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June 16, 1855. J THE LEADER • • 585
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And the book ? What about Moredun itself...
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; NURSING SISTERHOODS. ters of Charity A...
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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 Talc Qfthe Twe...
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 _5 ur opinion some very pretty proofs to sustain his assertions in respect to ihis book . Consequently we are well disposed to entertain the question of _s actually by Sir Walter Scott—we only mention , by the way , that it is iscnbed to fc > ir Walter _bcott ; and we leave you , O intelligent and inquisi- ivepublic , to buy the book and settle the question ! " Having got thus far , mr cautious gentlemen bow , and retire immediately afterwards . The war irlioop of M . Cabany is heard behind the scenes , and is answered from the _pposite wing by the derisive yells of the London Press . The sharp whir- ing of pens and the multitudinous _rustling of papers announce the ap- roaching combat ; and the grand scene which is to end all—nobody bein < r apposed to know how , but everybody being nevertheless perfectly well bie to guess—has this moment begun . Walk up , ladies and _gentlemen , ¦ alk up ! All the gorgeous effects , dazzling scenery , and unparafleled com _l inations have been saved for the last . Half-price Las commenced , and the jrrific combat between Cabany and the Critics will be on in five minutes !
June 16, 1855. J The Leader • • 585
June 16 , 1855 . J THE LEADER • 585
And The Book ? What About Moredun Itself...
And the book ? What about Moredun itself ? Only this : It is , in one _sspect , a remarkably useful book , for its publication will settle the question 3 tween M . Cabany and the public at once and for ever . Such a clumsy iposture as this novel represents we do not believe to have been ever iralleled in the whole disgraceful history of literary frauds . We fix the ame of the imposition upon nobody—we only assert that it is an imposition , r , e have no desire to express any doubt of M . Cabany ' s sincerity—we only nture to hint that , he is at least a grievously deluded man . As it seems us , any human being who could read fifty consecutive pages of Moredun lywhere in the three volumes , and believe that Walter Scott could have ritten them at any time or under any circumstances , must not only be a ring marvel of credulity , but must have lost all sense of the difference in erary work between good and bad . The book is such a triumph of osiness , clumsiness , and emptiness , that it is literally unreadable . We sert that distinctly and unreservedly , not as the result of our own expe- ; nce only , but as the result of the experience of others . If our readers mt to test the correctness of the assertion , let them borrow the novel ; let am not forget that M . Cabany himself fixes as the date of its production a riod when the unrivalled powers of Sir Walter Scott were at their zenith a period either ji little before or a little after Wxverley was published— , them remember this ; and then let them read Moredun fairly through to _e end if they can . The last novels Scott ever wrote , lamentably as By demonstrate the failing of his mind under calamity and overwork , 3 , with all their faults , so superior to Moredun _, that they are not to be jntioned in the same breath with it . We had prepared notes of errors d imbecilities , which we detected while wading through the book , and ich we thought of inserting in the present article . But , on reflection , the ticising of this very wretched production in detail seems like mere waste time and space . We leave it to accomplish its own exposure ; not isting ourselves to express what we felt on finding that such a book had _solutely been associated in public with the honoured and glorious name of alter Scott ! —
; Nursing Sisterhoods. Ters Of Charity A...
; NURSING SISTERHOODS . ters of Charity Abroad and at Home . By Mrs . Jameson . Longman and Co . itari and its Hospitals . Uy the Hon . and Rev . S . G . _Oshorne . Dickenson Brothers , tes on _Nwses . H . Bailliere , Regent-street , [ ese three small works ( the two first by well-known hands , the last by 2 unknown ) treat of the question of Nursing Sisterhoods , a subject ich has lately occupied the attention of the general public , but which _i , for many years past , been under the consideration of that " other _Uie" —that unofficial imperinm in vnperio—whkh must in all things of _aortance . sooner or later , sway the opinion of " the general , " by its divine at , not of superior truth but of superior brains . This question of _rslng Sisterhoods is a thing of importance , not for a time of disastrous r only , but for all times . And it is a question in which the Leader takes ! Cial interest on account of its connexion with some great social reforms _rards the attainment of which this journal is ever anxious to work . _Imong the unrepresented classes whose interests wo have advocated from le to time is a somewhat numerous one called Women . Many of these men , it is true , are represented in the commonwealth , to their entire _faction , by husbands , fathers , and brothers , but many others are not . b will not make _ti formidable array of facts and figures on the present _aurfon-ono fact vill be strong enough to serve as basis for our argument , the census tables of Great Britain Tor 1851 there was an excess of some- ng like half a million of the female over the male population . It may fairly tnken for granted that this half a million of woinenn , _nrftf _jor fc _-P ~ l , nor supported by men I hey support _tho'UBclvcj , and «» cy J o un- . resented _, m , and turned to no account by , the state Ihe question of aale representation in the state we will hand over , without sneering at it , Debating Societies . A good deal may be made _o' " _' _^ o _™ _; « md Per haps , o _. in general circles , on the other side of the Atlantic ; but we do not ak our most ardont reformers can _discuss it in a newspaper with any hope a wise practical result for _England at the present tune . Our country is iiertoo old , or not old enough , to entertain the question now . But High we set aside the right of representation for women , wo take up the ier question ( vitally fur more important ) , their right to labour for the ) d of the community . Shall we _utility the labour of our criminals and tlmt of energetic , pious—even of gifted and highly-educated women— i to waste ? For that it does run to waste at present no one who watches iety with _u discerning eyo can doubt . Mrs . Jameson , and tho author of tes on Nurses agree as to the chief causes of thin ovil-itsolf the cause numerous other evils in our social state . Mrs . Jameson says :-
Lying at the source of the mischief we trace a great mistake and a great want . Tiie ff 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 _° ts of a hotne 5 finding there her work , her interests , her duties , and her happine 3 _f L ls _^ hi 3 c tme ? w _« _\ now that » t _^ altogether false . There are thousands _*?' . _JKTf i , wornen _? ho ave n ° P _™**** 01 ! ' n «> « _"de , no help , no home ; who active administrative capabilities with which God has endowed them ; but these . instincts , sympathies , capabilities , require first to be properly developed , then properly trained , and then directed into large and useful channels , according to the individual tendencies . - _^ to tne want , what I insist on particularly is , that the means do not exist for _the traiain of those powers ; that the sphere of duties which should occupy them is not ackaowlc < iged ; and I must express my deep conviction that society is suffering in its depths through this great mistake , and this great want . v ll ; _"W be . said that tlie law does not prevent women of the better classes £ r ° : i y _£ _? ni l g s " ! S lv or in _. companies in any calling for which they may be nt _, rhe v does not ' but Public ° Pmion > which , for the generality of such wonlen . > 1 S m u ° . re Potent th <™ an _7 law > does prevent them Only the stern necessity , which knows no law coerces them to labour for daily bread . But all poor women of the educated classes cannot be go vernesses , authoresses , artists . Nature has put her veto clearly enough oh 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 interest—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 herself —• she 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 naturjl 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 appropriation 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 know so well how to utilise the " feminine element , " always superabundant in society . Les Sozurs Hospitalieres in Paris were appointed to take charge of the Hotel-Dieu when Bishop Laudiy 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 La Pitie with its six hundred beds , are served by the same sisterhood under whoso care they were originally placed centuries ago . Ihcse sisters were placed under the rule of the Augustines by Innocent IV . Ihe worldfamous Beginnes also existed as a sisterhood in the seventh century . Iheir services as nurses are not confined to Handera ; they travel wherever the Church thinks fit to send them . Ihe German sisterhood of St . _Elizabeth oi Hungary ( the heroine . of Kingsley ' s Saints I _rogedy ) is as highly esteemed in Germany as the Bcgumes in 1 landers ; and Mrs . Jameson records the fact , that when Joseph II . suppressed the nunneries in Austria ami Handera , he excepted both these sisterhoods " on account of the use-*» l » ess f _^ vocation . " It is not necessary to specify other communities f t female volunteers for works of love and mercy to give some idea of what V been done in one single department of woman s work—Nursing . Is the Woman Church the only power that can organise for general utility the active benevolence of single women ? Protestants have n salutary dread of "unner . es and so have we But a nursing sisterhood nee d have n or - g _^ us bond : though attempts of the kind among . ouwolvcs , k _«^« o » _g" _J _jahlc _catablwlnionta by Miss bcllon . have been in _connojio w h the H gn Church . Ihe Low Church party and all the d . _sse g _^ bodas have a _mor-^ _K _^ _noS _^ _A B ° rELl _f _^^ T _^^ X _^ o establishment that Miss _Nig htingulo underwent { , j _tr-iinin _« r as a hospital nurse . There is a small _pain-JJJ _™ / _JJJ J _JVJ'JJ _J ! _? _^ £ 1 _ZS a complete account of _Kaisers-»)* ° 1 _^ _VumLon _" _^ _Ivl _^ s _^ ral page ? to it , which our readers _interesting In Notes on Nurses , there is the following _£ ' n u vuy u . ui _^ . x _^ _Kniserswertli , and of the more uncI mention , oi j . _iipunci s _insiuuuu rC _^" ° i " thT _institution of so called Protestant _Deaconesses , founded in 183 G by past () r FiieunOr at KaisorHworth on lh _« liliino , where about 11 ) 0 nurses have been e { lucated nnu ft ( toa for _" tho duties of iittending the sick and _niiniutering to tho _vrunta Il 0 t only ' of tUc body blIt of tho soul . The German hospital at DulMton , bo it remarkod | en passant , i _« served by five of these _donconcssea . An establishment of J _rotostant _Sintorn of Charity wiih iiiHtituted in runs m 1841 , by 1 _untor vermeil , ana is atill in a nourishing state . Altogether the number of x _" _^ . _^ the continent |» considerably over 400 . Tho , » n _^^^ J _^ _J _^^ _Sj * _- tion are at _Kaisorswerth , l ' nrw _, Strasburg , bt . Loup , Dresden , Utrecht , and liorlin .
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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) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/sldr_16061855/page/9/
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