In  the  meantime  there  was  a  change  of  Govern-
ment. Lord  Derby  became  Prime  Minister  and  the
"Bison"  gave  place  to  General  Peel,  the  new  Secretary

157


FLORENCE      NIGHTINGALE

for  War.   An   important   debate   took  place   in   the
House  of  Commons  as  the  outcome  of  a  series  of
Resolutions  with  regard  to  the  Health  of  the  Army
which   Sidney  Herbert,   with  Florence  behind  him,
had  been  instrumental  in  getting  moved.  The  mor-
tality figures  were  much  in  evidence  and  the  House
unanimously   supported   the    Commission's   proposed
reforms.   Four   Sub-Commissions   on   various   aspects
of  these   proposals — Barracks    and    Hospitals,    Army
Medical  Statistics,  the  institution  of  an  Army  Medical
School,  and  the  Reorganization  of  the  Army  Medical
Department — were  by  degrees  got  going   and,  from
now  onwards  until  1861,  Florence  and  Sidney  Herbert,
who  was  the  Chairman  of  all  the  Sub-Commissions,
were  incessantly  at  work.  Mr.  Herbert  himself  became
Secretary  for  War  under  Lord  Palmerston  after  the
General  Election  of  1859,  a  piece  of  great  good  fortune
for  the  reformers  though  for  him,  personally,  perhaps
the  last  straw.  For  he  thereby  became  the  engine  of
Florence's    passionate    determination    "to    beat,"    as
Dr.  Sutherland  had  well  put  it,  *'not  only  men  but
time,"  and  she  drove  him,  and  he,  infected  by  her
fierce  zeal,  forced  himself,  at  top  speed  uphill  and
down  dale  without  respite.  It  was  mostly  uphill  for,
though  Secretary  for  War,  he  had  the  Chancellor  of
the    Exchequer   to    reckon   with   before    any   recon-
struction of  barracks  and  hospitals  could  be  carried
out,  and  it  was  not  easy  to  extract  money  out  of  Mr.
