The Henson Journals

[49] [sic]

Thursday, July 22nd, 1926.

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["]Remember how you failed of Durham – at least, that you were told that you failed from silence. Write, therefore, now, come, speak, dun, and behave, not as your laziness inclines you, but as your interest directs, as common prudence dictates, as your friends advise, and as what you owe to yourself and what your family requires.["]

So Lord Hervey wrote from Kensington to Bishop Hoadley at Salisbury on Aug. 7th 1734 when, as he said, "The Bishop of Winchester is certainly dying"; and the Bishop acted on his advice with alacrity. He "wrote two letters – one to be given immediately to the Queen, and the other to be given to Sir Robert as soon as ever the Bishop of Winchester was dead". Lord Hervey had seen these letters, and states that "the substance of them was not solicitation, but a modest claim of the promise that had been made him". The promise had been made "both by the Queen & Sir Robert Walpole to Bishop Hoadley to palliate the disappointment and the injustice, as he thought it and most people called it, of Durham having been given to another". The Bishop's claim was conceded, but not willingly. "Lord Hervey came to the Queen just after she had received this ([i.e.?] the Bishop's letter), & found her in that froward disposition towards Bishop Hoadley which people generally feel when they find themselves pressed to do that which they would but cannot avoid. She asked Lord Hervey if he did not blush for the indecent conduct of his friend in this early and pressing application for a thing not yet vacant. Lord Hervey assured her it was vacant, for that the Bishop of Winchester was actually dead, & that the Bishop of Salisbury had done nothing but what all his friends had advised him to, contrary to the dictates of his own natural modesty & backwardness on these occasions.

Ld Hervey's Memoirs. vol. ii. p. 106–112.

[50]

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The notion that a "cure of souls" is the property of the "curate" underlies the practice of exchanging livings, which is firmly rooted in the mind and habit of the clergy. The fact that "before an exchange of benefices can be made, it is necessary to procure a licence from the ordinary to treat of an exchange" shows that this notion is without authority. I have a great dislike of exchanges, and a strong suspicion of the motives which induce them. Parishioners never like them, feeling very justly that their interests have been altogether left out of reckoning. Even if one of the two parsons concerned is a sincere man & a good parson, the other is little likely to be so. Two of my best livings – South Westoe and Seaton Carew – are held by men who desire to exchange. The one man pleads that his wife cannot endure another winter in the north, the other pleads as much for his mother. What relevance have such pleas to their spiritual obligations or to mine? I am half inclined to issue an instruction to the clergy, indicating that I will not sanction any exchanges at all.

After lunch, I walked into the inner Park, & watched Miss Stevenson's girls run races. There I picked up old Dr McCullagh, and carried him back to the Castle where I lent him the 3 vols. of Hervey's Memoirs. I was annoyed at the filthy state of the road through the Park. The pit ponies appear to drop their dung as near as possible to my gate! As there are a great many of them, the accumulation is considerable.

[51]

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The well–known Jesuit, Father Woodlock, sends me a pamphlet entitled "The Church of England and Reunion", which is the report of a lecture delivered in Rome on February 26th, 1926, and translated into Italian in the Civiltá Cattolica. He refers to me as "the modernist Bishop of Durham", but quotes nothing of mine except an Edinburgh Review Article and the little book, "In Defence of the English Church". In sending a formal acknowledgment I said "His Lordship has read it with much interest and substantial agreement. He hopes that it will have a large circulation both in England & on the continent." A rather interesting statement is made on p. 33. "Over 125,000 converts have been led individually into the fold during the last dozen years: more than 250 clergymen have been received in the last twenty five years." The absorption of the Church of England will evidently take time even on the assumption that these figures are correct.

The Labour candidate, Miss Bondfield, has been returned at Wallsend by a large majority over both the other candidates. The figures are indeed very remarkable.

Miss M. Bondfield. (Lab.) 18,866	In 1924
Mr S. Howard. (Con.) 9,839	Sir P. Hastings (Lab.) 17,284
Mr A. C. Curry (Lib.) 4000	S. Howard. (Con.) 15,672

Thus the Labour majority over both opponents, is no less than 5,027. There is no indication of any weakening on the side of the miners. On the contrary, the great reduction in the Conservative vote suggests a distinct turning away from the Government. The Liberal vote is probably representative of the country generally.

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