The Henson Journals

[168]

Tuesday, August 4th, 1925.

[symbol]

The Railwaymen's Union, by pledging itself not to 'handle coals' in the event of a strike of the miners, violates the contract under which the Railway servants are employed. If, therefore, their conduct be allowed, a mortal blow would seem to have been struck at the sanctity of contracts i.e. on the basal assumption of civilized society, and the moral law itself, as Christendom has always understood it, is outraged. What, then, is the Bishop's duty? Is he to say nothing, save call his diocese to pray? What prayer is other than profane that is accompanied by a deliberate breach of morality? Is he tacitly to allow the rightfulness of this new morality of class? For that is what it amounts to – a new morality. "Class–consciousness" means the subordination of all other obligations to the single claim of Class. The 'first & chief' commandment is no longer the love God, but to love one's own class. "Patriotism is not enough" said Nurse Cavell luminously, but is "class loyalty" enough? Is it even so respectable an alternative as patriotism? Love of country is a natural sentiment in a sense which cannot be said of love of class. We rightly hold that even the claims of home must be sacrificed to those of the country: but will any one contend that God's claim on the individual may rightly be subordinated to patriotic duty? What then is the meaning and value of martyrdom?

[169]

We left Bramfield Hall about 11 a.m., and motored by way of Halesworth & Harlesden to Bury St Edmund's, where we lunched with Archdeacon Farmiloe and his son, a young man of 22 just from Oxford & about to start in the City. After lunch we visited the Cathedral, & the other great church: and then we resumed our journey to Hornchurch, via Chelmsford. We arrived about 7.20 p.m., and were kindly received by Mr and Mrs Rolt. When I lived in Essex more than 30 years ago, Hornchurch was a purely rural parish: now it is becoming urbanised, & contains a population of more than 13,000 people. Yet the Vicar has no resident curate. In these circumstances the maintenance of a pastoral ministry in the old sense is out of the question. Rolt and I had much conversation about Durham, with which in the beginning of his clerical career he was very familiar. He spoke of Hickson, whose acquaintance he made in South Africa. Though cures had taken place at the Missions, he accounted the holding of them a blunder. I inquired what impression he had formed of Hickson himself, and he replied that it was not favourable. That he made money by his missions was commonly believed, & was but too probable: that he was not a man of secure life and conversation seemed undeniable: that he held many crude beliefs about ghosts &tc. was certain. The approval of the bishops was very regrettable.

[170]

The noble appearance of the church at Long Melford made such an impression on us that we stopped to see it. The parson, a youngish–looking man, who was in the churchyard, followed us into the church, and explained its more interesting features. It is of late date, having been completed but shortly before the Reformation; and is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The Clopton family have many & notable monuments, as well as a chapel with fine oaken roof, some fine canopy work in stone, and a double piscina i.e. a squint piercing two walls. On the north wall of the chancel I noticed a monument to the Admiral, Sir Hyde Parker. There is a fine Lady Chapel, which was formerly used for a school, a fact which the multiplication table written on the wall sufficiently indicated. The great length of the church, its height, the panelling in stone of the space where the triforium should be, and its magnificent oaken roof are all features of outstanding distinction. I inquired whether the parishioners used their great church, & received the assurance that there was but little dissent in the parish. There was a table covered with Anglo–Catholic publications at the entrance, & a man in the street informed my chauffeur that the Vicar was "no class", and didn't get on with the people. But he was civil, & did not cross himself or go into hysterics when he learned who was visiting his church!

---