The Henson Journals

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Tuesday, September 16th, 1913.

The papers report the spread of the strike fever from Dublin to Liverpool, where the railway men refuse to touch goods which have been handled by Irish non–Unionists, &, since the Company must needs accept without discrimination whatever goods may be entrusted to them for transit, have declared a strike. It does not appear to me possible to concede the men's demand, &, indeed, the strike is said to be opposed by the Trade Union officials. These however, are evidently powerless. Mrs Lascelles, whose husband is a 'Socialist' & now edits the 'Oxford House Review', had an energetic discussion with me at breakfast. She does but echo the views she has been accustomed to hear in the society of her relations, among whom Willie Temple must be a potent influence.

The 'Scotsman' reports the resignation of a Presbyterian minister because he could no longer reconcile the practice of infant baptism with the teaching of the Scriptures! How hard to enter into the mental state of such a man! One wonders whether his congregation was agitated by the question which cost them their pastor. Scotland remains the most theological democracy in the world: certainly neither the most moral, or the most devout. In devotion the Irish lead the way: and, perhaps the English in morality.

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The rain fell steadily from day–break to nightfall. I spent the morning writing letters: the afternoon in reading a historical romance 'The Queen's Peril': after tea, I walked up the hill on to the moor. Everything was saturated with the rain. The rolling waves of white mist in the valley of the Tay had exactly the appearance of a troubled sea breaking against rocks round a large bay. On my return to the house I found a telegram asking me to address a meeting in the Wesleyan Church House at Westminster, in the interest of "The Alliance of Honour". I at once telegraphed a refusal. That society is run by Guiness Rogers, & concerns itself with what is called "Purity". I do not believe that the new methods of publicity & 'plain speaking' are really serviceable to that Cause. The older traditions of reticence & caution are not to be surrendered to the onset of female hysterics & popular sentiment. I suppose that most of the good folks who now prate of "White Slavery" and will prate of nothing else, would say that I was one of those cravens who fell under the curse of the prophetess. "Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof: because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty".

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