The Henson Journals

[114] [symbol]

September 18th, 1922.

My dear Mr Youngman,

I did not, in the surprise of your communication, give an adequate expression to the great pleasure it gave me. Not only is the benefaction itself a generous one, but coming unsolicited & by an original purpose of the donor, it has a special value as showing that he has considered the Church's needs, & reached a definite conclusion. I should like him to know that I agree with him in thinking that the rescue of the poorer clergy from their indigence is the most urgent necessity of religion at this time. That indigence brings in its train a whole series of mischiefs. Some of the poor clergy fall into debt, & by that circumstance strip their ministry of all moral influence. Many are so depressed & distracted that they bring to their spiritual work no more than a fraction of their power. The discredit that comes upon the Church of England from the squalid poverty of many parochial clergymen is very great. They laymen who applies his wealth to the mitigation of clerical poverty is doing good, nay the best, service that money can render to Religion. I should like also to thank you for your good offices in bringing this substantial assistance to my diocese.

Believe me, very faithfully

Herbert Dunelm:

A.B. Youngman Esq, Bon Accord, Foggy Forge, W. Hartepool.

[115]

Monday, September 18th, 1922.

The Bishop of Jarrow accepts the Archdeaconry of Durham.

I wrote at once to the Archdeacon of Auckland offering him the vacant canonry, & asking him to retain his Archdeaconry. If he accepts, I shall have both Archdeacons on the Foundation of the Cathedral accessible to the clergy, and convenient for conference with me.

After lunch there was a general exodus of our guests. Ella, Ernest, and Fearne motored Mrs Burgess to Ripon: the rest went to Edinburgh. Clayton and I walked for [115] an hour in the Park. Then I went to my study & finished Thirlwall's Charge of 1872, which I thought might give me a 'jumping–off ground' for a 'Jubilee' sermon. But, for some reason or other, I was in a restless mood & incapable of work.

Willie Murray sends me the pedigree of "Beck" to the 4th. generation on both sides. Can we suppose that pedigree is less important in the case of men? Yet what can we take out with regard to them? In a nation which has become rapidly numerous under the forcing influence of industrialism, pedigrees are lost or ignored, and we assume that any rubbish of unhealthy & criminal parentage can supply good citizens to the State. Yet how odious in itself, how invidious in effect, must any insistence on pedigree be in a democratic society! The tests, which alone we are free to apply, will not secure us against the incapacitating defects of poor or vitiated parentage. Half our political difficulties arise from the inadequate men whom we entrust with authority, & who are themselves born Ilethenim [sic] .

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