Litchfield enquirer., 1857-02-12

u give them out without aa official order presen- ted in ssme partit tular form. While he staad by, keys in hand, not venturing to open lis storehouse. she summoned attendants and bade
 them break open the doors and take out the required bed and bedding! And the Govern ment and the people of England applaudcd her judicious daring. When. too the stores of the hospital, as supplied by Government, were ill- sufficient for the wants of the overwhelming numbers which came down to he tended, it was
 with wise confidence in the justifability of the step that Miss Nightingale had recourse to the gentleman who was entrusted by the Times
 newspaper to expend large sum of money raised by the public in behalf of the sick and
 wounded soldiers. From him, at time of great need, and before the Government at home
 was aware of the wants of the hospital, she ob- tained all that was required for the sufferers and for the cleansing and purifying and better
 organization of the hospital.
 After bringing the hospital at Scutari to a
 high state of efficiency and good management,
 Miss Nightingale passed over into the Crimea
 and, on the heights above Balaklava, supplied sort of camp hospital there with staff of nurses and all the materials that she had now at her disposal for comfort and order. She also took an active and influential part in many schemes which were set on foot for the inl- provement of the habits and morals of the soldier She induced him to save to refrain from spirit drinking and encoura ged him to read. Through her hands passed large sums of money sent by the soldiers to their wives and families at home, and through her hands also passed the numerous books, tracts and means of innocent amusement, supplied by the benevolent in England to those who were fight Ing their country's battles. We have numer- ous testimonies from the lips of soldiers on their return, to the moral good effected by Florence Nightingale and her female compan- ions {; but we know not, we cannot measure, nor picture in thought, the good that may re- suit from such influence to this and future gen. erations The war is over, and our army re- turned :; and in reviewing the past we were never, perhaps, better able to perceive the evils and horrors of war, but at the same time we recognise that even war is not unaccompanied by those manifestations of merciful and su- Providence who allows of passing evil for the furtherance of lasting and progress sive good Florence Nightingale has new re- turned to England, rich in the avowal of all that human praise can bestow, and which must yet fall below, in her estimation, the mere sense of having performed we'll high dnty. She has been personally honorcd by her Sovereign, and the people of England, anxious to show their sense of her services, have entrusted to her disposal large sum of money, which. was raised as testimonial to her, but which she prefers to employ in founding and supporting an institution for the better training of nurses in connection with one of our hospitals. On all sides she has beeu greeted with honor, love and respect but returning to her own home in strict privacy she shrinks from all kinds of public homage or distinction, and, in answering an address from the working-men of our large northern towns, nodestly passes sentence on herself in the simple words which she inscribed ovor the grave of one of her assistant nurses i'll the East, who fell victim to her exertions, and says of herself She hath done what she could' What might not the world become if all could say this of themselves ?"