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Leader (1850-1860), 16th June 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Supplement to 273, Page 10, &eg THE iLEAP E ; R. t^Tuao gg, I to

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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 .

  • Citation
    • 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/