Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-21 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1859

the world tells us, that immoral means will never
generate good ends.

" THE MISSION OF MERCY " is the name appro-
priately given to a very interesting picture now
exhibiting in this town, which represents
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, at her merciful work
in the hospital at Scutari. It is an historical
painting, of a highly touching character, and one
that is of deep national interest. There she
stands, humanely directing the disposal of the
wounded as they are brought in, and seeing
carried into practical effect that admirable
arrangement she had herself planned and provided
for their comfort, if not for their cure: She is,
with great propriety, the prominent object in a
scene which owes all its importance to herself,—a
scene which, all must admit, reflects infinite
honour on her country ; and one which will illu-
mine, for the admiration of posterity, its historic
page. She devoted her tenderest care, and most
unremitting attention, to the wounded and the
dying soldier. It was her part to bestow upon
him her best regar6, not when he was in the
midst of " the pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious war," but only when all this had passed
away • from his personal position, and left him a
miserable victim of its ruthless cruelty —an
unsightly wreck of humanity, a wretch " used-up "
in a contest in which he himself had but very little
interest at any time, and which now had itself
none whatever in him I Only too true was the
satire of the poet, when he exclaimed—

" Dost thou not know the fate of soldiers ?
They're but ambition's tools to cut a way
To her unlawful ends ; and when they're worn,
Hack'd, hewn with constant service, thrown aside,
To rot in hospitals!"

Yes, to " rot in hospitals," was the fate from
which his ministering angel came forth to rescue the
British soldier. In his hour of suffering and dis-

tress, it was her charitable concern to see him
cared for,—to tend him herself with gentlest
'attentions—to nurse him, to minister to him, that
at least his pains might be alleviated, and his
anxieties soothed, if not his wounds healed, and
his life restored. Forcibly, indeed, in such a case,
do we see exemplified, though even more loftily,
more magnanimously, than is there imagined, the
beautiful portraiture which WASHINGTON IRVING
has given of woman, when he says,,--" As the vine
which has long twined its graceful foliage about
the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will,
when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt,
cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and
bind up its shattered boughs ; it is beautifully
ordered by Providence, that woman, who is the
mere dependant and ornament of man in his hap-
pier hours, should be his stay and solace when
smitten with sudden calamity ; winding herself
into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly
supporting the drooping head, and binding up the
broken heart." Such, we say, was the capacity in
which Miss NIGHTINGALE appeared, and acted, in
the military hospitals of the Crimean war. Yet
great as was her humane and charitable influence
there, it was probably but a tithe of that which
she has been enabled to exert, directly or indirectly
for the soldier's benefit, in other respects.

To the same influence, in the same cause, only
more generally directed, was to be attributed that
Commission which was appointed to examine the
sanitary state of the British army. And most
important has been the work which the Commis-
sioners performed. " They inquired into the
ordinary conditions of barrack life ; they investi-
gated the regulations of the Army Medical Service;
they entered into the details of hospital manage-
ment, and thoroughly searched out every abuse by
which the soldier's health was so recklessly under-
Mined. They looked into everything, and found all
very bad,"—almost worse, indeed, we believe, than
the penetrating eye of woman's humanity and
cha-
rity had previously discovered it to be. " The
Medical Service was without influence, the com-
monest precautions against disease were unknown,
and the hospital system was apparently devised
for the express purpose of multiplying forms,
dividing responsibility, and impeding the efforts
of any medical officer who might happen to be
alive to the importance of his duties." All this
had been already found out by Miss NIGHTINGALE
and her devoted Sisters of Mercy. But the Royal
Commission has formally assured itself of, and
officially reported upon it ; presenting, at the same
time, a series of recommendations which appear
eminently calculated to remedy all that is