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" POT»TTT ATTfYNT ATsm rAPTTAT \ jx vi^x...
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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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; Nursing Sisterhoods. Ters Of Charity A...
| _- _^ Ve agree -with this author in the following remarks : — | ; _j 3 Ut while we admire tie institution of Sisters of Charity , and venerate the amiable 1 and excellent women composing it , we acknowledge at once the impossibility of estab- lishing any similar religious order in connexion with our Protestant churches . Still ¦ we do not despair of one day seeing enlisted in the service of the sick , countrywomen : of our own equal in every respect to this admirable sisterhood . Miss Nightingale and her band of heroines have shown that this is no Utopian idea—they have demonstrated that Englishwomen can do , from motives of humanity and patriotism , all that the enthusiasm of the devotee can perform . They have vanquished the prejudices and _conquered the applause of the public . They have broken through the trammels of conventional prudery , and achieved for themselves the esteem of all right-thinking people . Having overcome the scruples of a false delicacy , they have roused a noble rage for their philanthropic labours , and excited thousands of their countrywomen to emulate their heroic deeds . Henceforth , we venture to affirm , the nursing of the sick will be added to the list of female accomplishments . We cannot believe that the spirit which has animated these noble women will decline with the exigencies of the present war . We feel assured that the war has but kindled a spark which long lay smouldering in many a female bosom , and which will henceforth burn with a steady and useful _^ - . „ , . ,. _Whence reflect on the immense disparity of the sexes in this country , a disparity that must have been considerably increased by the dreadful sacrifice of men since the war broke out , we see that a large number of women must necessarily for ever remain nnmated ; for these no conjugal joys—or sorrows—are in store , no husband shall ever engross their love , no little ones shall ever lisp to them the name of mother . Many of these can make themselves useful to their friends and relations ; many can chalk out for themselves other spheres of usefulness ; some are endowed with talents for the arts and sciences fitting them to shine in society , or to instruct the world . But how many have no such career of utility or amusement before them . Are they destined to fritter away their lives in wearisome and profitless occupation ?—to yawn away the day over a novel?—to weave Penelope webs of Berlin wool representing unnatural flowers and monstrous animals ?—to draw unartistic landscapes and repulsive portraits ? -to write feeble verses , devoid of poetry ? -to strum long hours on the piano in hopes o £ acquiring : an ear for music?—to practice for months _together in the expectation of getting a voice ? Are they to be for ever debarred from employing their native talents in the most suitable manner , for ever condemned to labour in vain for the acquisition of accomplishments they never can excel in , and which can never be of the slightest use to themselves or their neighbours ? How many of them possess all those qualities which go to make the best of nurses ? How many have the cheerful patience , the exquisite sensibility and tenderness , the undeiinable womanly tact that soothes , more than opiates , the feverish irritability of patients , and helps to banish the tedium of the sick-bed ? And are all these medicinal powers to be lost to the sick because in England alone , of all Christian countries , society thinks it improper for ladies to perform the Christian duty of visiting the sick in the way most advantageous for these sick t ° Protestant Nursing Sisterhoods composed of volunteers might contain w omen of the lower classes as well as ladies ; but , probably , trained and paid nurses cannot for a long time be dispensed with advantageously in our military hospitals . Mr . S . G . Osborne is emphatic in his praise of Miss Nightingale and her associates—but a few words of qualification deserve to be quoted here , because , though to a certain extent _prejudiced where ladies are concerned , Mr . Osborne is much less so than the generality of English gentlemen , and he has been to Scutari and seen the actual working of the Lady Nurses there . He says : — England , and the English army , will ever owe a deep debt of gratitude to the ladies who have . devoted themselves to this first attempt to introduce the zeal and tender care of well-bred women into the economy of a military hospital . When the war is over , and they return to us , from their experience may be gained the valuable information , how far all the work they had to do in this crisis was work that , in the sober moment of calm consideration at home , they would recommend as a field for the charitable exertion of _Imglish ladies . _^ Mr . Osborne bears testimony to the high character and unsectarian spirit Of those ladies of Miss Sellon ' s sisterhood with whom he hud to do , when . i . _i _, . , , . . . , , . , _„ ,, . _,, ,. , ' _, taking chaplain s duty in the hospitals . Ihcre is really no rational ground Of objection to a Nursing Sisterhood any more than to a Dorcas bociety , or a . Ladies Committee of a Ladies College .
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" Pot»Ttt Attfynt Atsm Rapttat \ Jx Vi^X...
" POT » TTT _ATTfYNT _ATsm _rAPTTAT \ jx vi _^ _xxkjx * _A _^ _ij _uAiuau Population and Capital . By George K . Rickards , M . A . Longman and Co . We are pleased with this book for two reasons : because it is a good book , _ix . .. . 1 . 11 1 t- ,, , , , . and because it is a wanted book—conditions seldom to be found together in these days of literary fecundity . Perhaps another recommendation lies in the fact that its contents have already been submitted , in the form of lectures to the _eritids ™ of „ _c-iticulI audience ; for Mr . _Riekar , lS i . _Tro- lessor ot 1 _olitical _Economy at the University of Oxford , and this book contains nothing but a course of lectures delivered by him in that capacity . Widening the sphere of his influence , the lecturer now offers the fruit of his Studies to all who feel an interest in the momentous subject of which he treats , and it is possible that in doing so he may accomplish some more solid _rm _^ _ri fii « n _^ ...,. _„ . _^ _:,, v , _^ i _a c 4- _ir _. < m m ' a . t > _i- j ' i _i- good than cramming a class of students with _sufficient Political _Economy to enable them to pass mi exumniation . Although by far tlio larger portion of the volume is taken up with the subject of population , we prefer to confine the few remarks which we are about to make chiefly to the subject of Capital , that being the topic upon which , as wo conceive , more-popular errors exist , and as to which it is more _t / . _, ., . . . . I ,, -i un _u _« _t _* r i , needful that correct , opinions should prevail . Whether Mr . Multhus was or was not logical when no produced his famous dogma tliat " population has a constant tendency to increase beyond tho means of subsistence , " it is quite certain that no such tendency is operating to tho disadvantage of this _country at the _preaont day , nor seems likely to do for some tune to come So _* r * _. » _potato ouMtrippi ,, g _» w ™« . it m _« i 1 » _ad ,,. _' , _^! , 1 > Ht , lt tnis present moment , in spito of a depressed trade , no branch of _lnduutry is _overstocked with labour , whilst tho difEoulty of obtaining recruits for the
naval and military arm prove demonstration that the Queen has to f rather than too many subjects upon her dominions . Those who feel interest in pursuing this question , and who wish to _mingle a little 1 _^ reasoning with the pleasant speculations upon the Census which have laM _8 appeared in Blackivood , will do well to go carefully through Mr _TTi ? imis ' s successful refutation of the Malthusian fallacy . _Giving _JVJalti _, Sf " fnU credit for honesty of purpose , and admitting that that _well-abnlrf v Ianthrop ; st is not really _tJhe charged with folly and impiety as hetf ,, _, _¦> . _*! -, . . J _± \ . _* . z ± . \ , _^ V nas been , . Mr - _Boards _^ ° _s we conceive , the exact truth when he _explain that increase of p opulation must be taken , not indeed as an absolute proof , but as an indication of the prosperity of a nation . __ As the produce of a country increases , as its commerce spreads , as its industrial arts demand fresh supplies of labour , marriage ( the sure consequence of prosperity ) suppling the demand , and p roves the wealth which has called it into activity . One great excuse for Malthus's error lies in the fact that he never saw the fetter of protection removed from the food of the people , and it must be admitted tll . lt the spectacle of the law of population acting with natural freedom on the one hand , and that of the provision of food _acting under unnatural restrainfc 8 on the ot j was likoly to alarm a philosophical mind _UnS . . ,. . . ' J i {• r "" - under _^ i stl ng conditions , however , we must avow our belief m the converse of the Malthusian dogma , and discarding alike all faith in the efficacy of physical checks and moral checks upon the great law of nature , accept it for a truth that the productive power of a community te ? _tds to increase more rapidl y than the number of the consumers . The solitary lecture on Capital opens with a very intelligible definition of what Capital really is ; all the more necessary when we find such men _aa ] y [ r Butt , and Sir Robert Kane , blundering upon the point : the former speakin o- of waste lands , and the latter of labour , as Capital . Capital sar a Mr Rickarils is " anything whatever , the result of previous labour : which L . } ' k _^ odu tiou „ . in tliese words j t £ defined as the fl _/ _- . ¦>¦ , } c t _« . _* _i i ¦ _vwwiut of P as _* lil _^ ur f _» v _^ d f immediate consumption , and employed for the purpose of p roducing something else . It is the reproductive power which makes it Capital . This definition once _cleai'ly understood , there can be ao ditiiculty in ut once determining what is Capital and what is not . The use alone makes Capital ; as the corn , which may be consumed as food , becomes j Capital by being laid by for seed . In quoting this instance of the corn , Mr . _, Rickards draws a curious and ingenious analogy applicable to a great proportion of what may be strictly called Capital , - namely , that in the process of reproductioii , the original Capital becomes depreciated before it yields an increase > This is _° o with almost all raw materials , with the food _-, ., r _..-. , _, i • i ' ,. . " | and other necessaries of tiie labourer , and is a curious gloss upon the text , " That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die . " _Jn drawing a very just distinction between productive _smd unproductive consumption , Mr . Rickards demolishes that revolting and dangerous fallacy , that " private vices are public benefits ; " a fallacy which has had some illustrious supporters , and which is the foundation of the popular favour with which those who " spend their money freely" are regarded . A modern French j writer , M . de Saint Chaumeiis , has succeeded , unintentionally , in reducing this argument ad absurdum , by not only advocating luxurious living on economical grounds , but maintaining that war and even great conflagrations are advantageous , ' ¦ ' ou account of the extensive cinplo 3 r ment to which they ¦ . give rise . " Very little reflection will convince us that the man who accumu-, lutes capital ( i . e . a fund for the employment of labour ) is a greater public ! benefactor th : _in he who spends a fortune upon luxury and self-indulgence ; but this is not the popular belief , as the feeling towards spenthrilts too surel proves . The example by which M . Rickards illustrates his distinction is so _^^ th & t w ( j ( jannot 1 iorl ; ear quoting it : . . . _^ , . A ex P ends _»^ ven . sum _°£ mo ? ev in . a cost 1 _^ _pntertainment _, B expends the _sme sum in converting a piece of undramed morass into a potato-garden . _Jiach gives employment by that one act of expenditure , to a certain amount of labour , and contributes to the maintenance of a certain number of families—belonging , indeed , in ( ha two cases to a different class , but we will assume the benefit conferred in this respect to be equal . The value thus expended is in both instances consumed , but with how different a result ! In the former case the viands are eaten , the music ceases , the garlands fade , the guests have enjoyed their revel . Nothing beyond the ploasuroof the hour has been the result of that profitless expenditure . No fund survives for employing a new series of wine-growers , serving-men , confectioners , and musicians . So much Vtthl ° has been irrevocably sunk and lost . To that extent A has becomes poorer man than ho was before . On the other hand , 1 $ , the improver of the sou , lfl not only as rich as hc WIl 8 beforo hia oxpouditttro commenced , but richer . Uia potato-ground has returned a produce which not only repluces all that he 1 ms paid to llis labourers in wages , together with the tithes and taxes , and a por-conLage on hifl j _«»? _ZT _^' _iZX _^^ _Zct" _^ _h " , _^ " _' _luC _? Z J _^^ _fLtS expend over again in maintaining labourers and their families ; year after year the _proc"ms of reproductive _consumption may go on ; the same capital may be again and again t ! in P loy « d _> consumed , and replaced , _furniriliiiig in each successive cyclo maintenance tO the labourop ° " d incomo tO tho c _« _PU'llist-Out of . this definition of productive Capital , a wider and oven more > _importaut view opens , namely , that however prone the human mind may _ociu bccomc sordi ( 1 \ md roveIlm ; n thu U 1 , suft of WCIllr _,, tlie uctUal _ncc-umul * _- tio production ) _aifd employment of wealth can act in no other way tlmn to the benefit of society . Let this be thoroughly understood , and the fallacious I doctrine of antagonism between Capital and Labour , which _agitators have I HO loI 1 S tllk " n urt tho to . ' xt if ° r tllc ' il % pemioious harangues , is at unco ilewo-! ia 1 " _^ . _^' r , 0 , 1 ! 1 _' _11 _" 11 _? 1 Ul , iy , b ° U l _" U ; d "" _" / ' ' -I ' , 11 " " _^^ _"Xl _' b M _. _dk ' onho but Capital follows fixed laws , and must either work to tuo _uenoJU 01 _w « workman , or it must disappear . We cannot help thinking that if Mr . Rickards would reprint tho li _: cturo upon Capital in so cheap a form as to render it available for _distributio n among tho working-classes , ho would etf ' uot a public service , 'i hero ci b . ° ? doubfc thufc , ifc f would thoroughly bo understood _aind warmly « . m _Tor _^ o _t _^ Z _^^ _ZSTl _^ " _^^^ ' _^ 1 _^ _* - £ thousand dogmatic pamphlets asserting , not proving , that tho operative _^ invariably in the wrong .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/sldr_16061855/page/10/
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