In the event of a decision being made to dispense altogether with Roman Sisters, it would be as well to be prepared (though we never can speculate on the tactics of the Roman faction, and after what occurred during the Crimean war, it may think it better to take things quietly) for a battle, (_not_ confined to the Army Medical Department,) for the production of an Inspector-General’s letter assigning “reasons” for preferring Nuns to secular Nurses, and for the delivery of sundry opinions of similar purport, ranging from that line to the one taken in the paper emanating from the Army Medical Department, extolling the Russian Nurses, “who were all Sisters of Mercy, and mostly widows of officers.” [Sidenote: 2. Anglican Sisters?] 2. The nature of the Service and Rules would, unless in war service, perhaps exclude English “Sisters” from the Nurses. They supplied us with some valuable women in the last war, and their Lady-Superior behaved ever generously, loyally, and well towards us. The principle and detail of most sisterhoods render them unsuited for admixture with the secular element; and the comfortable belief into which the good women (of both branches) practically, if not theoretically, settle, that secular women are too bad to be mended or influenced, unfortunately makes their usefulness among Nurses nearly null. It would never do to unsettle any of the Sisters; but if it so happened that any voluntarily offered to serve as bonâ fide Nurses, some valuable individuals might thus be acquired; but this should not at all be pressed. It would certainly remove a difficulty in declining Roman Catholic Sisters, if the rule should be to decline also English Catholic Sisters, forming the Staff entirely of secular women. [Sidenote: 3. Whom is the Nurse to summon in case of disorderliness in the Ward?] 3. In Civil Hospitals there are three distinct elements of government. First, the Civil Authority; the chief being the Treasurer, or the equivalent civilian, whose subordinate is called diversely Steward, Superintendent, House Governor; second, the Physicians and Surgeons (duly represented, in case of holidays or illness, by the Assistant Physicians or Surgeons), Apothecary and House Surgeon; and third, the chief of the Nurses--the Matron. It requires of course temper, discretion, forbearance, and fortunate circumstances which do not always happen, for these authorities not to spend a portion of their time in quarrelling with each other; but the ruts are old and deep, and the wheels move on, though they often stick. The Civil Authority is a very important element, especially when the chief is a man of judgment and firmness, who keeps himself paramount over all, and does not delegate all to his subordinate the Steward. The Steward and the Matron generally find their duties disposed to clash.