The Henson Journals

[30]

Monday, June 20th, 1921.

The Bishop of London went off on his temperance tour a little before 11 a.m. I had some talk with him in the garden. He tells me that the offer of Salisbury, backed by letters from both Archbishops, has actually gone to Donaldson. There came to lunch the rich man & his wife, who have become tenants of Witton Castle. They appeared interested in an ignorant way in the Castle, but of course its true interest was beyond them. He is a coal–exporter, and expressed himself optimistically as to our power to recover the foreign coal market. After they had taken their departure, Mr McCready, the curate of S. Peter, Stockton, came to see me: he was trained at S. Augustine's Canterbury, where at the age of 18 he pledged himself to the life of a missionary: but he has now, at the age of 34, quite definitely decided that he has no vocation to the missionary's life. What ought he to do? I told him that he must make his position clear to the college authorities, and undertake to refund the money which they had expended on his training.

I finished reading Tawney's "The Acquisitive Society". It is well–written, and likely to appeal to numerous readers: but it is marked by very grave faults. It is the work of an imaginative theorist, who disdains to consider human society historically. The author is clearly an ardent "Labour" partisan, and an "Anglo–Catholick" Socialist. He cannot perceive the practical danger of his writing.

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