The Henson Journals

[31]

Monday, August 27th, 1928.

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I have undertaken to address a meeting in Gateshead on the subject of 'Education'. My task cannot be easy, and might also be called 'delicate', for ''Labour'' is dominant in Gateshead, and 'Education' is the 'apple' of 'Labour's' eye. All the fond delusions as to the beneficent potencies of education, which deluded the XIXth century are still living & dominant in the ranks of 'Labour', and no aphorism is more bitterly resented, & more habitually ignored, than that which affirms the melancholy and far–reaching truth, that 'you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. It might be worth while to deride some prevailing educational fallacies e.g. that the test of sound education is to be 'sought in the syllabus or scheme of teaching: that all teachers are equally competent for all purposes: that all subjects should be taught to all children (equality of opportunity): that coercive discipline may be dispensed with, & so forth. It would, I think, be useful to emphasize the undesirableness of sending school teachers to teach in the districts where they have their homes, & the impossibility of ignoring probable careers when you are determining the type and range of education.

[32]

An individual career is determined by 3 factors – inherited capacity, education, and opportunity. All three are to some extent within human control, but none is within the control of the individual himself, though his handling of all is in the final result, entirely his own. Eugenics may to some extent, (to what extent is wholly unknown) determine the range, duration, & quality of education: equality of opportunity must always remain an inaccessible ideal, but some approximations to it may be made by state action. The greatest opportunities for individual achievement emerge from crisis and resolution, which open quite suddenly avenues of action which would normally have been closed. Thus such times are always apocalypses of individual capacity, as surprising as they are fruitful of consequences. There is an element of the unexpected, of sheer chance, 'a tide in the affairs of men', which is equally unaccountable and decisive. It tests and it enables at the same time. No man, seriously considering the course of his own life, can fail to give great importance to this factor.

[33]

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If I had been told authoritatively that my publication of 'The Book and the Vote' would cost me the succession to Canterbury, should I, or should I not, have published it? I think it is almost certain that I should: for, though I should probably have felt a certain regret at thus penalising myself, I should have felt it due to myself not to be influenced in such a matter by the consideration of personal consequences. Is this self–respect? or 'pure cussedness'? or an incorrigible vanity? I am not quite sure: but, being what I am, it is, I think, what would have happened!

I suspect that Baldwin, in view of the next General Election, is turning towards the 'young men' of his party who 'flirt' with Socialism. Temple's preferment, in view of his association with the Labour Party, & his action during the General Strike, would entirely meet their wishes. (Two of the most prominent of the 'Young Tories' – Harold Macmillan & Oliver Stanley – are Durham members, & the first is, by his marriage with a Cavendish, a connection of Temple.) Then Baldwin has ventured much on his extension of the franchise to women over 21, and I am well–known to be opposed to Feminism in Church & State. It could hardly be reasonably expected that he should offend so many of his supporters by offering an Archbishoprick to the Bishop of Durham.

[34]

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Supposing I had taken another course, that course in fact which Lord S. suggested & which the Archbishop certainly expected me to take, viz: to minimize the significance of the votes in the House of Commons, emphasize the practical importance of Establishment, and seek some reconciliation with 'Protestantism', what would have been my position? Should I not have given weight to the ill–natured suggestion, so freely made in the religious press, that I have been all along aiming at the Primacy? Could I have explained my speech in the House of Lords in any convincing way? And if, surviving criticism though not escaping moral discredit, I had succeeded in reaching Lambeth, should I not have found myself in the most humiliating position conceivable? Would it have been possible in such circumstances to command the respect of the Church in degree sufficient to make any policy practicable under my leading? As things are, the worst that can be said of me is what was said of the immortal 'Trimmer', Lord Halifax, that he always changed his position to his own disadvantage. Men will respect, even while they denounce, such 'trimming'.

[35]

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We motored to Ford, and called on Lord Joicey, who was himself on the point of starting to call on us. The old man was most affable, and showed us the Castle, which is not without considerable historic interest. James IV lodged there before the battle of Flodden. The house is adorned with a good number of pictures, some of which are by Masters. There was a fine Romney, & portrait of Sir Robert Walpole by Sir Godfrey Kneller, several Turners, & some excellent modern landscapes. The situation of Ford is superb, commanding wonderful prospects. We saw the rather mean parish church, in which Lord J. reads the lessons. He gave me the opportunity of speaking about the Castle, & I made full advantage of it. He promised to contribute something more, & suggested adding a unit to his subscription of £500. Then we had tea with Mrs Bousfield at the house of a doctor, her brother. After tea we played lawn–tennis & croquet, listened to a Kellogg Treaty service in S. Martin's, Trafalgar Square, & then returned home. The weather, which had been uncertain all the morning, became fine during the afternoon, & the evening was calm & bright. I paid the bills which we had contracted in Wooler. The afternoon post brought me a rather ardently worded letter from Mr. Allan Ross, whom I interviewed on August 20th q.v.

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