The Henson Journals

[175]

2nd Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 1919.

Before getting up I read through Warre–Cornish's account of the Oxford Movement, and much of it would serve with hardly an alteration as an account of the Movement for "Self–government", of which "Life & Liberty" is the most forcible expression. The general summary holds:–

"The matter (of Tract 1) was a deliberate assault upon all that was conventional in the Church, an appeal to ages of superstition, asceticism, and intolerance, in full agreement with its author's conviction that it wd be a gain to this country, were it vastly more superstitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion, than at present it shows itself to be".

These words are quoted from Keble's sermon, "The Religion of the Day", and "words could not have been better chosen to express the principle put forward by the writers of the Tracts, which was to set up against the religion of the day the religion of other days as they conceived it". The great difference is that the Tractarians were political Tories : & their successors are "democrats". Temple is a member of the Labour Party: Gore and Talbot are "Christian Socialists": the main body of the rank & file are sentimental Socialists, who prate of S. Francis, & think they can butter parsnips with pretty speeches.

[176]

We walked to Westminster, and attended service in Christ Church. There was a crowded congregation, in which (though it is little more than 6 years since we left Westminster) we could recognize nobody. The service was an abbreviated Mattins with some short form of strange prayer introduced oddly into the collects. R. J. Campbell preached from the Words: "As free, & not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God". I heard the sermon with some difficulty as the acoustics of the building are bad. The preacher has little action, & a quiet manner, though, with rather a "stagey" effect. His sermon, so far as I could hear it, was an affirmation of the paradox, that human liberty & human bondage are both true. There was a large surpliced choir, but the singing was congregational. Before two altars hung burning lamps, but whether there was the Sacrament reserved in either I know not.I went to the Athenaeum, & wrote to the Bishop of Newcastle, giving him, as he requested, some suggestions for a speech in Convocation. After lunching in the hotel, we walked to Westminster, and attended service in the Abbey. The new canon, de Candole was the preacher. He is a small, rather mean–looking man with a clear voice, & a melancholy manner. The sermon was nowise remarkable. We had tea with Mrs Murray Smith, with whom were Mr& MrsYates Thompson.

[177]

We drove to the Deanery of St Paul's. Sir Francis & Lady Younghusband were there. She asked me whether I had written a "beautiful little book on Robertson of Brighton". It appears that her mother had known the famous preacher well. The Bishop of Warrington, a son of the late Dean of St David's, was there. He is a suffragan of Liverpool, &, of course, advocates "Life & Liberty", but he professes to be somewhat less positive in his advocacy than he was. We dined with Lord Haldane at 28 Queen Anne's Gate. Miss Haldane had provided for my toothless condition most carefully. It was a pleasant party. The conversation turned much on the ecclesiastical situation. Lord H. asked me to send him the papers relating to the "Enabling Bill", and professed himself ready to move for a Royal Commission. Now here emerges a difficulty, for Lord H. is extremely unpopular, and any proposal of his can hardly be uncompromised by the fact. He suggested Asquith as a suitable Chairman for the Royal Commission, and I welcomed the suggestion, for Asquith has many of the requisite qualities. The choice of the other members would be sufficiently difficult. The Archbishops would have to be included, but the laymen are hard to find.

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