FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 373 It was on October 15th that she wrote to Mr. Herbert. On the very same day the minister had written to her. Their letters crossed. Mr. Herbert, who had himself given much attention to military hospitals, laid before Miss Nightin- gale, in his now historical letter, a plan for nursing the sick and wounded at Scutari. " There is, as far as I know," he wrote, " only one person in England capable of organizing and directing such a plan, and I have been several times on the point of asking you if you would be disposed to make the attempt. That it will be difficult to form a corps of nurses, no one knows better than yourself." After specifying the difficulty in finding not only good nurses, but good nurses who would be willing to submit to authority, he goes on : "I have this simple question to put to you. Could you go out yourself and take charge of everything ? It is, of course, understood that you will have absolute authority over all the nurses, unlimited power to draw on the Government for all you judge necessary to the success of your mission ; and I think I may assure you of the co- operation of the medical staff. Your personal qualities, your knowledge, and your authority in administrative affairs, all fit you for this position." Miss Nightingale at once concurred in Mr. Herbert's proposal. The mate- rials for a staff of good nurses did not exist, and she had to put up with the best that could be gathered on such short notice. On the 2 1 st, a letter by Mr. Herbert, from the War Office, told the world that "Miss Nightingale, accompanied by thirty-four nurses, will leave this evening. Miss Nightingale, who has, I believe, greater practical experience of hospital ad- ministration and treatment than any other lady in this country, has, with a self- devotion for which I have no words to express my gratitude, undertaken this noble but arduous work." A couple of days later there was a paragraph in the Times from Miss Night- ingale herself, referring to the gifts for the soldiers that had been offered so lav ishly : "Miss Nightingale neither invites nor refuses the generous offers. Her banking account is open at Messrs. Coutts's." On October 30th, the Times repub- lished from the Examiner a letter, headed, "Who is Miss Nightingale?" and signed "One who has known her." Then was made known to the British pub blic for the first time who the woman that had gone to the aid of the sick and wounded really was ; then it was shown that she was no hospital matron, but a young and singularly graceful and accomplished gentlewoman of wealth and position, who had, not in a moment of national enthusiasm, but as the set pur- pose of her life from girlhood up, devoted herself to the studying of God's great and good laws of health, and to trying to apply them to the help of her suffering fellow-creatures. From October 30, 1854, the heroine of the Crimean war was Florence Night ingale, and the heroine of that war will she be while the English tongue exists and English history is read. The national enthusiasm for her was at once in tense, and it grew deeper and more intense as week by week revealed her pow ers. " Less talent and energy of character, less singleness of purpose and devo-
