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The public may also learn what they are to expect when they demand from a professional man that knowledge which it is impossible he should possess . Thus he is often expected to give the history , past , present , and future , of the case presented for his opinion . As a
general rule , the causes of disease are little known to the medical man ; but he is always expected to give a full account of them . Equally unreasonable it is to expect from a solicitor a positive decision as to the result of a coming trial . Why , " the glorious uncertainty of the law" is his very life .
But with regard to the profession of arms , —a body of men whom recent events have taught us to respect and almost revere , —who shall gainsay the tactics of our military and naval commanders , now that victory has stamped them at once with wisdom and power ? So long as the event was doubtful , it was easy to sit in Printing-house Square , and happily ignorant of the smell of gun-powder , to scrutinize
the hidden plans and tactics of those to whom the fate of Europe was committed ; and in language which , though big and blustering , might afterwards be turned either way , so to prefigure the coming events as that either a victory or a defeat might seem to careless readers to justify the self-eulogium , showing how clearly the results had all been foreseen . Yerily , these heroes of the quill are stealthy , if not valorous , knights .
As to the conduct of our successive governments in the disastrous commencement of the war , it were treason and treachery to believe that there are two opinions in the country . Never was so awful a sacrifice of human life made at the shrine of low , selfish partizanship ; and while justly regarding diplomacy as a species of professional
science , w e hold ourselves justified in denouncing not the policy , for policy has no place in the proceedings , but the selfishness ^ the reclclessness , the brutal disregard of the health and lives of the defenders of their country , which last winter ' s campaign revealed as the attributes of those to whose management the conduct of the war wad committed . Our recent successes shall never obliterate from our
minds the remembrance of that national crime . No doubt it was jovial fun to certain parties in the state to make widows and orphans just for a freak , to send out the pride of the national blood to starve and rot , and die unheeded and unpitied . It was congenial to this merry company to rebuke with severity the medical remonstrances which , at the suggestions of humanity , were reiterated from the camp and from the hospital . And is it not now a pretty thing to
say , as all history will say , that when the British government would have destroyed its whole military force , just by letting them perish for want of necessaries , the wreck of the- army w as saved by a woman ! Yes ; Miss Nightingale fed the men who would have starved , restored the wounded who would have died , and thus rescued the army from defeat ; and by saving the army , saved Europe . There are men who will not believe the truth of the tradition of Joan of Arc . Let them read the records of the Nightingale campaign . This lady ' s zeal , prowess , energy , and magnanimity , has never been
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
The public may also learn what they are to expect when they demand from a professional man that knowledge which it is impossible he should possess . Thus he is often expected to give the history , past , present , and future , of the case presented for his opinion . As a
general rule , the causes of disease are little known to the medical man ; but he is always expected to give a full account of them . Equally unreasonable it is to expect from a solicitor a positive decision as to the result of a coming trial . Why , " the glorious uncertainty of the law" is his very life .
But with regard to the profession of arms , —a body of men whom recent events have taught us to respect and almost revere , —who shall gainsay the tactics of our military and naval commanders , now that victory has stamped them at once with wisdom and power ? So long as the event was doubtful , it was easy to sit in Printing-house Square , and happily ignorant of the smell of gun-powder , to scrutinize
the hidden plans and tactics of those to whom the fate of Europe was committed ; and in language which , though big and blustering , might afterwards be turned either way , so to prefigure the coming events as that either a victory or a defeat might seem to careless readers to justify the self-eulogium , showing how clearly the results had all been foreseen . Yerily , these heroes of the quill are stealthy , if not valorous , knights .
As to the conduct of our successive governments in the disastrous commencement of the war , it were treason and treachery to believe that there are two opinions in the country . Never was so awful a sacrifice of human life made at the shrine of low , selfish partizanship ; and while justly regarding diplomacy as a species of professional
science , w e hold ourselves justified in denouncing not the policy , for policy has no place in the proceedings , but the selfishness ^ the reclclessness , the brutal disregard of the health and lives of the defenders of their country , which last winter ' s campaign revealed as the attributes of those to whose management the conduct of the war wad committed . Our recent successes shall never obliterate from our
minds the remembrance of that national crime . No doubt it was jovial fun to certain parties in the state to make widows and orphans just for a freak , to send out the pride of the national blood to starve and rot , and die unheeded and unpitied . It was congenial to this merry company to rebuke with severity the medical remonstrances which , at the suggestions of humanity , were reiterated from the camp and from the hospital . And is it not now a pretty thing to
say , as all history will say , that when the British government would have destroyed its whole military force , just by letting them perish for want of necessaries , the wreck of the- army w as saved by a woman ! Yes ; Miss Nightingale fed the men who would have starved , restored the wounded who would have died , and thus rescued the army from defeat ; and by saving the army , saved Europe . There are men who will not believe the truth of the tradition of Joan of Arc . Let them read the records of the Nightingale campaign . This lady ' s zeal , prowess , energy , and magnanimity , has never been