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f "" r T ' Vr "r:~":~~' ¦ ¦ ¦"r ' — •-¦-...
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~~ ' And the book ? What about Moredun i...
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r NURSING SISTERHOODS. Sisters of Charit...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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. A Queer Story. Moredun: A Tale Of The ...
rying three volumes , tastefully bound in red cloth , and very clearly and beautifully printed . " Ladies and gentlemen , " cry these discreet men , " M . Cabany is coming on the stage directly ; but we want to have a word with you before him , if you please . He is a very nice man , and he has in our opinion some very pretty proofs to sustain his assertions in respect to this bSok . Consequently we are-well disposed to entertain the _que / tion of , _ts publication . But observe , we don t commit ourselves ! We don ' t say it is actually by bir Walter Scott—we only mention , by the way , that it is . ascribed to fc » ir Walter bcott ; and we leave you , O intelligent and inquisi- tive public , to buy the book and settle the question ! " Having got thus far , our cautious gentlemen bow , and retire immediately afterwards . The war whoop of M . Cabany is heard behind the scenes , and is answered from the opposite wing by the derisive yells of the London Press . The sharp whir- ring of pens and the multitudinous _rustling of papers announce the ap- preaching combat ; and the grand scene which is to end ail-nobody being supposed to know how , but everybody being nevertheless perfectly well able to guess-has this moment begun . Walk up , ladies and gentlemen , walk up ! All the gorgeous effects , dazzling scenery , and unparalleled corn _l _binations have been saved for the last . Half-price has commenced , and the terrific combat between Cabany and the Critics will be on in five minutes !
F "" R T ' Vr "R:~":~~' ¦ ¦ ¦"R ' — •-¦-...
f "" r T ' Vr " r : _~" : ~~ ' ¦ ¦ ¦" _r ' _— _- ¦ _- ¦ _- ¦ _-- _—— _,-JLJ ; : ' . P : _l-.- J''M :. _^ _-..,. ,,. W ¦ June 16 , 1855 . j THE LEABEE . 585
~~ ' And The Book ? What About Moredun I...
~~ ' And the book ? What about Moredun itself ? Only this : It is , in one respect , a remarkably useful book , for its publication will settle the question between M . Cabany and the public at once and for ever . Such a clumsy imposture as this novel represents we do not believe to have been ever paralleled in the whole disgraceful history of literary frauds . We fix the blame of the imposition upon nobody—we only assert that it is an imposition , We have no desire to express any doubt of M . Cabany's sincerity—we only venture to hint that he is at least a grievously deluded man . As it seems to us , any human being who could read fifty consecutive pages of Moredun _anywhere in the three volumes , and believe that Walter Scott could have written them at any time or under any circumstances , must not only be a living marvel of credulity , but must have lost all sense of the difference in literary work between good and bad . The book is such a triumph of prosiness , clumsiness , and emptiness , that it is literally unreadable . We assert that distinctly and unreservedly , not as the result of our own expe- rience only , but as the result of the experience of others . If our readers want to test the correctness of the assertion , let them borrow the novel ; let them not forget that M . Cabany himself fixes as the date of its production a period when the unrivalled powers of Sir Walter Scott were at their zenith —a period either a little before or a little after Waverley was published— let them remember this ; and then let them read Moredun fairly through to the end if they can . The last novels Scott ever wrote , lamentably as they demonstrate the failing of his mind under calamity and overwork , are , with all their faults , so superior to Moredun , that they are not to be mentioned in the same breath with it . We had prepared notes of errors and imbecilities , which we detected while wading through the book , and which we thought of inserting in the present article . But , on reflection , the criticising of this very wretched production in detail seems like mere waste of time and space . We leave it to accomplish its own exposure ; not trusting ourselves to express what we felt on finding that such a book had absolutely been associated in public with the honoured and glorious name of Walter Scott !
R Nursing Sisterhoods. Sisters Of Charit...
r NURSING SISTERHOODS . Sisters of Charity Abroad and at Home . By Mrs . Jameson . Longman and Co . Scutari and its Hospitals , liy the Hon . and Rev . S . G . Osborne . Dickenson Brothers , Notes on Nurses . H . Bailliere , Regent-street , These three small works ( the two first by well-known hands , the last by one unknown ) treat of the question of Nursing Sisterhoods , a subject which has lately occupied the attention of the general public , but which has , for many years past , been under the consideration of that" other public "—that unofficial imperium in iinpcrw—which must in all things of importance , sooner or later , sway the opinion of « the general / ' by its divine right , not of superior truth but of superior brains . This question of Nursing Sisterhoods is a thing of importance , not for a time of disastrous war onfy , but for all times . And it is a question in which the Leader takes special interest on account of its connexion with some great social reforms towards the attainment of which this journal is ever anxious to work . Among the unrepresented classes whose interests we have advocated fro in time to time is a somewhat numerous one called Women . Many of these women , it is true , arc represented in the commonwealth , to their entire satisfaction , by husbands , fathers , and brothers , but many others arc not . We will not make a formidable array of facts and figures on the present , occasion-one fact will be strong enough to serve as basis for our argument , In the census tables of Great lfritain Tor 1831 there was an excess of some- thing like half a miUion of the female over the male population . It may fairly bo taken for granted that this half a million of wonlen is neither represented _^ nor supported by men They support thon « elvcs _^ they are un- represented in , and turned to no account by , the state . Lhe question ol fomale representation in the state we will hand over without sneering at it , to Debating Societies . A good deal may be mode of , t 1 there , _™* V _* _£ _W also m general circles , on the other side of the Atlantic , but we do not think our most ardent reformers can discuss it in a newspaper with any hope of a wise practical result for England at the _present tune . Our country us either too old , or not old enough , to entertain the question now . But though we set aside the right of representation for women , wo take up tlie other question ( vitally far more important ) , their _rig ht to labour for tho good of the community . Shall we utilise the labour of our criminals and lot that of energetic , pious—even of g ifted and highly-educated women— run to waste ? For that it does run to waste at present no one who watches society with a discerning cyo can doubt . Mrs . Jameson , and the author of Notes _^ n Nurses agree & to the chief causes of this evil-itself the cause of numerous othor evils in our social state . Mrs . Jameson eays : —
_Lying at the source of the mischief we trace a great mistake and a great want . Tne £ reat mistake seems to have been , that in all our legislation , it is taken for _£ ran . ted that the woman is always protected , always under tutelage , always within the P recin _° te of a home ; finding there her work , her interests her duties , and her happiand tho _^ Lnd _, of _^ ? h ° W lfc / V g _^ I *?* "I tbowua i a are _^ Ztet _^ to carry out into the larger community the sympathies , the _domestic instincts , the active administrative capabilities with which God has endowed them ; but these instincts , sympathies , capabilities , require first to be properly developed , then pro- perly trained , and then directed into large and useful channels , according to the individual tendencies . _As to tae want , what I insist on particularly is , that the means do not exist for the train _* ng of those powers ; that the sphere of duties which should occupy them is n ° t acknowledged ; and I must express my deep conviction that society is suffering in _^ pths through this great mistake , and this great want . f _^ niay be said that the law does not prevent women of the better classes *™ U \ lab _, 2 , uring singly or in companies in any calling for which they may be fitt ? d - The _X . aw does no > hu _? , ubbc ° _P"" ° n , _^ hich , for the generality of s _? ch women . > 1 S m « re potent than any law , does prevent them Only the _g " _, necessit y > which knows no law , coerces them to labour for daily bread . ± > ut all poor women of the educated classes cannot be governesses , authoresses , artists . Nature has put her veto clearly enough on that matter , as may be seen by the failure of nine-tenths of those who attempt to act in opposition to it—because , as they say with touching weakness , * ' there is nothing else that a lady can do for a livelihood in this country . " Besides these who have to work for bread , there are hundreds of unmarried English women who " have bread enough and to spare , " but who want an occupation , an in- terest—in short , real work _, that will take them , out of themselves . For , let it never be forgotten by those who theorise or practise in this matter of woman ' s work , wholesome work for a woman must take her out of herselfshe is formed to minister to others , not to achieve for herself . To build up a " fortune , to found a family , to carve out an honourable career in life , that he may be known and esteemed among his fellows , is the result of a man ' s instinctive egotism ; a woman's instinctive egotism leads her to do whatever work she undertakes for somebody else , not for herself . The ordinary , the natural object of her devotion , is a man . But if there exist no such natural object for this or that particular woman—or if , which amounts to the same thing for her , she cannot discover him , or get en rapport with him in this complicated artificial life of our ours—what is she to do ? Surely not to allow her best powers to lie dormant or to be frittered away unworthily ? Yet , unless they labour for bread , this is the case with the generality of women . With those of larger natures than the generality—with the Miss Nightingales , Mrs . Chisholms , Mrs . Frys , it is otherwise . They are sure to work out their own salvation—they are exceptional , and will live their life with or without the aid of institutions and public opinion ; they are the fashioners of institutions and opinions . We cannot prize too highly such women , who are of " the salt of the earth ; " but we need not legislate for them—they are a law unto themselves . Moreover , we should do well to set them to legislate for the multitude of women who desire to be of use in the world . In nothing has the Roman Catholic Church , in every age , shown greater wisdom and knowledge of human nature , than in her systematic appropria- tion and direction of strong individual impulses to pious or benevolent action . Communities of women for charitable purposes were very early taken into the bosom of the Church , which knew so well how to utilise the " feminine element , " always superabundant in society . Les Sccurs ffospi- talieres in Paris were appointed to take charge of the Hotel-Dieu when Bishop Laudry founded it in the middle of the seventh century ; and from that time to the present , " the Hotel-Dieu , " says Mrs . Jameson , " with its one thousand beds , the hospital of St . Louis with its seven hundred beds , and that of LaPitie with its six hundred beds , are served by the same sisterhood under whose care they were originally placed centuries ago These sisters were pluced under the rule of the Augustines by Innocent IV . The world- famous Begumes also existed as a sisterhood in the seventh century . Their services as nurses are not confined to _Glanders ; they travel wherever the Church tuinks *»* to f end . thcin - T _£ he German sisterhood of St . Elizabeth of Hungary ( the heroine of Kmgsley ' s Saints _rrarjedy ) is as highly esteemed in Germany as the Begumes in Flanders ; and Mrs . Jameson records the fact , that when Joseph II . suppressed the nunneries in Austria and Flanders , lie excepted both these sisterhoods " on account of the use- _*« l » ess of their vocation . " It is not necessary to specify other communities of female volunteers for works of love and mercy to give some idea of what has been done mono single department of woman swork—Nursing-Is the _"ornan Church the only power that can organise for general _utohtythe active benevolence of single women ? Protestants have a salutary dread of nunneries and so have we But a nurs ng Bistorliood need have no reJ - gious bond ; though attempts of the _^^ J _^ . _° _^^ J _^ . _^ e a _§^ rable _establis hments by Miss Sellon , have been m _coniusxion w h the J _* gb Church . 1 he Low Church par v and all the . lissei ting _bodics have a nior- ta _^ an . pathy to _sistorlioocIs _£ n _« fro te s _^ _£ oujit U > _^ he _^^^ _^[^ _^ P _^ _^ _Ni _ff lltinpaio underwent . , , _training as a hospital nurse . There is a small _pam-^ _i _' 1 / _,, J _^ liod _Sv llookl n ? which cPves a complete account of _Kafsers- Si ' _MZ t _> niln _"S _^ _div _^ _es sev _^ l pageL to it , which our readers _interesting ln _NoU-s on Nurses , there is the following _Jg _* _^^ f _FH 0 _^ r ' s i stit t on at Kaisersworth _, and of the more _^ " _^ VermoiT n l » ar " - re _^ _J 0 ° i no _J _^ _i , 18 titution of « o called _Proteatant _Deaconossos _, founded in 1886 by p usU ) r Fiic ( lner at Kaiwraworlh » n tho Khino , whore about li ) 0 _nuraoa huvo been educttted and litted for t _j 10 ( Illtil ! H or attending tho _uick and niiniatering to tho wants uotonly ' of tho body bllt of tho _» oul . Tho German hospital at _Dalaton , bo it re- murkcd ; cn pagHant / ia Horvcd by _Hve of theao _deaconesaoa . An _oatabhahn _. ent of Pro- _toatant _Slatora of Charity wan Instituted in l _' ana in 1841 , Dy 1 _uator vermeil , ana ia stiu ln a _flouriehine _Btuto . _Altogothor the number of _r * ° _** t _* nt nuramg 8 _iaters on tho continent ia _considerably over 400 . The _^^^ aTm _^ Ut and Berlin tion are at _Kaiaonmorth , Paris , btraaburg , St . Loup , _Uroaden _, UtrccUt , ana _uerun . | |
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/scld_16061855/page/9/
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