The Henson Journals

[276]

Thursday, December 9th, 1926.

The newspapers announce that the "Life & Liberty Association" has dissolved itself. The welcome intelligence is announced with some flourishes of self–admiration. Certainly that Association has done irreparable injury to the Church of England: & it is not without significance that it disappears precisely when there are many signs that the nation is beginning to discover the fact.

Lionel and I motored into Durham. There I licensed five curates in the Chapel of Durham Castle, and then lunched with Wilson. After this we returned to Auckland, & walked for an hour in the Park, enjoying another most wonderful sunset.

A letter forwarded to me by the Editor of the Evening Standard informed me that my Article on "Religious Intolerance" had already appeared in that journal: and a grateful letter from the Editor of the Morning Post may be taken to indicate that he has published the foolish epistle I sent him on Tuesday.

The Principal of King's College was evidently pleased with my complimentary reference to his article in "The Legacy of Rome", for he thanks me for it effusively, and adds a polite comment on my allusion to my age: –

"When I read your words about yourself ('a career which I suppose is now drawing to an end'), I turned up Porritt's "Unreformed House of Commons" to find a passage about the elder Pitt which I dimly remembered. 'I consider my political life as some way or other drawing to a conclusion, or rather as arrived at a period.' But Pitt went on gloriously. I need say no more."

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