The Henson Journals

[163]

Tuesday, April 29th, 1919.

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An unpromising day with an uninviting programme – wet pavements and the dentist! We were called early in order to be at the place of execution by 9 a.m. – a preposterous hour, but all the world hastens to the dentists, and one must take what they are pleased to give! After breakfast we walked to the place, & found Mr Colyer armed for the fray with a doctor in attendance. So, there and then, he took out five teeth: the performance, under gas, was painless, but the results were sufficiently uncomfortable. However, the worst violences were surmounted, and the executioner promised to enable me to attend the Convocation next week!

I returned to the Hotel, and wrote to the Bishop of Norwich urging him to speak in Convocation, & press for the "reservation" of the points which express the establishment principle. Of these I instanced the three following:– 1. The Baptismal Franchise. 2. The supreme appellate authority of the Privy Council. 3. The Crown Patronage of the Bishopricks &c &c He is a man of a cautious & time–serving temperament, who will not lightly provoke against himself the vehement & noisy stream of "Church" opinion! I wrote also to the Bishop of Birmingham, but with still smaller expectations, for he lives, as the phrase runs, "in the public eye", and would hardly believe in the rightness of any course of action which really involved unpopularity! Yet, I have nothing better to count upon!

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In the afternoon I wrote also to the Bishops of Manchester and Newcastle. The first is the abler man, the last the more honest. Neither is an orator or even a particularly good speaker, but the one is amazingly adroit, and the other has an aspect of rugged common sense which sometimes has more than the effect of argument or eloquence. Both, however, are not really keen about the subject, not keen enough to risk anything. If the Low Church Bishops would hang together, an effective opposition would be possible, but the circumstance that the Bishop of Liverpool was a member of the Archbishops' Committee ensures his support of the scheme which he projected, though he hardly attended the meetings, & knows nothing of the subject. Chavasse carries weight in his party & probably commands the vote of the Bishop of Durham, who is more interested in Zionism than in the Enabling Bill! Add that the Committee included also Sir Robert Williams, who, as Chairman of the C.M.S., has a kind of prescriptive right to represent the Evangelical laity, & whose immense vanity is engaged in the defence of a project which he has approved. A very stupid man has sure protections against instability!

[165]

The Covenant or League of Nations is printed in all the papers, but its formal launching was accompanied by sinister auguries. The Italian representatives absented themselves and the Japanese envoy raised the uncomfortable question of discrimination between races within the dominions of allied peoples. The point was deferred to be dealt with presently by the League itself: but an unpleasing sense of unreality was left. Meanwhile the Italians are demonstrating in force against the wishes of the allied powers on the subject of Fiume. President Wilson appears to have lost ground, & his insistence has carried the Covenant at the cost of undermining its authority. In America there is a formidable revival of party feeling. He no longer appears in Europe as the spokesman of an united democracy. Voices are audible which question his right to speak for America: and these do but echo the voices in America itself.

There is a further batch of Birthday honours. It is notably reduced from former limits. Two press–magnates – Burnham & Rothermere – are raised a step in the peerage. Professor Ridgeway and Judge Tobin are knighted, & the buffoon Robey. It is difficult to understand how intelligent & self–respecting men can care for these "honours": yet it is reported that the appetite for them was never keener, or more brazenly displayed.

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