The Henson Journals

[111]

Thursday, September 9th, 1920.

A brilliant morning. There was a parcel of letters sent on from Hereford. It included one from the Suffragan bishop of Pennsylvania (Garland) & included the following reference to the Lambeth Conference:

"To me you will always be one of the two outstanding leaders of the Lambeth Conference of 1920, and it was a privilege to hear your masterly analyses & practical addresses on many divergent subjects. I wish we had more such leaders of rare scholarship, sane judgment, with the true prophetic insight and independence of thought ̶ but it is a combination not frequently found even in such august assemblies."

Here again, as in the case of the article in the Diocesan Messenger, the extravagance of the flattery is gross & apparent: but it leaves me wondering how I could have given an impression which could have suggested it even to the least sincere of men. I fear I must belong to that class of super–humbugs who become legendary even in their own life–time! This impressionable bishop Garland has left no impression on me, for I cannot so much as recall his face. I have a vague memory of having heard that he is an Evangelical 'unequally yoked' as a suffragan cum jure successiones [with right of succession] with Rheinlander, who is a "Catholick"! He wanted me to go to America in November, but I am not quite a fool enough for that!

[112]

Macmillan took me for a walk before lunch. We went on to the moor above the house, and enjoyed the incomparable air, & rich prospect on every hand. As we looked down on his red–roofed homestead enreathed by shrubberies & gardens, so comfortably suggestive of prosperity, I reflected on what the spectacle implied & presupposed. It illustrated the power and the paradox of industrialism. The anxiety with which we are all hanging on the words of the Labour Leaders at the Trade–union Congress, now sitting in Portsmouth, indicates significantly enough the revolt against industrialism which is now, in the President's words, deliberately challenging the constitution. Like another Tarquinius Superbus organised 'Labour' is for striking off the tallest poppies on the field of society, & establishing a mean deadness of equality. What power has industrial society for defending itself against such a rebellion from within? The ideas which fill the mind of the average artisan are not compatible with the present industrial order, which only continues because there is nothing to replace it.

[After lunch our host & hostess motored us into Castleton where we posted our letters, & then carried us to Mr Raw's farm where we found Mrs Macdonald. After tea at the farm we walked home over the moor. The mistiness of the atmosphere prohibited distant views, but we enjoyed the nearer charms of the country ̶ the colour of the heather, the bold contour of the hills, & the general aspect of rural peace & prosperity. Cowper would have been inspired to write a poem on our walk.]

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