The Life of Florence Nightingale Volume I Part 13

I do not say one word to press you. You are the only person who can judge for yourself which of conflicting or incompatible duties is the first, or the highest; but I must not conceal from you that I think upon your decision will depend the ultimate success or failure of the plan. Your own personal qualities, your knowledge and your power of administration, and among greater things your rank and position in Society give you advantages in such a work which no other person possesses.

If this succeeds, an enormous amount of good will be done now, and to persons deserving everything at our hands; and a prejudice will have been broken through, and a precedent established, which will multiply the good to all time.

I hardly like to be sanguine as to your answer. If it were "yes," I am certain the Bracebridges would go with you and give you all the comfort you would require, and which their society and sympathy only could give you. I have written very long, for the subject is very near my heart. Liz [Mrs. Herbert] is writing to Mrs.

Bracebridge to tell her what I am doing. I go back to town to-morrow morning. Shall I come to you between 3 and 5? Will you let me have a line at the War Office to let me know?

There is one point which I have hardly a right to touch upon, but I know you will pardon me. If you were inclined to undertake this great work, would Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale give their consent? The work would be so national, and the request made to you proceeding from the Government who represent the nation comes at such a moment, that I do not despair of their consent. Deriving your authority from the Government, your position would secure the respect and consideration of every one, especially in a service where official rank carries so much weight. This would secure to you every attention and comfort on your way and there, together with a complete submission to your orders. I know these things are a matter of indifference to you except so far as they may further the great objects you have in view; but they are of importance in themselves, and of every importance to those who have a right to take an interest in your personal position and comfort.

I know you will come to a wise decision. G.o.d grant it may be in accordance with my hopes! Believe me, dear Miss Nightingale, ever yours, SIDNEY HERBERT.[71]

[71] This famous letter--obviously private at the time--was printed _in extenso_, for a controversial purpose (see below, p. 245), in the _Daily News_ of October 28, 1854. Miss Nightingale was much distressed when she heard of the publication, and her family could not think how it had "got into the papers"; but they had shown it, and copies of it, too widely.

There was no hitch, such as Sidney Herbert half feared, from reluctance on the part of Miss Nightingale's parents. Her uncle, Mr. Samuel Smith (husband of her Aunt Mai, of whose helpfulness we have heard), had already half obtained their consent to her going as a volunteer. All hesitation was removed when the news came that she was asked to go by and for the Government itself:--

"MY LOVE," wrote Miss Nightingale's sister to a friend (Oct. 18), "Government has asked, I should say entreated, Flo to go out and help in the Hospital at Scutari. I am sure you will feel that it is a great and n.o.ble work, and that it is a real duty; for there is no one, as they tell her, and I believe truly, who has the knowledge and the zeal necessary to make such a step succeed."

And to the same friend a day or two later:--

Before, in Harley Street, I did not feel sure that she was right, there seemed so much to be done at home; but now there is no doubt that she is fitted to do this work, and that no one else is, and that it _is_ a work. I must say the way in which all things have tended to and fitted her for this is so very remarkable that one cannot but believe she was intended for it. None of her previous life has been wasted, her experience all tells, all the gathered stores of so many years, her Kaiserswerth, her sympathy with the R.

Catholic system of work, her travels, her search into the hospital question, her knowledge of so many different minds and different cla.s.ses, all are serving so curiously--and much more than I have time for.

Yes, and perhaps even the difficulties which affectionate solicitude had placed in Florence Nightingale's way might have been counted among her preparations for a task involving great power of will and determination.

Miss Nightingale saw Mr. Herbert on Monday, October 16, and the matter was arranged between them. Mrs. Sidney Herbert and the other ladies of the Harley Street Committee readily released their Superintendent. Her faithful friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, agreed to accompany her. Mr.

Herbert had a.s.sured Miss Nightingale of their willingness, without any previous consultation--a fine instance, surely, of friendly confidence.

The Duke of Newcastle, who had some slight personal acquaintance with Miss Nightingale, and the other members of the Cabinet cordially approved the initiative of their colleague, and three days later Miss Nightingale received her official appointment and instructions:--

(_The Secretary-at-War to Miss Nightingale._) WAR OFFICE, _October_ 19 [1854]. MADAM--Having consented at the pressing instance of the Government to accept the office of Superintendent of the female nursing establishment in the English General Military Hospitals in Turkey, you will, on your arrival there, place yourself at once in communication with the Chief Army Medical Officer of the Hospital at Scutari, under whose orders and direction you will carry on the duties of your appointment.

Everything relating to the distribution of the nurses, the hours of their attendance, their allotment to particular duties, is placed in your hands, subject, of course, to the sanction and approval of the Chief Medical Officer; but the selection of the nurses in the first instance is placed solely under your control, or under that of persons to be agreed upon between yourself and the Director-General of the Army and Ordnance Medical Department, and the persons so selected will receive certificates from the Director-General or the princ.i.p.al Medical Officer of one of the General Hospitals, without which certificate no one will be permitted to enter the Hospital in order to attend the sick.

In like manner the power of discharge on account of illness or of dismissal for misconduct, inapt.i.tude, or other cause, is vested entirely in yourself; but in cases of such discharge or dismissal the cost of the return pa.s.sage of such person home will, if you think it advisable and if they proceed at once or so soon as their health enables them, be defrayed by the Government.

Directions will be given by the mail of this day to engage one or two houses in a situation as convenient as can be found for attendance at the Hospital, or to provide accommodation in the Barracks if thought more advisable. And instructions will be given to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to afford you every facility and a.s.sistance on landing at Constantinople, as also to Dr. Menzies, the Chief Medical Officer of the Hospital at Scutari, who will give you all the aid in his power and every support in the execution of your arduous duties.

The cost of the pa.s.sage both out and home of yourself and the nurses who may accompany you, or who may follow you, will be defrayed by the Government, as also the cost of house rent, subsistence, &c., &c.; and I leave to your discretion the rate of pay which you may think it advisable to give to the different persons acting under your authority.

In the meanwhile Sir John Kirkland, the Army Agent, has received orders to honor your drafts to the amount of One Thousand Pounds for the necessary expense of outfit, travelling expenses, &c., &c., of which sum you will render an account to the Purveyor of the Forces at Scutari.

You will, for your current expenses, payment of wages, &c., &c., apply to the Purveyor through the Chief Medical Officer, in charge of the Hospital, who will provide you with the necessary funds.

I feel confident that, with a view to the fulfilment of the arduous task you have undertaken, you will impress upon those acting under your orders the necessity of the strictest attention to the regulations of the Hospital, and the preservation of that subordination which is indispensable in every Military Establishment.

And I rely on your discretion and vigilance carefully to guard against any attempt being made among those under your authority, selected as they are with a view to fitness and without any reference to religious creed, to make use of their position in the Hospitals to tamper with or disturb the religious opinions of the patients of any denomination whatever, and at once to check any such tendency and to take, if necessary, severe measures to prevent its repet.i.tion.

I have the honor to be, Madam, your most obedient servant, SIDNEY HERBERT.

The instructions promised in this letter were duly sent to the Commander of the Forces, the Purveyor-in-Chief, and the Princ.i.p.al Medical Officer;[72] and the way was smoothed for Miss Nightingale, as they thought in Downing Street, by supplementary letters to some of the officials. A letter was sent to the Purveyor-General (Oct. 19), in which "Mr. Sidney Herbert trusts that you will use every endeavour to a.s.sist Miss Nightingale in the performance of the arduous duties she has voluntarily undertaken, the success of which must necessarily depend upon the a.s.sistance and co-operation of others, and cannot fail to be of great benefit to those Gallant Men who have suffered in the service of their country." Similarly Sir Charles Trevelyan, a.s.sistant-secretary to the Treasury, remarking that the commissariat officers are the bankers and stewards of the army, wrote, as he told Miss Nightingale (Oct. 20), "to Commissary-General Filder and Deputy-Commissary-General Smith, the Senior Officer at Scutari, to request that they will from the first give you all the support they are able, and instruct their officers of every grade to do the same." Any difficulties which might confront her would not be caused, it seemed, by lack of support at home.

[72] The text of the instructions may be found in the _Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps_, October 1910.

IV

Private support was forthcoming as readily as official. Mr. Henry Reeve, an old friend of Miss Nightingale and her family, rejoicing that she had now "an opportunity of action worthy of her," spoke to the great Delane, and requested him to direct Mr. Macdonald--who was being sent out to administer the _Times_ Fund--to co-operate with Miss Nightingale. Mr.

Macdonald was a man, as Mr. Reeve testified, and as Miss Nightingale was to discover--to the great advantage of their common cause,--"of remarkable intelligence and activity."

Two days after the receipt of her official instructions, five days after her interview with Mr. Herbert, Miss Nightingale and her party left London (Oct. 21). The amount of work which fell upon Miss Nightingale during the ten days (Oct. 12-21) was enormous, and some of the details she was obliged to delegate to others. The headquarters of the expedition during its outfit were established at Mr. Sidney Herbert's house in Belgrave Square, and there Miss Mary Stanley and Mrs.

Bracebridge interviewed applicants. Miss Nightingale, foreseeing (only too truly, as the event was to show) the difficulty both of finding suitable women and of supervising them, was inclined to limit the number to twenty. Mr. Herbert, thinking that such a new departure should be made on a considerable scale, proposed a larger number, and Miss Nightingale gave way. Forty was the number agreed upon; but the material which offered itself was not promising. "Here we sit all day," wrote Miss Stanley; "I wish people who may hereafter complain of the women selected could have seen the set we had to choose from. All London was scoured for them. We sent emissaries in every direction to every likely place.... We felt ashamed to have in the house such women as came. One alone expressed a wish to go from a good motive. Money was the only inducement."[73] Ultimately thirty-eight nurses were obtained.

[73] _Stanmore_, vol. i. p. 342.

Mr. Herbert, in the concluding pa.s.sage of his Instructions, relied on Miss Nightingale's vigilance to prevent religious "tampering." This was an instruction which she had discussed with him, for she foresaw (again only too well) the _odium theologic.u.m_ that might confront her. She was primarily concerned to get the best nurses as such, but she was anxious also that the different churches or shades should be represented. In this desire she was in large measure disappointed. Application was made both to St. John's House, an inst.i.tution inclined towards Tractarianism, and to the Protestant Inst.i.tution for Nurses in Devons.h.i.+re Square. In each case the answer was returned that nurses could only be supplied if they were to be subject to their own Committees; the Government's condition of subjection to Miss Nightingale's control was rejected. The authorities of St. John's House proposed that their nurses should be accompanied by the Master of the House, to act as "their guardian." It will readily be imagined how impossible Miss Nightingale's position would have been on such terms. The proposal shows incidentally how little some people understood of the conditions of discipline necessary in a military hospital. Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Chaplain-General of the Forces, and Miss Nightingale met the Council of St. John's House; the point of Miss Nightingale's exclusive control was conceded, and the Master stayed at home. The Lady Superior of St. John's House at this time was Miss Mary Jones, who to the end of her life remained one of the most valued and tenderly devoted of Miss Nightingale's friends.[74] The authorities in Devons.h.i.+re Square, on the other hand, would not surrender the point of separate control, and accordingly no nurses were supplied by the distinctively Protestant inst.i.tution. "We are only vexed," wrote Lady Verney, "because Flo so earnestly desired to include all shades of opinion, to prove that all, however they differed, might work together in a common brotherhood of love to G.o.d and man."

[74] Miss Jones resigned her appointment at St. John's House in 1868, owing to differences of opinion with the Council, and set up a private nursing establishment. She died in 1887.

The party, as ultimately recruited, was composed of ten Roman Catholic Sisters (five from Bermondsey and five from Norwood), eight Anglican Sisters (from Miss Sellon's Home at Devonport), six nurses from St.

John's House, and fourteen from various English hospitals. It has often been supposed that the nurses who accompanied Miss Nightingale were ladies of gentle birth, but, with a few exceptions, this was not the case. On the eve of their departure, the nurses were addressed by Mr.

Herbert in his dining-room. He told them that if any desired to turn back, now was the time of decision, and he impressed upon them that all who went were bound implicitly to obey Miss Nightingale in all things.

"All started on their ways," we are told,[75] "strengthened by his heart-stirring words, and cheered no less by the sunny brightness of his presence than by his kindly and unfailing sympathy." Unhappily the effect was not in all cases permanent, as we shall hear.

[75] _Stanmore_, vol. i. p. 342.

V

"Do not answer this," wrote a Minister to Miss Nightingale; "for I am sure you must have more on your hands now than a Secretary of State."

But what struck those about her was her perfect calm. "No one is so well fitted as she to do such work," wrote Lady Canning to Lady Stuart de Rothesay (Oct. 17); "she has such nerve and skill, and is so wise and quiet. Even now she is in no bustle and hurry, though so much is on her hands, and such numbers of people volunteer services." She had only one worry. Her pet owl had died. When her family were leaving Embley to see her off, the feeding of the owl was forgotten in the hurry and flurry.

It was embalmed, and "the only tear its mistress shed through that tremendous week," says her sister, "was when I put the little body into her hands. 'Poor little beastie, it was odd how much I loved you.'"[76]

For the rest, she was "as calm and composed in this furious haste,"

wrote her sister (Oct. 19), "with the War Office, the Military Medical Board, half the nurses in London to speak to, her own Committee and Inst.i.tution, as if she were going out for a walk." She was quiet because, like Wordsworth's Happy Warrior, in the heat of excitement, she "kept the law in calmness made, and saw what she foresaw." Like the character drawn by another master-hand, "in the tumult she was tranquil," because she had pondered when at rest.

[76] From the _Life and Death of Athena, an Owlet from the Parthenon_, a ma.n.u.script book charmingly written and ill.u.s.trated by Lady Verney.

She wrote it in 1855, and sent it to Scutari "to try and make Flo and Mrs. Bracebridge laugh when F. was recovering from her fever."

A small black pocket-book is preserved in which were found, at Miss Nightingale's death, a few of the many letters received just before she left England for the East. Perhaps they were the very last letters received; perhaps they were there for other reasons. One spoke of a mother's love:--

Monday morning. G.o.d speed you on your errand of mercy, my own dearest child. I know He will, for He has given you such loving friends, and they will be always at your side to help in all your difficulties. They came just when I felt that you must fail for want of strength, and more mercies will come in your hour of need.

They are so wise and good, they will be to you what no one else could. They will write to us, and save you in that and in all ways.

They are to us an earnest of blessings to come. I do not ask you to spare yourself for your own sake, but for the sake of the cause.--Ever Thine.

Another letter reminded her of the love of G.o.d:--

G.o.d will keep you. And my prayer for you will be that your one object of Wors.h.i.+p, Pattern of Imitation, and Source of consolation and strength may be the Sacred Heart of our Divine Lord. Always yours for our Lord's sake, HENRY E. MANNING.

And a third among them was from the friend whose life she had declined to share, but whose sympathy was still precious to her:--

"MY DEAR FRIEND," he wrote (Oct. 18), "I hear you are going to the East. I am happy it is so, for the good you will do there, and the hope that you may find some satisfaction in it yourself. I cannot forget how you went to the East once before, and here am I writing quietly to you about what you are going to do now. You can undertake _that_, when you could not undertake me. G.o.d bless you, dear Friend, wherever you go."