The Henson Journals

[70]

Monday, July 21st, 1919.

I wrote at some length to the Bishop ^of Manchester^ with reference to his suggestion that, in view of the progress of the Enabling Bill, we should go in for a policy of intercommunion with Nonconformists. I must needs doubt the wisdom of such a course. It would place weapon in the hand of our enemies, & immerse us in many practical embarrassments. I think, however, that it might be well for such of the Bishops as can act together to put forward a manifesto announcing their intention to authorize exchange of pulpits & specifying the conditions. If we could take some action which would visibly disprove the claim of the "spikes" that the English Church is not Protestant, the consequences might be considerable. Even a secession might be induced.

I am reading Crabbe's poetry to the ladies after dinner. Certainly the picture he draws of rural England is extremely unattractive, and squalid. Would a similarly honest, and well–informed, description given today by a country parson as able & discerning, be equally so? Certainly, the witness of the clergy and "purity" workers is sufficiently disconcerting. Yet a revolution in the conditions of the agricultural labourer's life has been effected during the last half century, & surely it has been mainly for his good.

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