The Henson Journals

[72]

Thursday, December 16th, 1920.

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The dramatic defeat of the Prohibitionists in Scotland has greatly exasperated the Fanaticks of "Temperance", & they are disposed to visit their anger on me. An anonymous correspondent writing from Edinboro sends me the following together with a newspaper cutting containing the account of a police–court trial at Gateshead for brutal neglect of children by drunken parents.

Dear Sir,

You will be sorry to learn the Brewers in the Canvas on the Scottish Temperance Bill circulated your address, and caused many to stumble.

Please read what occurred in your own Diocese, & ask yourself if it is fair to those who are in this desperate struggle against Drink and Crime. I would not be in your place for all the world.

This is a specimen of a good many communications which have reached me from Scotland, & I doubt not that it expresses a considerable volume of opinion in Scottish religious circles. For the Churches went "bald–headed" for prohibition, & the result of the polls is a great humiliation for them demonstrating how slight importance is attached to their most solemn pronouncements. The argument from drunkenness to prohibition is a truly precipitate advance through fallacy to fatuity. Yet it commends itself more widely than ever to religious people.

[73] [symbol]

The parish council of St Gabriel's, Bishop Wearmouth, decided by protracted discussion by 11 votes to 9 that the practice of turning to the East for the creed should not be introduced into the public worship. This so disgusted the choir–men that they promptly struck, and even set pickets at the entrance of the vestry to ensure that no "blacklegs" should lead the praises of the faithful! This grotesque incidents illustrates the state of indiscipline which obtains in the population of these parts.

I walked with Clayton in the Park after lunch, first having my haircut by a local artist, who attended me in my study. He is a citizen of importance, & has been for many years one of the Town Council. Then I wrote a Christmas letter to Gilbert, and dictated letters to Maish. Then the Ordination candidates arrived, and Knight from Bridstow. During dinner the lections were read by the chaplains in town from Bigg's volume of sermons. The service in the chapel followed. Maish played the organ: Clayton read Evensong: I read the Lessons: and Knight gave the address. Then he and I adjourned to my study, and discussed the future of Houghton–le–Spring, and other diocesan matters. I paid £5 for the Lord Chamberlain's fee on my taking my seat in the House of Lords. I went to the bed shortly before midnight.

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