<\/p>\n
When Henson was appointed bishop of Durham in 1920, he became an ex officio member of the House of Lords. He welcomed the opportunity it provided to play a part in national politics, which, he claimed, had always been the \u2018principal attraction of episcopal office\u2019 to him. Distance from London quickly proved that he would be no more than an \u2018occasional visitor\u2019 to the chamber, to the regret of his fellow peers[1<\/a>]<\/a> The limited number of speeches he gave reflected the large expenditure of time and money that attendance required; it also reflected his reluctance to speak on subjects of which he had little knowledge.[2<\/a>]<\/a> However, despite the infrequency of his visits, he underestimated his influence there, not only within the House itself as the Journal shows, but beyond.\u00a0 On his retirement, his speech in defence of the Prayer Book measure in December 1927 was praised by one local newspaper as perhaps his greatest.<\/a>[3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He did not attend the House of Lords on 4 October 1938 when the chamber debated the Munich agreement, despite his strong opposition to the policy of appeasement. His biographer, Owen Chadwick, attributed his unusual silence to a belief that bishops should not appear to be warmongers.<\/a>[4]<\/a> However, the Munich crisis coincided with his decision to retire at the age of seventy-five the following February, and with a bout of depression he was unable to shake off.<\/a>[5]<\/a>\u00a0 He had thought that his speech on Abyssinia in May 1938 would probably be his last in the Lords.<\/a>[6]<\/a> Lord Halifax\u2019s reply for the Government and the hostility of press on that occasion (with the exception of the Manchester Guardian) <\/em>contributed to a mounting sense of failure.<\/a>[7]<\/a><\/p>\n The following list is thought to be complete.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n House of Lords Debates, 5th series<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Matrimonial Causes Bill (10 Mar. 1921), Vol. 44, cc. 484-91<\/p>\n Matrimonial Causes Bill (21 Apr. 1921), Vol. 44, cc. 1083-5.<\/p>\n Matrimonial Causes Bill (28 Apr. 1921), Vol. 45, cc. 87-92<\/p>\n Deceased Brother\u2019s Widow\u2019s Marriage Bill (28 June 1921), vol. 45, cc. 827-29<\/p>\n Newspaper reports of law cases (24 Apr. 1923), Vol. 53, cc. 854-56<\/p>\n Coal Mines Agreement (27 Feb. 1924), Vol. 56, cc. 402-403<\/p>\n Diocese of Winchester (Division) Measure (2 July 1924), Vol. 58, cc. 142-9<\/p>\n Liquor (Popular Control) Bill (8 July 1924), Vol. 58, cc. 315-320<\/p>\n Bishoprick of Shrewsbury Measure (4 Mar. 1926), Vol. 63, cc. 450-56<\/p>\n Liquor (Popular Control) Bill (21 June 1927), Vol. 67, cc. 841-45<\/p>\n Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Bill (5 July 1927), Vol. 68, cc. 133-7<\/p>\n Prayer Book Measure (14 Dec. 1927), Vol. 69, cc. 924-32<\/p>\n Durham Castle (3 July 1928), Vol. 71, 816-20<\/p>\n Labour conditions in Russia (5 Feb. 1931), Vol. 79, cc. 857-60<\/p>\n Public expenditure (22 June 1932), Vol. 85, cc. 98-102<\/p>\n Marriage Bill (24 June 1937), Vol. 105, cc. 768-774<\/p>\n Matrimonial Causes Bill (19 July 1937), Vol. 106, cc. 586-88<\/p>\n Foreign Policy (18 May 1938), Vol. 109, 138-45, c. 146<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>[1]<\/a> Journal, 11 Dec. 1925; 4 Feb. 1936; 21 June 1937.<\/p>\n <\/a>[2]<\/a> Journal, 3 Jan. 1938.<\/p>\n <\/a>[3]<\/a>\u00a0Newcastle Daily Chronicle<\/em>, 27 Oct. 1938, 1.<\/p>\n <\/a>[4]<\/a>\u00a0Owen Chadwick,\u00a0Hensley Henson: A Study in the Friction between Church and State<\/em> (Oxford, 1983), 271.<\/p>\n <\/a>[5]<\/a> Journal, 25 May 1938.<\/p>\n <\/a>[6]<\/a> Journal, 27 May 1938.<\/p>\n <\/a>[7]<\/a> Henson,\u00a0Retrospect of an unimportant life <\/em>(London, 1943), II, 409-11.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Henson was appointed bishop of Durham in 1920, he became an ex officio member of the House of Lords. He welcomed the opportunity it provided to play a part in national politics, which, he claimed, had always been the \u2018principal attraction of episcopal office\u2019 to him. Distance from London quickly proved that he … Continue reading “Henson’s speeches in the House of Lords”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":43,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-950","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hensonjournals.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}