The Henson Journals

[300]

Tuesday, September 3rd, 1929.

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I read before getting up Lecky's account of the Gordon Riots in 1780. It is something near to a coincidence that the spokesman of the "No Popery" fanaticks in 1927 was, as in the earlier explosion a Scot. Lord George Gordon & Mr. Rosslyn Mitchell possessed that 'perfervidum ingenium Scottorum', which, set ablaze by "religious" passion, is as irresistible as a Highland stream in spate. The more lethargic bigotry of the English which, because it is so slow to speak & act, often passes for tolerance, needs this fiery element from the North, if it is to become dangerous. In the agitation against the Revised Prayer Book, there was yet another Celtick element, & one which added the bitterness of sectarian resentment to the passion of race. The Welsh members headed by Lloyd George, cast their votes against the Church of England. "Labour", moved to a passion of opposites by the action of the House of Lords, joined itself with the Scots, Welsh, & Irish, & thus the disaster was engineered and achieved.

[301]

I motored to Jarrow, and there officiated at the marriage of Henry Walker Dobson in Christ Church of which church he is the Rector. The building was, of course, crowded with parishioners, mostly of the female sex. The service was reverently performed, & my address was listened to with, as it seemed to me, very close attention. Booth, the Rector of Jarrow, assisted. Clerical matrimony raises so many practical difficulties that it is difficult to regard it with approval, but none can contest the clergyman's right in the matter, & few will deny that marriage removes some very grave evils, which shadow the record of celibacy. I returned to Durham, & lunched with the Bishop of Jarrow, with whom I talked over diocesan business, & then went back to the Castle at Auckland.

I received a letter from South Africa. The writer – Rev. S.B. Hinchcliff, St Peter's Rectory, Hermanus C.P. – "just wanted to say thank you for the splendid service that you have done for the English Church through your Lordship's book on Disestablishment". What precisely does this mean?

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