The Henson Journals

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New Year's Eve, 1926.

A calm mild morning with a radiant and cloudless sky. The smile of a dazing saint on the face of a departing villain! For it is an evil year that goes out today. Colonel Headlam with his brother called on me about 11 a.m. He thinks that Lord Durham should convene a private conference in the early days of February to consider by what means we can make known to the people the provision of machinery for emigration which has been created, and to assist them to use it.

Brooke and Fosca went off in the afternoon. His sister, a quaint maiden came to fetch them. Ella and I motored to Wynyard, picking up Sybil, Lady Eden, at Windlestone, on the way. The theatricals went off very well, and after dinner there was dancing until midnight, when the New Year was welcomed with good wishes, toasts, & "Auld Lang Syne". Everybody was most friendly. At 12 o'clock, I broke in (as the darkest man of the company!) and wished everybody a "Happy New Year". This is a north–country superstition that a dark man as first foot in the year is lucky!

Hugh Stobart was depressed about the outlook. He says the miners are in an ill temper, and their leaders more obstinate than ever. Londonderry himself took the same view, but his agent Dillon was more cheerful. I inquired of the last whether all the men would be replaced in the Londonderry mines: and he replied that about 400 would be permanently cast out. If that average obtain throughout the county, the total number unemployed will amount to many thousands.

[305]

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1926

On any shewing, public or private, this has been a disastrous year. The General Strike and the protracted "Stoppage" in the mining industry disclosed the strength of the revolutionary forces within the nation, dislocated industry, and inflicted vast loss on the country. In the petty annals of my personal life, my illness wasted months, cost much money, and brought home to me the instability of my own life–fabric. The Church of England ends the year with two more bishops, and some 300 fewer clergy! It gathered nothing but discredit from the fumbling meddlesomeness, which led some bishops to intervene in the "Stoppage": and the Primate's great reputation for statesmanship received a severe blow from his inexplicably foolish conduct in the general strike. The Roman Church has again earned the contempt of the general conscience on its handling of marriage by its annulment of the marriage of Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough, thus undoing the credit which it gained from Cardinal Bourne's letter during the General Strike. The anarchy within the Church of England deepens and spreads, but the Life and + League has died by its own hand.

[306]

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The rejection by Parliament of two measures sent up by the Church Assembly indicates a significant change of feeling towards the latter. The Nation is no longer merely acquiescent: it has become critical – a fact which may have decisive importance when, if ever, a measure of Prayer Book Revision is laid before the House. Among the clergy much discontent with the proceedings of the Church Assembly is becoming vocal. It appears to be strongly felt and widely distributed, though its precise justification is not easily seen.

Beyond the lecture on "William Tyndale", I published nothing. The Lock Memorial Lecture, which I delivered in October, has (for some unknown reason) not made its appearance, though its publication was definitely undertaken by the C. O. S.

Of sermons, I think none were noteworthy, except that delivered in the Westminster Congregational Church on March 7th when I fainted in the pulpit: and that preached in Hereford Cathedral on July 29th, when the 1250th anniversary of the Bishoprick was celebrated. I wrote 14 Articles for the Evening Standard.

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