The Henson Journals

[94]

Thursday, June 18th, 1925.

Oman telegraphed me from the House of Commons:

Will you join Headlam and others in nomination (of) the Lord Chancellor against Asquith reply.

I sent the following answer:

No. I think Asquith ought to be elected as clearly the best man. If unopposed his election carries no other suggestion than that a large view of academic duty and dignity. A contest must introduce the properly irrelevant issue of party politics.

This is sure to get round to Lord Cave, & may make him angry! But I could not tie myself on to the coat–tails of one of the foolishest partisans I have ever chanced to know. For such I judge Oman to be, though, apart from politics, he is one of the best fellows in the world. Moreover, even if I did think Cave preferable to Asquith as Chancellor of Oxford, I should not think it decent to emphasize the fact by joining in Cave's nomination. For Asquith, showed a certain kindness to me, and offered me the Deanery of Durham. I do not desire to push this consideration too far, but there is a fitness in things, and I could not think it decent to go out of my way to oppose a man who had done me much kindness in the past.

[95] [symbol]

I wrote letters, and then worked at the Halifax sermon. After lunch I walked round the Park. Then Jimmie came to see me about his new outlook. The financial situation at home is, of course, the core of the problem. How few people realize that the Pauline dictum is more often than not reversed. It is the children who must maintain their parents, not the other way round. This circumstance makes the financing of Ordination candidates so difficult. We not only have to find money for the candidate, but have to re–imburse his parents for the loss of his contribution to the family budget.

Cases of small–pox are reported from the neighbourhood.The butler's boy confessed to being unvaccinated, and was summarily taken to the doctor and "done"!

Mr Westcott, Brooke's father, sends a defective copy of Bishop Morton's polemic against the Mass to be added to the other books by Bishops of Durham which the Castle possesses. The volume belonged to Bishop Westcott. There is, indeed, a wide gulf between, the 'conversations' at Malines & Morton's full–blooded denunciation of the Mass, as "a very Mass, or rather a Gulf of many Superstitions, Sacrilegious, and Idolatrous Positions and Practices"!

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