let the subject of Poor Law Reform be shelved. "I have had a great deal of clandestine correspondence," she wrote to a friend who might pass the information on (Oct. 28, 1866), "with my old loves at the Poor Law Board these last two months. The belief among the old loves is that the new master is bent on--doing nothing. There is only one thing of which I am quite sure. And that is that Mr. Villiers will lead Mr. Gathorne Hardy no easy life next February." [84] M. Husson, Director of the _Assistance Publique_, had been in London in 1865. Miss Nightingale had procured him various introductions and facilities, and he had reported his impressions to her. V Mr. Hardy kept his own counsel and made no sign. As the session drew near, Miss Nightingale became anxious and she poured in letters and memoranda upon him. In one of these she made what turned out to be an unfortunate mistake. She was too frank. She was pressing upon Mr. Hardy's attention the importance of the Liverpool experiment, and in the course of her exposition she said incidentally that there had been difficulties. Mr. Hardy misinterpreted the remark and made use of it to explain in the House of Commons why he did not propose to take any direct action in the matter of nursing reform. Indirectly, however, his proposals did a great deal. On February 8, 1867, Mr. Hardy introduced his Bill. So, legislation had, after all, been found necessary to meet the demand that something must be done. To that extent, then, Mr. Villiers had no need to make Mr. Hardy's life a burden to him. The question was, How much did the Bill do? and was what it did, good or bad? Those who had been working for reform were anxious to know what Miss Nightingale thought. "I should amazingly like to hear," wrote Mr. Villiers to her, "what you say to this seven months' child born in the workhouse at Whitehall." Mr. Ernest Hart's Association, whose attitude was summed up by Mr. Villiers as "silenced but not satisfied," applied for her opinion. Her journalistic friends wanted hints. Dr. Sutherland was told, in a note requiring his instant attention, that "X. wants to know in what tone he is to write his article in the _Daily News_," and that "Y. will write an article in the _Pall Mall_ in any sense we wish." Now, whenever a Bill is introduced touching a question which demands, or admits of, large reforms, there are two points of view from which it may be regarded. One man compares what is proposed with the existing state of things, and asks himself, Is there any decided improvement? Another, comparing the proposals with what might exist in the future, asks, Does the Bill approximate to the ideal? The former is the view which "practical politicians" take; the latter, the view which is apt to be taken by administrative enthusiasts. Miss Nightingale's administrative mind saw chiefly, and at first saw only, the points at which, and the measure in which, Mr.