French corps d'armée to the Tchernaya, under General Bosquet, to act with the Turkish and Sardinian contingents; General St. Jean d'Angely succeeding to the command that general held before Sebastopol. Whilst the French assaulted the Malakoff, the English were to assault the Great Redan; and, these works taken, it was confidently anticipated that the fall of Sebastopol must follow. On receiving his orders to take his new command (and he was not well pleased with the change) General Bosquet left the camp on the 16th of June, and established his headquarters upon the Fediukine heights, where two French corps and the Sardinians were cantoned. The same day General St. Jean d'Angely assumed his new command; and, in concert with the English commander, made the necessary arrangements for the assault on the Malakoff and the Redan, which took place on the morning of the 18th of June, and failed after several hours' desperate fighting and immense slaughter. The assault was not well managed. It was arranged to take place at 6 A. M.; but, in the night of the 17th, General Pelissier sent to Lord Raglan to propose that it should be made at daybreak; as, if delayed till six o'clock, the movements would be exposed to the Russians. Lord Raglan remonstrated against making the change at that late hour; but General Pelissier, supported by his council of officers, persisted; and the English General consented, though very reluctantly, and occupied several hours in dispatching the necessary orders to Sir George Brown, and the other officers who were to take part in the attack. Then, in the morning, the French General, Mayran, thought the signal for the assault was given some time before it really was; and thus the necessary coöperation was destroyed. No wonder that, under these circumstances, there was that "want of simultaneity" to which General Pelissier ascribed the failure. The loss of life was very great.

This event had a most painful effect upon Lord Raglan; and it is thought to have predisposed him to an attack of cholera, of which he died on the 28th of June, to the great regret of both armies. His remains were transported to England.

During June, July, and the first fortnight in August, the

troops on the Tchernaya remained inactive. In the latter month a deserter brought intelligence that the Russians were preparing to attack them. The intelligence proved correct. Prince Menschikoff had been obliged to leave the Crimea on account of ill-health; he was succeeded by Prince Gortschakoff, who determined to make in person what, in his dispatch, he calls a reconnaissance of this position; it was, in reality, a determined attack. It commenced at daybreak of the 17th of August; when the Russians gained the crest of a hill on which the French were posted, before any one was aware of their approach. However, their presence was soon known; and though they moved in great masses and fought well, they were completely defeated. The Piedmontese behaved very gallantly; and an English battery which flanked their columns and a squadron of English cavalry rendered efficient assistThe Traktir bridge, over the Tchernaya, defended by the French, was several times attacked, but without success; and after fighting about six hours, the enemy, repulsed on all points, retreated, and by 3 P. M. had entirely disappeared. Again the slaughter was great; both banks of the Tchernaya were literally covered with bodies piled up in bleeding heaps.

ance.

On the 3rd of September another sortie of the Russians was repulsed; and on the 5th the final bombardment of Sebastopol commenced, which was continued for three days. On the 8th, the French, under General Bosquet, who had returned to the siege and taken command of the Canrobert division, attacked and carried the Malakoff. The Russians were taken by surprise-but they fought well; and when driven out from the fort, made several gallant efforts to recover it, but in vain. The English again attacked the Great Redan; and, though they again failed, it is allowed by friend and foe that it was from no want of heroism, but from the overpowering weight of numbers. After having, under Sir William Codrington, effected a lodgment in the work which they held for about an hour, they were obliged to retire. The French were also repulsed on two points of their attack; but they held the Malakoff. It proved to be the key of the position; and being lost, the enemy succumbed. At 7 P. M. the Russians desisted from fighting; and in the night they passed by a floating

bridge from the south to the north side of the harbor. In the morning none remained; Sebastopol was in possession of the allies. But the cost was great. The loss of the French was 7,557. The English loss was 2,447. The Russians lost altogether 11,690. The booty left in Sebastopol was immense. All was valued and divided amongst the allied armies in proportion to their numbers.

The interest of the war ceases with the fall of Sebastopol; though several other operations were undertaken. The city was divided between the French and English; the western part being allotted to the former, with General Bazaine for governor; and the eastern to the English, Lieutenant-General Windham being placed there in authority. The Russians occupied a position fortified by art and nature, and forming a semi-circle round the position of the allies, from Fort Constantine to the chain of mountains known as the Tchadir Dagh. Here they were posted in great force, but they remained quiet, while the allies employed themselves in destroying the forts, docks, public buildings, and public shipping at Sebastopol; and rapid as is work of destruction to that of creation, it was not till the 28th of February, 1856, that the last fort was destroyed.-T. WRIGHT.

RACEFUL as is this name, its charm is most fitly matched by the beauty of its owner's character. Of all British birds the nightingale trills the sweetest, richest, strongest melody, a melody the more enchanting because it floats on the midnight air with a strange dreamy fascination as though one were catching stray notes from a celestial orchestra. So among the chorus of feminine voices clamoring over rights and wrongs, the soft, clear note of Florence Nightingale is heard as it sings "songs in the night" of solace and good cheer for the victims of pain and sorrow, the wide world over.

She belongs to an old Derbyshire family, and owes her first name to the Italian town she was born in, so far back as 1820. Besides an endowment of fortune she had an early bent for doing all the good possible for a lady of exceedingly delicate constitution. Like John Howard, of prison-reforming fame, she found her pleasure in visiting hospitals, poorhouses, schools, reformatories, until the defects in the system of management so impressed her that she devoted her active and highly original mind to the devising of better things. To get intimate practical knowledge of nursing, Miss Nightingale entered a German institution established by Protestant Sisters of Mercy. That was in 1851, when such a thing was unheard of in England. Some time later, hearing that the London Governesses' Sanitarium was languishing for want of funds and sound management she volunteered to place her services and private fortune at its disposal. Her work soon set the institution upon a firm footing.

The Crimean War was now being fought, and the disgraceful breakdown of the British medical department, reported and exposed in the Times by W. H. Russell, had stirred the public to furious indignation. The hospitals proved not only useless, but worse; the men succumbed faster to disease, starvation and neglect than to Russian bullets. Florence Nightingale volunteered to head a band of ladies, specially trained, for service in the Crimea, amid the many horrors and health-risks of those terrible winters. Her offer was hailed as an interposition of merciful Providence by the country, and by the Government as a timely lift out of the trouble that was engulfing them. When she reached the scene of disaster everything had to be reconstituted. She set to work, with her helpers, and transformed pest-houses into hospitals and taught the surgeons the right way to set about their duty. The poor invalid soldiers literally worshipped their good angel as a saviour from heaven. The people of England were enthusiastically grateful that at last one competent hand had been found to grasp the situation in the Crimea, and that one a woman. After her return a public subscription of a quarter of a million of dollars was raised as a testimonial for Florence Nightingale, who refused to accept it, except to found the institution for the training of nurses, which bears her name.

For one who is a chronic invalid Miss Nightingale has done a marvellous work, substantial, extensive, and endless in good results. The English Government employed her to draw up a confidential report on the working of the army medical department in the Crimea. When, through apprehension of a French invasion, the Rifle Volunteer movement sprang up in Great Britain in 1859, Florence Nightingale was the official counsellor in matters pertaining to sanitary and medical departments. For India she has done immense service. She was officially consulted upon hospital work in the field by the United States authorities during the War of the Rebellion. Her ever-ready aid was solicited by both sides during the Franco-Prussian War. But the great heart of Florence Nightingale has never waited to be asked for practical sympathy. Enough for her that suffering exists; wherever