion when trying to
compose a hospital quarrel. But even bad regulations must be observed,
till they can be altered, and women did not always understand that some
diplomacy was necessary to obtain the alteration. "Women," she said,
"are unable to see that it requires wisdom as well as self-denial to
establish any new work." As the work which the Nightingale Nurses had at
this time to do was all new, there were many difficulties and most of
them came up to Miss Nightingale for solution or advice. When a very
long-winded letter arrived, she would often send it on unread to Dr.
Sutherland, for him to digest and advise upon. It was her comfortable
persuasion that he had nothing else to do, and she scolded him if there
was any delay; but sooner or later he did the work for her, and his
advice in such matters never failed in shrewd common sense. Sometimes he
would say, "This letter shows a fit of temper on the nurse's part, and
is a case for a little homily from you." In such homilies Miss
Nightingale would mingle an appeal to higher motives with a reference to
her own example and experience--as in the following letter:--
(_To a Discontented Nurse._) _April_ 22 [1869]. Do you think I should
have succeeded in doing anything if I had kicked and resisted and
resented? Is it our Master's command? Is it even common sense? I
have been even shut out of hospitals into which I had been ordered
to go by the Commander-in-Chief--obliged to stand outside the door
in the snow till night--been refused rations for as much as 10 days
at a time for the nurses I had brought by superior command.[119]
And I have been as good friends the day after with the officials
who did these things--have resolutely ignored these things _for the
sake of the work_. What was I to my Master's work? When people
offend, they offend the Master, before they do me. And who am I
that I should not choose to bear what my Master chooses to bear?
You have many high and noble points of character. Else I should not
write to you as I do. But the spirit of opposition in which you are
working (or rather _were_ at the time you wrote, for I am satisfied
it was only an ebullition of the moment), and yet doing your work
well and doing good, would, if it really were persisted in,
materially increase the difficulties of that work to which, I am
sure, you are devoted.
[119] See Vol. I. p. 291.
IV
There was one failure in the work of the Nightingale Fund which led Miss
Nightingale to write a new book, than which none ever cost her more
labour. In 1867 the Midwifery School established in King's College
Hospital[120] had to be closed owing to the high rate of mortality in
the lying-in wards. As soon as the figures were brought to Miss
Nightingale's notice, she set to work in examining the whole subject of
mortality in lying-in wards. She soon found that no trustworthy
statistics of mortality in child-bed had yet been collected. She
searched for them throughout this country and from foreign hospitals and
doctors. She discovered that in lying-in wards everywhere the death-rate
was many times the amount of that which took place in home deliveries.
This fact showed that public attention should at once be called to the
subject, and at the same time it opened up larger questions. There was
one school of medical opinion which held that the mortality must in the
nature of things be large in lying-in wards; there was another which
held that the high rate of mortality therein might be prevented. The
inquiries which Miss Nightingale had made for the Crown Princess of
Prussia[121] inclined her to the latter view, and she pursued her
researches in all directions, collecting an immense mass of information
and calling in the assistance of sanitary engineers and other
authorities. It should be remembered in all this that the introduction
of antiseptics has much altered the conditions since the time of Miss
Nightingale's work now under consideration. Materials for a book
accumulated, but time to put them into shape was wanting. Dr.
Sutherland, on whose assistance she mainly relied, was no more able than
she herself to give undivided attention to the subject; but at last with
his help the book was written. It was published in October 1871, with
the title _Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions_. The book did
for this special subject something of the same service which _Notes on
Hospitals_ had done in the general sphere. Miss Nightingale showed by
statistical evidence that many lying-in wards and institutions were
pest-houses; she showed the importance of isolation and extreme
cleanliness; and furnished model rules, plans and specifications for
sanitary lying-in hospitals. In the latter pages, the book was an
extension of the _Notes on Nursing_ to this special branch. She urged
the importance of training-schools for midwives; described the ideal of
an institution of the kind; and pleaded for "Midwifery as a Career for
Educated Women." There was much agitation at the time for the admission
of women to the medical profession. Miss Nightingale in a letter
addressed "Dear Sisters," suggested that there was "a better thing for
women to be than 'medical men,' and that is to be _medical women_." She
was in the country when the book was passing through the press; and Dr.
Sutherland, in sending a last revise with some suggestions of his own,
said (July 22), "I return the proof corrected. Don't swear, but read the
reasons on the accompanying paper. It is a good thing you are at Lea
Hurst or your 'dear sisters' would infallibly break your head. They will
probably break your windows. However, you are clearly right, and let
them scream and stamp. The Book is a very good contribution to the
subject, and will excite surprise and some opposition. But the facts are
too strong." Miss Nightingale put out her book tentatively in a
questioning spirit, as she explained in this characteristic dedication
(which had received Mr. Jowett's imprimatur, but puzzled some of the
reviewers):--
If I may dedicate, without permission, these small "Notes" to the
shade of Socrates' Mother, may I likewise, without presumption,
call to my help the questioning shade of her Son, that I who write
may have the spirit of questioning aright and that those who read
may learn not of me but of themselves? And further, has he not
said: "The midwives are respectable women and have a character to
lose."[122]
[120] Vol. I. p. 464.
[121] See above, p. 189.
[122] _Theaetetus_, 150.
V
The preparation of this book had been delayed by the Franco-German War
of 1870-71, which brought a great addition to Miss Nightingale's
labours. There is a huge pile of documents on the subject amongst her
Papers. A letter to an old friend gives an idea of one branch of the
correspondence:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Harriet Martineau._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _Feb._
[1871]. Oh this year of desolation! The one gleam of comfort
through it all was the rush of all English-speaking people, in all
climates and in all longitudes,--not the rich and comfortable, but
the whole mass of hard-working, honest, frugal, stupid people--who
have contributed every penny they could so ill spare. Women have
given the very shoes off their feet, the very suppers out of their
children's mouths--not to those of their own creed, not to those of
their own way of thinking at all, but--to those who _suffered
most_. In this awful war, all, all have given--every man, woman,
and child above pauperism. I have been so touched to receive from
places I had never even heard of, but which it would take me a day
to enumerate,--from congregations who had "seen my name in a stray
London newspaper" as helping in the relief of the war
sufferers--sums collected by halfpence (with a long letter to say
how they wished the money spent)--from poor hard-working negro
congregations in different islands of the West Indies--poor
congregations of all kinds, Puritan chapels in my own dear hills,
National Schools, Factories, London dissenting congregations
without a single rich member, London ragged schools who having
nothing to give, gave up their only feast in the year that the
money might be sent to the orphans in the war "who want it more
than we."
Some of the letters from distant parts of the Empire show that Florence
Nightingale had already become somewhat of a legendary figure. It was
known that scenes of misery and horror were being enacted in Europe. It
was assumed that she was ministering in the midst of them. In one of the
letters there seems to be a confused idea that she was in two places at
once--both directing the movement in London and nursing in some Red
Cross hospital in France or Germany. And there is a sense in which this
vague and legendary conception was true. Miss Nightingale played a busy
part, though entirely behind the scenes, in the work of aid at the
London headquarters; whilst among the devoted women who nursed the
wounded or succoured other sufferers from the war, there were probably
few who did not derive inspiration from the example of the Crimean
heroine.
The outbreak of the war had found English philanthropy unprepared. The
British Government had been a party to the Geneva Convention, but
nothing had been done to organize a Society under its rules until the
alarm was sounded by Colonel Loyd Lindsay (Lord Wantage). A letter from
him in the _Times_ of July 22, 1870, led to the formation of the
National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded, which afterwards
became the British Red Cross Aid Society. One of the first acts of the
Committee, of which Colonel Loyd Lindsay was Chairman, was to consult
Miss Nightingale, and a letter from her was read to the public meeting
at which the Society was constituted. The words of stirring appeal were
received with loud cheers. If she had not been confined to a sick bed,
she would have volunteered to go out as a nurse. As it was, she must
leave that work to others, and she gave the volunteers a characteristic
note of caution: "Those who undertake such work must be not sentimental
enthusiasts, but downright lovers of hard work. If there is any work
which is simple, stern necessity, it is that of waiting upon the sick
and wounded after a battle--serving in war-hospitals, attending to and
managing the thousand-and-one hard dry practical details which
nevertheless mainly determine the question as to whether your sick and
wounded shall live or die. If there is any nonsense in people's ideas of
what hospital nursing is, one day of real duty will root it out. There
are things to be done and seen which at once separate the true metal
from the tinkling brass both among men and women."[123] There were those
amongst her entourage who wished that she could lay all other work aside
and take control of the organization. The state of her health made this
impossible, but she was closely connected with the Society's work
throughout. Her brother-in-law, Sir Harry Verney, and her cousin's
husband, Captain Galton, were active members of the Executive Committee.
Sir Harry's daughter, Miss Emily Verney, was an active member of the
Ladies' Executive Committee.[124] Captain Galton and her cousin,
Mr. Henry Bonham Carter, were sent early in the war to visit the
hospitals of France and Germany; and when the war was over, the task of
reporting upon the correspondence of the Society's agents and of the
English doctors was entrusted to Dr. Sutherland.[125] Through all these
personal connections, Miss Nightingale kept close touch with the
Society's work. She thought that there was a lack of vigour at the
start. Why, she wanted to know, did not the Society advertise itself
more? "If it had been in hiding from its creditors instead of being an
Aid Society, it could not have had a more complete success; if it had
been sick and wounded itself, what could it have done less?" Its
advertisement ought to appear every day "immediately above the
Theatrical Announcements--with a list of articles wanted, and an
acknowledgement of those received. It makes me mad to see advertisements
only of the 'Voysey Defence Fund' and the 'Derby Memorial Fund.' What
_does_ it matter whether Voysey is defended or not, and whether Lord
Derby has a memorial or not?"[126] The Committee in reply hoped to do
more presently; as it did--it collected nearly £300,000 and rendered a
great deal of aid, both in France and in Germany. From the moment that
the war was seen to be inevitable, Miss Nightingale had been deluged
with correspondence. The French authorities applied to her for plans of
temporary field hospitals. The Crown Princess of Prussia applied for
assistance and advice in all sorts. "The dreaded letter has come," she
wrote to Dr. Sutherland; "what _am_ I to answer; how to express sympathy
with Prussia without alienating France?" Miss Nightingale's personal
sympathies were rather on the French side. "I think," she wrote (Dec.
20), "that if the conduct of the French for the last three months had
been shown by any other nation it would have been called _as it is_
sublime. The uncomplaining endurance, the sad and severe self-restraint
of Paris under a siege now of three months would have rendered immortal
a city of ancient Rome. The Army of the Loire fighting seven days out of
nine barefoot, cold and frozen, yet unsubdued, is worthy of Henry V. and
Agincourt. And all for what? To save Alsace and Lorraine, of which Paris
scarcely knows." In writing to the Crown Princess on hospital matters
she put in a plea for clemency in the hour of final victory. "Prussia
would remember," she was sure, "the future wars and misery always
brought about by trampling too violently on a fallen foe, and Germany
will show to an astonished Europe that moderation of which victorious
nations have hitherto shown themselves incapable." Miss Nightingale,
here as in other matters, hoped more of human perfectibility than she
was to find; the immediate future was to belie her picture alike of the
severe self-restraint of Paris, and of the unexampled moderation of
Prussia. In rendering aid to the sick and wounded she was, however,
consistently impartial. Wherever she heard of good work being done,
whether in France or in Germany, she was ready to help, and she gave
disinterested advice to the nursing service in both armies. Throughout
the war, she had a large correspondence both at home and with all sorts
and conditions of people in France and Germany.
[123] The letter is printed in the _Times_ of August 5, 1870. It was
dated August 2, "the day," as Miss Nightingale noted in the letter,
"of Sidney Herbert's death nine years ago."
[124] She died in 1872--"such a genius for working for men," Miss
Nightingale wrote of her, "so lovely, so loving, and so beloved."
[125] _Report of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and
Wounded during the Franco-German War, 1871_, pp. 149-177.
[126] Letters to Captain Galton, August 1870.
At home, she was diligent in collecting money and gifts in kind for the
Aid Society. She wrote constant letters and memoranda to members of the
Executive Society; advising on all matters, from the general
administration of field ambulances to the pattern of hospital suits,
vetoing (when she could) impracticable suggestions, sending lists of the
things most urgently needed. She received and answered a constant stream
of applications from persons inquiring what to send, and from doctors
and nurses wanting to volunteer for service. Abroad, her correspondence
was on a similar scale. Distributing agents of the Society, nurses,
workers of all kinds wrote, consulting her in cases of perplexity or
giving information on points that they thought likely to interest her.
The private reports preserved among Miss Nightingale's papers contain a
mass of information about the treatment of the sick and wounded, of
which she expressed the opinion that it far surpassed in horror, as of
course it vastly exceeded in scale, anything that she had witnessed in
the Crimea. Self-devotion on the part of volunteers, though it could not
remedy the evils, was conspicuous in relieving them, and many letters to
Miss Nightingale are eloquent of the inspiration which was derived from
her example in the Crimea and from the messages of sympathy,
encouragement and advice which she now sent. "Tell Miss Nightingale,"
said the warm-hearted Grand Duchess of Baden, "that I have endeavoured
to follow implicitly everything she has recommended, and that I love and
respect her more than any one in the world." There are letters, too,
from English and German nurses and workers in which Miss Nightingale is
addressed as "dearest of all friends" or "beloved mistress" and "queen."
Her services to both of the belligerents were recognized by decorations.
The French Société de Secours aux Blessés conferred its bronze cross
upon her (July 1871), and from H.M. the Emperor and King she received
the Prussian Cross of Merit (Sept.). But there was more significance in
what she gave than in what she received. Among the English ladies who
rendered most devoted service during the war was the wife of an officer
(Colonel Cox) who had known Miss Nightingale in the Crimea; among the
German ladies who had done the like was Madame Werckner of Breslau. When
the war was over, both ladies asked the favour of an interview with Miss
Nightingale. Madame Werckner became her personal friend, and wrote with
enthusiastic gratitude when she was asked to visit Embley: "the home of
your childhood." And Mrs. Cox wrote (July 15): "How can I ever thank you
for the loving reception you gave me? I can only say that never whilst I
live can it be forgotten." To Mrs. Cox's work the English Committee
referred in their Report. Of Madame Werckner Miss Nightingale told
something in an address to the Probationers at St. Thomas's. "At a large
German station, which almost all the prisoners' trains passed through, a
lady went every night during all that long, long dreadful winter, and
for the whole night, to feed and warm and comfort and often to receive
the last dying words of the miserable French prisoners, as they arrived
in open trucks, some frozen, some as dead, others to die in the station,
all half-clad and starving. Night after night, as these long, terrible
trainsfull dragged their slow length into the station, she kneeled on
its pavement, supporting the dying heads, receiving their last messages
to their mothers; pouring wine or hot milk down the throats of the sick;
dressing the frost-bitten limbs; and, thank God, saving many. Many were
carried to the prisoners' hospital in the town, of whom about two-thirds
recovered. Every bit of linen she had went in this way. She herself
contracted incurable ill-health during these fearful nights. But
thousands were saved by her means. She is my friend. She came and saw
me, and it is from her lips I heard the story."
The Crown Princess of Prussia also came to South Street, and "she let me
tell her," wrote Miss Nightingale,[127] "a good deal of behind the
scenes of Prussian Ambulance work. I do like her so very much and twice
as much now that she is really worn and ripened by genuine hard work and
anxiety." This visit was productive of large results. The Princess and
Miss Nightingale had been in communication throughout the war--partly by
direct correspondence, and partly through an English lady, Miss Florence
Lees, who was serving in German hospitals. At the beginning of the war
the Princess had telegraphed and written to Miss Nightingale begging her
to recommend a thoroughly competent English lady for such duty. Miss
Lees (Mrs. Dacre Craven) had been sent; she was one of the ablest of the
ladies who received training at the Nightingale School, and was
presently to play an important part in the development of trained
nursing in London. Miss Lees was placed by the Crown Princess in charge
of the nursing at a war hospital which she had arranged at Homburg; Miss
Lees was also employed to visit and report upon the war hospitals at
Metz and other places. She was in constant correspondence with Miss
Nightingale, who from this and many other sources of information had
formed a very poor opinion of the Prussian nursing, medical and
ambulance service. After collating various reports with Dr. Sutherland,
Miss Nightingale said to him that "the abnormally bad among the Crimean
hospitals were luxurious compared with the normal Prussian hospitals."
"The only Prussian hospitals up to the present standard of sanitary
experience," she added, "are those of the Princess herself, and in them
it was H.R.H. who taught the doctors, and not the doctors who taught
her." I do not know whether she communicated to the Princess the further
opinion that the root of the evil was the bureaucracy; "it shows what it
means to be without the free play of public opinion, through Parliament
and press, which calls every Public Office, and almost every Society, to
account." But upon the facts Miss Nightingale spoke freely, as she was
requested to do, and the Princess asked her to send documents:--
(_The Crown Princess of Germany to Miss Nightingale._) OSBORNE,
_July_ 28 [1871]. I return the deeply interesting and important
papers which the Crown Prince and myself have read _most_
attentively and word for word. The Crown Prince wishes me to thank
you particularly for your having let him see these papers. Much was
not new to him. You _know_ how much interest he takes in sanitary
matters, how anxious he is for reforms wherever needed. Every
remark offered is therefore always gratefully received by us. Let
me repeat, dear Miss Nightingale, how great a happiness it was to
me to see you again. Ever yours, with sincerest admiration and
respect, VICTORIA, CROWN PRINCESS OF GERMANY.
[127] Letter to Harriet Martineau, Sept. 20, 1870.
Of the great and practical interest which the Princess already took in
hospitals, we have heard above. The experiences of the Franco-Prussian
War quickened it yet more, and in 1872 she drafted a report on hospital
organization. Subsequently a Home and Nursing School, named after her,
was established in Berlin, and the "Victoria Sisters," following the
lead of the Nightingale Nurses, undertook the nursing in municipal
hospitals. The success of the Victoria Training School led in its turn
to the establishment of similar institutions throughout Germany. And
thus Miss Nightingale's words came true, that the trouble which she took
to inform and inspire the Crown Princess "will bear fruit."
The experience of the Franco-German War bore fruit in the better
organization of the Red Cross movement, especially in this country, and
the inspiration here too may be traced back to Miss Nightingale. The
"Red Cross" owes its inception, as already stated, to a Swiss physician,
M. Henri Dunant. He had witnessed the horrors of war on the bloody field
of Solferino, and he devoted his life thenceforward to the promotion,
and then to the extension, of the Geneva Convention. In 1872 M. Dunant
read a paper in London upon the movement. His first words were these:
"Though I am known as the founder of the Red Cross and the originator of
the Convention of Geneva, it is to an Englishwoman that all the honour
of that Convention is due. What inspired me to go to Italy during the
war of 1859 was the work of Miss Florence Nightingale in the
Crimea."[128]
[128] M. Dunant's Paper is reported in the _Times_ of August 7, 1872. He
sent a copy of it to Miss Nightingale: see Bibliography B, No. 31.
VI
It will have been seen that during the years treated in the foregoing
chapters (1867-1871) Miss Nightingale did an enormous amount of work.
Her health during the same period had been no better. Country air did
not bring any accession of strength; there is evidence of sleepless
nights in numbers of her letters dated in the small hours of the
morning; and during 1870 and 1871 especially her letters and diaries
speak of great weakness. She was able to do as much as she did only by
the devotion of the same friend, Dr. Sutherland, whose relations with
his task-mistress have been described in an earlier chapter. More and
more, indeed, she seems to have fallen into the habit, which had become
almost a necessity, of saying nothing, doing nothing, writing nothing
(her letters to Mr. Jowett and a few other intimate friends alone
excepted) without first consulting Dr. Sutherland. I have illustrated
this point incidentally in previous pages, but such occasional
references give an inadequate account of the extent to which she relied
upon him. "The only way I can work now," she wrote to him in 1870, "is
by receiving written notes from you, and working them up into my own
language, then printing and showing you the work." Her Papers, with
hundreds upon hundreds of drafts and memoranda in Dr. Sutherland's hand,
show that such was in fact the way in which the work was done, and the
process was applied not only to things ultimately printed, but almost to
the whole range of her correspondence. He was sometimes called upon to
draft even the most delicate family letters. She was asked to suggest an
inscription for a memorial to Agnes Jones at Liverpool. Dr. Sutherland
had first to try his hand at it. She was put out by an unwarranted
liberty which a publisher had taken with her name. The case was sent to
Dr. Sutherland, with a pressing appeal, "What _shall_ I do? I have no
one to act for me." He acted for her. He had artistic tastes, and served
as eyes for her at the International Exhibition of 1871, when he
selected some French bronzes for her to give to Mr. Jowett. Whenever she
was asked to join a Society, or subscribe to a new institution, Dr.
Sutherland had first to advise and report. Sometimes she accompanied her
references to him with amusing comments, as to Uncle Sam in earlier
days. Did Dr. Sutherland advise her to join a new "Central Philanthropic
Agency"? She was inclined against it, remembering that "When Crosse
invented a new insect, my grandmother was heard to exclaim, 'Are there
not enough insects already?'" Sometimes a reference may have been made
only, or mainly, for the fun of the thing; as when the Census Paper was
left at South Street in 1871 and she sent it off by special messenger to
Dr. Sutherland at the War Office to know how she was to fill it up. "Am
I the head of this household?" Dr. Sutherland forbore to say that no
doubt was conceivable about _that_. "Occupation column: as I think that
_every_ body ought to have a defined occupation, I should like to put
what mine is, but I don't know how to define it." "Oh," replied Dr.
Sutherland, "say, Occupation, None." The last column inquired whether
the householder was "Deaf-and-dumb, blind, imbecile, or lunatic?" "I
shall return," said she, "Imbecile and Blind, and if everybody did the
same now, it would be true." "Don't," replied he; "you are the
exception." But for the most part her references to him were on matters
which either called for some quick application of worldly wisdom or
involved considerable drudgery. His shrewd good sense never failed; and
the drudgery, though it may have been delayed, was always done in the
end. She is asked to express an opinion on some Indian Health Reports,
and is tired. Off they go to Dr. Sutherland, who replies: "I have been
through them all; you may safely say they are very well done." Or,
pamphlets, memorials, prospectuses, are sent to her, and she is in no
mood to master them. They are consigned to him; and in course of time
neat little digests are returned, and she is advised what to do or say.
Every important letter is similarly sent to him with a note saying,
"What am I to answer?" or "What does all this come to?" or "Please
advise." "You _must_ come to-morrow to see my letter before it goes." "I
want to ask you some questions, and you must be good." In years when
Miss Nightingale was much in the country (as in 1870 and 1871), Dr.
Sutherland's daily work for her was the heavier, because all
communications were through the post. There was fret and jar between
them in personal intercourse, as we have heard, and opportunity for
misunderstanding was increased when two busy people were exchanging
ideas by letter. This was especially the case when any work was on hand
of which the scope had not been precisely defined, and Miss Nightingale
was often impatient. "I could do work," she wrote on one occasion, "if
it were real work, done at the least expenditure to myself. But to do a
minimum of work at the greatest expenditure to myself (by driving,
pumping, etc.) is now physically impossible to me." Such complaints and
such references to her weakness were frequent. To the latter Dr.
Sutherland always referred in terms of sympathy--"I know you are very
ill," "I beg you to let me help as much as I can," and so forth. With
regard to the complaints, he sometimes laughed them aside: "Thanks for
your parting kick, which is always pleasant to receive by them as likes
it." "You are a true Paddy, you like to trail your coat, but I won't
tread on it." Sometimes he defended himself--"If you knew what I have
had to do, I am quite sure you would not have written about the proof as
you have done"; and sometimes he refrained from defence other than
simple denial--"I scarcely know how otherwise to reply to your attack
than simply to state that it is groundless. Am I such a fool, I ask
myself, as to do what she says I have done?" But this admirable man
never lost his temper, and never made her reproaches an occasion for
declining to help her any more. "All I can say is, I am ready to help."
"I am at your orders in this as in all things." Such is the continual
note of his messages. In private meditations often, and in letters
occasionally, Miss Nightingale spoke of herself as a "vampyre." When she
wrote in some such sense to Mr. Jowett, he told her to put such talk
aside as idle, for "that way madness lies." Yet in a sense there was an
element of truth in what she said. She was terribly exacting. She
accepted no excuses, made few allowances, and sometimes assumed that
those who worked with her had nothing else to do. Dr. Sutherland was a
hard worker, but allowed himself diversions. At Norwood he had a garden,
and Miss Nightingale was sarcastic about his fondness for digging ponds.
But he had also, besides a strong interest in their common work, an
abiding admiration for the gifts, the character, and the self-devotion
of his friend. In addition to his own bread-winning work, he gave an
immense amount of time and labour to Miss Nightingale. In any estimate
of her services to great public causes, and especially in connection
with sanitation in India, an honourable place is due to the collaborator
who helped her through many years with unfailing devotion.
PART VII
WORK OF LATER YEARS
(1872-1910)
I ask no heaven till earth be Thine,
Nor glory-crown, while work of mine
Remaineth here. When earth shall shine
Among the stars,
Her sins wiped out, her captives free,
Her voice a music unto Thee,
For crown, New Work give Thou to me.
Lord here am I.
I found this in an intensely evangelical Baptist American's work--a
lecture he had delivered upon me. Now these lines appear to me
exactly true, and an extraordinary advance in the way of truth on
English Evangelicalism which banishes work, like sin, from heaven,
and has no idea that heaven is to be made out of earth by
us.--FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (from a letter to her father, 1869).
CHAPTER I
"OUT OF OFFICE"--LITERARY WORK
(1872-1874)
I am glad that you have given up drudgery for public offices....
The position which you held was always a precarious one, because
dependent on "temples of friendship" and the goodwill of the
Minister. I am glad that you have a straightforward work to do now
in which you are dependent on yourself.... I want you to have a new
life and interest. The way of influencing mankind by ideas is the
more excellent way.--BENJAMIN JOWETT (_Letters to Miss Nightingale,
1871, 1872_).
"Something which you said to me on Sunday has rather disquieted me, and
I hope that you will allow me to remonstrate with you about it. You said
that you were going to ask admission as a Patient to St. Thomas's
Hospital. Do not do this. (1) Because it is eccentric and we cannot
strengthen our lives by eccentricity. (2) Because you will not be a
Patient but a kind of Directress to the institution, viewed with great
alarm by the doctors. (3) When a person is engaged in a great work I do
not think the expense of living is much to be considered; the only thing
is that you should live in such a way that you can do your work best.
(4) I would not oppose you living at less expense if you wish, though I
think that a matter of no moment; but I would live independently. (5) Do
you mean really to live as a Patient? it will kill you. I do not add the
annoyance to your father of a step which he can never be made to
understand; I look at the matter solely from the point of view of your
own work. I have cared about you for many years; and though I have
little hope of prevailing with you, I would ask you not to set aside
these reasons without consideration." So Mr. Jowett wrote to Miss
Nightingale on June 22, 1872. "I am flattered to hear," he wrote a
little later (July 11), "that you have disregarded duty and conscience
for my sake. I hope that you will never in future obey a conscience
which tells you to kill yourself. Will you try to hope and be at peace;
and just ask of God time to complete your work? You who have done so
much for others ought sometimes to reflect that you have had a great
blessing and happiness."
The intention which Miss Nightingale had formed and from which
Mr. Jowett dissuaded her was not a passing fancy. It was in accord with
a deep-seated conviction, as may be seen from a document already quoted
(p. 103). Nor, though she listened to Mr. Jowett's advice, did she
entirely abandon her purpose. Later in the year, she still thought of
giving up her pleasant house in South Street, and she set various
friends to report upon furnished apartments in the immediate
neighbourhood of St. Thomas's Hospital. They could not find anything
that seemed suitable, and she gave up the idea; but as she could not go
to St. Thomas's, she contrived, as we shall hear in a later chapter,
that St. Thomas's should come to her. She devoted herself from this time
more largely than heretofore to the detailed supervision of the
Nightingale School. Both in what she did, and in what she now left
undone, the year 1872 marks a new departure in her life. It is explained
by a summary entry in her diary: "This year I go out of office."
Miss Nightingale had been "in office," as she called it, continuously
since her departure for Scutari in October 1854. She had been closely
employed, that is to say, sometimes officially, sometimes unofficially,
upon the administrative work of various Departments in matters
pertaining to her special interests. With the advent of Mr. Gladstone to
power in 1868, her work in this sort had much diminished. Her friend,
Captain Galton, had gone from the War Office. She occasionally
intervened in minor matters, as on one occasion when her friend,
Mr. Lowe, agreed with Mr. Cardwell to accept her view about a certain
pension to the widow of an officer, and there were other cases of the
kind: as when she obtained an attentive hearing from Mr. Bruce (Home
Secretary) for a memorandum which she submitted on the working of the
Contagious Diseases Act. But her constant employment in connection with
the War Office was over. She had argued with herself, in some
meditations during 1871, whether she ought to make a bid, as it were,
for "office" again. She could still exercise a certain official
influence, she thought, if she chose to seek out Ministers and ask them
to call upon her. But the political times were out of joint, she argued
on the other side, so far as her special aptitudes were concerned. The
strength of Mr. Gladstone's Government was thrown into political reform,
not into administration; the administration of the departments, as she
was not alone in thinking, was defective. There are many letters of this
period in which she contrasts the days of Peel and Sidney Herbert with
those of Gladstone or Disraeli. "But I must stop," she says in one of
them, "or you will say that I am aping Southey who said, you know, that
the last Ministry was so bad that nothing could be worse except the
present; but Coleridge differed from him, for he thought the present
Ministry so bad that nothing could be worse except the last."[129] At
any rate what Miss Nightingale cared for and was fitted for, she said to
herself, was only administration; in the years when she was "in office"
she had not only written Reports, she had been able to organize the
mechanism for carrying them out. Now that administration was going, as
she thought, to the dogs, it was time for her to be out of office. That
such was the lot appointed to her, was borne in by something that
happened early in 1872. In February Lord Mayo was assassinated--a
personal grief to Miss Nightingale and "a great blow," she said, to her
cause; and Lord Northbrook was appointed to succeed him as
Governor-General. Miss Nightingale was personally acquainted with Lord
Northbrook, who had been a friend (as also for a time a colleague) of
Sidney Herbert, but he left for India without coming to see her. "You
have worked for eternity," wrote Mr. Jowett (April 3), to whom she had
reported the new Viceroy's neglect; "why should you be troubled at the
Governor-General not coming to see you (as he most certainly ought to
have done)? Put not your trust in princes or in princesses or in the War
Office or in the India Office; all that sort of thing necessarily rests
on a sandy foundation. I wonder that you have been able to carry on so
long with them." Lord Northbrook was friendly nevertheless, as appears
from his reply when she wrote and asked him to see Mr. Clark, the
sanitary and civil engineer:--
(_Lord Northbrook to Miss Nightingale._) CALCUTTA, _Jan._ 3 [1873].
I had great pleasure in seeing Mr. Clark, for I had seen his works
at Barrachpore and knew of the great results which, so far as the
statistics up to the present time can be said to prove them, have
followed from the supply of pure water to Calcutta. I hope soon to
see his drainage works at the Salt Lakes, and I have got the
particulars of his plan for catch-water roofs for military
buildings, which I will look at carefully as soon as I can. At
present I am a little overwhelmed with business which has been
accumulating during my tour. You may be assured of two things, that
I fully understand the importance of pure water for the soldiers,
and that I shall always receive with pleasure and consider with
attention any suggestions, which you may kindly give me, both on
your own account and because you were so much associated on these
matters with my old master, Lord Herbert. Yours very sincerely,
NORTHBROOK.
[129] Letter to Sir Bartle Frere, July 2, 1872.
She did not, however, at the time follow up this opening. She had taken
Lord Northbrook's neglect to call upon her as a further indication that
she was meant to go out of office.
II
The question had become instant thereupon, What was she to do next?
Mr. Jowett's letters to her at this time, as also her own private notes,
show that she was in a mood of great depression; due in part to much
physical weakness and suffering, but in part also to unsettlement in her
plan of life. She knew not exactly what to be at. She saw before her, as
she wrote, "no consecutive path growing out of one's own deeds, but only
a succession of disjointed lives and unconnected events." "Never," she
wrote again, "has God let me feel weariness of active life, but only
anxiety to get on. Now in old age I never wish to be relieved from new
work, but only to have it to do." With what zeal she threw herself into
fuller work for the Nightingale School at St. Thomas's, we shall hear;
but that was not enough. She could not see nurses and write to nurses
all day long--though indeed she devoted to such duties as many hours as
some people would consider a sufficient day's work, and besides she was
now spending a large part of the year with her father or mother in the
country. She needed some recreation, and the only recreation she ever
found was in change of work. She sought no "glory-crown" over folded
hands. Mr. Jowett seized the occasion to repeat his advice that she
should find recreation in literary work. Now that she meant to free
herself from official drudgery, let her gain permanent influence by
writing books or essays. "I think," he said, "that you seem to me to
have more ideas than any one whom I know." And again (Dec. 14, 1871):
"You have many original thoughts, but you either insert them in
Blue-books or cast them before swine--that is me, and I sometimes insert
them in sermons. You should have a more consecutive way of going on."
She recalled, too, advice and remonstrances which she had received from
Mr. Mill. In 1867 the "National Society for Woman's Suffrage" was
founded. Mill had asked her to join it and she had at first refused:--
(_John Stuart Mill to Miss Nightingale._) BLACKHEATH PARK, _August_
9 [1867]. As I know how fully you appreciate a great many of the
evil effects produced upon the character of women (and operating to
the destruction of their own and others' happiness) by the existing
state of opinion, and as you have done me the honour to express
some regard for my opinion on these subjects, I should not like to
abstain from mentioning the formation of a Society aimed in my
opinion at the very root of all the evils you deplore and have
passed your life in combating. There are a great number of people,
particularly women, who, from want of the habit of reflecting on
politics, are quite incapable of realizing the enormous power of
politics, that is to say, of legislation, to confer happiness and
also to influence the opinion and the moral nature of the governed.
As I am convinced that this power is by far the greatest that it is
possible to wield for human happiness, I can neither approve of
women who decline the responsibility of wielding it, nor of men who
would shut out women from the right to wield it. Until women do
wield it to the best of their ability, little or great, and that in
a direct open manner, I am convinced that the evils of which I know
you to be peculiarly aware can never be satisfactorily dealt with.
And this conviction must be my apology for troubling you.
[Illustration: Handwritten notes]
(_Miss Nightingale to John Stuart Mill._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _August_
11 [1867]. I can't tell you how much pleased I was nor how grateful
I feel that you should take the trouble to write to me. And if I
ill-naturedly answer your question by asking one, it is because I
have scarcely any one who can give me (as my dear friend,
Mr. Clough, long since dead, said) a "considered opinion." That
women should have the suffrage, I think no one can be more deeply
convinced than I. It is so important for a woman to be a "person,"
as you say. And I think I see this most strongly in married life.
If the woman is not a "person," it does almost infinite harm even
to her husband. And the harm is greatest when the man is a very
clever man and the woman a very clever woman. But it will be years
before you obtain the suffrage for women. And in the meantime there
are evils which press much more hardly on women than the want of
the suffrage. And will not this when obtained put women in
opposition to those who withhold these rights from them, so as to
retard still further the legislation which is necessary to put them
in possession of their rights? I ask humbly, and I am afraid you
will laugh at me. Could not the existing disabilities as to
property and influence of women be swept away by the legislature as
it stands at present? and equal responsibilities be given, as they
ought to be, to both men and women? I do not like to take up your
time with giving instances, redressible by legislation, in which my
experience tells me that women, and especially poor and married
women, are most hardly pressed upon now. No matron, serving on a
large scale as I have done, and with the smallest care for her
Nurses, can be unaware of these. Till a married woman can be in
possession of her own property, there can be no love or justice.
But there are many other evils, as I need not tell you. Is it
possible that, if woman suffrage is agitated as a means of removing
these evils, the effect may be to prolong their existence? Is it
not the case that at present there is no opposition between the two
elements of the nation, but that, if both had equal political
power, there is a probability that the social reforms required
might become matter of political partizanship, and so the weaker go
to the wall? I can scarcely expect that you will have time to
answer my humble questions.
As to my being on the Society you mention, you know there is
scarcely anything which, if you were to tell me that it is right
politically, I would not do. But I have no time. It is 14 years
this very day that I entered upon work which has never left me ten
minutes' leisure, not even to be ill. And I am obliged never to
give my name where I cannot give my work. If you will not think
me egotistical, I will say why I have kept off the stage of these
things. In the years that I have passed in Government offices, I
have never felt the want of a vote--because, if I had been a
Borough returning two members to Parliament, I should have had less
administrative influence. And I have thought that I could work
better for others off the stage than on it. Added to which, I am an
incurable invalid, entirely a prisoner to my room. But I entirely
agree, if I may be allowed to agree with so great an authority,
that women's "political power" should be "direct and open," not
indirect. And I ought to ask your pardon for occupying you for one
single moment with my own personal situation.
As you have had the kindness to let me address you, I cannot help
putting in one more word on a subject very near my heart--the India
Sanitary Service. I have worked very hard at this for six years.
And during all those years, my great wish has been: would it be
possible to ask Mr. Mill for his help and influence? But you were
so busy. Pray believe me, dear Sir, ever your faithful servant,
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
Mr. Mill found time for a "considered opinion," of great elaboration and
weight; it has been printed elsewhere.[130] With his reply to Miss
Nightingale's humble but argumentative questions, we are not here
concerned. Though she never took any prominent part in the movement for
female suffrage, she joined the Society in 1868, allowed her name to be
placed on the General Committee in 1871, was an annual subscriber to its
funds, and in 1878 sent an expression of her opinion on the subject for
publication.[131] It was, however, Mr. Mill's remarks upon her "personal
situation" that now, in 1872, came back to her. "If," he had said, "you
prefer to do your work rather by moving the hidden springs than by
allowing yourself to be known to the world as doing what you really do,
it is not for me to make any observations on this preference (inasmuch
as I am bound to presume that you have good reasons for it) other than
to say that I much regret that this preference is so very general among
women." She ought not, he went on to suggest, to hide her good deeds;
and "finally I feel," he wrote, "some hesitation in saying to you what I
think of the responsibility that lies upon each one of us to stand
steadfastly, and with all the boldness and all the humility that a deep
sense of duty can inspire, by what the experience of life and an honest
use of our own intelligence has taught us to be the truth." To some of
this expostulation she had at the time a conclusive rejoinder. She could
not write to the _Times_ and say, "Be it known that I suggested such and
such a dispatch to a Secretary of State, and am corresponding in such
and such a sense with a Governor-General." But if she were out of
office, the plea for seclusion behind the scenes failed; nor was it ever
perhaps of much cogency in relation to her views on religious and social
matters. Now that she had "gone out of office," was it not her duty to
come into the open with her pen?
[130] In the _Letters of John Stuart Mill_, 1910, vol. ii. pp. 100-105.
[131] Quoted in Bibliography A, No. 93.
III
The first literary task which Miss Nightingale set herself under this
impulse took the form of a series of magazine articles, in which she
hoped to embody the leading ideas contained in the voluminous
_Suggestions for Thought_ already described (Vol. I. p. 470). "During
the ten years and more that I have known you," wrote Mr. Jowett (Oct.
31, 1872), "you have repeated to me the expression 'Character of God'
about 1000 times, but I can't say that I have any clear idea of what you
mean." Why did she not try and explain? In an earlier letter (Feb. 28,
1871) Mr. Jowett had suggested "the form of short papers or
essays." She now wrote three of them (of which the first two were
published)--entitled respectively "A 'Note' of Interrogation," "A
Sub-Note of Interrogation: What will our Religion be in 1999," and "On
what Government night will Mr. Lowe bring out our New Moral Budget?
another Sub-Note of Interrogation." In the first Paper, Miss Nightingale
in a questioning and allusive style defined her conception of God as a
God of Law, whose character may be learnt from social and moral science,
and defended such a conception against some current ideas of Christian
churches on the one side, and against the too cold and impersonal creed,
as she thought, of Positivism on the other. The affinity of her doctrine
at some points with the creed of Positivism is obvious; but she held as
an axiom that the existence of law implied a law-giver; and "it is a
very different thing," she wrote elsewhere,[132] "fighting against evil
for our own sakes or fighting for the sake of the Law-Giver who arms
us--fighting with or without a Commander." The scope of the second Paper
is harder to describe, for it throws out a large number of criticisms
and suggestions on life, morals, and philosophy in no very closely
related order. The general idea, however, is that the purification of
religion requires not destructive criticism but reconstruction and a
re-ordering of modern life on the lines of social service; in which
latter connection Miss Nightingale paid a glowing tribute to the pioneer
of East-end "settlers."[133] These two Papers, though they attempt to
cover too much ground in a small space, abound in happy things by the
way. We are told, for instance, that Matthew Arnold's _Literature and
Dogma_ is "marred by a tendency not to fight like a man but to scratch
like a cat." The doctrine of eternal punishment is criticized in the
words of the pauper who said to his nurse after seeing the chaplain, "It
does seem hard to have suffered so much here, only to go to everlasting
torments hereafter." The creed of some contented politicians is hit off
by saying that they talk of "the 'masses,' as if they were Silurian
strata." The third of Miss Nightingale's Papers is the hardest to
describe, because it is the most crowded of the series. Its practical
purpose may be said in the language of later politics to be a plea for
"social reform." "There must be a Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a
Budget, for Morality and Crime, as for Finance." Her conception of
social and moral science as an almost statistical study[134] is glanced
at, and the controversy between Free Will and Necessity is disposed of
by the way. Miss Nightingale sent her Papers successively to Mr. Froude.
He was delighted with the first and with the second. "Your second Note,"
he said, "is even more pregnant than the first. I cannot tell how
sanitary, with disordered intellects, the effects of such Papers will
be." They appeared in _Fraser's Magazine_ for May and July 1873. Carlyle
was not so favourably impressed. Miss Nightingale's second Paper, he
said, was like "a lost lamb bleating on the mountain." Mr. Froude's
criticism on the third was that it lacked focussing: "the whole art of
getting culinary fire out of intellectual sunlight depends on that." The
third article, accordingly, was not printed. Miss Nightingale did not
relish Carlyle's remark, and her equanimity was perhaps not restored by
the domestic assurance that Florence's mistake had been in not
submitting the manuscript to her sister's revision. One of the best
things in the Paper which was not published was a Postscript. The first
article had been widely noticed in the pulpit and the press, and had
brought to the author many letters--some sympathetic, as from Mr. Edward
Maitland,[135] others sorrowfully critical. There were those who
promised to pray for her conversion daily, and invited her to join them
in that exercise. They had not read the article, it seemed, but only a
review of it; and among the printed critiques was one which began: "My
knowledge of the scope of this Paper is derived from the report of a
discourse upon it." In her proposed Postscript Miss Nightingale took
"this opportunity of thanking unknown friends for their sympathy and
suggestions, and, still more, unknown friend-enemies for their
criticisms; but yet more should I have thanked the latter, had their
criticisms been on my poor little Article in its rough state--the
'Original Cow and Snuffers'--and not on seeing the _Extract_ of a
_Criticism_ of an _Extract_ of my Article. Certainly a new Art must have
arisen in my elderly age:--out-magazining magazining. And I hereby
confidentially inform the shade of Mr. Fraser that he may, on
application to me, see columns, closely-printed columns, of small (but
cruel) print upon a Paper which the writers state that they have not
read.--What! read a Paper which we are going to review!--Yes,
Mr. Fraser, this is what magazine-ing has come to. Articles are not even
written on original works, even if that work be only an Article, but on
a Review of an Article; and not even upon that, but upon a Review of a
Review of an Extract of an Article, or sometimes upon an Extract of a
Sermon upon an Extract of a Review of an Article. I ought to feel
flattered: I try to feel flattered. But, Mr. Fraser, is life long enough
for this? is this the way to 'human progress'? And ... but as this will
not be read by my unknown critics, I come to a stop." The practice which
Miss Nightingale thus satirised has not become less frequent in later
days when the newspapers supply their readers not with political
speeches but with opinions based on summaries of them, and when what are
called "educational handbooks" aim at giving the student the power of
passing a critical judgment upon authors without the necessity of
reading them.
[132] In some marginalia on the _Fioretti_ of St. Francis.
[133] Edward Denison, who had died in 1870 at the age of 30.
[134] See Vol. I. p. 480.
[135] Mystical writer; author of _The Pilgrim and the Shrine_.
IV
A few days after the appearance of Miss Nightingale's first Paper in
_Fraser_, Mr. Mill died of a "local endemic disease" at his house near
Avignon. She was profoundly moved:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Julius Mohl._) _May_ 20 [1873]. John Stuart
Mill's death was a great shock to me. Mr. Grote used to say of him
"Talk of Mill's Logic! why he is thrilling with emotion to the very
finger-ends." That is just what he was. Now, speaker and subject
are both gone. He said at Mr. Grote's funeral, with an agony of
tears, "We might have kept him 10 years longer." And now we say of
himself with tears "We might have kept him for 10 years longer." He
was only 67. He was always urging me to publish. He used to say,
with the passion which he put into everything he did say: "I have
no patience with people who will not publish because they think the
world is not ripe enough for their ideas: that is only conceit or
cowardice. If anybody has thought out any thing which he conceives
to be truth, in Heaven's name, let him say it!" I did not answer
that letter. I thought that this year (I have left much of the
India and War Office work, and much of it has left me) I would
resume with John Stuart Mill and do as he told me. I put the
article in _Fraser's Magazine_ (which I now send you) to please
him. And now he is dead, and will never know that I intended to do
what he wished. He used to say, "Tell the world what you
think--your experience. It will probably strike the world more than
anything that could be told it." He quoted my "Stuff" in his book,
which he ought not to have done.[136] I published my book on
Socrates' mother[137] partly to please him. It was a very odd
thing: it was a subject he had taken up: he was President of a
Society for _that_. When he was in England (till a fortnight before
his death) I could not find his address: I was so overwhelmed with
business and illness. I did not know he was going away. And I did
not send him this book. And now he is dead, and will never know.
But I scarcely regret his death. He was not a happy man. He was a
man who was so sure to develop very much in a future life. He had
queer religious notions: did not believe in a God or in a future
life: but believed in a sort of conflict between two Powers of Good
and Evil. I remember showing you one of his letters. And you said
it was just like Zoroaster. But he was the most _truly_ "Liberal"
man I ever knew. If it were for the cause of Truth that he should
be defeated, he would have _liked_ to have been defeated. And now
he is dead. And we shall never see his like again.
[136] See Vol. I. p. 471, _n._
[137] _Notes on Lying-in Institutions_; see above, p. 197.
It was characteristic of Miss Nightingale that she entered into
correspondence with Mr. Chadwick on the sanitary state of Mr. Mill's
house and the climatic conditions of Provence in May. Mr. Chadwick had
to put himself right in her eyes by explaining that he had not been
consulted by their friend on those subjects and had never been invited
by him to Avignon.
V
Other literary work which occupied Miss Nightingale a good deal at this
time was undertaken either to help Mr. Jowett or in accordance with his
advice. He had urged her to work out her notion of Divine Perfection,
and her theory of the Family in relation to "sisterhoods" and other
forms of association. Miss Nightingale wrote Essays accordingly on "What
is the Evidence that there is a Perfect God?" on "What is the Character
of God?" and on "Christian Fellowship as a Means to Progress." The gist
of the latter essay may be given in a letter of an earlier date:--
(_Miss Nightingale to Benjamin Jowett._) _July_ [1870].... I think
that Faraday's idea of friendship is very high: "One who will serve
his companion next to his God." And when one thinks that most, nay
almost all people have no idea of friendship at all except pleasant
juxtaposition, it strikes one with admiration. Yet is Faraday's
idea not mine. My idea of a friend is one who will and can join
you in work the sole purpose of which is to serve God. Two in one,
and one in God. It almost exactly answers Jesus Christ's words. And
so extraordinarily blessed have I been that I have had three such
friends. I can truly say that, during the 5 years that I worked
with Sidney Herbert every day and nearly all day, from the moment
he came into the room no other idea came in but that of doing the
work with the best of our powers in the service of God. (And this
tho' he was a man of the most varied and brilliant conversational
genius I have ever known--far beyond Macaulay whom I also knew.)
This is Heaven; and this is what makes me say "I have had my
heaven."
The two other friends with whom in former time she had been a
fellow-worker were Arthur Clough and her Aunt, Mrs. Smith. Miss
Nightingale's other Essays led to much correspondence with Mr. Jowett,
but as they failed to come up to his standard they were laid aside. Many
of her letters to him were themselves almost Essays. Extracts from one
or two consecutive letters will show the kind of discussions into which
Miss Nightingale loved to involve her Oxford friend, and upon which he
was nothing loath to enter:--
(_Benjamin Jowett to Miss Nightingale._) TORQUAY, _Sept._ 29
[1871].... I must answer your letter by driblets. When you admit
that a part of the witness of the character of God is to be sought
for in nature, how do you distinguish between the true and false
witness of nature? For we cannot deny that physical good is
sometimes at variance with moral--_e.g._ in marriage the sole or
chief principle ought to be health and strength in the parents
whether with or without a marriage ceremony--in other words Plato's
Republic: I mean on physical principles. Or again the laws of
physical improvement would require that we should get rid of sickly
and deformed infants. And if, as Huxley would say, you reconstruct
the world on a physical basis, you have to go to war with received
principles of morality. I suppose that the answer is you must take
man as a whole, and make morality and the mind the limit of
physical improvement. But it is not easy to see what this limit is,
because men's conceptions of morality vary, and although we may
form ideals we have to descend from them in practice. Therefore I
do not agree with you in thinking that there are no difficulties,
although the old difficulties, about origin of evil &c., are
generally a hocus of Theologians.
(_Miss Nightingale to Benjamin Jowett._)[138] LEA HURST, _Oct._ 3
[1871]. I am quite scandalized at your materialism. (I shall shut
up you and Plato for a hundred years in punishment in another world
till you have both obtained clearer views.) Is it for an old maid
like me to be preaching to you a Master in Israel that even "on
physical principles" there are essential points in marriage (to
turn out the best order of children), which, being absent, the
perfection of "health and strength" in both parents is of no avail
even for the physical part of the children? And might I just ask
one small question: whether you consider man has a little soul? If
he has ever such a little one, you can scarcely consider him as a
simple body, an animal, or even as a twin, the soul being one twin
and the body the other, but as all one, the soul and the body
making one being (altho' only in this sense). If you _do_, at all
events _God_ does not. And consequently He makes a great many more
things enter into the "physical" constitution even of the children
than the mere "health and strength" of the parents. (My son, really
Plato talked nonsense about this.) Take a much more material thing
than the producing of a bad or degenerate family or race. Take a
railway accident. What are the laws therein concerned? You have by
no means only to consider the "physical" laws--the strength of
iron, the speed of steam, the smoothness of rails, the friction
&c., &c.--but you have to consider the state of mind of Directors,
whether they care only for their dividends, so that the
railway-servants are underpaid or overworked &c., &c. You quote
Huxley. He is undoubtedly one of the prime educators of the age,
but he makes a profound mistake when he says to Mankind: objects of
sense are more worthy of your attention than your inferences and
imaginations. On the contrary, the finest powers man is gifted with
are those which enable him to infer from what he sees what he
_can't_ see. They lift him into truth of far higher import than
that which he learns from the senses alone. I believe that the laws
of nature all tend to improve the _whole_ man, moral and physical,
that it is absurd to consider man either as a body to be
"improved," or as a soul to be "improved," separately.
As to the "laws of physical improvement requiring that we should
get rid of sickly and deformed infants," they require that we
should _prevent_ or improve, not that we should _kill_ them. _That_
would be to get rid of some of the finest intellectual and moral
specimens of our human nature that have ever existed. And, even
were this not the case, the heroism, the patience, the wisdom of
our race have been more called forth by dealing with these and the
like forms of evil than by almost anything else. The good of man in
its highest sense cannot be attained by neglecting one set of laws
or one aspect of man's nature and cultivating another.
I entirely therefore agree that "you must take man as a whole." But
this seems at variance with a celebrated author's next sentence
"and make morality and the mind the _limit_ of physical
improvement." If I were writing, I should use a word signifying the
exact reverse; not limit, but expansion, enlargement,
multiplication, master or informing spirit. As Plato says: the mind
informs the body, owns the body, the body is the servant of the
mind. How can the owner and the master be the limit? We must really
pray for your conversion....
(_Benjamin Jowett to Miss Nightingale._) TORQUAY, _Oct._ 4.... What
have I said to deserve such an outburst? I have no wish to shake
the foundation of Society. What I think about these matters is
feebly expressed in a part of Essay at the end of the introduction
to the _Republic_. But when I come to a second edition I will
express it better.
[138] I have somewhat compressed the argument in this letter.
A comparison of the passage in the first and second editions of
Mr. Jowett's Introduction respectively[139] shows how largely he
profited by the criticisms in the foregoing letter. His _Plato_ first
appeared in 1871, and at once he began revising it. In this work Miss
Nightingale gave him great help. Her Greek had now grown a little
rusty,[140] but her interest in the substance of Plato was intense. She
annotated Mr. Jowett's summaries and introductions very closely, and
sent him voluminous suggestions for revision. "You are the best critic,"
he wrote, "whom I ever had." Several of Miss Nightingale's notes are
preserved, in rough copy, amongst her Papers, and by means of them her
hand may be traced in many a page of Mr. Jowett's revised work. In the
first edition of the introduction to the _Republic_ he made some remarks
on love as a motive in poetry which excited Miss Nightingale's strong
disapproval. She agreed that "the illusion of the feelings commonly
called love" was a motive of which too much had been made; but the
poets, she thought, had as yet hardly touched the theme of true
love--"two in one, and one in God"--as an incentive to heroic action.
"The philosopher may be excused," Mr. Jowett had written, "if he
imagines an age when poetry and sentiment have disappeared, and truth
has taken the place of imagination, and the feelings of love are
understood and estimated at their proper value." "Take out that mean
calumny, my son," wrote Miss Nightingale; "take it out this minute;
blaspheme not against Love." The offending sentence was expunged in the
second edition. Mr. Jowett had gone on to "blaspheme" a little against
Art, citing the Mahommedans as a case of the state of the human mind in
which "all artistic representations are regarded as a false and
imperfect expression either of the religious or of the philosophical
ideal." Miss Nightingale objected that the Mahommedans had renounced the
use of pictures and images, but not of architecture: "Mosques are the
highest kind of art: the one true representation of the One God: the
Glory of God in the highest: the most high of the Most High: higher than
any Christian art or architecture--as you would say if you had seen the
mosques of Cairo." Mr. Jowett recast his passage, and used Miss
Nightingale's illustration, almost in her words.[141] "I am always
stealing from you," he said. On his Introduction to the _Gorgias_, she
made an interesting criticism:--
Is not Socrates more ineffably tiresome, and at the same time does
he not speak higher truth, in the _Gorgias_ than anywhere else? Why
call these higher truths "paradoxes"? Are not your sermons always a
sort of apology for talking to them of God? And why should your
Introductions be a sort of apology for recognizing that Socrates
speaks the highest truth and no paradox? Have guarded statements,
whether about God or any particular moral or truth, ever produced
enthusiasm of religion or in morality? Is there any Dialogue, not
even excepting the _Phaedo_ and _Crito_, where he is so much in
earnest? He is so terribly in earnest that towards the end he even
throws all his dialectic aside, and makes even Polus in earnest. To
me, speaking as one of the stupid and ignorant, it seems that your
Introduction dwells too much on the _form_ of the _Gorgias_ and does
not bring out in sufficiently striking relief the great truths which
Socrates labours so strenuously to enforce that he almost seems to
lose himself in them. These great moral truths are (are they
not?):--(1) _It is a greater evil to do than to suffer injustice._ If
you call this a "paradox," why do you not call the 53rd Chapter of
Isaiah a paradox? Is it not the highest of truths? (2) _It is a
greater evil not to be punished than to be punished for wrong._ I have
no idea why you call this a paradox. It follows from all the higher
experience of the life of every one of us. In family life I see it
every day. I see the "spoilt child" making himself, and oftener
herself, and everyone else miserable, down to mature life or extreme
old age. (Tho' the "punishments" of my life have been somewhat severe,
yet I can bless God, even in this world, that never in all my life
have I been allowed to "do as I liked.") ...
[139] See _first_ edition, vol. ii. p. 145, and _second_ edition,
vol. iii. pp. 161-162.
[140] On one occasion she forgot the Greek for "Limitless," and asked
Mr. Jowett to tell her. He replied by quoting Homer:
"[Greek: amoton memauia], raging insatiably or without limit"--
adding wickedly "Whom did this represent?"
[141] See _second_ edition, vol. iii. p. 145.
If the reader cares to take this passage to a comparison of the second
with the first edition of Mr. Jowett's Introduction,[142] he will
discover again how largely, and closely, Miss Nightingale's criticisms
were accepted. She dealt similarly--giving precise references for every
statement--with the greater part of the Dialogues. "In the _Phaedrus_,"
said Mr. Jowett (July 22, 1873), "I have put in most of what you
suggested and made some additions. You are quite right in thinking that
I should get as much modern truth into the Introductions as possible. It
is a great opportunity; which I have had in view, but not so clearly as
since you wrote to me."
[142] The references are: _first_ edition, vol. iii. pp. 26 _seq._;
_second_ edition, vol. ii. pp. 302 _seq._
Miss Nightingale continued, as in former years, to send Mr. Jowett
suggestions for sermons. "I have written part of your sermon," he wrote,
when she had sent him an outline of what she would like him to preach
from the University pulpit. When he became Master of Balliol he
projected a Special Form for daily service in the College Chapel, and
Miss Nightingale suggested a selection of passages from the Psalms under
the heads of "God the Lord," "God the Judge," "God the Father," "God the
Friend," "the Way of the Cross," and so forth. Mr. Jowett had, however,
to abandon the project in deference to superior authority.[143] Another
scheme was carried out. In 1873 an edition of the Bible appeared which
has a history of some interest. _The School and Children's Bible_ it was
called; the name of the Rev. William Rogers, of Bishopsgate, appears on
the title-page, but the selection was in fact made for the most part by
Mr. Jowett, with the help of some of his friends.[144] That
Mr. Swinburne was one of these friends, we know from the poet's own
recollections; it is not generally known that the other principal
collaborator with Mr. Jowett was Miss Nightingale. Mr. Swinburne's help
was in one respect disappointing. "I wanted you," said Mr. Jowett to him
with a smile, "to help me to make this book smaller, and you have
persuaded me to make it much larger." The poet, who was complimented on
his thorough familiarity with sundry parts of the sacred text, thought
that Mr. Jowett had excluded too much of the prophetic and poetic
elements, not taking into account "the delight that a child may take in
things beyond the grasp of his perfect comprehension, though not beyond
the touch of his apprehensive or prehensile faculty." Miss Nightingale,
whose familiarity with the Bible was probably even closer and more
extensive than Mr. Swinburne's and with whom Biblical criticism was a
favourite study, also wanted a great deal put in which Mr. Jowett had
left out, but her instinct for edification led her to suggest equivalent
omissions. She took great pains with her suggestions, illustrating them
in letters to Mr. Jowett with many characteristic remarks by the way:--
It is impossible to keep up acquaintance with a man, however
otherwise estimable, who separates the 26 last chapters of Isaiah
from Isaiah merely by a shabby little note and asterisk. Surely
those chapters belong to the end of the Babylonish Captivity and
should be separated by a distinct division; while the shabby little
note and asterisk might go to some isolated chapters (_e.g._ xiii.,
xiv.) among the first 39 which belong to the same time, the end of
the Captivity--whereas the first 39 chapters (generally) appear to
belong to the "Middle Ages" of Prophecy. But as it may be judged
inconvenient to put Chaps. xl.-lxvi. of Isaiah in a different part
of the Bible, I will concede that point and simply classify them (I
follow Ewald's order). But they _must_ be under a separate Heading
with "End of Babylonian Captivity" (or words to that effect)
printed distinctly _under the heading_ (not in a note).
[143] "The Bishop has disallowed our 'Versicles' and some other things
on legal grounds--_i.e._ on the opinion of Sir Travers Twiss (poor
man!). We will have them in a particular book of our own. He says
'they are admirably selected'" (_Letter from Mr. Jowett_, March 16,
1872).
[144] See Abbott and Campbell's _Life and Letters of Jowett_, vol. ii.
pp. 35-36, and "Recollections of Professor Jowett" in Swinburne's
_Studies in Prose and Poetry_, p. 33. The full title of the book
was _The School and Children's Bible prepared under the
Superintendence of the Rev. William Rogers_. London: Longmans,
1873.
More generally, she criticized the first selection sent to her as
showing some want of proportion. There was no clear plan, she thought,
as to the space to be given, respectively, to:--
(_a_) Matters of _universal_ importance, moral and spiritual
(_e.g._ the finest parts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the New
Testament); (_b_) matters of _historical_ importance (_e.g._ which
embrace the history of great nations, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. The
petty wars of the petty tribes seem to take up a quite
disproportionate space); (_c_) matters of _local_ importance, which
have acquired a _universal moral_ significance (_e.g._ Jonah is
entirely left out: yet Jonah has a moral and spiritual meaning,
while Samson, Balaam and Bathsheba have none); (_d_) matters of
_merely local_ importance, with no significance but an _immoral_
one (_e.g._ the stories about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, almost all
Joshua and Judges, and very much of Samuel and Kings). The story of
Achilles and his horses is far more fit for children than that of
Balaam and his ass, which is only fit to be told to asses. The
stories of Samson and of Jephthah are only fit to be told to
bull-dogs; and the story of Bathsheba, to be told to Bathshebas.
Yet we give all these stories to children as "Holy Writ." There are
some things in Homer we might better call "Holy" Writ--many, many
in Sophocles and Aeschylus. The stories about Andromache and
Antigone are worth all the women in the Old Testament put together;
nay, almost all the women in the Bible.
"I have just finished the Children's Bible," wrote Mr. Jowett (Feb. 10,
1872). "I blessed you every time I took the papers up, especially in the
Prophets. I have adopted your selection almost entirely, with a slight
abridgement, and it is further approved by Mr. Cheyne's authority."
These various literary enterprises, undertaken at Mr. Jowett's instance,
occupied a great deal of Miss Nightingale's time--more time, as she
sometimes said to herself, than could rightly be spared from primary
duties; and the time was spent, she added in her self-reproaches, to
little purpose. In some respects Mr. Jowett's suggestions to her were
not very happy. One cannot elaborate in a consecutive form a Scheme of
Theology or a Social Philosophy, even through the medium of essays, in
odd hours as a bye-work. So Miss Nightingale soon found, and the failure
weighed heavily on her spirits; but Mr. Jowett did not realize how great
was the strain upon his friend's faculties involved in her nursing work,
nor how much time, effort, and emotion she was devoting, though "out of
office," to the complicated problems of Indian administration. We, who
have access to her Papers, shall learn the full extent of these
preoccupations in later chapters (III. and IV.). But something must
first be said of another literary enterprise. To it Miss Nightingale's
close study of the Bible and of Plato was entirely relevant. Such
studies were, as we shall find in the next chapter, part of the food
which sustained her inner life.