The Henson Journals

[126]

Tuesday, July 7th, 1925.

I walked to 19 Great College Street, and conferred with Lord Forester, Fielden, & Moore as to the manner of proceeding in the matter of the Shrewsbury Bishoprick Measure. Then I attended the Assembly, where the Budget was discussed. I made a brief speech when the item for Press & Publications was proposed. After lunching at the Athenaeum, I walked back to the Assembly with the Bishop of Jarrow, & discussed with him the case of Jimmie. He is very positive against making things easy for him, financially or educationally, and he may be right. I left the Assembly, and went across to the House of Lords to hear Lord Birkenhead's statement on India, but, after listening to him for more than an hour, I had to come away, leaving him still on his legs. He read from a type–written manuscript. I returned to the Deanery, and dressed for dinner. Ella went with Kitty and the Cohens to Wembley.

I dined in the Mercer's [sic] Hall, where the Apposition Dinner was held. There was a numerous & distinguished party of guests, for whom I made reply, when many of them had gone away. The Captain of the School, a pleasant–looking but confident young gentleman, held forth for 40 minutes on the athletic achievements of the year. The High Master preceded him with a speech of 25 minutes. This loquacity was rather trying, but mainly it was a pleasant dinner.

[127]

I must speak against the Shrewsbury Bishoprick Measure tomorrow, and there are one or two new points to be made. The persistence of the Hereford Opposition as shown in the recent election to the House of Laity is one: the worsening economic condition of the country is another. A third is the evidence which the agenda provides that the inconvenience of very small bishopricks is beginning to be perceived even by the advocates of division of sees. Thus there is a resolution which aims at grouping dioceses for the purposes of patronage: and another which aims at holding the new bishopricks in some relation with the old Cathedral. What essential difference is there between the bishops of the small sees, which are thus to be united, and suffragans with fairly large delegated powers? I shall emphasize the unreasonableness of overriding the opposition of Hereford in order to placate a smaller volume of opinion in Shropshire. Both the rival proposals will give the same measure of relief to Lichfield, viz. the removal of the Shropshire portion of the diocese: but whereas the Hereford scheme requires no new bishoprick & does violence to no old one, the Shrewsbury Bishoprick scheme involves both. I shall set this revolutionary proposal against the celebration of the 1250th anniversary of the Hereford Bishoprick, which is announced for next year, and which the Archbishop of Canterbury has promised to attend.

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