The Henson Journals

[111]

Wednesday, February 6th, 1929.

Last night we elected the Earl of Crewe, and Galsworthy to be members of "the Club". Ld Sumner told this story of Choate, the American ambassador. Being pressed to say who he would most desire to be if he were not Joseph Chute, be replied, "The second husband of Mrs Chute". Bailey vouched for the following – A gentleman going to watch a cricket–match desired to arm himself with a suitable book, & chose Butler's Analogy: he found himself sitting beside an old gentleman, who was reading a book, &, when he inquired what it was, learned to his surprise that it was Butler's Analogy. We talked of novels: & Sumner said he meditated returning to Miss Young. "I can still read The Heir of Redcliffe without breaking down". Hugh Macmillan mentioned the case of a Highland Gillie, who told him that he relieved the taedium of wakeful nights by reading Meredith's "Richard Feverell".

[112]

[symbol]

There was quite a thick fog when I left the house and walked to the Athenaeum. I spent the morning most wearisomely in the Assembly: and lunched pleasantly at the Deanery, Westminster. In the afternoon, I had an interview with Downing at the Ecclesiastical Commission with respect to the scheme for demolishing the existing parish church of Bishopwearmouth, and rebuilding it in worthier fashion. He was sympathetic and (vaguely) promising. That business ended, I took occasion to inquire whether I might expect any assistance in the matter of the dilapidations of Auckland Castle. He said that he thought that the Commissioners would undoubtedly relieve us of responsibility for the Chapel & boundary walls. He suggested that Caröe's plan for pulling down the stables, & building cottages should stand over for the present: and that I should proceed with the work on the Castle itself.

[113]

[symbol]

In the club I fell in with Archbishop Davidson, who was looking very vigorous. He asked me to stay with him in the friendliest fashion.

I dined at Grillions. There were present:

Lord Hardinge	Austen Chamberlain
" Darling	Sir George Murray
" Fitz Alan	Sir Maurice de Bunsen
" Donoughmore	Bishop of Durham

We had a most interesting conversation in which Chamberlain & I, who sat opposite to one another, bore the greater part. He and I were born in the same year, 1863. He is a younger–looking man than I, has a pleasant open expression, speaks with pauses & hesitation, and gesticulates a good deal. He seemed to me to be getting tired as the talk proceeded, and his face took on a strained wan look, which attested to his recent & severe illness. Certainly I liked him, better than I had expected.

[114]

[symbol]

[Sir George Murray and Sir Maurice de Bunsen spoke to me about my article on "Disestablishment by Consent", and both expressed agreement.] I take the impression from the attitude of the members of the Assembly that they are rather dismayed than dissentient. They cannot see their way to dissent from a conclusion which they both fear and loathe. The Bishop of Liverpool ̭(David)^ dissents from my view, & proposes an alternative. He would not disestablish, but invite the nonconformists to come into the establishment. But what, in actual arrangement, could this mean except the disestablishment of the Church, and concurrent endorsement for the "Free Churches"? And how could such a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" arrangement tend to raise the level of fraternity between the Churches? Meanwhile, Frere has authorized the use of the Revised Prayer Book, and provoked explosions of Protestant indignation. Ingram pursues his [fatuous] course of making privy pacts with individuals and groups, who (with their tongues in their cheeks, and dutiful phrases on their lips) lead their ̭[deluded]^ miserable diocesan into ever worse deeps of self–contradicting humiliation! But the bishop himself, hypnotized by ̭a curious kind of official^ [self–deluding] vanity, imagines that he is "bringing London into order"!

---