Volume I Part 34 (1/2)
Sutherland reorganized the War Office frorireater deters as they were, had he seen how near the bottoanize _him_ She was quite frank about it ”The schenation,” she wrote; ”that is another of its advantages” To reorganize the War Office on paper is an occupation which, during fifty following years, was to beguile the leisure of amateurs, and to fill with disappointed hopes the laborious days of many a Minister To carry out any such schehting force, could hope to acco man
[292] _Army Reform under Lord Herbert_, pp 4-5
[293] Better known as the Marquis of Ripon, to which rank he was proale had her fears froanization,” she wrote to Sir John McNeill (Jan 17, 1861), ”is at last launched at the War Office; but I feel that Haweshand over hiled on , it should be remembered, constant dispute with Mr Gladstone over the Arrew constantly less At last he had to confess that, on the h, he was beaten:--
(_Lord Herbert to Miss Nightingale_) _June_ 7 [1861] As to the organization I am at my wits' end The real truth is that I do not understand it I have not the buood systems De Grey understands it much better [He then describes certaina definite sphere of responsibility for Captain Galton]
This I should like to do before I go And now comes the question, when is that to be and what had I best do and what leave to be done by others I feel that I a justice to the War Office or ulps of brandy till I aetic when I get there I have still two or three matters which I should like to settle and finish, but I aanization of the Office is one of them
[Further official details] I cannot end even this long letter without a word on a subject of which my mind is full and yours will be too--Cavour What a life! what a life! and what a death! I know of no fifty lives which could be put in competition with his It casts a shade over all Europe While he lived, one felt so confident for Italy, that he could hold his own against Austria, against the _wild_ Italians, against the Pope, and above all against L Napoleon But what a glorious career! and what a work done in one life! I don't knohere to look for anything to compare with it
Cavour had died the day before, and his last recorded words were of his Cause: _la cosa va_ The pathos hich the events of the next feeeks were to invest this letter froale As of hers, written thirty or forty years after, she recalled phrases in the letter and in conversations of the same date But, at the immediate moment, Lord Herbert's confession of failure filled her with despairing vexation Sir John McNeill, to whom she poured out her soul, took the truer view of the case It was sad, he admitted (June 18), that Lord Herbert should have been ”beaten on his own chosen ground by Ben Hawes
But,” he added, ”the truth, I suspect, is that he has been beaten by disease, and not by Ben” ”What strikes reat defeat,” she replied (June 21), ”more painfully even than the loss to the Army is the triumph of the bureaucracy over the leaders--the political aristocracy who at least advocate higher principles A Sidney Herbert beaten by a Ben Hawes is a greater humiliation really (as a matter of principle) than the disaster of Scutari”
Disease held Lord Herbert in its grasp, but with indoanization, in which he and Miss Nightingale were specially interested One of these matters was the establish the few practical things,” wrote Miss Nightingale to Sir John McNeill (June 21), ”which I hope to succeed in saving froanization of one General Hospital on your plan Colonel Wilbraham has consented to be Governor Last e made a list of the staff, and the names were approved by Lord Herbert There has been an immense uproar, perhaps no more than you anticipated, from the Army Medical Department and the Horse Guards” Lord Herbert was to send her the draft of the Governor's Commission, and she asked Sir John McNeill's assistance in revising it Then she was requested to name a Superintendent of nurses Her choice fell upon one of her Crih a sohtingale, but whose efficiency marked her out for the post Two other of Lord Herbert's last official acts referred also to the health of the British soldier, and each was suggested by Miss Nightingale One was the appointment of the Barracks Works Committee (June 6) already mentioned (p 389); the other, the appointment of Captain Galton and Dr
Sutherland as Commissioners, with Mr J J Frederick as Secretary, to improve the Barracks and Hospitals on the Mediterranean Station
By the end of June, Lord Herbert's health had become worse, and he was ordered abroad to Spa On July 9 he called at the Burlington Hotel to say good-bye to Miss Nightingale They never ain A week later, he wrote to her from Spa:--
I enclose a letter fro, I have begged her to select the nurses on their own terulations define salary, etc So I hope we shall at any rate start the thing now I have written an undated letter of resignation to Palmerston to be used whenever convenient to hi, but I believe it to be the right and best course I believe Leith de Grey for under-secretary, is to be my successor I can fancy no fish uns and General Officers, but he is a gentleman, an honest man, and de Grey will be invaluable for the office and for many of the especial interests to which I specially looked I have a letter fro another site for the new branch Institute I have sent it to Galton I wish I had any confidence that you are as much better as I am
Lord Herbert's buoyancy of spirit re He became worse, and, on July 25, left Spa for houst 2 ”To the last,” wrote his sister to Miss Nightingale, ”he had the sa s” But a his last articulate words were these: ”Poor Florence! Poor Florence! Our joint work unfinished”
II
The death of Sidney Herbert was a heavy blow to Miss Nightingale--the heaviest, perhaps, which she ever had to suffer It meant not only the loss of an old friend and companion, in whose society she had constantly lived and moved for five years It meant also the interruption of their joint work, which was more to her than life itself She felt in the severance of their alliance the true bitterness of death:--
(_Miss Nightingale to her Father_) HAMPSTEAD, _Aug_ 21 [1861]
DEAR PAPA--Indeed your sympathy is very dear to me So few people know in the least what I have lost in my dear master Indeed I know no one but ether the same object, as I did with him And when they lose their companion by death, they have in fact lost no companionshi+p
Now he takes my life with him My work, the object of my life, the means to do it, all in one, depart with him ”Grief fills the room up of my absent” master I cannot say it ”walks up and doith me For I don't walk up and down But it ”eats” and sleeps and wakes with me Yet I can truly say that I see it is better that God should not work a miracle to save Sidney Herbert, altho' his death involves the misfortune, moral and physical, of five hundred thousand men, and altho' it would have been but to set aside a few trifling physical laws to save hihteous perisheth and no oes on to say ”none considering that he is taken away fro that he is taken away froht have done” Now not one an ith, five years ago And I alone, of all men ”most deject and wretched,” survive them all I a child, F
Her grief was accohtingale to Harriet Martineau_) HAMPSTEAD, _Sept_ 24 [1861] And I, too, was hard upon him I told him that Cavour's death was a blow to European liberty, but that a greater bloas that Sidney Herbert should be beaten on his own ground by a bureaucracy I told hiaelic temper with me, at the saet I wish people to know that as done was done by a ht so much more of what he had not done than of what he had done--to know that all his latter suffering years were filled not by a selfish desire for his own salvation--far less for his own ambition (he hated office, his was the purest ale of exertion for our benefit
Happily for her peace of mind there ca in the service of her ”dear master,” as in her letters of this time she constantly named Sidney Herbert
The newspapers had at first been so in their obituary notices of hiht of in connectionthe early months of the Crimean War, than with his services as a reformer His family and his friends were pained, and on their behalf Mr Gladstone applied to Miss Nightingale
She did not feel well enough to see hi the liberty of intruding upon her for aid and counsel,” and asking ”the assistance of her superior knowledge and judgs” Miss Nightingale instantly set to work and wrote a Memorandum on Sidney Herbert's work as an Ariving chapter and verse for every statement The Memorandum was anonymous, and was marked ”Private and Confidential”; but she had it printed, and circulated it a those who saas Abraha ed that she should be asked to publish the Paper ”No one,” he wrote, ”could or wouldhas beencareer than its unobtrusiveness It has only becoood to be shrouded in silence and retire about her style; which, for that very reason, is most impressive; and I feel quite sure that the Paper in question would suggest no thought or feeling beyond conviction and sympathy”[294]
[294] Letter (Nov 20) to Count Strzelechi, for whom see below, p 410
The Memorandum, in so far as it relates to what Sidney Herbert did, has been described and quoted above; but at the end of it, Miss Nightingale was careful to touch upon what he had meant to do and what remained for others to do ”He died before his as done” The work on which his heart was set was the preservation of the health, physical and moral, of the British soldiers ”This is the work of his which ought to bear fruit in all future tiuardianshi+p of his country”