The Henson Journals

[81]

Monday, June 11th, 1928.

[']It is difficult to see how Soviet Russia can have any other mission to mankind than to serve as an awful warning and example.[']

v. Mavor 'The Russian Revolution' p. 437

Lionel and I left the Castle at 8.30 a.m. and motored to York, where we arrived in 2 hours and five minutes, in ample time for the service in the Cathedral at 11 a.m. The Bishop–elect of Sodor and Man, Ven: W. Stanford Jones, was presented by the Bishops of Bradford and Chelmsford. The Consecration was held in the nave because so many people came from Bradford to witness it that there was not space enough to accommodate them in the choir.

After lunching at the County Hotel, we returned to Auckland, arriving in about 2 hours.

The 'Yorkshire Post' has a leader on 'Home Secretary and Prayer Book', which ought to 'give pause' to Jix and his followers. Ralph says that the Prayer Book will be carried by a majority of 50. That prophecy does not appear to me extravagant, for the more the matter is coolly thought over, the more formidable do the certain consequences of rejection look.

[82]

A theme for poetry divine

A theme to ennoble even mine

In memorable eighty–nine

Cowper 'Annus mirabilis' 1789

'History has given an air of ludicrous irony to Cowper's estimate of the event for which 1789 was to be memorable. His great theme was the temporary recovery of George III from his madness. The controversy over the terms under which the Prince of Wales should assume the regency absorbed the attention of England. Next, perhaps, in political interest came the agitations for the repeal of the Test Acts & for the abolition of the Slave Trade. It was not, probably, until midsummer that Englishmen awoke to the fact that 1789 was to be remembered for anything of greater consequence than the recovery of George III.'

Brown: 'The French Revolution in Eng. Hist." p27.

Cowper was not alone in his inability to 'read the signs of the times'. What but a similar blindness could lead religious & educated persons to persuade themselves that the most momentous & critical event of our time is ___ the epiklesis [sic] or Reservation!!!