The Henson Journals

[87]

Friday, February 28th, 1919.

I went again to Westminster. The Council resumed the debate on the Franchise. The Bishop of Winchester led off in favour of the Baptismal Franchise. His speech was involved & embarrassed, for he wanted to dissociate himself from me, while justifying a vote in my lobby! Sir Edward Clarke came next, & then Gore ended the discussion in a vigorous speech. The voting was more decisive than had been expected. The baptismal franchise was carried in three houses. The numbers were:–

Bishops	17 for	7 against	} 268 members of the R.C.C.
Clergy	62 for	37 against	} out of about 700.
Laity	80 for	65 against	}The majority = less than 1/4th

This decisive victory greatly offended the Cecilians, who expressed their disgust in more or less open menace. At the end the Archbishop of York wound up the debate in a speech conceived in a lofty vein. He said we had taken "the first step in the rebuilding of the structure of the Church", we had begun to "reconstitute the structure & basis of the corporate life of the Church", we were "laying the foundations of a new epoch"! This "high–flying" language accorded little with the language of the elder Primate. Lord Hugh Cecil introduced a jarring note in a brief but vehement speech. I contented myself with voting against the adoption of the scheme. Knight came to see me in the Athenaeum afterwards about a "Times" leader on the debates.

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