The Henson Journals

[106]

Tuesday, February 7th, 1928.

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After breakfast I called on Vernon Storr, and had some talk with him. He said that Guy Rogers had no such following among the Liberal Evangelicals as would justify his affectation of speaking in their name.

^[paragraph strikethrough]^ [Then I called on Dashwood, and was told that I ought to pay my income tax forthwith. So I returned to the Deanery, wrote a cheque for £551:16:0.]

The House of Bishops met at 2.30 p.m. and sate until 5 p.m. Our business ought to have taken but a few minutes, since we had but to vote general approval of our own measure. But the tiny Opposition seized the opportunity for again parading their objections to the Revised Book. The Bishops of Norwich, Birmingham, and Exeter spoke at great length. the Bishops of Chelmsford, St Alban's, Winchester, Portsmouth, Manchester, and myself replied in briefer speeches, then the Archbishop of Canterbury wound up. The division showed 35 for general approval, 5 against. We learned that the House of Clergy had agreed to General Approval by a very large majority, but the House of Laity had not finished their discussion by 6 p.m., and had adjourned the debate.

[107]

I dined in the Deanery. After dinner I had much talk with Miss Fairfax, an elderly lady good looking intelligent, who was a descendent from the famous Parliamentarian General. She said the family, which had lost most of its lands, but still retained a number of Sir Thomas Fairfax's personal possessions. After she had departed, I learned that she was desperately impecunious, and was seeking to gain an income by essays in business, which commonly came to nothing.

I read at intervals a book which Oman told me was worth reading. It is by a Russian Scholar named Rostovtzeff, and is published by the Clarendon Press. It is entitled "The Social Economic History of the Roman Empire", and abundantly illustrated. The author claims to be breaking new ground. "No one has endeavoured to connect the social and economic evolution of the Empire with its constitutional administrative development or with the home foreign policy of the Emperors. The present volume is the first attempt of the kind". How far this claim is really justified, I am quite unable to say, but the book is obviously both learned and interesting.