The Henson Journals
Sat 20 October 1928
Volume 46, Pages 128 to 129
[128]
Saturday, October 20th, 1928, Manchester.
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Gore sent me his congress sermon, now published under the title 'Danger and Duties'. It is a characteristic composition, with which I found myself in so much agreement that I wrote a civil acknowledgement. It is the compromising associations of his "Catholick" past that make Gore's most liberal–sounding declarations so unsatisfactory. He and I have some obvious points of resemblance. The Anglo–Catholicks regard him much as the modernists regard me. To the one & to the other we are 'lost leaders'! Both of us are handicapped by our previous history: neither of us wholly merited the confidence which our former supporters placed in us, for we were both too large for any party connexion.
This is the 26th anniversary of my marriage. The psalm which we read in chapel was very appropriate – the 103rd, and as we left the chapel the landscape was spanned by a glorious rainbow.
I motored to Darlington, & took train for Manchester. I left at 1.7 p.m., changed at York, and arrived at the Victoria Station in Manchester at 4.40 p.m. Canon Scott was on the platform to receive me.
[129]
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Canon Scott and his wife are growing to be very old. Their contributions to conversation are explained & excused by the fact. They both express an extreme fear of Disestablishment, & evidently regard me with extreme ^deep^ suspicion! I suppose that for the majority of church people the cause of the Church and the maintenance of the Establishment mean precisely the same thing. To require them to draw a distinction between them, & even to contemplate them as conceivably opposed, is to make a greater demand than they can satisfy. Ella is quite representative in this respect.
There was a pleasant dinner–party of doctors & academicks. As usual I could not remember who was who: but I did distinguish the Vice–Chancellor of the University, Moberly [Moberley], and a notable surgeon named Burgess. With both of these I had some agreeable conversation. Burgess had been travelling in Germany recently with Grey Turner, who operated on me in Newcastle. We talked about the problem of education, and I was gratified at finding myself in agreement with Moberly on the point of getting rid of the 'Dual System' as soon as possible. Mrs Moberly also was a pleasant person, but we were nearing conflict on the matter ^of^ co–education when we parted!