The Henson Journals

[257]

Monday, November 22nd, 1926.

My mind is exercised on this Earl Gray [sic] Memorial Lecture which I am pledged to deliver in February. The subject, "The Ethic of Empire" is not altogether free of ambiguity. Does it mean the moral principle on which Empires are built up? or the principles on which Empires ought to be governed? It is not perhaps altogether easy to define "Empire". Gibbon in his Preface to the "Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire" contents himself with speaking of that Empire as "the solid fabric of human greatness", which is a description & not a definition. The opening paragraph of the History assumes the fact of "the empire of Rome" without attempting a definition.

Mrs Hodgson came to see me about her son Kenneth, who aspires to go to Oxford or Cambridge on a County Council exhibition of £80, but can't adventure the attempt unless he can guarantee at least £125. If he can manage with that, he is a genius in economy: it is exactly half the usual minimum. I made some kind of a vague promise of assistance, & covenanted to see the chosen youth tomorrow. This poor woman appears to be maintaining a paralyzed husband & 3 children on a school–teacher's salary of £165 per annum. Her rates exceed £10 yearly. She does, indeed, supplement her income to the extent of £20 by acting as agent for a Christmas Card manufacturer! If she were a parson, we should be asked to compassionate a cruel hardship: but layfolks can at least suffer with dignity.

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