The Henson Journals

[217]

Tuesday, May 23rd, 1911.

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Statement of Income sent in:

cf. p. 84	Ecclesiastical Commission	£	1453.	0.	0
	Queen Anne's Bounty		14.	6.	8
v.p. 255	Easter Offerings		30.	0.	0
	Surplice Fees		50.	0.	0
	Ch. Ch. Graveyard		95.	0.	0
	Value of Rectory		233.	0.	0
	Rent of Anker House		7.	0.	0
	Payment from S. John's		17.	0.	0
	Wife's Income		160.	0.	0
		£	2059.	6.	8

I married Mr Hamar Greenwood M.P. and Miss Margerie Spence. Mr Asquith & Sir Wilfrid Laurier signed the Register.

Then I attended a meeting of the Psycho–therapeutic Committee. We had Miss Eleanor Reed before us for examination.

Mr Burke dined with me, & we discussed the question of publishing the Churchwardens Accounts & Registers of St Margaret's. It will cost about £600.

[218]

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On Thursday, May 25th 1911 (Ascension Day) I went to St Margaret's at 8 a.m. & celebrated the Holy Communion. There were 29 comts. My wife & I left for Scotland by the express leaving Euston at 10 a.m. It arrived at the Princes Street Station Edinboro precisely to time, 6.15 p.m. We dressed & dined with the High Commissioner at the North British Hotel. A young man politely volunteered to get me my ticket for hat & coat: &, when he gave it me, told me that he had been a student at Harvard when I went there 2 years ago. I took Mrs Fleming in to dinner. Afterwards I had some talk with Lord Glenconner, & also with his wife.

The Moderator, Principal Stewart of St Andrew's, is prostrated with illness. His place is being taken by McAdam Muir & Mitford Mitchell.

On Friday, May 26th mine host & I attended the Breakfast of the U.F. Moderator. Afterwards I attended the U.F. General Assembly, where I continued from noon until past 3 p.m. About 2.30 p.m. I addressed the Assembly which received me with great honour, rising [219] [symbol] when I came forward. I spoke on Unity, & was listened to with almost ravenous attention. The Moderator ( Dr Wells) thanked me very nicely. Then my wife & I had tea with Lord Guthrie, & after that he lent us his car, & we went for a drive. This was spoiled by a mist which came up from the sea & obscured everything.

There was a company at dinner including Sir Mark Stewart, Prof. Cowan, & Ramsay Sibbald(?) the minister of Braemar. A Berwickshire laird who sate next me said that he – being an elder in the Church of Scotland – had communicated in England until four years ago, when his attention was directed to the Rubrick at the end of the Confirmation Service. I assured him that that Rubric did not apply to his case: & bade him resume with a good conscience his practice of Holy Communion in the Ch. of England.

Then I went to a densely crowded reception in the Art Gallery, where I rejoined my wife.

On Saturday morning both Ella & I attended the General Assembly of the Established Church. Mine host, Mitford Mitchell, introduced a report on the English Presbyterian congregations. He eulogised Fleming, & sent by him a message to the Bp. of London in response to one [220] [symbol] which Fleming had conveyed from the Bishop on the preceding day. He (Mitford Mitchell) hoped the Bishop wd translate his friendly words into friendly action by requiring his clergy not to repel from Communion those Scottish Presbyterians who desired to receive the Sacrament. Wallace Williamson seconded the report, & said that he had been invited by English clergy to communicate on the Continent, & asked how this could be reasonably refused in England which was given abroad. The Moderator called on me to speak, & I made a short speech. I said that though unofficially present in the Assembly, I was undoubtedly, in a deep & important sense of the words, clothed with a representative character: that the Bps (i.e. the majority of them, for there were exceptions) did not in this matter represent the Church of England. I endorsed the complts to Fleming, & said that there was another Scottish Church in London – S. Margaret's – in which Scottish influence had reached in England its high water mark when the Solemn League & Covenant was subscribed in 1645. I spoke of the sympathy between the Churches of England & Scotland growing from the circumstances that they were both established, national, & reformed. While I was speaking I was interrupted by the discharge of cannon for the Royal Birthday, & I commented on the fact. The Moderator humourously [sic] described it as a Cannon–aid organised specifically for my behalf. The High [221] [symbol] Commissioner was present in the Assembly during my speech, but left immediately afterwards.

I lunched at the New Club with Steel–Maitland. Old Sir Mark Stewart was there, & expressed himself very warmly in appreciation of my speech.

Then I bought the Times & the Spectator, and read them in the beautiful gardens which intervene between Princes Street & the Castle Hill. There is quite a respectable report of my speech to the U.F. Assembly in the "Times"; & my letter in answer to Athelstan Riley appears in the "Spectator."

Later in the afternoon I attended the reception of the Moderator's daughter, where also appeared the Bishop of Bombay, who is advocating the cause of Eurasian education. He stutters very badly.

In the evening mine host had a dinner party. Lord & Lady Haddo: Sir Andrew & Lady Frazer: Mrs Frazer, the widow of the late editor of the "Scotsman": Fleming & his wife: Prof. Kay & Prof Rankin: besides my wife & I.

I had some very interesting conversation with Sir Andrew Frazer. He spoke of Curzon with much appreciation, having been much associated with him in India.

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Issues and controversies: psycho-therapeutic committee