The Henson Journals

[278]

Saturday, December 11th, 1926.

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I wrote some more of the Lecture. After lunch I motored to Wingate, and consecrated an addition to the churchyard. The function was attended by a scanty company of women & children, who followed the choir in procession round the ground. I did not think it necessary to give an address. After the consecration I had tea in the Vicarage. Several of the clergy, & the churchwarden, who is a local mine–manager, were present. I was surprised to learn that the lengthening of the working–hours in the pits is thought to be "very hard on the miners' wives". The tone of the men is said to be very unyielding. They are beaten, but they mean to renew the fight on the first promising opportunity. Especially unsatisfactory are the younger miners, who control the Federation. We returned to Auckland by way of Castle Eden, & Sedgefield, which was much longer than the route through Ferryhill & Coxhoe.

I finished reading Lacey's "The Anglo–Catholic Faith". It is a curiously interesting book, & very characteristic of the learned eccentrick who is its Author. The autobiographical touches add to its interest. But if, as seems necessary, the book must be taken to express the mind of the general body of "Anglo–Catholicks", it is impossible to deny that it discloses a very unpleasing prospect. The tone of assured triumph which runs through it is itself sufficiently disconcerting, for it raises the question, how will these people carry themselves when they learn, as they will surely have to learn, the truth about the fool's paradise in which they are living. The Bishops are certainly a weak–kneed lot, & they will yield more to pressure than their position permits or the strength of their rebels can justify, but not even their Lordships could concede what the Anglo–Catholicks assume is already secured. Perhaps old Bishop Knox is right after all, and the notion of "roping in" these fanaticks is as fatuous as the performance is humiliating. If he were not followed by such a hideous crowd of bigots, I might join hands with him!

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