The Henson Journals

[105]

Wednesday, July 9th, 1924.

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I spent the day unpleasantly in the Assembly. At 4.30 p.m. I went across to the House of Lords, but the business was dull, & I soon came away. I dined in the Athenaeum with Meade–Falkner, and had much talk with him. He is the most elusive of men, and au fond, I verily think, a mere pagan.

The sense of reaction after the excitements of yesterday lay heavily on my spirits.My speech is made much of by the papers, & described as the outstanding feature of the debate. And, as reporting goes, it is not ill reported. Lord Novar came up & congratulated me in the House: & I was congratulated by several laymen in the Assembly, and by several men in the Club.On the other hand, Sir Thomas Barlow – whom I account both a good & a considering man – expressed to me his regret that I had felt it needful to oppose the Bill, and I received an ill–written letter from Ryton informing me that somebody at Wallsend had declared that I was not fit to be Bishop of Durham, and asking that the matter might be threshed out!! I sent this precious epistle to the Vicar of Ryton, asking whether he could tell me anything about the writer. So I dropped far from the fatuous exaltation of yesterday, & went to bed heavily enough.

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