FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, Forester, to form a band of female nurses, to be dispatched to the seat of war, was started, and fount favour with the government, and the majority of the public. The idea being propounded, the chief difficulty was to carry it out; and there was a fear "lest a noble impulse should fail for the want of a head, a hand, and a heart to direct it." But, having engaged three nurses, Lady Maria Forester waited on Miss Nightingale, and entreated her to take the direction andentire control of the nursing establishment for our sick and wounded soldiers and sailors on the distant shores of the Levant. LadyMaria's request, earnestly seconded by that of the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, then Secretary-at-War, induced Miss Nightingale to yield a generous consent to undertake the manage- ment of the expedition. It is, indeed, affirmed by some, that by a strange coincidence the noble woman had herself written to Mr. Herbert on the very same day, volunteering her services where they were so direfully needed. Immediately on her intention becoming known, horror thrilled the souls of those humane and wise Gradgrinds who, comprehendingno " facts "but those which had undoubted precedents, had laughed aloud when Elizabeth Fry proposed to cleanse Newgate, and had coldly sneered when Hannah More hinted at Sunday Schools. But, upheld by her noble and compassionate heart, and resolved to follow humbly and reverentially in the footsteps of ONE who had 14
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