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 In ^Fmopiam. 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 or 
 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, 
 
 LATE BJSHOl' OF LICHFIELD, 
 
 AND FORMERLY 
 
 lUSHOP AND METEOPOLITAN OF NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 BT 
 
 MRS. G. HERBERT CURTEIS. 
 
 NEWCASTLE: 
 
 C. HICKSON, PEINTER & PUBLISHER. 
 
 J. PARKER & CO., LONDON.
 
 TO ATX 
 
 IN EITHER HEMISPHERE 
 
 WHO HAVE LOVED BISHOP 8ELWYN AND REVERE HIS MEMORY, 
 
 A2TD MORE ESPECIALLY 
 
 TO THOSE WHO IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE 
 
 HAVE RECEIVED 
 
 THE RITE OF CONEIRMATION OR ORDINATION 
 
 AT HIS HANDS, 
 
 THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Prefaob. 
 
 Ohaptbe I.— Early life at Eton and Cambridge, and Ministry at 
 Windsor. 1809-1841. 
 
 Chapter II. — Consecration to the Bishopric of New Zealand : 
 The Voyage : Work in the Colony. 1841—1848. 
 
 Chapter III. — First Voyage to the Melanesian Islands : Mis- 
 sionary work there : Consecration of Bishop Patteson. 
 1841—1867. 
 
 Chapter IV. — Second visit to England to attend the Pan- 
 Anglican Synod : Appointment to the Bishopric of Lich- 
 field : Farewell Visit to New Zealand. 1867—1868. 
 
 Chapter V. — Life and work in the Diocese of Lichfield: First 
 Visit to America: Death of Bishop Patteson. 1868—1871. 
 
 Chapi'ER VI. — Bishop Rawle Consecrated in Lichfield Cathedral : 
 Rev. J. R. Selwyn leaves England for Melanesia: The 
 Bishop's second visit to America. 1872 — 1875. 
 
 Chapter VIL— Death of Dean Champneys : Church Congress at 
 Stoke-upon-Trent : Visit to the Isle of Man : Fourth 
 Diocesan Conference. 1875 — 1878. 
 
 Chapter VIIL— Last Illness and Death: The Funeral. Pro- 
 posed Memorials at Lichfield and Cambiidge: Conclusion. 
 1878. 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 Ii,L,TJ8TRATI0NS. 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Selwyn. (page 1.) 
 
 Map of Melanesia, (page 24.) 
 
 Lichfield College House, (page 48.) 
 
 Alms Bason presented by the American Church, 1872. (page 85.}
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 On Sunday, the 24th of March, 1878, unexpectedly and 
 ahnost without warning. Her Majesty's training ship, Eurj^dice, 
 with all hands on board went down off the Isle of Wight. The 
 tidings next morning sent a thrill of dismay throughout the 
 length and breadth of England at the suddenness of the 
 oalamit}'. On the same afternoon of that chill and bitter day, 
 with its blinding snowstorms and withering wind, after a long 
 Confirmation which had tried his powers to the utmost, our 
 late beloved Bishop, folding his hands and laying back his 
 head in the vestry of S. Mary's, Shrewsbury, said — " The end 
 is come." To hear of his being ill created a feeling of no 
 ordinary anxiety among his people, as he had shown few 
 signs of failure in health, and no sign whatever of failure in 
 energy. But when, a fortnight later, the medical attendants 
 announced that his life was in the greatest danger and that 
 very little hope could be entertained of his recovery, anxiety 
 gave place to deep and unfeigned sorrow. Telegrams and 
 bulletins were scanned with keenest interest from hour to 
 hour; and when on Thursday, April 11th, the great Bell at 
 the Cathedral announced that Bishop Selwyn was no more, 
 everybody felt that a stately ship had indeed gone down, or, 
 as we should rather say, had passed to the haven beyond our 
 earthly knowledge. While therefore the remembrance of him, 
 both as man and Bishop, is still vividly present with us, and 
 his voice — that voice with its calm deep tone, warning, exhort- 
 ing, comforting all who heard him — still sounds in our ears,
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYK. 
 
 it seems well, ere the clear impression becomes at all dimmed, 
 to recall some parts of his eventful life, and to put on record 
 a few of those striking acts and words which have so power- 
 fully affected the Church of England at [lome and in the 
 colonies ; a more complete account being reserved for some 
 abler pen than that which has been prompted by affectionate 
 and reverential memories to write this simple sketch. 
 The Close, Lichfield, 1878. E. A. C. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 Early Life at Eton and Cambridge, and Ministry 
 AT Windsor: 1809—1841. 
 
 George Augustus Selwyn was born on April 5th, 1809, at 
 Church Eow, Hampstead, in the quaint old street that still 
 leads to the ivy-clad church. His father was Mr. William 
 Selwyn, an eminent Queen's Counsel, and his mother Letitia 
 Frances, daughter of Mr. Eoger Kynaston, of Witham, Essex. 
 He was one of six children, four sons and two daughters, 
 amongst whom even in the nursery he took the lead ; the 
 others — though all possessed of considerable talent and force 
 of character — invariably following wherever he led and carry- 
 ing out whatever he proposed. 
 
 Ealing was the first school to which the young Selwyns 
 were sent ; and a letter from an old schooKellow mentions the 
 popularity of the future Bishop even there. But it was Eton 
 which mainly prepared him for his distinguished career at 
 Cambridge. Mr. Grladstone, his schoolfellow and personal 
 friend, has testified to the fact that from boyhood upwards his 
 actions were noble and generous ; and this is confirmed by the
 
 EARLY LIFE AT ETON AND CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 following characteristic anecdote, cc>mmunicated by his friend 
 and coadjutor, Bishop Abraham. " AVe belonged," he says, 
 " to the pre-scientific period as regards athleticism as \vell as 
 studies. Our boats were clumsy and the oars clumsier. In 
 Selw3'n's ' long-boat' there were seven oars not very good and 
 one superlatively bad. The boys used to run up town as hard 
 as they could to Bob Tolladay's and seize upon one of the 
 seven moderately bad ones, and the last comer got the ' punt- 
 pole.' Of course he was sulky all the ^vaj up to Surh', and 
 the other seven abused hiin for not pulling his own weight. 
 Every one Avas out of temper. So George Selwyn determined 
 always to come last. The other feLlows chaffed him, but he 
 used to laugli, and at last said ' It's Avorth my while taking 
 that bad oar : I used to have to pull the w^eight of the sulky 
 fellow who had it; now you are all in good humour.' This 
 story illustrates his whole after life. He always took the 
 labouring oar in everything."* 
 
 The Bishop of Winchester (the Eight Eev. Harold BroAvne) 
 has also recentl}' told in the Upper House of Convocation how 
 he knew him when he was a bo}-, having been of nearly the same 
 standing with him at Eton. He says, " He was the best boy 
 on the river and nearly the first boy in learning. I remember 
 his spirited speeches at the Eton debating society and some of 
 his Greek compositions. I believe he was the greatest diver 
 at Eton or anywhere else. •'•' * * He was always first in 
 everything, and no one ever knew him without admiring and 
 loving him." There is a bush at Eton called " Selwyn's bush," 
 standing on a high bank of the Thames, to which he used to 
 run up, take a spring, go over it with a perfectly straight 
 body, and coming into the water head foremost at an angle 
 
 * Eton College Chronicle, Jiine -ith 1878.
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 of forty-five, pass under the surface of the water and rise 
 again directly. When asked how to do it, he used to say 
 *' fancy yourself a dart." 
 
 He left Eton in the Upper Division and went to Cambridge 
 where he was first a Scholar and afterwards Fellow of S. John's 
 College. " In 1829 a proposal for an inter-university boat race 
 was started by Oxford, made (it is believed) by the present 
 Bishop of S. Andrews. Cambridge warmly accepted the chal- 
 lenge, and the 7th oar in the boat was pulled by George 
 Selwyn. All his life he was an enthusiastic advocate for 
 rowing, and in a letter which appears in Dr. de Morgan's 
 book on University oarsmen he sa,js, ' Many of us were also 
 great pedestrians : Bishop Tyrrell and I walked from Cam- 
 bridge to London in thirteen hours without stopping: many 
 were also ' Psychrolutes,' bathing in winter in all states of 
 the river ; and my advice to all young men is, in two sentences, 
 'Be temperate in all things,' and 'Incumbite remis' (Bend to 
 your oars).' "* Towards the end of his undergraduate life, he 
 observed once on returning home that his parents had put 
 down their carriage. He asked the reason, and learnt that 
 the expense of keeping two sons at Cambridge and two at 
 Eton was beyond their means. From that day he determined 
 to gain his own livelihood, and did so as a Private Tutor and 
 Fellow of S. John's. 
 
 On leaving Cambridge he returned to Eton as private tutor 
 to Lord Powis's sons; and having been ordained on his College- 
 title he at first helped the Vicar of Windsorf by providing an 
 Evening Service in the Church, and after a time became 
 Curate of the Parish. The Vicar left matters very much in 
 the young Curate's hands ; and when, in public or in private, 
 
 •Saturday Review, April 20th, 1878. tThe late Rev Isaac Gossett.
 
 MINISTRY AT WINDSOR. 
 
 praise was expressed at the admirable order with which every 
 thing was arranged, lie alwaj's acknowledged the fact that 
 success was entirely due to his Curate, and would take none 
 of the credit to himself. " It is all Selwyn's doing," he would 
 say, "he is the moving-spring here." 
 
 A friend writes, ' ' His whole residence in Eton was 
 marked by kindly co-operation, cordiality and zeal. If there 
 were any misunderstandings amongst friends, he could not rest 
 till they were reconciled ; if pecuniary difficulties fell upon 
 anyone he would make every effort to extricate him ; if his 
 friends were ill he was their nurse and companion ; if they 
 lost relations or fell under sorrow he was Avith them at any 
 hour to console and uphold them. Whether it were in spiritual 
 work or active exercises or ordinary amusements, 'whatso- 
 ever his hand found to do he did it with his might.'* 
 How this description comes home to all who have known the 
 Bishop during his life at Lichfield, where he was ever 
 the comforter of those in trouble, the supporter of the weak, 
 the guide in all difficulty to those who needed help ! 
 
 While he was Tutor at Eton, he persuaded Dr. Hawtrey to 
 let him undertake the management of the water arrangements 
 for the boys. Hitherto the river had been ' out of bounds : ' 
 so there were no rules or regulations for the boating and 
 bathing, as there was no recognition of either on the part of 
 the authorities. The young Tutor knew weU the mischief of 
 this state of things, and represented to Dr. Hawtrey how wrong 
 it was to treat boys as criminals requiring to be imprisoned. 
 "Let them have fi-eedom," he pleaded, " and force them to 
 learn swimming before going on the water." This was ac- 
 cordingly carried out; and since that year (1839) not a 
 
 *Guardian, April 24th, 1878.
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 .single fatal accident has happened, although the school has 
 doubled its numbers, while before that time at least one death 
 had occurred annually. One of his projects while Curate at 
 "Windsor was — long before the days of cooking schools and 
 lectures — the establishment of a parish kitchen. This was 
 graphically described by himself at Wolverhampton in 1868, 
 in his address to Churchwardens. " There is another point in 
 parochial economy which I value very much indeed, and which 
 has been very much in place in m.j past experience in New 
 Zealand. Travelling across a wild country, it has often hap- 
 pened to me that I have had to cook my OAvn food ; and the 
 knowledge of cookery that I possess I acquired in my own 
 parish-kitchen at Windsor, an institution which I found of the 
 most beneficial kind for the relief of the poor, and also for the 
 education of the children in a kind of knowledge which they 
 needed very much — a knowledge of cooking. Before the 
 kitchen was started there was a relief committee, to whom our 
 district-visitors used to bring reports of various sick persons 
 who required medical comforts and necessaries ; and the com- 
 mittee issued orders for so many pounds of bread and mutton 
 to be soiit to them. If the Curate followed the material to its 
 destination, he would go into miserable places where there 
 were only a few pieces of coal in the grate with a small black 
 pot vipon them ; and in that pot would be a sort of fluid, black 
 and greasy, with a hard lump like a cricket ball floating in the 
 middle, which would be the very pound of meat for which the 
 committee had paid 8d. to make broth for a sick person. Why 
 I might as well have told them to make broth out of stones ! 
 So the kitchen was started : a cook was engaged : a district 
 visitor attended in the morning to act as housekeeper : they 
 made all kinds of delicacies for the sick according to their
 
 CONSECRATIOX TO THE BISHOPRIC OF NEW ZEALAND. 7 
 
 wants : and at twelve o'clock the school-children carried tliem 
 to the various houses, bringing ba(;k the basins and plates 
 when they returned to school. This was found to be a great 
 saving on the old plan. For sixpenny worth of well- cooked 
 food did more good than a shilUngsworth of raw material in 
 unskilled hands. I contend that every poor person when sick 
 ought to be ministered to in the same waj' as the highest in 
 the land : and nothing went out of our kitchen that was not 
 fit for any person to partake of." At this time there was a large 
 Chui'ch debt which was the cause of constant contention between 
 various parties, each accusing the other of having incurred it. 
 To remove this subject of dissension he gave up his own 
 stipend as a foundation for paying off the debt, and enlisted 
 some helpers to go with him from house to house until they 
 had succeeded in raising the neeessar}' amount. He also kept 
 the accounts of the Penn}' Bank and other parochial institu- 
 tions, when he was a Curate, thus acquiring habits of business 
 and method which were invaluable to him all his life. 
 
 So varied was the training and discipline by which the 
 unseen hand of Grod was fitting him for the career which soon 
 afterwards most unexpectedly opened before him. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Consecration to the Bishopric of New Zealand : the Voyage : 
 Work IN THE CoLONT : 1841 — 1848. 
 
 The Church Missionary Society had long been desu'ous of 
 Episcopal oversight for their successful and extensive Missions 
 in New Zealand, which formed part of the Australasian dio- 
 cese under Bishop Broughton's jurisdiction. This indefatig-
 
 8 LIFE OF BISHOP SEL"WYN. 
 
 able prelate had indeed visited the islands in 1838, had held 
 an Ordination and two Confirmations there, and had conse- 
 crated certain burial grounds. But, beyond this, New Zea- 
 land — although almost entirely Christianized by the labours 
 of Samuel Marsden (1815) and his successors — knew nothing 
 of episcopal order and supervision. But in 1841, her Majesty's 
 Government made New Zealand a separate colony, and in 
 deference to the urgent representations of the Society, and of 
 the newly founded "Colonial Bishoprics Council," they went 
 so far as to promise £600 a year for the maintenance of a 
 Bishop in the new Colony, an equal sum having ah*eady been 
 guaranteed by the Church Missionary Society. The only re- 
 maining difficulty was to find a suitable man for the post. 
 
 It so happened that at this time the Windsor ciu'ate, in an- 
 ticipation of liis pupils leaving Eton, was disengaging himself 
 from his parish work and had ofi'ered to take an unpaid curacy 
 under the aged vicar of a town in Shropshire near the Powis 
 estates. But a higher call suddenly reached him. It was not 
 indeed the call which he may possibly have anticipated — a call 
 to the Bishopric of Malta (or Gibraltar). The summons was 
 not to re-animate the corrupt communions of the Levant or to 
 " re-kindle the fii-es of the early African Churches." It was a 
 summons to carry the blessings of Church order and Episcopal 
 supervision among the hardy colonists and the recently con- 
 verted natives of " the Britain of the South." This arduous 
 post, for which George Augustus Selwyn was of aU men per- 
 haps the best fitted, was now offered to him and at once en- 
 thusiastically accepted. He was consecrated on October 17, 
 1841 ; and at once prepared for his voyage. 
 
 To go out as a Colonial Bishop in those days was a 
 much more difficult undertaking than it is now. There were
 
 FAREWELL LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOP. » 
 
 many hardships to be undergone, absence of civilization, 
 great difficulty of communication, very little companionship, 
 and sometimes even deficiency of food. All honour to the 
 noble spirit which despised the comforts and refinements of 
 life, for the sake of the Master in whose steps he so closely 
 followed ! 
 
 Some extracts will be interesting from Archbishop Howley's 
 farewell letter to Bishop Selwyn, dated Nov. 30, 1841, and 
 from the ansAver sent by the Bishop before he sailed from 
 England. 
 
 "My dear Lord, — I am requested by such of the Bishops 
 as attended the last meeting of the Committee appointed to 
 manage the fund for the endowment of Colonial Bishoprics, to 
 address a valedictory letter to your lordship expressive of their 
 personal respect, and of the deep interest they take in your high 
 and holy Mission. The Mission over which you preside is foun- 
 ded on the recognition of a principle which unfortunately has 
 not always been acted upon in the first establishment of our 
 colonies. You will have the great satisfaction of lading the 
 foundations of civilized society in New Zealand on the basis of 
 an Apostolical Church. * * Your mission acquires an 
 importance exceeding all calculation when your See is regarded 
 as the central point of a system extending its influence in all 
 directions ; as a fountain diffusing the streams of salvation 
 over the islands and coasts of the Pacific ; as the seminary to 
 which nations which have been hitherto blinded by debasing 
 superstitions wiR look for light. * * The consciousness 
 of going forth in the name of the Lord, as the messenger of 
 mercy and peace, will reconcile you to the sacrifices which you 
 have made in obedience to this call from on high. * * 
 The influence of. Mrs. Selwyn's kindness and piety wiU, I am
 
 10 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 persuaded, not only promote the comfort and happiness of her 
 domestic circle, but will be extensively useful in bettering the 
 condition and improving the morals of all who come within its 
 sphere. I most heartily commend your lordship, your family, 
 and all the Clergj'men in your train, to the protection of the 
 Lord and the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Your affectionate 
 brother and friend, W. Caktuar." 
 
 To this the Bishop replied as follows: — "Eichmond, Dec. 8, 
 1841. My dear Lord Archbishop, — The prevalence of contrary 
 winds gives me an opportunity of acknowledging your Grace's 
 most feeling and Christian letter from this place. When I say 
 that every member of my own and of jii}' wife's family has ac- 
 quiesced joj'fully and thankfully in the call which will sejDarate 
 me from them, perhaps for life, I cannot offer a better proof of 
 the blessing which has attended this act of the Church, in pro- 
 curing for it the willing obedience of so man}' of its members. 
 I may add to these feelings of public duty, that 3-on.r Grace's 
 farewell letter has diffused jo}' and comfort on all our relations 
 b}' the power of private sj'mpathy mingling with the highest 
 and holiest thoughts of Christian obligation. TJiat the Church 
 of England at home may be blessed with the spirit of unity 
 and peace, and in the strength of that sj^irit may go forth into 
 all the world, as it has now reached its most distant point, is 
 the earnest prayer of one, who — more than all others — will 
 require the support which is afforded b}^ the thought that there 
 is no division in the Bod}^ of Christ ; but that in Him we all 
 are joined together in one spirit and in one faith. '^•' * 
 Sir J. Richardson would have been the first to rejoice in re- 
 signing his daughter to the service of his Redeemer and at 
 the bidding of His Church. I thank God that his spirit lives 
 also in her. With our united and affectionate remembrances
 
 VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND 11 
 
 to Mrs. How'ley, and in grateful recollection of all join- kind- 
 ness, I remain, with great respect, your Grace's dutiful and 
 affectionate son, Gr. A. New Zealand." 
 
 This letter at once suggests a leading feature in Bishop 
 Selwj^n's character, evident to all who knew him through- 
 out his life, — how he lived in communion with God. His 
 thoughts ever naturally' and simply turned to Him, every 
 action being, as it were, permeated with, love to God and with 
 the one desire to do all to His honour and glory. 
 
 His farewell- sermon at "Windsor was listened to with deep 
 emotion as he talked of "going away to plant a Church and 
 then to die neglected and unknown." One young hearer, an 
 Eton hoy, was so forcibly struck by this sermon, that from 
 that day forth he never gave up the idea of following the 
 Bishop when he should be old enough to do so. This boy was 
 John Coleridge Patteson, the future Bishop and Martj-r of 
 Melanesia. 
 
 In December, 1841, the Bishop of New Zealand sailed 
 from Plymouth with a large party in the ship Tomatin.'^- He 
 engaged a young native who liad been brought to England 
 to be trained at Battersea, and from him during the voyage 
 learnt the Maori language so successfully, that the first Sunda}- 
 after he arrived he preached to the natives in their own 
 tongue, so that he must have seemed to them half-inspired. 
 On the journey out, he held classes daily for the benefit of 
 those Avho were with him in Maori, Greek, and Hebrew ; and 
 for himself, he learnt the art of navigation, which after- 
 wards enabled him to be his own sailing-master in the vessels 
 in which he cruised about on almost unknown seas. After a 
 
 " For details of this voyage see Dean Howson's Menioii' of Re^'. T. B. ^Hirtehead, 
 
 one of the party.
 
 12 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP SEL"WYN. 
 
 voyage of four months he and his party landed at Sydney, 
 where public thanksgivings weie offered up in S. James's 
 Church for their safe arrival. A delay occurred at Sydney, 
 owing to an accident which had happened to the Tomatln. 
 After some weeks, therefore, during which the Bishop took 
 counsel with Dr. Broughton, Bishop of Australia, about the 
 new diocese, he started with his chaplain (Mr. Cotton) in a 
 small brig for Auckland, leaving Mrs. Selwyn and their infant 
 son to follow with the rest of the party. He landed at Auck- 
 land May 30th, 1842. Many years afterwards, he thus de- 
 scribed how he found things in New Zealand. "In 1814 
 the work of the Church Missionary Society began with 
 the labours of Samuel Marsden, a Chaplain at Sydney, who 
 trained and sent missionaries to preach the Gospel in New 
 Zealand. He was followed by men sent out from England 
 whose names will be ever remembered in the missionary 
 annals of the Church. * * * * i ^©nt a 
 
 quarter of a centmy later and found the greater part of the 
 people had made profession of Christianity." Civilization and 
 Christianity had indeed advanced rapidly in New Zealand 
 since the early days of Christian Missions, when the natives 
 were ferocious cannibals. In 1839, throughout the Northern 
 Island there was scarcely a village which had not come under 
 the sway of a native catechist, whose duties comprehended those 
 of a village schoolmaster and reader of morning and evening 
 prayer. The desire for instruction seemed universal ; and it 
 is related hoAv some EngKsh sawyers requested their master to 
 teach them reading and writing, as they were ashamed of 
 being inferior to the surrounding natives in point of education. 
 Some of the young chiefs were even eager to diffuse a know- 
 ledge of Christianity throughout the country, and so to establish
 
 WORK IN THE COLONY. 13 
 
 peaceful relations between the hostile tribes. Mr. Jameson 
 mentions having met with a young chief of gi'and proportions, 
 six feet in height and endowed with a gift of eloquence by no 
 means uncommon amongst the New Zealanders, who had 
 travelled from one end of the Northern Island to the other, 
 with ten of his tribe, for the sole purpose of imparting the 
 knowledge of Christianity to the people near Cook's Straits. 
 Every evening before retiring to rest this young chief assem- 
 bled the natives, read a chapter of the New Testament in their 
 0"\\Ti language, and concluded mth a short extempore address. 
 Another young man is mentioned, the son of one of the princi- 
 pal chiefs, who had rescued a boy belonging to the ship Tonj 
 from drowning ; and he is spoken of as very intelligent, while 
 "his manners at table would not have disgraced a pupil of 
 Lord Chesterfield.""^' 
 
 In less than two months from the time he landed, the Bishop 
 had arranged things satisfactorily at Auckland, and felt himself 
 free to start for Wellington and Nelson in the Gf-overnment 
 brig Victoria. He carried with him a Church-tent presented 
 by W. Cotton, Esq., and on landing at Nelson he at once 
 pitched this " canvas cathedral " and held daily service for the 
 natives. Having spent a fortnight at Nelson he went on to 
 Wellington, where his visit was saddened by the death of 
 W. Evans, one of his fellow- workers, who died of fever in the 
 Bishop's arms. From Wellington he started on his overland 
 journey and began at once to visit all the Mission Stations, 
 separated from one another by hundreds of miles of roadless 
 country, over which he could travel only on foot. He thus solved 
 in the simplest way Grovernor Hobson's question, ' What is 
 the use of a Bishop, in a country where there are no roads for 
 
 *Jamesoii's New Zealand, &c., (1842,) pp. 308, 199.
 
 14 LIFE 0¥ BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 his lordship's carriage to drive ou ? ' He appointed four 
 Archdeacons, and in one of his charges he warns them "not 
 to consider themselves ' dignitaries ' of the Church : for, as the 
 title of ' Bishop ' was a name not of honour but of work, so 
 tlie title of ' Archdeacon ' was no peacock's feather to distin- 
 guish ouje clergyman above another, but a pledge of com- 
 bined helpfulness and work." 
 
 The Bishop's letters at this time are full of enthusiastic 
 admiration for the beauty of the country, the grandeur of the 
 scener}^, and the unequalled climate under which he could en- 
 dure exposvu'e by night or by day without fear of evil conse- 
 quences. The only requisites of a New Zealand camp, he 
 says, are "fern, firewood, and water." Throughout the re- 
 maining months of the year 1842 he visited every settlement : 
 and before he returned to Auckland in January 1843, he had 
 made acquaintance with every clergyman and catechist through- 
 out the Diocese. The Chief Justice, Sir William Martin, 
 accompanied the Bishop throughout a great part of this first 
 visitation ; and they were Avarmly welcomed and hospitably 
 entertained everywhere at the settlers' houses. In his diary 
 he says, "I was lodged in the house of Mr. Cooke, a gentle- 
 man who most kindly undertook to place his whole establish- 
 ment at the service of the Chief Justice and myself; and on 
 going out into his garden in the morning, the view burst upon 
 me of the whole mountain (Mt. Egmont), running up in a 
 white cone above the clouds which were still clinging to it mid- 
 waj. At the foot of the grounds ran one of those beautifully 
 clear and rapid streams which abound throughout Taranaki ; 
 and all around the fresh fciliage of a New Zealand spring, 
 tipping all the evergreens with a bright and sparkling verdure, 
 formed a base on which the white peak of the mountain re-
 
 FOUNDATION OF S. JOHN's COLLEGE. 15 
 
 posed. My favourite verse came into my mind — ' Tlie lot is 
 fallen to me in a fair ground, j'ea, I have a goodly heritage.' "* 
 In the same enthusiastic Ava}' he describes a service held out 
 of doors for the benefit of the natives. " Sunday, Nov. 13th, 
 1842. Conducted native services for my party of thirty natives, 
 — a most happy Sunday. Our camp on a level}' little plain, 
 bounded on all sides with wood, except on one, where a view 
 opened on a range of distant hills. Below us in a deep valley 
 flowed the infant WanaAvatu, in a very winding channel, with 
 precipitous wooded banks feathering down to the stream. The 
 day was the perfection of New Zealand weather, which is the 
 perfection of all climates — hot, but rarely sultry ; bright, but 
 not glaring, from the vivid green with which the earth is 
 generally clothed. If you could have seen the peacefulness of 
 our Lord's-day camp, and the repose of the Avhole face of 
 heaven and earth, you would have been relieved from many 
 of those fears which seem sometimes to creep into jouv 
 mind when you think of my journeys in this country."* 
 The Bishop returned to Auckland early in January ; and the 
 following entry in his diary ay ill show what sort of condition 
 he was in at the end of his six months' journey by land and 
 by sea. " Tuesday, Jan. 3 : My last pair of thick shoes being 
 worn out, and vaj feet much blistered with walking the day 
 before on the stumps, which I was obliged to tie to my insteps 
 with pieces of native flax, I borrowed a horse from the native 
 teacher, and started at 4 a.m. to go twelve miles to Mr. 
 Hamlin's Mission Station, where I arrived at 7 a.m. After 
 breakfast I sailed in his boat ten miles across Manukau har- 
 bour. A beautiful run of two hours brought us to Onehunga 
 by noon. I landed there with ni}' faithful Maori, Eota (Lot), 
 
 * Journal (S.P.G.), Part I. Fage 62. * Jounuil tS.P.G.) Part I, Page 68.
 
 16 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 who had steadily accompanied me from Kapiti carrying my 
 bag with gown and cassock, the onlj- remaining articles in my 
 possession of the least value. The suit which I wore was kept 
 sufficiently decent, by much care, to enable me to enter Auck- 
 land by daylight ; and my last remaining pair of shoes (thin 
 ones) were strong enough for the light and sandy walk of six 
 miles from Manukau to Aucldand. At 2 p.m. I reached the 
 Judge's house, by a path avoiding the town, and passing over 
 land which I have bought for the site of the Cathedral ; a spot 
 which I hope may hereafter be traversed by the feet of many 
 Bishops, better shod and far less ragged than myself, "f 
 
 The Bishop having by this visitation gained acomjjlete know- 
 ledge of the general condition of his diocese, proceeded now to 
 organize the machinery by which he meant to work it. He at 
 first established his head quarters at the Waimate, 140 miles 
 from Auckland, near the Bay of Islands, where he built a tem- 
 porary college for the training of candidates for holy orders, 
 eatechists, and schoolmasters, together with elementary 
 schools for the children of natives and of British settlers. St. 
 John's College opened with seven students " duly arrayed 
 in caps and gowns," of whom four were ordained during 
 the year and sent to different posts in the country. Here too 
 was the Bishop's own residence when he was not travelling 
 about : and he was thus enabled to gain a personal and in- 
 timate knowledge both of the candidates for ordination, and of 
 the young people in the schools. After two years, however, it 
 was thought expedient by the Bishop to remove all these 
 Institutions to the neighbourhood of Auckland, to which he 
 also transferred his own residence. Here were built the 
 Bishop's house, schoolrooms, a library, kitchen and dining 
 
 t Journal (S.P.G.), Part 1, page 96.
 
 s. John's college, Auckland. 17 
 
 hall, a hospital, a chapel, a printing house, a day school (kept 
 by Mrs. Selwyu), and a native industrial school in which 
 he gathered New Zealand lads from all parts of the dio- 
 cese. From this College went forth a goodly band every 
 Sunday to serve the affihated chapels, seven in number, within 
 a radius of five miles, after the example of the early Cathedrals 
 in the days of their primitive zeal and efficiency. That the 
 CoUege was considered by the Bishop as the most important 
 part of his diocesan machinery is evident from his letters : he 
 constantly speaks of it as "the key and pivot" of all his 
 operations. He saw indeed in the CoUege the only chance of 
 keeping up a supply of clergy, when his hopes of receiving can- 
 didates from England grew less and less ; and as the sons of 
 farmers were trained there under the Bishop's eye in all things 
 likely to be needed b}^ them in ordinary life, they made good 
 servants of the Church as laymen, even if they displayed no 
 special qualifications for the Ministry. 
 
 There were however troublous times in store for the Bishop 
 and for all who took interest in keeping up friendlj^ relations 
 between the colonists and the natives. And one of these 
 causes of trouble, the land difficulty, was much increased by 
 the Church Missionary Society's Agents having purchased 
 nearly 100,000 acres — a much larger share than the law 
 allowed settlers to possess. 
 
 There were also wars between the tribes; and in 1844 the 
 Kororareka insurrection, headed by John Heki, came to a 
 head. The Bishop, hearing that troops had been sent to the 
 scene of action, went after them in his own small coasting 
 vessel. But the British flag-staff was cut down by the natives, 
 and Heki danced a war-dance before the Bishop's face. 
 
 B
 
 18 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWTN. 
 
 Another chief, Te Heu-heu, was a source of great trouble. On 
 one occasion however, when H.M.S. Hazard was blown out to 
 sea, and the colonists were left quite undefended, the Bishop 
 and a Government Official went boldly out to the natives; and 
 the old chief met them in a friendly manner, saying "you have 
 acted like gentlemen in coming," and ordered his men to do 
 honour to the Pakehas. So, to the Bishop's great joy, all 
 chance of bloodshed was averted and peace was restored for 
 a time. 
 
 In 1844 the Bishop's methodical preparation for the self- 
 government of the New Zealand Church resulted in the 
 first Synod of the Diocese, the first experiment of the kind 
 made in our communion since Convocation was silenced in 
 England. There were present the Bishop, three Archdeacons, 
 four Priests, and .two Deacons : and questions of church dis- 
 cipline and church extension were discussed. But this meeting 
 was said to be illegal by English authorities; and in 1847 a 
 second Synod was held, when the Bishop read a cor- 
 respondence between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
 Colonial Secretary, Mr. Gladstone, proposing a church-consti- 
 tution in which Bishops, Clergy, and Laity should be repre- 
 sented. The six Bishops of Australasia met at Sydney in 
 1850, and likewise recommended a Church constitution in 
 which Laity should be united with the Clergy. Two years 
 later the Laity of New Zealand, headed by the Governor, 
 petitioned to be allowed to take part in church legislation ; and 
 at length the first general Synod of New Zealand was held in 
 1857, at which five Bishops and a large number of Clergy 
 and Laity were present.^ 
 
 * Among other Financial arrangements, the Bishop's treatment of his Salary ■was 
 80 characteristic, as to deserve a separate notice. The sum, paid in two moieties by 
 the Government at home, and Church Missionary Society, was £1,200.
 
 LOSS OF FELLOW-LABOTJRERS. 19 
 
 Before many years had passed the Bishop was deprived by 
 death of the services of almost all the Clergy who had come 
 out with him from England. The loss of Mr. Whytehead, his 
 dear friend and chaplain, was one of the early trials Which 
 befell him during the first year of his life in New Zealand ; 
 and he mentions in his diary how keenly he felt the blow. 
 "When the reality of the blow came upon me, it almost over- 
 powered me for the time ; for we have walked together in 
 G-od's spiritual house so long, that his death will be like the 
 loss of another brother. When I recollected the last scene 
 before I quitted Wellington, the interment of poor W. Evans, 
 my journey seemed, like the re-building of Jericho, to be begun 
 and ended in the death of my children. StiU I thank God 
 that the clouded side of the piilar was not always before my 
 mind ; but from time to time the light would reappear. And 
 I thought I saw in the signal mercies which God has already 
 granted to this country an earnest of greater blessings; and then 
 it seemed as if the death of those whom I loved and trusted 
 most was another proof of His bounty in giving such men to be 
 buried under the foundations of my infant Church for the gener- 
 tions that come after to rememberand imitate."* Mr. Wliytehead 
 had been Principal of S. John's College ; and on March 21st 
 1843, the students bore him to his rest at the east end of 
 Waimate Church. Out of some funds left by him for the 
 
 This sum was carried by the Bishop to the diocesan accounts, as if received by the 
 diocese, and appeared in the yearly printed balance sheet as the fu-st item of diocesan 
 income. On the payment side, the diocese appeared as paying to the Bishop £500, 
 thus leaving a balance of £700 for general diocesan purposes. This arrangement 
 went on till 1S52, when the Imperial Government, having transferred to the newly- 
 created parliament of the Colony all colonial charges, ceased to pay its moiety of 
 £600, — and the parliament refused to accept the charge. The salary of £600, as now 
 reduced, (the Chm-ch Missionary Society most honourably continuing to pay it tiU 
 1868), was carried to the diocesan account as before until 1860, when, upon the Con- 
 secration of Bishop Williams to the unendowed diocese of Waiapu, Bishop Selwyn 
 proposed to his new Brother to throw his salary of £200, drawn also from Chiu-ch 
 ;Mis8ionary Society, into hotchpot, each party to take out half— £400 per ann. 
 The average salary of the Bishoprics which he founded was under £500. 
 * Joztmal (S.P.G.) Part I; Page 98.
 
 20 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWTN. 
 
 benefit of the College, the site for the new buildings near 
 Auckland was purchased by the Bishop ; and thus his name 
 was inseparably connected with S. John's College of the future. 
 The details of the Bishop's journeyings by land and by 
 water would furnish volumes of interesting matter, even for 
 the general reader, — as may be seen by the portions of his 
 diary already published. His bright descriptions of the scenes 
 through which he passed, the humourous account of his inter- 
 course with the settlers and the natives, and the many contriv- 
 ances to Avhich he and his fellow-travellers were compelled to 
 resort, all form so graphic a picture that the reader is carried 
 on through forests and over lakes, up mountains, to hot vol- 
 canic springs, and along the coast for hundreds of miles in the 
 little sailing vessel, with an interest which never fails ; and it 
 is almost forgotten that the experiences related are those of a 
 Missionary Bishop, until the occurrence of such remarks as the 
 following: "When I form my plan for the summer, I write 
 down all the days in my journal with D.V. against the name 
 of the place which I hope to reach on each day ; if I succeed 
 I add D.G. to the name." He frequently declares that Mis- 
 sionary life in New Zealand had no hardships, and that all diffi- 
 culties could be easily overcome. For instance, when he wished 
 to cross a river and no canoe was forthcoming, he says: "I 
 blew up my air-bed, which is my state-barge on such occasion ; 
 and the natives having made a frame of sticks, Mr. Taylor 
 crossed in safety upon it, as I had done before in the passage 
 of Wananaki." How congenial to his tastes this mode of life 
 was, and how strongly he became attached to the country and 
 its inhabitants, may be judged from the following letter, 
 written in 1848. He thus writes, in 1848, of his continued love 
 for the country and its inhabitants : '' You would not wonder that
 
 INSURRECTION OF NATIVES. 21 
 
 I love New Zealand, if you knew as much of it as I do. The 
 outline of every hill and the position of every rock is by this 
 time written on my mind. If there be any truth in phrenology, 
 I believe that the map of New Zealand will be stamped on 
 some part of the organic substance of my brain. It is this 
 intimate knowledge of localities, derived from frequent visits, 
 which gives such a peculiar charm to the whole country and 
 makes it seem like one's own. And so it is : for, like the gipsies, 
 I pitch my tent where'er I please, or anchor my floating palace 
 in any sheltered cove ; and wherever I go, by sea or land, I 
 am received as a friend and find some objects of moral and 
 religious interest to leave upon the mind a pleasing recollection 
 of the place. "J 
 
 This pleasant picture drawn by the Bishop was, how- 
 ever, too soon to be marred by the miserable strife between 
 the two races, which gathered strength year by year until 
 it culminated in war and bloodshed, and gallant young 
 English ofiicers lost their lives in Maori Pas, when the in- 
 surrection of William Tamihana (1863) had at length to be 
 crushed by main force. An eminent colonist who might have 
 been expected to take the part of the English, thus accounts 
 for the growing alienation. " Nothing," he says, "can exceed 
 the kindness and respect with which men like Sir George 
 Grey and the Bishop of New Zealand treat the natives. But 
 the mass of the townspeople give vent to arrogance and contempt, 
 and speak of the Maoris both publicly and privately with dis- 
 gust and dislike, using language peculiarly offensive to them."* 
 Serious results might have already arisen from this unfortunate 
 breach between the two races, if the clergy had not used their 
 influence to promote peace. " Here comes that Bishop to pre- 
 
 t Journal (S.P.G.), Pages 45, 54. 
 ■» The Maori King, by J. E. Gorst : page 75.
 
 22 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 vent us from jBighting tlie natives," was a saying often heard 
 among the settlers : and " at the time when a general gather- 
 ing of tribes would have destroyed the whole colony, it needed 
 no more than that the clergy should be silent, to agitate the 
 native people from one end of New Zealand to the other."! 
 
 The Bishop was asked by the Governor to mediate with 
 the Maoris, in the vain hope of persuading them to give up 
 their allegiance to their recently- elected king. Accordingly 
 he presented himself at their meeting, which took place on 
 a Sunday, and heard Tamihana, the king, preach on the text, 
 "Behold how good and joyful a thing it is to dwell together 
 in unity," and insist throughout the discourse on the advan- 
 tages of the Maori tribes being united as one nation 
 under the same king. But in the afternoon the Bishop who 
 had obtained permission to preach to the assembled Maoris, 
 took the same text, and eloquently pleaded for the union of 
 English and native, of Pakeha and Maori, pointing out the im- 
 possibiUty of this union unless they agreed to submit to one 
 law and one Sovereign. His words were these : " Here I am, 
 a mediator for New Zealand : my w^ork is mediation : I am 
 not merely a Pakeha, or a Maori ; I am a half-caste. I have 
 eaten your food, I have slept in jour houses ; I have talked 
 with you, journeyed with you, prayed with you, partaken of 
 the Holy Communion with you. Therefore I say I am a half- 
 caste. We are all half-castes. Your dress is a Maori-mat and 
 English clothes. As we are all half-castes, let us dwell to- 
 gether with one faith, one love, and one law."* 
 
 But all was in vain. His efforts to maintain peace between 
 the two races were unsuccessful. And at last the political dis- 
 affection of the natives deepened into a religious abhorrence of 
 
 + Journal, Part V. Page 38. 
 * The Maori Kinf, by J. E. Goi-st. 1864.
 
 REIiAP.-E OF NATIVES INTO HEATHENISM. 23 
 
 the very creed of the Pakeha, and into a downright apostacy 
 from Christianity. This apostacy took the strangest and most 
 repulsive form. The "Hau-hau" superstition was a compound 
 of all the creeds known to the Maori mind ; and whole tribes 
 relapsed into heathen ways of life, and even learnt afresh their 
 long-forgotten cannibalism. The Bishop's deep disappointment 
 can easily be imagined. His one thought now was to pluck what- 
 ever brands his courage and skill could reach from this disas- 
 trous burning. In 1863 he thus wrote to Bishop Short, of 
 Adelaide : " I have now one simple missionary idea before me, 
 that of watching over the remnant that is left. Our native 
 work is a lemnant in two senses, — the remnant of a decaying 
 people, and the remnant of a decaying faith. The works of 
 which you hear are not the works of heathens ; they are the 
 works of baptized men, whose love has grown cold from causes 
 common to all churches of neophytes from Laodicaea down- 
 wards." It was indeed the heaviest trial that could befaU 
 the Bishop. But how bravely he bore all such trials may be 
 seen from the following words addressed, in 1864, to Bishop 
 Hobhouse (then Bis] top of Nelson), who had told him that his 
 failing health was rendering him unequal to his post : "It may 
 be some comfort to you to know that for seventeen years I 
 laboured in the field divided now between six Bishops, and was 
 sustained solely by that grace which is sufficient for us all, never 
 once really having had a glimpse of satisfaction in any one part 
 of my multifarious work, — Episcopal, Collegiate, Missionary, — 
 but in all falling short of the lowest ideal, yet encouraged to 
 hope that the time would come when the field would be 
 adequately filled. God has justified in a wonderful manner 
 the hope which His grace then enabled me to cherish." 
 How few could labour on, without failing in courage and
 
 24 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 hopefulness under such, circumstances as these ! And yet how 
 great was his success in the end ! " He founded a flourishing 
 Church, and laid its foundations deep on Apostolic models. 
 Like St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles he never spared 
 himself in journeyings often, in perils often. * * * 
 He gave the New Zealand Church a Constitution with a Synod 
 to govern it, and saw the one Diocese to which he had been 
 appointed divided and sub-divided into six Sees besides that 
 of Melanesia, — viz. Auckland, Wellington, Waiapu, Nelson, 
 Christchurch, Dunedin. A man of noble bearing, open counte- 
 nance, great powers of endurance, with a fund of common 
 sense and an amount of nautical knowledge which would not 
 have disgraced an Admiral, he was the very Bishop for a 
 Diocese where the sea was the ordinary means of communi- 
 cation."* 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 First Voyage to the Melanesia^ Islands : Missionary "Work 
 there: Consecration of Bishop Patteson : 1848 — 1861. 
 
 In 1848 the Bishop determined to make an effort to reach 
 the Melanesian Islands, which he considered to belong to his 
 diocese. They had indeed been commended to him by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury ; and the Colonial Office, by a geo- 
 graphical error in his letters patent, had assigned to him a 
 diocese extending from 50 degrees of South latitude to 34 
 degrees of North latitude. This wide commission he took, 
 with humorous gravity, in a literal sense. And the way in 
 which he accomplished his first sight of these scattered islands 
 
 * Th3 Timet, April 13, 1878.
 
 MEL ATRESIA 
 
 Stanford^- &eoq. UstabtLoJidoru
 
 FIRST VOYAGE IN THE " UNDINE." 25 
 
 was very characteristic. H.M.S. Dido being at Auckland, he 
 asked leave of the Captain to accompany him ou his Toyage 
 among the various groups of islands which gem the Pacific 
 Ocean. This request could not however be granted ; and the 
 Bishop had to leave the ship with no prospect of his ardent 
 wish to join her as a passenger being accomplished. But 
 when the ship was ready to start, the Captain was surprised 
 to see the importunate Bishop appear again ; and this time he 
 was successful in his application, for it took the form of a re- 
 quest to occupy the place of the " naval instructor," who was 
 willing to await at Auckland the return of the vessel. The 
 knowledge of mathematics and navigation possessed by the 
 Bishop enabled him to fulfil his part efficiently ; since he was 
 as well acquainted with the art of sailing a ship as many a 
 more practical seaman. Indeed the Captain of a merchant 
 vessel once remarked to a New Zealand clergyman, "It almost 
 made him a Christian and a churchman to see the Bishop 
 bring his schooner into harbour." What he saw of the Melan- 
 esian Islands during this voyage strengthened his determina- 
 tion to visit them again, "should some door be opened by 
 which God may show His willingness that the work should be 
 begun." Accordingly in the following year, (1849) he set off on 
 his first voyage in the little schooner, the 'Undine,' cruising 
 about the islands and tryingto open friendly communication with 
 the natives. His plan was to persuade them to allow him 
 to take some of their children to New Zealand, where they 
 might be civilized and taught the elements of Christianity, while 
 they in turn might impart their own language to their teachers. 
 In the winter the Bishop proposed to return with them to their 
 homes and leave them until the following year, when he 
 would again fetch them if they should be willing to come.
 
 26 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 He went first to Aneiteum, where he visited the Scotch 
 Missionaries already established there. He also visited other 
 islands, never interfering if he found emy mission work going 
 on : but after an interchange of kindly intercourse with the 
 missionaries he would push on farther in search of fresh un- 
 broken ground. This rule the Bishop invariably followed out 
 in his mission work, as he held strongly that divisions were 
 the ruin of the cause which all had at heart. But whilst hold- 
 ing what he called "the Abraham and Lot principle" in ab- 
 staining from occupied fields, he embraced every opportunity 
 of cultivating personal relations with all who were striving to 
 serve the One Master. He conferred a great benefit on the 
 Scotch Mission at Aneiteum in the following year when he 
 returned to the island, by bringing a wooden house with 
 him on board his little vessel for the Presbyterian Minister. 
 This seems a simple act of brotherly kindness ; but it was 
 unfortunately made the source of some annoyance to the 
 Bishop, as it was considered in England that he had needlessly 
 gone out of his wa}' in taking this trouble for a member of 
 another mission. Happily his large heart was proof against 
 attacks of this petty nature, as he had undoubtedly manj- such 
 to undergo from those who at a distance were quite unable to 
 form a correct judgment as to the best mode of action. 
 
 The Bishop's remarkable influence with the people of the 
 islands is thus described by a naval chaplain on board 
 a man-of-war in the Western Pacific, which was piloted by 
 Bishop Selwyn in the 'Undine.' "He would not allow 
 his crew of four men to have a musket or any weapon 
 of defence. His wonderful presence of mind and dignified 
 bearing, and a certain something quite undefinable, had such 
 an influence over the savage mind that the natives never
 
 27 
 
 seemed to contemplate the possibility of his molesting them ; 
 and therefore they never dreamed of carrying out their rule to 
 avenge the shooting of one of themselves by the sandal wood 
 traders, by killing and eating the first white man who fell into 
 their power.*'" 
 
 On his first voyage the Bishop brought back five boys mth 
 him to Auckland, where they were placed in S. John's College, 
 with the young Maoris ; and after six months the Bishop took 
 them back in the 'Border Maid,' (a new vessel, presented by 
 the Australian dioceses of Sj'dney and Newcastle, ) to their own 
 homes. The hold of this vessel was fitted up as a schoolroom, 
 and the Bishop and his fellow- workers kept school regularly. 
 Everywhere his quick-sighted reading of countenance, his 
 habits of order and of forethought, his calmness and courage, 
 enabled him to go through scenes of danger unhurt. All de- 
 pended on his wisdom, energy and presence of mind. On one 
 occasion when a boy fell ill, the others at once proposed to 
 throw him overboard because, they said, he was unhappy and 
 made others so: his life was "no good." The Bishop how- 
 ever was near enough to prevent this catastrophe ; and he 
 showed the boys that this was not the right way to treat a 
 sick comrade, but that they should rather lessen his troubles 
 and restore him to " happiness" again, f 
 
 The ' Border Maid' returned to Auckland with thirteen 
 scholars in October, 1851. The joyful news was brought 
 to the College that she had anchored off the coast during the 
 night ; and immediately after morning service a long file of 
 black boys were seen coming up from the vessel with the 
 Bishop and his party. The warm welcome with which they 
 were greeted can be imagined ; and they were soon all settled 
 
 * Guardian, May 15th, 1878. t The Island Mission, p. 23.
 
 28 LIFE OF BISHOP SEL"W^IT. 
 
 down quietly at work. "The Bishop's College," says an 
 officer of H.M.S. 'Fantome,' who visited Auckland in 1853, "is 
 a collection of EHzabethan-looking small buildings, with farm 
 establishments (in the same style) attached. The Bishop is, 
 indeed, a wonderful man. The true Christian, the champion 
 pedestrian, the perfect scholar, the polished gentleman, the 
 eloquent preacher and linguist, are united in him. His ener- 
 gies are untiring. I have seen him come out of church, hailed 
 by a host of Maoris all holding out their hands and shaking 
 his with true fervour, and his lordship having a word in their 
 own pretty language for all." * 
 
 The next year, to the Bishop's great delight, he secured 
 two girls to bring with him to Auckland; and he proudly 
 brought them up the beach, one on each arm, arrayed in gar- 
 ments of his own handiwork made out of a bed-quilt and 
 ornamented with a scarlet bow. Little Wabisane, and little 
 Wasitrutru (the latter name meaning ' Little Chattering Bird') 
 were the names of the girls who were afterwards called Sarah 
 and Caroline, after Mrs. Selwyn and Mrs. Abraham. George 
 was the name most frequently given to the boys ; and the first 
 Melanesian who was ordained was George Sarawia. 
 
 In 1854, after thirteen years' absence, the Bishop was 
 obliged to visit England to treat with the Government for the 
 sub-division of his Diocese. During this visit he preached at the 
 opening of Cuddesden Theological College ; and at Cambridge 
 ■delivered four stirring sermons. He preached devotion to Christ 
 and self-sacrifice for his cause. " Ofi'er yourselves to the Arch- 
 bishop," he said, " as twelve hundred young men have offered 
 themselves for the Crimean war to the Commander in chief. 
 The voice of the Lord Himself is asking ' Whom shall I send, 
 
 *Malone, three years in the Australasian Colonies : p. 245.
 
 FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. 29 
 
 and who will go for us ? ' May many here answer at once, 
 ' Here am I, send me ! ' " One young man who heard the 
 Bishop's appeal, being possessed of some £12,000, Avith fur- 
 ther expectations, offered all his money to the mission. Tlie 
 Bishop, however, positively refused to avail himself of this 
 temj)ting offer ; yet its acceptance would have relieved him 
 from the irksome task of going about from place to place 
 begging for help. He refused to benefit by the enthusiasm, 
 perhaps transient, which his own eloquence had enkindled ; 
 and, though always willing unhesitatingly to accept personal 
 service, he would not take any of the young man's money. 
 Another result of this appeal was the offer of the Rev. Charles 
 Mackenzie to head the Universities' Mission in South Africa. 
 And in memory of this visit a new schooner, called the ' ' South- 
 ern Cross," was presented by friends for the use of the Melan- 
 esian Mission, to which also the profits of the " Daisy Chain" 
 past and future were dedicated by the authoress. 
 
 In March, 1855, the Bishop sailed again to New Zealand, 
 taking with him the Eov. John Coleridge Patteson who had, 
 so many years before, resolved one day to follow him on hear- 
 ing the heart-stirring words of the farewell sermon at Windsor. 
 None of all the faithful band who attached themselves to the 
 Bishop stood so nearly to him in the place of a son as did this 
 devoted chaplain, whom he speaks of "as a sort of divine 
 recompence for my two boys left in England." They left 
 Auckland on their first voyage in the new Schooner, on Ascen- 
 sion Day, 1856; their object being to penetrate into more 
 tropical latitudes than the mission had ever yet realised. This 
 was always the Bishop's favourite dsij for starting on his 
 mission voyages, that so the charge might still be ringing 
 in their ears "Go ye into all the world and preach the
 
 30 MFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 gospel to every creature." Whilst cruising among the Islands 
 to the North, they left Mrs. Selwyn alone at Norfolk Island, to 
 teach and influence the daughters of the Pitcairn people newly 
 settled there, calling for her again as they returned, laden with 
 fresh Melanesian pupils, to Auckland. For Auckland was 
 still the head quarters of the Mission, and continued to be so 
 till 1867, when it was removed to a more suitable climate 
 in Norfolk Island. 
 
 In 1861, on S. Matthias' Day, at S. Paul's Church, Auck- 
 land, the first Bishop of Melanesia, Eev. J. C. Patteson, was 
 consecrated by Bishop Selwyn, Bishop Abraham, and Bishop 
 Hobhouse. The scene of the consecration is fully described in 
 the "Life of Bishop Patteson," and need not be dwelt upon 
 here. It seemed to aU present to be the crowning moment, 
 full of unclouded happiness and perfect satisfaction, in the 
 life of the Founder of the Mission. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Second Visit to Exgland, to attend the Pan-Anglican 
 Synod : Appointment to the Bishopric of Lichfield : 
 Parewell Visit to New Zealand: 1867 — 1868. 
 
 In the Spring of 1867 Bishop Selwyn again sailed for 
 England accompanied by Mrs. Selwyn, the faithful and un- 
 tiring helpmate in all his labours and anxieties. The pur- 
 pose for which he took this long journey was not to raise 
 funds, nor to enjoy repose. It was at a distinct call of duty 
 that he left his Diocese for " Home," — to attend the first 
 Pan-Anglican Synod at Lambeth, to which the Archbishop 
 had summoned him. and in the success of which he felt the
 
 APPOINTMENT TO THE BISHOPRIC OF LICHFIELD. 31 
 
 deepest personal interest, regarding it as "the most import- 
 ant event which had happened to the Church since the Refor- 
 mation." 
 
 In the autumn, after the close of the Lambeth Synod 
 he attended the Wolverhampton. Congress ;j- which was soon 
 followed by Bishop Lonsdale's lamented decease. 
 
 A period of unusual delay followed : but, at length, the joy- 
 ful news was heard that the vacant See had been offered to the 
 Bishop of New Zealand. Oifered indeed, but not at first ac- 
 cepted. It was some iime before he could make up his mind to 
 abandon the country which he loved so deeply and to which 
 he had dedicated his life. But on special request from the 
 highest authorities in the land he dutifully yielded obedience. 
 His words to the Bishop of Winchester were, " The Prime 
 Minister pressed it upon me as a duty — the Archbishop pressed 
 it upon me as a duty — the Queen pressed it upon me as a 
 duty — and with all my feelings of loyalty what could I do ? " 
 He also said at Oxford, a short time afterwards, ' ' I had no 
 part in it ; I had only to obey. Twenty-six years ago I was 
 told to go to New Zealand and I went : I am told now to go 
 to Lichfield and I go." "He was called upon to exchange the 
 free life he lived and gloried in for the conventionalities of Old 
 England and the manacles — they were little else to him — of a 
 Peerage, a Palace, and the deeply worn grooves of a vast 
 Midland Diocese established by S. Chad 1,200 years ago. 
 What change could have been more unwelcome ! What gilded 
 fetters could have been forged for him more galling ! To some 
 men the baubles that accompany ecclesiastical rank at home 
 
 t The ready reply m'ulp by the Bishop to a noble Lord at this Congress is worthy 
 of mention. When s-ieatniy- of the affection of the Colonial Churches towards the 
 Mother Church, he was ii;!;'iTU]ited by the noble lord, who said in a low voice, " But 
 you have cut the painter ! " '■ No, indeed," replied the Bishop, " we have not cut the 
 painter, — it bat carted of itself : and we are now eng-agvd in forg-ing a more enduring 
 cable, like the invisible and immaterial bonds which anchor the planets to the sun."
 
 32 LIFE OF BISHOP SEL-WTN. 
 
 may seem attractive ; but to Bishop Selwyn they were not so."* 
 He lost no time in making himself acquainted with the 
 existing organization of his Diocese ; and at once resolved to 
 make his home at the Palace in the Close at Lichfield, as the 
 centre of the Diocese, and as more accessible to the Clergy 
 than the remote Ej)iscopal Castle of Eccleshall where his 
 predecessors had lived, three miles from a railway station. 
 The Bishop was enthroned in the Cathedral Jan. 9th, 1868, 
 with due solemnity. Upwards of fifty clergy in surplices 
 were present ; and the Tc Detim, sung by the Choir as the 
 procession wound round the sanctuary, seemed a true expres- 
 sion of the thankful and hopeful feeling of all present. Few 
 who saw the ceremony could ever forget it. 
 
 No doubt, at first, his heart was often sad with thoughts of 
 "the widowed sister diocese," as he termed it ; and he used 
 to pace up and down the terrace in the Palace garden, after 
 the 8 a.m. College-service in the Cathedral — (from which when 
 at home he was rarely absent) — refreshing his eyes with the 
 blue waters of Stowe Pool as a reminder of his beloved far- 
 away ocean. But he shewed no sign of regret. He at once 
 set vigorously to work to improve the Church machinery of his 
 Diocese : following up the preliminary steps taken by Bishop 
 Lonsdale+ to get the consent of the Clergy and Laity to form 
 
 *Lichfielcl Diocesan Cliurcliman, May, 1878. 
 tBishop Selwj-n quotes, in his Pastoral letter of April 13, 18G8, the express words 
 of Bishop Lonsdale spoken in the Upper House of Convocation on June 4, 1867. 
 " Feeling- the importance of the subject (Diocesan SjTiods) and knowing the strong 
 convictions that were held upon it, I addi-essed a circular to my Rmal Deans at the 
 beginning of the year. They are 48 in number, and I requested them to bring 
 before their several Chapters the general desirableness of Diocesan Synods. I have 
 received a great number of answers; and knowing the different views of different 
 Clergy, I confess I was very much surprised at the extraordinary unanimity of con- 
 currence. I do not think that amongst aU there was a single instance of dissent. 
 They expressed various opinions as to the details of the plan by winch the object 
 might be carried into effect, but they expressed only one opinion as to the desirable- 
 ness of Diocesan Synods in general. I am g;lad to have the opportunity of expressing 
 my opinion, and at the same time con'ecting the statement that I have determined 
 to hold a Synod in the course of this year ; though if it please God to give me health 
 and strength, I shall probably do so some tune or other."
 
 LAY CO-OPERATION. 33 
 
 a Diocesan S3^nod, and holding meetings in every Eural 
 Deanery for this purpose. How much he valued the concur- 
 rence and help of the Laity may be gathered from a remark 
 made by him at the Archidiaconal Conference at Stafford, 
 May 8th, 1868. In reply to Lord Harrowby's objection 
 to the word Synod, he said "he would rather be in a Conference 
 with Lord Harrowby than in a Synod without him : " and 
 accordingly the word ' Conference' was adopted. This incident 
 may also serve to illustrate his words some years later, when 
 speaking of the division of the Diocese, "I have lived long 
 enough to learn to be content with the second-best plan, rather 
 than to stop all proceedings by insisting on that which appears 
 to me to be the best." Although in some of these meetings he 
 encountered opposition — too often from those who should have 
 been his chief supporters — still his good judgment and patient 
 wisdom overcame all obstacles. It was amusing and instruc- 
 tive to watch him on these occasions, and to notice the never- 
 failing courtesy and kindliness with which he listened to what 
 everybody had to say, charming away all asperities with the 
 wave of his long quill-pen, and accepting the decision favour- 
 able or unfavourable with unruffled temper. 
 
 As it had been in New Zealand, so it proved to be in 
 Lichfield Diocese. His very presence was a power. And 
 his own energy was caught up by his clergy to such an 
 extent that, probably, in no Diocese in England has so much 
 material and spiritual progress been made within so short a 
 time. He came at a difficult period. But his whole previous 
 life had trained him to cope with difficulties. He came to 
 work, and work he did without ceasing until the close of his life. 
 
 A characteristic account appeared at this time in a local 
 journal of the way in which the Bishop worked. **The
 
 84 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 Bishop began in the Potteries on Saturday hy preaching a 
 stirring sermon on the Resurrection, and consecrating a 
 new piece of land joined to the Churchyard. Three ser- 
 mons and three Consecrations were his work that day. On 
 Sunday he preached three times. On Monday an address 
 delivered at Stoke from the altar steps, on the Ministry, Avith a 
 celebration of the Holy Communion ; then a two hours' meeting 
 about establishing the Diocesan Synod; in the evening a sermon 
 at Sneyd for the Schools. On Tuesday the bells of Newcastle 
 told by their ringing that something unusual was occurring, and 
 a stately procession of Mayor and Corporation, &c., welcomed 
 the Bishop at the Town Hall and conducted him to the Old 
 Church. After service the Communion was administered to 
 some 200 communicants. A lunch followed at the Hotel, 
 and by three o'clock he was busy again, with exemplary 
 patience, studious attention, and pleasant repartee, hearing 
 and answering objections to his proposal to establish a Dioce- 
 san Synod. A Missionary meeting was held at the Town Hall, 
 attended by all classes, in which he told his simple manly tale 
 how he owned the natives of Australasia for brother-men, and 
 how he had worked among them for six and twenty years of 
 his life ; which was received often with expressions of assent, 
 such as ' that's a good un, he is ! ' So ended the fourth day. 
 On Wednesday the village of Talke witnessed an impressive 
 scene. A little iron Church was that day opened for worship, 
 having been erected by the exertions of some ladies. It only 
 held about 100 people; so the silk dresses and broad-cloth 
 soon filled it. But while the hymn was singing before the 
 sermon, the Bishop was seen leaving the tiny chancel and 
 forcing his way towards the door through the crowded gang- 
 way. People's hearts began to beat, thinking the four days'
 
 FIEST DIOCESAN CONFERENCE. 35 
 
 work had. exhausted him and. he was obliged to go out for air. 
 Nothing of the kind ! The good Bishop took his stand at the 
 porch and turning to the hundreds of colliers outside, addressed 
 them in the most simple and touching words which went home 
 to their hearts, making them feel he was indeed their own 
 Bishop, a real man like themselves. The Bishop's head 
 was uncovered ; the rough men and lads kept on their hats ; 
 but their looks were rivetted on him and, no doubt, many of 
 them took home to their hearts the Word of life thus made 
 plain to their understandings. In the afternoon the Bishop 
 left for Ham, where he preached twice on Thursday, adminis- 
 tered the Holy Communion, and held a meeting about the 
 proposed Diocesan Synod. "^' 
 
 The history of these five days is an illustration of the 
 Bishop's labours in his diocese, and of the missionary energy 
 with which he at ouce made himself acquainted with every 
 part of it. 
 
 On June 16th, a Choral Festival was held in the Cathedral, 
 a bright red-letter day in the memory of many, the sun shining 
 and the bells ringing merrily as the Bishop and Clergy came in 
 procession along the Dean's-walk. On the following day the 
 first Diocesan Conference took place in the Guild Hall, at which 
 about 400 members were present. The Bishop in his address 
 said, " Since I have been among you I have been very happy. 
 I have been received most kindly everywhere, and the difference 
 of opinion I have met with proves that it is possible to difi'er 
 Avidely and yet remain friends. Now the meeting of to-day 
 Avill put the colophon upon our work ; and I trust it is a good 
 and hopeful work. In addition to those already existing, other 
 great works are looming in the distance. You will hear to-day of 
 
 ^Staffordshire Sentinel, May 4th, 1878.
 
 36 I'TFE OF BISHOP SELWYlir. 
 
 an organized system of lay-agency, to supplement the scarcity 
 of clergy in our populous districts. Beyond that, and follow- 
 ing upon it, is the subject of the Lichfield Theological College. 
 We shall want a Diocesan Fund, not restricted to special 
 objects, but available, under direction of the Diocesan Council, 
 for Church works and needs of every kind, — the fund not to 
 be frittered away in small grants here and there, but devoted 
 annually to great diocesan works tending to give strength 
 and stability to our system. * * Some of this fund 
 
 will be applied towards giving free admission to the best of the 
 lay agents to be educated at the Theological College." *' * 
 We want funds to buy unattached advowsons, which circulate 
 through the auction mart from hand to hand, that the Diocese 
 may be able to present livings to its own servants, drawn from 
 its own people, educated in its own College, proved in its own 
 ministry, and found faithful. And, when their strength fails, 
 and they require to be released from duties which they dis- 
 charged so well, we will not leave them to waste the remnant 
 of their lives in trying in vain to be what they were before, 
 but we will supply them with retiring pensions and quiet 
 homes under the shadow of the Cathedral, that they may end 
 their laborious days in peace. * ^ * What is there for 
 Synods to do ? Half our population to be won back to the 
 Church of their fathers, fifty colonial dioceses looking to us for 
 help, two-thirds of the human race to be brought to Christ, — 
 this is a summary of the work to be done. May God give this 
 Conference strength and wisdom to do its part 1" 
 
 In this address the Bishop sketched out many of the new 
 works which he subsequently organized and set on foot. Other 
 schemes were added from time to time, such as a Mission to 
 the barge-men and floating population on the canals, and the
 
 FAREWELL VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND. 37 
 
 personal Institution of new Incumbents publicly in churcb, 
 the offertory on such occasions being always devoted to the 
 assistance of students in need of help at the Theological Col- 
 lege. Once when he was challenged as to the possibility of 
 carrying out aU he proposed to do, the Bishop answered in 
 George Herbert's words, "that it was good to shoot at the 
 moon, even though you only hit a tree : and he should be 
 satisfied if he hit a tree." 
 
 On July 2nd, 1868, the Bishop sailed from England, ac- 
 companied by Mrs. Selwyn and his younger son, to be present 
 at the General Synod in New Zealand and to say farewell to 
 his former Diocese, leaving the Diocese of Lichfield in 
 charge of Bishop Trower for six months. Bishop Patteson 
 came from Norfolk Island to see his beloved friend once more, 
 and to attend the farewell service held at Auckland before 
 Bishop Selwyn started for England. The grief of the younger 
 Bishop in parting from his spiritual Father must indeed have 
 been great. But he says in a letter, " I don't grudge him one 
 bit : there is no room for small personal considerations when 
 the great issues are at stake. I can't yet look at his photo- 
 graph with dry eyes."*" 
 
 "Perhaps the young Church of New Zealand has never 
 known so sorrowful a day as that which took from her 
 her first Bishop ; a day truly to be likened to that when 
 the Ephesians parted with their Apostle at Miletus. At 
 the last service at S. Paul's Church more than 400 persons 
 received the Holy Communion where there were four Bishops 
 administering in the body of the church and the transepts; 
 but in the chancel the Primate and his beloved son in the faith 
 were partaking together for the last time of the Bread of Life." 
 
 *Life of Bishop Patteson, II. 309.
 
 38 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 Then ' ' the crowded streets and wharf (for all business was 
 suspended, public offices and shops shut), no power of moving 
 about, horses taken from the carriage as a mixed crowd of 
 Maoris and English drew them to the wharf. Then choking 
 words and stifled efforts to say ' Grod bless you,' and so we 
 parted ! " f Parted, never to meet in this world again. 
 
 The following is the Farewell Address from the Greneral 
 Synod of New Zealand to Bishop Selwyn. 
 
 " We, the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of this branch of the 
 Church of England, respectfully and affectionately address 
 your Lordship on your resignation of your ofUce as President 
 of the Synod. When your Lordship first came to this country, 
 more than twenty-sixyearsago,youbeganworkasBishopof New 
 Zealand. You end it now as Primate by providing for the 
 permanent maintenance of your own Melanesian Mission, off- 
 shoot of the New Zealand Chu.rch. This Synod is itseK the 
 result and witness of your unwearied efforts for organization 
 of the Native and Colonial Church of New Zealand, and of 
 your missionary labours in the islands of the West Pacific 
 Ocean. The Natives of NeAV Zealand, the English Colonist, 
 and the Melanesian Islander, are all represented here. With 
 respect to the native Church, a Maori Diocese has been consti- 
 tuted and Maori Synods have been held; seventeen native 
 Clergy have ministered and do minister faithfully and loyally 
 in different parts of the country ; churches and schools have 
 been built, endowments been provided, clergy and catechists 
 maintained, collections for Melanesia made by Maoris. And 
 noAV we think, my Lord, how twenty-seven years have passed 
 to-day since you received episcopal office, — years marked by 
 extraordinary events in our history — an episcopate, marked in 
 
 tLife of Bishop Patteson, p. 340.
 
 PARTING ADDRESS FROM NEW ZEALAND SYNOD. 39 
 
 an extraordinary degree, by your work of faith and labour of 
 love and patience of hope. We humbly believe that, by your 
 wide and varied experience of many forms of human life, 
 bringing you into contact with men in every stage of barbarism 
 and civilization, on lonely journeys in the solitudes of the New 
 Zealand forest and on the waves of the West Pacific, G-od's 
 Holy Spirit has been training you for an even greater work 
 than any that you have hitherto accomplished, for which all 
 that has been done may be but the preparation, the crowning 
 work, it may be, of your life to which He has now called you. 
 It seems as if you had been sent first to warm the most distant 
 members here, and were called now to quicken the very heart 
 of our dear Mother-Church at home, that so the life-blood may 
 circulate with fresh vigour throughout the body. We know 
 full well that yon will never cease to pray and labour for us ; 
 and 5^ou need no assurance from us that we will ever remem- 
 ber and pray for you. How can we ever forget you ! Every 
 spot in New Zealand is identified with you. Each hill and 
 valley, each river and bay and headland, is full of memories 
 of you. The busy town, the lonely settler's hut, the countless 
 islands of the sea, all speak to us of you. Whether your days 
 be few or many, we — as long as we live — will ever hold you 
 deep in our inmost hearts. All will pray for you and yours : 
 the clergy to whom you have been indeed a father in God, the 
 old tried friends with whom you have taken counsel, the 
 younger men of both races whom you have trained, the poor 
 whom you have relieved, the mourners whom you have com- 
 forted, the sick to whom you have ministered, the prisoners 
 whom you have visited, all think of you now and will think of 
 you always with true and deep affection, and will offer for you 
 always their fervent prayers. We humbly pray God, who has
 
 40 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 given you the wisdom to conceive and the power to execute 
 your great designs, that your high and noble example may be 
 ever affectionately remembered and dutifully followed by us 
 all ; that the mind and spirit of its first Bishop may be stamped 
 for all generations upon the Church of New Zealand; and 
 that the multitudes of the isles may learn in years to come the 
 name of their first great ^missionary, and rise up and call him 
 blessed." 
 
 (Signed by all the Synod.) 
 
 The Bishop replied in the following words : — 
 
 ' ' I might well say, in words of Wordsworth, ' the praise of 
 men had often left me mourning. ' It is most difficult and j)ainful 
 to one placed in my position to have to reply to such kind ex- 
 pressions as are contained in the address ; but in this case the 
 pain is much mingled with pleasure. Sufiice it to say that I 
 have sought for support and counsel from many whose services 
 are not so conspicuous as my own, though they deserve equal 
 praise with myself, if not more. I would say, as has been 
 said on a different occasion, ' Give Grod the praise, we know 
 that this man was a sinner.' All the prosperity of the New 
 Zealand Church is the work of God. The iinger of God has 
 been manifested in all that has taken place from the time 
 Samuel Marsden landed here in 1814 until now. It is the 
 comforting prophecy fulfilled that ' the little one should be- 
 come a thousand.' It is a comfort that what one man had 
 begun should become, in little more than half a century, what 
 the Church of New Zealand now is. When I think of the 
 time when I came to Sydney and found Bishop Broughton 
 there with a small band of Clergymen round him, and when 
 I reflect that now that little band has extended into all the 
 provinces of New South Wales with its Dioceses of Tasmania,
 
 PARTING ADDBESS FROM THE MAORIS. 41 
 
 Western Australia, South. Australia, and these provinces of New 
 Zealand with, all its satellites in Melanesia, I feel that the 
 power and influence of Grod's Holy Spirit is being manifested 
 on earth, and that it has pleased Almighty Q-od to enable us 
 to see His power with, our own eyes, so that we may not walk 
 by faith, alone but also by sight. * * * I leave to you the 
 native Church as a special legacy, and hope that no increase of 
 European population may absorb your interests so as to cause 
 you to neglect that remnant which, though a poor one, is a 
 remnant of the congregation of Christ." 
 
 The following is a translation of the address from the 
 natives of Te Waimate and the Bay of Islands, in their own 
 language, presented by Rev. Matiu Taupaki, Oct. 5th, 1868. 
 
 " Sire, the Bishop! salutations to you and to mother (Mrs. 
 Selwyn) ! "We, the people of the places to which you first 
 came, still retain our affection for you both. Our not seeing 
 you occasions us grief, because there will be no seeing you 
 again. We rejoiced at hearing that you were coming to see 
 us ; great was the joy of the heart ; and now, hearing that it 
 cannot be, we are again in grief. 
 
 " Sire, great is our affection for you both, who are now 
 being lost among us. But how can it be helped, in conse- 
 quence of the word of our great One, the Queen ! 
 
 ' ' Sire, our thought with regard to you is that you are like 
 the poor man's lamb taken away by the rich man. This is 
 our parting wish for you both : Gro, Sire, and may Grod pre- 
 serve you both ! May he also provide a man to take j^oiir 
 place, of equal powers with yourself ! Go, Sire, we shall no 
 more see each other in the body, but we shall see one another 
 in our thoughts. However, we are led and protected and 
 sanctified by the same Spirit. Such is the nature of this short
 
 42 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 life to sunder our bodies ; but in a little while, when we shall 
 
 meet in the assembly of the saints, we shall see each other 
 
 face to face, one fold under one shepherd. This is our lament 
 
 for you in few words : 
 
 ' Love to our friend, who has disappeared abruptly from the 
 
 ranks ! 
 Is he a small man that he was so beloved ? 
 He has not his equal amongst the man3^ 
 The food he dispensed is longed for by me." 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 Life and Woek in thb Diocese of Lichfield : First Visit 
 TO America: Death of Bishop Patteson : 1868 — 1871. 
 
 The Synod in New Z*ealand had deputed Bishop Selwyn 
 to select a successor in England for the Diocese of Auckland, — 
 for from this time the title of "Bishop of New Zealand" was 
 a thing of the past, Bishop Selwyn having been the first and 
 only Bishop of the whole colony. Accordingly, when he ar- 
 rived in England, just six months from the time he went out, 
 he offered the appointment to the Eev. W. G. Cowie, Vicar of 
 S. Mary's, Stafi^ord, who accepted it and soon afterwards went 
 out to Auckland. 
 
 During the Bishop's absence, the Diocese had been in 
 charge of Bishop Trower, who had carried on the work 
 faithfully and had left no arrears of duty undone. But 
 the palace was still in a state of confusion and discomfort 
 when the Bishop came to Lichfield ; many of the alterations 
 being incomplete. He established himself and his family 
 however in a portion of the building, arranging things as well
 
 LIFE IN THE PALACE AT LICHFIELD. 43 
 
 as he could under the circumstances ; and hammering and 
 painting went on with redoubled vigour under his surveillance. 
 Much had been done to the old house ; its aspect having been 
 completely changed by the addition of a chapel and of two 
 large wings in front of the main building One of these wings 
 contained offices for the Bishop's secretary and clerks, with bed- 
 rooms above for the ordination candidates, who would thus in the 
 future be always boarded and lodged at the palace, instead of 
 being obliged to provide their own accommodation at the inns 
 and lodgings about the town. The opposite wing consisted of a 
 large hall for the ordination examinations, for lectures to the 
 students at the college, and for meetings of various kinds. 
 A Missionary Working Party had been started, before 
 the Bishop's farewell visit to New Zealand, with Mrs. 
 Selwyn as president, who told anecdotes of her experiences and 
 adventures in the southern seas, and read letters from Melanesia, 
 while garments were made for the scholars at Norfolk Island. 
 This too found a place at the palace, the Bishop calling 
 it his " Stitchery." What a centre of diocesan and social life 
 that hall has been during the last ten years ! The hospitable 
 long tables spread there at all the Diocesan Festivals, where 
 tired wajrfarers were refreshed with simple viands and cheered 
 by kindly words and attentions, must be fresh in the memory of 
 all. Missionary meetings — prizes for the Sunday school chil- 
 dren of the diocese, distributed by the Bishop himself with a 
 hearty shake of the hand to each recipient — the entertainment 
 of the workhouse children every Christmas, with a social 
 gathering of friends and neighbours afterwards, — it would 
 seem as if the great hall could not possibly have been dispen- 
 sed with. It had become, as it were, the "parish-room" of 
 the Diocese.
 
 44 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 While the Bishop was ahsent in New Zealand, a change had 
 taken place at the Cathedral, owing to the death of the Dean, the 
 Very Eev. the Hon. Henry Howard. His successor, the Eev. 
 William Weldon Champneys, when Eector of Whitechapel, 
 had taken an active part in helping forward the New Zealand 
 mission, by penny contributions from the scholars of his vast 
 schools, whose interest was excited by an address from Bishop 
 Selwyn, in 1864. In memory of this, when the Bishop 
 and Dean found themselves still more closely connected 
 together, side by side in the Palace and Deanery at Lichfield, 
 a window was placed in the chapel looking towards the 
 Deanery, in which was pictured the design of the medal which 
 had been sent out by the Dean to be worn by the New Zealand 
 children, — a map of the world, with England to the north and 
 New Zealand to the south, and on a scroll joining them 
 together the motto written : "Both one in Christ." The other 
 windows in the Chapel were presented by the ofBicers and men 
 who had served in New Zealand during the war, in token of 
 their gratitude for the Bishop's attention to their bodily and 
 spiritual welfare in that campaign. 
 
 One of the first changes made by the Bishop in the diocesan 
 arrangements was to hold Confirmations annually instead of 
 triennially. With the assistance of his two coadjutors (Bishop 
 Hobhouse and Bishop Abraham) he was enabled to carry out 
 this arduous undertaking. And in his Pastoral letter to the 
 Clergy of the Diocese in 1869, he says, " I venture to hope, in 
 submission to Him without whom we can do nothing, that I 
 shall be able to administer the rite of Confirmation annually in 
 all the larger parishes once in two or three years, by a cycle 
 so arranged that the confirmation may be held in each parish 
 in turn. I hope it may thus be found possible to induce the
 
 ANNUAL CONFIRMATIONS. 45 
 
 parents and sponsors of the children to attend as witnesses of 
 their confirmation. Upon this plan, no formal notice will be 
 necessary to call upon you to collect your candidates. * ^- * 
 The impulse will not be lost, nor will the dead weight have to 
 be heaved afresh by a new effort ; as the Bishop's invitation 
 to hold a confirmation and the clergyman's continued work in 
 preparing his candidates will be assumed as a matter of 
 course." His words later on, at a diocesan conference, on the 
 same subject were; — "Eeligious education comes to its point in 
 ,the apostolical ordinance of confirmation. In that, the Holy 
 Spirit seals and blesses the efforts of pastors, parents and 
 sponsors, teachers of schools, masters and mistresses of famiKes, 
 to teach the young committed to their charge all things which 
 a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health. 
 "With the aid of my coadjutor Bishops, I have been enabled to 
 carry this holy ordinance into almost every parish in the dio- 
 cese. The Confirmations have been held annually, in order 
 that the work of pastoral instruction may never cease, and 
 that the harvest may be gathered in at the exact period of 
 maturity. I desire the united prayers of the clergy, the con- 
 stant teaching of the yearly class, the influence of the newly 
 confirmed on the younger children who are next in suc- 
 cession." 
 
 A sudden interruption however occurred about this time in 
 the cycle of work which the Bishop had thus marked out for 
 himself, proving the truth of the old adage " man proposes, 
 but God disposes." In the autumn of 1869, in Derbyshire, 
 whilst busily employed in labours for the Church and minis- 
 trations to her " little ones," the Bishop was suddenly dis- 
 abled by an attack of nervous prostration, ensuing closely upon 
 a great family loss, the painful death of his brother, the Lord
 
 46 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWTN. 
 
 Justice Selwyn, to whose deathbed lie was summoned from the 
 midst of very pressing diocesan engagements. 
 
 After an entire rest of two months, and a further period of 
 partial work, he returned to his old activity, which never 
 again knew abatement till the end of his life. 
 
 In 1870 the Bishop issued an appeal to the Diocese for 
 money to buy an important piece of property on the south side 
 of the Cathedi-al, which he wished to be occupied by the Theo- 
 logical CoUeare. Before that time the students had lived in 
 lodgings scattered about the city, and only came to the Princi- 
 pal's house for lectures, and to the Cathedral for service every 
 day. By the new plan the College would be provided with a 
 home of its own, and with accommodation not only for the 
 Principal but also for the Students, who woxlM thereby obtain 
 the benefit of collegiate order and discipline — an element 
 hitherto absent from their training. In connection with the 
 College the Bishop also set on foot a system by means 
 of which he would be able to draw recruits for the ministry 
 from different ranks in society. To explain the working of 
 this system, some extracts from a paper read by the Principal 
 at the Stoke Congress, in 1875, will be useful. Speaking of 
 the increasing number of young men who are anxious to take 
 Holy Orders, but who have not the means to support them- 
 selves at college, he said: 
 
 " Should such workers be discouraged because they are 
 poor ? That would be strangely forgetful of the first prin- 
 ciples of the Christian Church. In this dilemma a certain 
 Bishop, whom we have heard called a first-rate General or 
 Admiral spoiled, was not wanting to the occasion. He in- 
 vented a scheme, something like tlie Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge local examinations, which secured several good objects
 
 PROBATIONER SYSTEM. 47 
 
 at once. In the first place, his own Cathedral Chapter was 
 induced to take a lively interest in the matter and to appoint 
 an examining board, which should meet twice a year to test 
 the ' probationers ' who might present themselves. And next, 
 the parochial clergy have been turned into the most able 
 and effective recruiting sergeants all over the country. Sup- 
 pose, for instance, a young man in a parish in Lichfield, or 
 in any other diocese, displays — as member of the choir, or 
 Sunday school teacher, — some remarkable gifts suitable for 
 clerical life, the clergyman of the parish would naturally talk 
 to such a man, would encourage him and try his knowledge. 
 If satisfied, his next step would be to write to Lichfield, to 
 recommend the young man for probation, the clergyman 
 ixndertaking to direct him in his studies, to employ him in 
 parish work and to certify every half-year his diligence and 
 good conduct. And then at the end of two years, if each stage 
 diiring that time has been passed without failure, he would be 
 admitted to the Theological College for one year's final 
 training, in which he would have financial assistance (if neces- 
 sary) by means of Exhibitions supplied from the annual sur- 
 plus of the college fees. This is the 'probationer system, ' — which 
 we are Dy no means anxious to keep to ourselves ; but we 
 desire to submit to this Congress the question whether some 
 such scheme is not demanded by the necessities of our time ; 
 whether we may not, by such a plan, draw gradually under 
 training for the ministry a large number of earnest able men 
 whose services would otherwise be lost ; whether the clergy 
 far and wide would not thereby be interested in recruiting 
 their own order ; whether the central influences of the Cathe- 
 dral, with its staff of highly educated dignitaries, might not 
 thus be made to vibrate in the bank parlours, counting-houses,
 
 48 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 schoolrooms, and even workshops, throughout the laud ; and 
 above all, whether the true ideal of the Christian ministry, as 
 instituted by Christ himself, would not be b}^ this means strik- 
 ingly represented, each class of society being allowed to offer 
 its sons for His service, and finding in the Church a common 
 interest and a common field of labour. 
 
 The Bishop eventually secured the house in question for 
 the diocese, to be held in trust by the Diocesan Council, from 
 whom the Theological College now rents the building for its 
 own use. The new collegiate life began in January, 1871 ; and 
 a gathering of students at the end of the summer term this year 
 was attended by a goodly number of the former members, who 
 came to see the new home of their College. A celebration of 
 the Holy Communion took place in the Cathedral at eleven 
 o'clock ; after which all assembled at luncheon at the College 
 House. In the afternoon a garden party was held at which 
 the Bishop was present, bringing with him the Derbyshire 
 Rural Deans, who happened then to be assembled at the Palace ; 
 and at a crowded Evening Service afterwards in the Lady- 
 Chapel he gave an interesting address. He always took great 
 pleasure in visiting the college, and was especially gratified 
 when he found the young men occupied in the garden, 
 whether mowing the grass, or trimming the borders, or water- 
 ing the flowers. Any man seemed instantly to acquire a claim 
 to his respect who did what he could for himself, instead of 
 making use of the services of other people : and he often re- 
 lated how the Maoris in New Zealand used to say, — " Gentle- 
 man-gentleman does not mind what he does ; but pig-gentle- 
 man is very particular." Once when a colonist of rank, 
 desiring to have his children baptized, wished the ceremony to 
 be performed in his house, on the plea that there was no
 
 «""t«^ii;^^^
 
 THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE. 49 
 
 road by which to drive them to church, tlie difficulty was 
 promptly met by the Bishop, who offered to carry two, if the 
 father would carry the third. 
 
 Indeed in England, no less than in New Zealand, two 
 sorts of "gentlemen" came frequently before Bishop Selwyn's 
 notice and were easily discriminated by his searching glance. 
 The pretentious, the conceited, the self-indulgent never found 
 the least respect or sympathy from him ; and he may even have 
 erred sometimes in giving hasty expression to the impatience 
 he felt towards characters of this shallow type. For he was 
 little tolerant of sloth or self-indulgence. If a student lay in 
 bed when he should have been at chapel and pleaded "a cold," 
 the Bishop's reply would be "That is no excuse at all: you are 
 seeking to be a clergyman, and if you care for such things as that, 
 you will be saying, when you are knocked up at three in the 
 morning to visit a sick man or baptize a dying infant, that it 
 is too cold to go out." And, if a candidate for Holy Orders 
 urged "his own experience," or, "his deliberate opinion," or 
 "the result of his own researches," as an argument against 
 following the customs or teaching the plain doctrines of the 
 Church, it is not surprising that he sometimes found himself a 
 mark for the Bishop's trenchant sarcasms or humiliated 
 by his searching rebuke. On the other hand, for a 
 true "nature's gentleman" — under whatever disguise of 
 threadbare clothing or imperfect education — Bishop Selwyn 
 felt the instinctive attraction of a manly and Christian sym- 
 pathy. Even from the plough or from the forge, such were 
 ever welcome to all that he could give them and all that he 
 could do for them. And among those to whose ordination he 
 often referred with the most genial and hearty satisfaction 
 
 D
 
 50 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 ■vrere several men of this stamp, "gentlemen" in the truest 
 and highest sense of the word. 
 
 In the autumn the Bishop resolved to visit the United 
 States, accompanied by his second so a and some other Clergy 
 of the Diocese.* He was an honoured guest at the General 
 Convention at Baltimore, not only for his own sake, but as 
 being the first of the Home Episcopate who had visited the 
 daughter Church in the United States. He afterwards 
 made a short tour through the Dominion of Canada ; and, as 
 occasion offered, spoke at missionary meetings, addressed the 
 young people of either sex in their colleges, or preached ser- 
 mons to overflowing congregations. The enthusiasm which 
 he awakened in the United States was so great that the 
 American Church determined to commemorate this visit by 
 the gift of a magnificent silver alms-bason, f to be presented to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury by the hands of Bishop Selwyn, 
 and to be kept for ever as a visible eml^lem of the love of the 
 sister-church. The presentation accordingly took place in 
 S. Paul's Cathedral, at the anniversary service of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1872 ; and the ceremony 
 was afterwards described by the Bishop, at a subsequent 
 visit to the General Convention in 1874, in the following 
 words: "It was my happiness to present that alms-bason to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury in concert with one whose loss 
 
 *They sailed in the Java ; and in crossing the Atlantic, in both voyages (1871 and 
 1874) his tact and judgment were very remarkable, as seen in providing for the due 
 order of the Sunday and week-day services for the passengers on board. As soon as 
 possible after the vessel got under weigh and after consultation with the Captain, ar- 
 rangements were made for prayer. At the exact minute fixed for moi-ning prayers 
 the Bishop was at the head of the table in the end of the saloon, where a congrega- 
 tion of from ten to thirty passengers (according to the state of the weather) quickly 
 gathered round and joined in the Prayers and Psalms and Hymns. On one Sunday 
 on board the Nova Seotia, 1874, imder the Bishop's aiTangement all were provided for 
 thus : There was the full morning and evening service in the saloon, a separate ser- 
 vice conducted by the Bishop for the firemen and others in the engine room below, 
 whilst in the forecastle a score of Cornish workmen were confided to a Wesleyan 
 Minister, and a Roman Catholic Priest took charge of the passengers of his own creed. 
 
 t See Appendix.
 
 FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 51 
 
 we all lament, who is now with God in liis rest, Bishop 
 Mcllwaine of Ohio ; who, hand in hand with me, each of us 
 holding it by one hand and on bended knee, presented that 
 alms-bason for the Lord's Table in S. Paul's Cathedi-al, 
 July 3rd, 1872." 
 
 In compliance with a resolution of both houses of Convoca- 
 tion, the words of the Archbishop were to be " synodically 
 communicated to the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the sister 
 church." So Bishop kSelwyn at once despatched a telegram to 
 Bishop Potter of New York, after the presentation, with these 
 words : " July 4 : Alms-bason presented in S. Paul's Cathedral. 
 Independence is not dis-union." This last sentence alludes to 
 the well-known fact that the 4th of July is the anniversary of 
 the declaration of American independence. Bishop Potter in 
 publishing the message observes, " It was a kindly and grace- 
 ful impulse on their part to give such dignity to the reception 
 of our offering of love, and to send us such a message on such 
 a day. And I am sure it will be warmly appreciated by all 
 the members of our communion on this side of the water." 
 
 When the Bishop returned from America in the autumn 
 of 1871, he was welcomed with a display of fireworks by the 
 students of the Theological College, who had also prepared a 
 torch-light procession to meet him in the Close, whilst the 
 Cathedral bells were to ring out a joyful peal. But unfortu- 
 nately the Bishop reached Lichfield by a later train than was 
 expected, and drove up quietly in his one-horse vehicle, the 
 only one he possessed, commonly known as his" baker's cart." 
 
 The close of this year was saddened by the tidings of the 
 death of Bishop Patteson, who was murdered by the natives 
 of one of the Melanesian islands near Santa Cruz, and was 
 buried at sea on S. Matthew's day, 1871. The grief felt by the
 
 52 LIFE OF BISHOP sEL"vmsr. 
 
 Bishop on this occasion was very deep ; and at first he seemed 
 qiiite bowed down with the great calamity which had come upon 
 him in the death of this much-loved son in the faith. He 
 requested the Cathedral organist to play the " Dead March" 
 after service every afternoon for several days in succession ; 
 and when at early Communion he was reading the Prayer for 
 the Church Militant, his voice trembled audibly, and he paused 
 for some seconds at the words "we also bless Thy Holy Name 
 for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear," — 
 then slowly added, "especially for John Coleridge Patteson." 
 The Bishop looked ten years older after this trial had passed 
 over him. He felt it most keenly, not only on his own 
 account, but also for his beloved Melanesian mission, which had 
 sustained such an irreparable loss. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Bishop Eawle Consecrated isr Lichfield Cathedral: 
 Eev. J. E. Selwyn leaves England for Melanesia : 
 the Bishop's second visit to America. 1872 — -1875. 
 
 In 1872 a striking ceremony took place in Lichfield 
 Cathedral. The Eev. Eichard Eawle, Yicar of Tamworth, 
 was consecrated Bishop of Trinidad. Nine Bishops were pre- 
 sent at the service, the sermon being preached by the Bishop 
 of Peterborough. It was a source of great thankfulness and 
 pleasure to Bishop Selwyn that the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 had allowed the consecration to take place in the Cathedral of 
 the Diocese where the newly elected Prelate had been a parish 
 priest ; and no pains were spared to make the whole cere- 
 mony assume the air of a high ecclesiastical festival.
 
 EEV. J. E. SELWYN GOES TO MELANESIA. 53 
 
 About this time the Bishop was much troubled by disturb- 
 ances at St. Greorge's, Wolverhampton, on the subject of Eitual. 
 And, in order to restore peace to the parish and congregation, 
 he removed the Incumbent to another charge and sent one whom 
 he could not but regard as the , choicest gift he could offer to 
 them — his younger son, John Richardson Selwyn, who had 
 been ordained by himself, first as Deacon and then as Priest, 
 in his own Cathedral. The new Vicar soon restored harmony 
 to the parish ; and both he and his wife created a deep attach- 
 ment on the part of the people among whom they worked 
 during the short time their home was at "Wolverhampton, 
 before responding to that higher call which awaited them 
 to go forth to the distant diocese of Melanesia. For, in 
 1873 this true son of his father resolved to follow his father's 
 steps ; and left his English home and friends, with a cheerful 
 heart and a good courage, to cross the seas with his wife and 
 infant (born at the Palace three months before and baptized 
 in the Cathedral by her grandfather, the Bishop) to labour 
 amongst the Islands of the West Pacific Ocean. With them 
 went the Eev. John Still, for some years Curate at S. Michael's, 
 Lichfield, who had been formerly a college-friend of Mr. 
 Selwyn. 
 
 In 1873 the alterations in the Theological College were 
 completed. The spacious stables adjoining the dwelling-house 
 had been converted into rooms for a Vice-Principal and twenty- 
 five students, together with a large lecture-room. This was a 
 work of great interest to the Bishop, who used constantly to 
 bring his visitors to see the buildings, explaining to them with 
 what ingenuity the previous owner's "stud" had been con- 
 verted into "studies." At one end of the lecture-room a small 
 apse was thrown out to serve as a chapel. This apse was the
 
 54 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 gift of a former student, the Eev. Frederic Beaumont, who 
 also supplied it with suitable fittings. The Bishop opened 
 this building with a special service, which was attended by 
 the Choristers and several of the Clergy of the Cathedral : and 
 ever since that day the sound of its evening-bell has been 
 recognised by the inhabitants of the Close as a signal that 
 " the toils of day are over" and the hour of rest has come. 
 A large gathering of the former and present students of the 
 College took place that summer, at which the Bishop was 
 again present ; and in the evening he gave in the Lady Chapel ' 
 one of those telling addresses which always comprised so much 
 in few and simple words. This was the last service held there 
 for some years, as it was closed immediately afterwards for 
 restoration, and the early College-service was transferred to 
 the Bishop's private Chapel. 
 
 In January, 1874, on the death of the Chancellor (Eev. 
 Thomas Law), Bishop Hobhouse was appointed to the vacant 
 post. The Bishop, when instituting him to the office, said that 
 his reason for appointing him instead of a barrister, was that in 
 all differences that might arise between the clergy and their 
 people he much preferred exercising the Christian principle of 
 conciliation and arbitration, rather than appeal to litigation. 
 He then went on to say, " As I have known Bishop Hobhouse 
 for many years, and have seen his power of conciliation and 
 peacemaking among his brethren, I believe he may be very 
 serviceable in carrying out a system of prevention which is 
 always better than cure. At the same time, I know him to be 
 well acquainted with ecclesiastical law and precedents." After 
 this, Bishop Hobhouse knelt down and the Bishop of Lichfield 
 said ' ' The Lord God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, 
 who is no respecter of j)ersons, give thee a right judgment in 
 all things, through Jesus Christ our Lord ! Amen."
 
 THIRD DIOCESAN CONFERENCE. 55 
 
 The idea here dwelt upon by the Bishop is one which was 
 well known to be a prominent consideration with him. Indeed 
 it formed the key-note of his address at the diocesan conference 
 held soon afterwards at Lichfield, June 4th. The law of love, in 
 his judgment, should be the only one needed by the clergy in 
 their relations with their people, and still more with their 
 Bishop. In the concluding words of his address at the con- 
 ference he said, " The Church of England has its own special 
 mission. The duty of the Anglican Church is to approach as 
 nearly as possible to the standard of the Primitive Church, 
 holding fast all Catholic doctrine and all essential points of 
 Christian worship, but claiming and exercising the power to or- 
 dain rites and ceremonies as a particular and national Chui'ch. 
 Let us have a standard of our own — an Anglican standard — 
 admitting as much flexibility and variety as the Church itself 
 may direct for the good of the souls of her people, — Cathedrals, 
 parishes rich and poor, in town and country, missions at home 
 and abroad, special services for every especial need, each (like 
 the various sections of a mighty army) having its distinctive 
 uniform and its own drill, but all alike 'under authority.' I 
 go this autumn to the Synod of Canada and to the Convention 
 of Bishops in the United States. What message shall I take 
 to them ? Shall I tell them that as a united diocese we greet 
 them in the name of the Lord, who would have all men to be 
 one ? Shall I tell them we are all — men in authority and men 
 under authority, — Bishop, Clergy, Laity, subject one to an- 
 other in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, and that 
 we pray for them (as we pray for ourselves) that that out- 
 pouring of the Holy Grhost which, like the oil upon the waves, 
 calmed down the troubled sea of human passions in the Apos- 
 toKe Church, may unite us aU in one holy bond of truth and 
 peace, of faith and charity ?"
 
 56 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 Indeed, as it has been truly said, " he was ever calling 
 people to unity, while he was the last to make light of 
 fundamental truths : and within the last few months of 
 his life, on two occasions — with a courage not less noble 
 than that which supported him often in perils among the 
 heathen — he sheltered faithful incumbents from their enemies 
 and declined to deliver them over, on the testimony of three 
 puppet parishioners, to be harried by the Church Associ- 
 ation."*' 
 
 An account of an Ordination- week, at Lichfield, in 1874, may 
 serve to remind some readers of happy days spent, on this or on 
 similar occasions, at the Palace. "Few, save those who have ex- 
 perienced them, can have any idea of the deep anxieties of an 
 Ordination-week. It is, however, permitted to those who live 
 in the Cathedral City, and are acquainted with the Candidates, 
 to form some conception of what those anxieties must be- The 
 positive hard work of the examination ; the uncertainty, in some 
 cases, about the final result of it ; the excitement of the private 
 interviews with the Bishops ; to say nothing of the ever- 
 deepening appreciation of the solemn step about to be taken — 
 all combine to make Ordination- week a time which most men 
 would be sorry to pass through more than twice in their Kves. 
 It would, however, be impossible for any one to pass an Ordin- 
 ation-week at Lichfield, especially at this time of the year, 
 without carrying away with him many pleasant memories. 
 The Close is most lovely with its fresh spring foliage, and the 
 refreshing breeze from Stowe pool contrasts pleasantly with 
 the oppressive closeness of the Examination room. Then, with 
 some of the candidates, there is the sight of old faces ; and 
 what a world of pleasant thought an old face often brings with 
 
 *SatTirday Review, April 20th, 1878.
 
 ORDINATION WEEK AT LICHFIELD. 57 
 
 it ! There are the early moraing prayers in the Cathedral 
 before the day's toil begin, and the evening services in the 
 Bishop's chapel when they are 'past and over.' There are 
 the addresses given by men of large sympathies and varied 
 experience ; — by Dean Champneys, who laboured so hard and 
 so well in the parish of S. Pancras ; by Bishop Abraham, 
 whose best years were given to New Zealand ; by the aged 
 Bishop of Newfoundland, who is on the eve of returning to 
 the wild diocese over which he has presided for thirty years ; 
 and yet again by our own Bishop, who spoke as he only can 
 speak, and whose words made a deep impression on all who 
 heard him. All these things will remain very pleasantly in 
 the memory, long after the anxieties of the Ordination-week 
 are forgotten. The examination was finished on Thursday, 
 the result being j)ublished early on Friday morning. Friday 
 and Saturday were spent in private interviews with the 
 Bishops, pastoral addresses, and in taking the required oaths. 
 On Sunday morning there was morning prayer in the Cathe- 
 dral at nine o'clock, at which the candidates were present. 
 The great service of the day began at eleven o'clock. The 
 candidates were seated under the central spire on either side of 
 the screen gate, and after the ' bidding prayer,' the service was 
 at once commenced by Archdeacon Moore, who preached an 
 excellent sermon from the words " How can these things be?" 
 (S. John iii. 9.) At the conclusion of the sermon, the candi- 
 dates were ushered into the choir, and the Ordination service 
 began. Every English Churchman ought to witness an Ordin- 
 ation ; and, perhaps, nowhere is the ceremony more solemn and 
 affecting than in the Cathedral at Lichfield. The choir was 
 occupied by the choristers and the students of the Theological 
 College. The Bishop sat in his chair before the Holy Table —
 
 58 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 the Coadjutor Bishops occupying seats by Bishop Lonsdale's 
 monument, and the Dean and Canons sitting opposite in the 
 sedilia. The service was most effective. The questions were 
 answered by each of the 24 candidates separately. The 
 Bishop's manner was very grave, and both he and those on 
 whom he laid his hands seemed to feel the solemnity of the act 
 in which they were taking part. No one could have witnessed 
 the ceremony without being sensible that if any of the English 
 Clergy appear to be unfaithful Pastors, it is no faidt of the 
 Church that they are so. Every care which can be taken is 
 taken : every promise, which can lawfully be asked is asked, 
 and given : and the fact that the Ministers of the Church are 
 sometimes other than they should be, simply proves that it is 
 impossible to keep the field free from tares so long as there is 
 an enemy to sow them."*" 
 
 Nor were these the only occasions on which Bishop SelwjTi's 
 animating influence was felt within the precincts of his ancient 
 Cathedral. The meeting of the full Chapter, — consisting of 
 the Canons Residentiary, and of the Prebendaries scattered 
 throughout the diocese, — had almost fallen into desuetude, 
 having been rarely held of late years except for an official 
 purpose, such as the election of a Bishop. But it was now no 
 longer allowed to remain dormant. It was summoned to meet 
 annually by the Bishop as president : its Statutes were revised : 
 committees were appointed for various diocesan pm-poses : and 
 the Cathedral Chapter was thus elevated once more to the ful- 
 filment of its true functions, as a standing-council of the 
 Bishop and as the heart of the whole diocese.f 
 
 In August, 1874, the Bishop started for his second visit to 
 America, accompanied on this occasion by the Eev. Edward 
 
 "Lichfield Diocesan Churchman, June 1, 1874. tSee Diocesan Cycle. Appendix.
 
 SECOND VISIT TO AMEEICA. 59 
 
 Jas. Edwards (Trentham), Rev. Nigel Madan (Polesworth.), 
 and Mr. Hodson, the Bishop's legal secretary. After touching 
 at 8. John's, Newfoundland, they arrived at Montreal, and 
 attended the Provincial Synod of Canada where the presence 
 of the Bishop called forth the most enthusiastic welcome. He 
 gave a short address in which he spoke of himself as the repre- 
 sentative of church missions, and as earnestly desiring — with 
 his companions — to extend to sister churches the right hand of 
 fellowship and unity. Addresses were also read from the 
 Ai'chdeacons and Rural Deans of the Lichfield diocese inviting 
 the members of the Canadian Synod to attend at the Church 
 Congress to be held at Stoke-on-Trent in the following year. 
 After this the Bishop took a short tour in the north-west. His 
 travels extended to Nebraska (500 miles west of Chicago) 
 where he was entertained by Bishoj) Clarkson, at Omaha. 
 While he was staying with the Bishops of Huron and Minne- 
 sota, he addressed some Indian tribes by means of an inter- 
 preter, touching on those circumstances of his experience in 
 New Zealand which bore uj)on themselves and their own 
 gathering into the Christian church. To this their chief made 
 a short reply on behalf of his people, expressing his own and 
 their gratitude to the English for having brought the gospel 
 to them. 
 
 No doubt their gratitude was not undeserved. But still 
 it cannot be said that the English church in bygone times 
 had really done the best she could for America. For, as 
 the Bishop said when addressing the missionary meeting at 
 Montreal, the early system of sending out only Presbyters to 
 America was one which had starved the Episcopal church. 
 The true plan was to send out a Bishop first, who would build 
 up a church. "Let him, if necessary, be bishop, priest and
 
 60 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 deacon all in one. And let him not only visit Churchmen, 
 but if a man is said to be an infidel don't believe it, but go 
 and talk with him, and you will find he is no more an infidel 
 than yourself." As to the support of missions, it was their 
 duty to give, a duty which they could not cast off. It 
 was a mistake to say that what a man has is his own. As 
 John Wesley, that good presbyter of our Church, repKed to a 
 man who asked if he could not do as he pleased with his own, 
 " There is the mistake you make ; it is not your own." He 
 then spoke of the great work in store for the people of the 
 Dominion ; and prayed that they might be guided to do it well. 
 Soon afterwards the Bishop preached at the opening 
 service of the Convention of the American church in New 
 York at which fifty Bishops were present ; and he and his 
 party were afterwards introduced by the president to the 
 Convention, who received them as warmly as before. The 
 president's words were these: "I introduce the Eight Eev. 
 the Bishop of Lichfield, whose name is as dear and familiar 
 beyond the bounds of Christendom as within them, and es- 
 pecially dear now to the American church." The whole 
 assembly remained standing whilst the Bishop — who was 
 greeted with loud applause — responded in a few words refer- 
 ring to his former and to his present visit, and giving an 
 account of the presentation of the alms-bason which has al- 
 ready been mentioned. He then read the addresses from his 
 diocese, which were similar to those sent to the Canadian 
 Synod, inviting the Convention to attend the Congress at 
 Stoke-on-Trent in the following year. After this, the rest of 
 the visitors were severally introduced, and were received with 
 that courtesy which is so welcome to the stranger and so well 
 understood by the members of the American church.
 
 HAPPY EESULTS OF THE BISHOP's VISIT. 61 
 
 The following letter to Mr. Edwards fi-om the Eev. Dr. 
 Whitaker, Provost of Trinity College, Toronto, shows how the 
 Bishop's visit to the Synod of the Church of Canada was appre- 
 ciated. He writes, "I am unwilling to let you leave this con- 
 tinent without endeavouring to convey to you my impression as 
 to the happy result which we may hope to follow the visit of the 
 Bishop of Lichfield, as the representative of the Church at home, 
 both to ourselves and the sister Church in the United States. 
 Assurances in writing of Christian sympathy, conveyed to us 
 across the Atlantic, are by no means valueless or ineffectual. 
 But, when a leader of the church, like Bishop Selwyn, honours 
 and gladdens us by his revered and genial presence — 'drawing 
 us with the cords of a man,' by look and tone and gesture — 
 far more is done than can be achieved by the wisest written 
 words, to impress on the hearts of men the great lesson of 
 Christian love, the reality of the Communion of saints. The 
 Bishop's sound wisdom and delicate sense of the relation in 
 which he stood to those whom he was addressing led him to 
 give counsel indirectly, by narrating what the church in New 
 Zealand had done under similar circumstances ; and the Synod 
 was well aware of the exceptional privilege it enjoyed in hear- 
 ing from Bishop Selwyn' s own lips the results of his long ex- 
 perience and having the plans of this wise master-builder 
 submitted to it by himself for its guidance. I am satisfied 
 that whether from the far west, from Fredericton, or from the 
 assemblage at New York, the like testimony will be borne as 
 to the happy results of this noble endeavour to give a sub- 
 stance to that which men too often regard only as an attractive 
 shadow, and to present before us by living word and deed an 
 impersonation of christian love." 
 
 A correspondent to the "Lichfield Diocesan Chui'chman,"
 
 62 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 October, 1874, gives an account of the last day spent in 
 New York by the Bishop and his party, which also illus- 
 trates the kindly feelings of the American church on the 
 occasion of this second visit of the Bishop to the Conven- 
 tion. " ' The Russia' in which we had taken our passage, 
 was to sail on Wednesday, September 7th, and on the day 
 previous, the Bishop with ourselves took leave of the House of 
 Deputies. At the conclusion of his lordship's short parting 
 address, the whole House, at the instance of one of its 
 members, went down on their knees to offer up a prayer to 
 Almightj^ God, which the president read aloud from the 
 American prayer book, for our safe return to England, con- 
 cluding with the Lord's Prayer. I know not that I ever felt 
 so truly the power of church unity as on this occasion, when, 
 in the midst of the ordinary discussions of this great assembly, 
 all business was suspended, to offer this farewell prayer for 
 strangers (as we must call ourselves with an ocean to separate 
 us) yet felt to be friends in the triple ties of blood, language 
 and religion. In the evening of the same day, Tuesday, 
 we were present by invitation in the Academy of Music, — a 
 vast interior with its orchestra, pit, and great galleries, — in 
 which three to four thousand people of all ranks were met. 
 The subject of the evening was ' Missions to the Indians,' and 
 the Bishop made his final address to the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church of America, and was received, as ever, with the same 
 cordial welcome. Then, once more, at a sign from the 
 presiding Bishop, this great multitude knelt down and 
 prayed that T\e might return in safety to our homes. Such 
 an incident as this leaves a sense of the strength of church 
 heartiness and sympathy on the minds of those present like 
 ourselves, which we never can and never ought to forget."
 
 DEATH OF DEAN CHAMPNEYS. 63 
 
 In memory of this visit to New York, £200 was subscribed by 
 the clergy and laity of the diocese of New York for the found- 
 ation of a " Potter-Selwyn Prize," iu Taehfield Theological 
 College. This was awarded for the first time at Midsummer, 
 1878. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Death of Dban Champneys : Church Congress at Stoke- 
 on-Trent : Visit to the Isle of Man : Fourth Diocesan 
 Conference: J875 — 1878. 
 
 The early part of 1875 was saddened by the death of Dean 
 Champneys, a man whose gentle loving natiu-e had drawn the 
 Bishop's heart to him in a remarkable manner. And when 
 the grave was made, deep in the solid rock on which the 
 Cathedral stands, on the south-east side of the Lady Chapel, 
 Bishop Selwyn pointed out that spot as the place where he 
 wished to be laid himself, close to the remains of his beloved 
 friend, whenever his own time should come. In illustration 
 of this wish he made allusion to a weU-known double tomb in 
 Hereford Cathedral, where some ancient bishop and dean are 
 sculptured side by side, hand grasping hand with a friendship 
 not broken, but secured, by death. 
 
 In June of the same year, the triennial Foreign Missionary 
 Festival* was held in the Cathedral, the sermon being preached 
 by Bishop "Webb of Bloemfontein in South Africa. A public 
 meeting was afterwards held in the palace garden ; where the 
 Bishop stationed himself under a laburnum tree laden with 
 golden blossoms, while the Bishops of Brechin, Bloemfontein, 
 
 *The Diocesan festivals at Lichfield are held in a cycle of three years : 1, Choral 
 festival : 2, Home missionary festival : 3, Foreign missionary festival.
 
 64 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 and Nassau stood near him, each addressing the meeting in 
 turn. The collections were divided between the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society 
 by the Bishop's special desire. This was almost the last appear- 
 ance of the Bishop of Brechin in public before his death. The 
 Bishop of Nassau too has since been taken to his rest. 
 
 In October of this year the Church Congress was held at 
 Stoke-on-Trent. Careful preparation had been made by the 
 local committee, assisted by the judgment and energy of the 
 Chairman and Eector, the Eev. Sir Lovelace Stamer; and 
 under the Bishop's guidance it proved one of the most success- 
 ful of these gatherings of clergy and laity that has as jet 
 taken place. The Guardian, (October 13th, 1875), remarked 
 that the chief characteristic of this Congress was its cheerful 
 hopeful view of the future, and an absence of anything like 
 despondency. In education, the modern advances were cor- 
 dially accepted ; and in mission work, both home and foreign, 
 the whole effect of the discussions was decidedly encouraging. 
 That the success of the Congress was due, in a great measure 
 to the management of the president, all were agreed ; as any 
 sign of disturbance at once stopped on the slightest hint from 
 him. In his opening address the Bishop said, ' 'I cannot doubt the 
 Anglican church is the true centre round which may be called, 
 in God's own time, all the scattered forces of those who agree 
 in accepting Holy Scripture as their standard of faith and the 
 creeds of the undivided church as their summary of doctrine. 
 She stretches out her arms to the great English-speaking race 
 now widely scattered round the earth, welcoming to her com- 
 munion the old Catholic, the Greek, the Russian, the Lutheran, 
 the Scandinavian, the Wesleyan, bearing with any errors she
 
 CHURCH CONGKESS AT STOKE. 65 
 
 may discern in other branches of the church as she hopes her 
 own may be forgiven." 
 
 Amongst the earliest speakers at the Congress were a 
 Bishop and two representative members of the American 
 church. They bore testimony to the cordial good feeling 
 which had sprung up between their Church and our own, as a 
 direct result of God's blessing on Bishop Selwyn's visits. 
 The working-class was largely represented at this Congress, 
 especially at the evening meetings when the larger part of the 
 audience consisted of artizans and their wives. The churches 
 at Stoke — as weU as those of the neighbouring parishes in the 
 potteries — were also crowded every evening to hear the special 
 preachers ; and the whole town seemed to share the enthu- 
 siasm generated by the meetings in the large hall. At the 
 conclusion of the Congress the Bishop spoke a few words on 
 the offering of praise to Almighty Grod. As he passed on 
 to speak of the soul's best time of praise, the holy Eucharist, 
 the Congress became more and more reverently attentive ; 
 and when he concluded with the glorious words of the Ter- 
 sanctus, ' Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord Q-od of Hosts, heaven 
 and earth are full of thy glory : Glory be to Thee, Lord 
 most high I ' the whole meeting rose simultaneously to its 
 feet, standing with bowed heads while he recited them. 
 The Benediction followed : and when, after a marked silence, 
 the multitude rose from their knees to depart, many must have 
 felt that the Congress had indeed been a means of grace and a 
 blessing to them. 
 
 In June, 1876, the Home Mission Festival was held in the 
 Cathedral. The Bishop preached a heart-stirring sermon in 
 the Cathedral to the vast crowd, who felt that, well as the 
 Bishop was used to plead for foreign missions, he could also
 
 66 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 make an irresistible appeal for cliurch.-work at home among 
 tlie almost heathen in our own land. The money collected 
 was divided, by the Bishop's wish, between the " Additional 
 Curates' Society" and the "Pastoral Aid Society," testifying 
 (as usual) to the breadth of his sympathy with all good works. 
 Besides the hospitality afforded in the large hall at the Palace 
 on this occasion, a tent was erected in the garden, in the old 
 moat of the Close, where large numbers of Sunday school 
 teachers and Church-workers were entertained : and could the 
 Bishop have heard the expressions of hearty satisfaction with 
 which all who were present described their enjoyment of this 
 festival and the kindness they had received, he would have 
 felt more than repaid for his trouble in thus amply providing 
 for these many pilgrims to the mother-church of the diocese. 
 
 The same month witnessed the annual prize-giving to the 
 children who had been successful in the diocesan religious 
 examination. After service in the Cathedral, a crowd of 
 happy faces gathered in the palace-garden and the Bishop 
 distributed the prizes to the children with a kindly shake of 
 the hand to each in tiirn. All were afterwards liberally pro- 
 vided with refreshments, the children sitting in picturesque 
 rows on a grassy bank, the teachers at long tables in the 
 Hall, where part-songs and hymns formed afterwards a 
 pleasant conclusion to the day's proceedings. 
 
 The month of September was spent by the Bishop with a 
 large family-party (over twenty in number) in the Isle of 
 Man.* He lived in the official residence at Bishops-court, 
 and held Confirmations for the Diocesan who had for some 
 time been invalided. Among other interesting events was a 
 
 '■'A characteristic anecdote was afterwards currently reported in Lichfield. When 
 the party were preparing to start for the Island, the servants asked Who were to do 
 the work for so numerous a party .' " Do it amongst you," replied the Bishop, " and 
 what you can't do I wiU help you with."
 
 CONSECRATION OF REV. J. R. SELWYN. 67 
 
 Choral Festival, held amid the ruins of S. Germain's Cathe- 
 dral within the walls of Peel Castle, at which the Bishop 
 preached; and his clear and powerful voice was distinctly 
 heard by a large concourse of people thronging every part of 
 the unroofed church. 
 
 It was in this year that an important event occurred in the 
 southern hemisphere. The General Synod of New Zealand 
 elected the Bishop's second son, the Eev. John Eichardson 
 Selwyu, to succeed the martyred Bishop Patteson in Melanesia ; 
 and the consecration took place at Auckland, Peb. 17th, 1877. 
 Here he was joined by his wife and youngest child, on their re- 
 turn home from a visit to England — two little daughters having 
 been left at Liclifield to be brought up with Lord Justice 
 Selwyn's orphan children, who had already for some years found 
 their home at the palace. The day of the consecration of the 
 younger Bishop Selwyn was one of unusual interest at Lich- 
 field. At 11 p.m. — the hour which accorded with that of the 
 solemn laying on of hands at the other side of the globe — a 
 simultaneous service was held in the Cathedral. The Bishop 
 preached in words that were few but weighty and touching, 
 and caused the hearts of all present to beat in warmest sym- 
 pathy with the father and mother of one now consecrated to so 
 high and perilous a duty. Tidings uf this special service at 
 Lichfield reached the new Bishop on Sunday, August 19th, 
 when he was on a voyage among the islands ; and he writes 
 of it in his journal as " a very bright Sunday indeed." 
 
 On Sept. 27th, the fourth Diocesan Conference was held at 
 Lichfield : and the Bishop in his opening address spoke as 
 follows, "The meeting of our fourth diocesan conference reminds 
 us that nine whole years have passed away since we first met on 
 the 17th of June, 1868. Solemn thoughts must come into the
 
 68 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 mind of every one who reflects upon the changes which have 
 happened in the diocese since that time, — namely, two Deans, 
 two out of three Archdeacons, three out of four Canons-Resi- 
 dentiary, twelve out of nineteen Prebendaries, and twenty -four 
 out of forty -nine Rural Deans, This record of changes, caused 
 chiefly by death, cannot fail to warn us who are aHve and re- 
 main that we must ' Work the works of Him that sent us 
 while it is day ; for the night cometh when no man can work.' 
 The personal warning thus addressed to each of us ' Set thine 
 house in order' must be followed by another lesson of the same 
 kind and no less important. The rapid change of office- 
 bearers in the diocese points to the need of fi:sed principles 
 upon which our work may be securely- built uj). As short- 
 lived men, who know that we must soon die, we learn the 
 value of institutions which may last for ages. Private opinions 
 pass away with the mind which conceived them, unless they 
 have been stamped upon the permanent records of the Church. 
 Our own views of doctrine and forms of ritual may satisfy us 
 in our life-time and comfort us on our death-bed : but if they 
 are merely our own, they are like a life annuit}- which Avill 
 expire with us.'' 
 
 The Bishop then went on to speak of the Sub-division of 
 the Diocese, (for which he asked £50,000), the establishment 
 of a Diocesan Sunday with offertories for Diocesaa pur- 
 poses, the Probationer-system, the Clergy House in the Close, 
 the Barge Mission lately started with a Church-barge attached to 
 it, the establishment of Working-men's Clubs, and the pastoral 
 charge of the workmen and their families employed at the new 
 barracks on Whittington Heath. He concluded with some 
 remarks on the churchyards. These, he said, "undoubtedly 
 belong to the Church, and are only to be yielded up if ParHa-
 
 PROTEST AGAINST THE BURIALS BILL. 69 
 
 ment insist upon such a course, — in fact, if it take them by 
 force from the Chvirch. Then, as loyal subjects we must sub- 
 mit." Words of weight, which seem to bear a double power 
 now that the voice which uttered them has become so unex- 
 pectedly silent in death : for many who heard this address may 
 have thought of their own death as possible before another 
 Conference should meet ; but that the vigorous frame of the 
 Bishop, which seemed to give promise of many years of service 
 to the Church, should be laid low before many months were 
 over — this thought probably never crossed the mind of anyone 
 who was present. A few months later, his words on this 
 "Burials" question were even more impressive. In Con- 
 vocation, on 12th of February, 1878, he presented a declar- 
 ation to the Archbishop of Canterbury, signed by 15,000 
 clergy and more than 30,000 laity, against Lord Harrowby's 
 proposal in Parliament to throw open the churchyards in- 
 discriminately to dissenters. On presenting this address he 
 said, "In administering for ten years a diocese with a popu- 
 lation of 1,300,000 souls, I have never met with a single 
 grievance in connection with this burial question. The 
 grievance now alleged as so important for furnishing a claim 
 to break the ancient laws of the Church of England has never 
 come within my knowledge. I have made many inquiries on 
 the subject among the clergy, and have never yet found a 
 single clergyman who could tell me that, in the course of his 
 ministry, he has met with such a grievance as that which has 
 been put forward as a justification for this alteration in the 
 Burial Laws. On the other hand, the grievance proposed to 
 be inflicted on the clergy is so great, that I, for my part, 
 should concur with the whole body of my clergy, in offering 
 the utmost possible opposition to the bill in all its stages."
 
 70 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 The sad news of the death of Mrs. John Selwyn at Norfolk 
 Island reached Lichfield by telegram on the 15th of Feb., 
 and was received by the Bishop during the session of Con- 
 vocation The blow was a heavy one, especially as it came 
 suddenlj^ by a bare telegram without the possibility of a 
 letter for some weeks. But he continued his labours un- 
 ceasingly, althovigh the thought of his dear son in his 
 lonely widowed state, far from home and relations, must 
 have been ever present to his mind. It was beautiful to see 
 his tenderness to the little ones thus suddenly left motherless ; 
 and to watch him as he pressed them to his heart — like the 
 Grood Shepherd " gathering the lambs in his bosom"— saying, 
 "Poor little things, the}' have no mother now!" As if the 
 sense of their orphaned helplessness had made him resolve, 
 with a stronger determination than ever, to shelter them from 
 every stormy blast, and to extend to them every needful care. 
 
 Nor was it only for the children of his own family that the 
 Bishop seemed to have a special tenderness. All " little ones" 
 and all who were poor or Aveak, at once called forth his sym- 
 pathy and offers of fatherly help and guidance. Bishop 
 Patteson mentions how on one occasion he paced the deck of 
 a ship with a little sick boj' from the islands in his arms. A 
 story is also told of his taking charge of a baby during one of 
 his voyages, the mother being incapacitated from looking after 
 it : and how with the help of an English lad he fulfilled his task 
 so efficiently that not only did the little one flourish under his 
 care, but at the end of the voyage it was unwilling to leave 
 its temporary guardian to return to its own mother. In the 
 same spirit, when driving along the high road he would 
 stop his carriage to take up a woman laden with a heavy 
 child ; and he would frequently lend a hand to help a poor
 
 HIS SIMPLICITY AND GENTLENESS. 71 
 
 person carrying a basket from the railway station — or, on 
 one occasion, across Cannock Chase. On Easter Uaj^, 1877, 
 he gladly embraced an opportunity of conducting the children's 
 service at the Cathedral, and gave a graphic account of a 
 funeral at sea, such as he himself had often witnessed. He 
 once held a special Confirmation in the Lady chapel for a sailor 
 lad called away suddenly to his ship. During the last few 
 months of his life he went constantly into the Black Country, 
 to hold services for the barge men, where he might often 
 be seen with the Mission Chaplain sitting on the cinder 
 heaps to partake of some simple refreshment. Many will 
 remember his visits to the grief-stricken crowd round the 
 mouth of the pit at Pelsall after the accident there in 1872. 
 And not long before his final illness he walked out frequently 
 to minister at the quiet bedside of a d}dng clergyman at the 
 neighbouring village of Wall. 
 
 It is not the first time that the strong hand and the tender 
 heart have been found in close conjunction ; nor, thank (lod, 
 is it likely to be the last. But examples like these serve, 
 assuredly, to maintain that Christ-like spirit of gentleness and 
 simplicity which, through all ages, forms the leading charac- 
 teristic in the religious life of the Church. 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 The Bishop's last Illness and Death : the Funeral : 
 Proposed Memorials at Lichfield and Cambridge : 
 Conclusion: 1878. 
 
 His own end was now approaching. In the early part of 
 the year CMarch 1878) as he happened to be in London, the
 
 72 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 Bishop consulted an eminent physician, in consequence of an un- 
 usual sensation of weakness which troubled him. No serious 
 cause of mischief, however, was discovered ; and the patient 
 was dismissed with a simple recommendation to "rest." This 
 simple remedy might possibly have availed, at least to pro- 
 long his life for some years, had it been in the Bishop's nature 
 to use it. But he had several Confirmations impending in 
 Derbyshire and Shropshire : and such engagements as these 
 he was always determined, if possible, to fulfil. The symp- 
 toms of indisposition soon became more apparent. But even 
 yet no serious apprehensions were aroused, as it was still con- 
 sidered that the Bishop was suflPering from overwork, and only 
 needed repose to restore him to health. On the 18th of March 
 he was present at a meeting of the College-Council at Lichfield ; 
 and although he looked ill he seemed as cheerful as usual, 
 humorously observing that the lawn which the Students had left 
 half-mown was like the king's half-shaven beard in the Eastern 
 story. But in Shropshire the Confirmations told heavily on 
 his already over-taxed powers. At one church he seemed to 
 feel unusually cold and asked for something to throw over his 
 shoulders, saying " I feel as if I had got my death-chill, I am 
 so shivering." On another occasion he asked to have refresh- 
 ment in a separate room after the Confirmation, feeling too ill 
 to join the party gathered in the Vicarage dining-room to 
 meet him. At Shrewsbury he was again very unwell, but 
 with characteristic determination he rose from his sick bed to 
 attend the Confirmation at 8. Mary's on March 24th, — where 
 he performed his last act of pubKc ministration. On this 
 occasion Bishop Hobhouse was present to help him ; but he 
 persevered to the end, though he had 1o retire for rest three 
 times during the service ; and at length he concluded an affec-
 
 HIS LAST ILLNESS. 73 
 
 tionate and fatherly address with the words " Safe in the arms 
 of Jesus." Bishop Hobhouse — being aware of his enfeebled 
 state of health — afterwards made some remark on the length 
 and vigour of the address. " Yes," said the Bishop, who had 
 been suffering great pain throughout, ' ' it was like holding on 
 to a ship in a storm ; I held on by my hands and my feet." 
 He then laid his head back in a chair in the vestry, saying 
 " The end is come." 
 
 On the following day he returned to Lichfield, feeling 
 seriously ill and suffering from nausea and inability to take 
 food. As the remedies hitherto prescribed for him seemed 
 of no avail, a new medical adviser* was called in, whose ex- 
 perienced eye soon discovered the serious subtle malady 
 which was undermining the Bishop's powerful frame. He 
 could not, however, at first determine how far it had taken 
 fatal possession ; and for a whole week the patient fluctuated, 
 sometimes better and sometimes worse, till on the 4th of April 
 a consultation was held with Dr. Heslop, of Birmingham. They 
 both agreed in their opinion as to the critical nature of the case ; 
 but they hoped that the Bishop's fine constitution might pull 
 him through. On Saturday morning he received the Holy 
 Communion with his family and servants, and was able to speak 
 a few words of Christian exhortation to them. But in the 
 evening he became worse, and on Sunday morning Dr. Browne 
 had but little hope of his life. Prayers were offered on that 
 day throughout the Diocese on his behalf — even Dissenting 
 Congregations uniting their intercessions with those of Church- 
 men — and at the Communion Service in the Cathedral all 
 hearts were full with thoughts of their beloved Bishop's 
 danger. During several days the Cathedral bells were hushed 
 
 *Dr. Browne, of Lichfield.
 
 74 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 for fear he should be disturbed, and a steady gloom settled 
 down on the anxious City as the critical state of the Bishop 
 came to be realized. On Sunday night however, he slept more 
 comfortably : and on Monday he seemed to have rallied con- 
 siderably, until the evening brought signs of fever and de- 
 lirium ; and then all hope died down in the hearts of those 
 who loved him, and they resigned themselves to yield him up 
 to Grod. Since the beginning of his illness it had been nothing 
 but ebb and flow : but now the ebb steadily proceeded until 
 the end. Early on Tuesday morning he asked for the child- 
 ren, and the little ones were brought out of their beds to see 
 him. His words to them were plaj^ul and loving as of yore : 
 " I wish you were little robins, so that you might sit on my 
 finger." Then, recognizing Sir William Martin, he remarked 
 it was like the old days at Auckland, and talked in cheerful 
 strain with his sister and all the members of his family who 
 were gathered around him. He even remembered that Bishop 
 Abraham was going to a Confirmation at Sudbury that day, 
 and mentioned what he wanted said and done. He then 
 said 'good-bye' to all and relapsed into quietness and apparent 
 sleep. The nurse who attended him was heard to say, "He 
 is such a good patient ! Whatever has to be done, even if it is 
 painful to him, he makes up his mind to it at once." For him 
 death had no terrors, and pain no bitterness. More than once 
 he was heard to say "Thank Grod for pain! thank Grod!" 
 The habit of living in close communion with God, which he 
 had formed during his days of health, was evident through- 
 out his last illness ; and even in his unconscious wanderings 
 such words as " A light to lighten the Gentiles," and passages 
 fi-om hymns, were constantly on his lips. On Tuesday he was 
 unable to take the food which was offered to him, and shook
 
 PAREWELL 'WORDS AND DEATH. 75 
 
 liis head, saying "don't ! don't! you are only keeping me from 
 happiness." Nearly his last words of consciousness were spoken 
 to Sir W. Martin, words by which the dying Maori Christian 
 is wont to tell his friends that he sees Heaven clearly before 
 him; they mean in the Maori language "It is light." 
 Throughout Wednesday he was tranquil, his life ebbing 
 slowly away. On Thursday the 11th of April, he spoke some 
 few words of faith in God and love to his wife, and about noon 
 he calmly sank to rest. 
 
 Many w'ho had loved him came to take a farewell look 
 at their Bishop, as he lay in death, with a smile of singular 
 beauty on his placid countenance, though all xiueonscious of 
 their presence and for the first time unable to greet them with 
 kindly words of welcome. On Palm Sunday, Bishop Abraham 
 preached a touching sermon, in the Cathedral, about the 
 bereavement which all had undergone ; and in every pulpit 
 throughout the Diocese reference was made to the sad event, 
 and attention was directed to the noble example afforded by 
 the late Bishop's life. 
 
 At length the funeral-day came. On the previous evening 
 the cof&n had been removed into the private Chapel at the 
 Palace ; and on Tuesday, April 1 6th, several of the fi"iends 
 and near relations gathered together in the early morning, 
 and kneeling beside it partook of the Holy Communion. 
 Offerings of flowers — amongst others a Cross from the Stu- 
 dents of the Theological College, and wreaths from the 
 Missionary Work Part}^ — were placed during the Service on 
 the Altar. On the eofiin was laid the Pastoral Staff of ebony 
 and silver, which had been presented some years before, as 
 a parting gift from the Church of New Zealand.
 
 76 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 After the usual morning service at the Cathedral, prepara- 
 tions began to be made for paying the last honours to the 
 deceased prelate. 
 
 "It is probable (says a local paper) that such a scene as 
 that enacted in Lichfield Close, on Tuesday, was never before 
 there witnessed, when all that remained of Bishop Selwyn was 
 laid in its last resting-place by the side of his own Cathedral. 
 A general invitation had been forwarded to the Clergy of the 
 Diocese, and the laity were also invited to attend. The morn- 
 ing rose over the Cathedral-city with a perceptible heaviness 
 which well accorded with the sad nature of the day's proceed- 
 ings. People moved to and fro with a serious demeanour, and 
 on every side the outward emblems of mourning were apparent. 
 Everyone seemed to have lost a friend, a pastor, a head. The 
 form of the Missionary Bishop would be seen no more. People 
 would fain tell each to the other of their own personal experi- 
 ences of their late Diocesan. During the morning the church 
 bells tolled in a solemn manner ; and the gloom seemed to 
 darken, for it began to rain sharply just as the clergy and 
 laity began to assemble. By eleven o'clock — two hours before 
 the funeral — the Cathedral was well filled ; and from that 
 time until one, the clergy were assembhng at the Palace, the 
 entrance to which was thronged with spectators, the working- 
 class being very perceptible. A few minutes after one o'clock 
 the procession began to move from the Palace. At the same 
 moment the organ pealed forth from the Cathedral, producing 
 to those without a very impressive efi'ect. The pall was borne 
 by Archdeacon Allen, the Provost of Eton, the Earl of Powis, 
 Lord Hatherton, Sir Percival Heywood, Sir William Martin, 
 and the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone ; and the Pastoral Staff 
 was carried before the coffin by the Pev. F. Thatcher, the
 
 THE FUNERAL. 77 
 
 Bishop's Secretary. The procession left the Cathedral in the 
 same order ; and on approaching the grave the choir broke 
 into the weR-known hymn— 
 
 "We are but strangers here, 
 Heaven is oiu' Home ;" 
 As the body was lowered into the grave, the sentences com- 
 mencing ' Man that is born of woman ' were sung by the 
 choir : and at the conclusion of the service, a hymn was sung 
 by the choir and people together — 
 
 ' The strife is o'er, the battle done.' 
 Bishop Abraham then gave the blessing, and all was over." 
 
 So closed the grave over all that remained of Bishop 
 Selwyn. All the arrangements for his funeral were as simple 
 as possible, in accordance with the simplicity of his life.* 
 The crowded attendance, the long procession of clergy and laity, 
 were but the spontaneous outcome of the heart's reverence and 
 love. It was this feeling which brought one young workman 
 from the Potteries to pay the last tribute of respect to the 
 Bishop who had confirmed him, and who had made such a 
 deep and lasting impression on him that he had been a steady 
 communicant ever since. To him, as to all his class, — the 
 mighty army who toil with their hands — the words and acts of 
 the Bishop came home with a peculiar power, from their 
 simple straightforward manliness. The poor who were 
 present at his funeral testified their affection for him 
 by their quiet reverential demeanour, and many held up their 
 little ones to see him as he was carried by, saying ' ' Look at 
 him, we shall never see his like again." They, in common 
 
 *Oii the occasion of consecrating' a cemeterj' at Longton, 1877, the Bishop made 
 use of the following words : " There is nothing more out of place than ostentatious 
 pomp and ceremony at the funeral of the dead. A feeling in favour of doing- away 
 with the numerous sm-roundings of ordinary funerals is growing in the coimtry, and 
 I would urge all Christians to unite for the purpose of conducting interments at as 
 little cost and with as httle ceremony as possible."
 
 78 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 with all who were present, felt that it was not merely a 
 ' Bishop ' who had been laid there to rest, but that in the well 
 known words — 
 
 " His life was gentle and the elements 
 So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world ' This was a man.' 
 Bishop Selwyn will no doubt be always especially remem- 
 bered as the great Missionary Bishop who — like Theodore of 
 Tarsus in England — organized, though he did not found, the 
 Church of New Zealand ; who welded together two incoherent 
 races into a nation ; who pioneered a way for future 
 missions among the North Pacific Islands with an intrepidity 
 and skill which astonished even the sailors of her Majesty's 
 navy cruising in those unknown waters ; and did more than 
 any man of his own day towards moulding into one body the 
 whole Anglican Communion. Indeed it was in graceful recog- 
 nition of such services that her Majesty last year (1877) 
 selected him as the first Prelate of the new Colonial Order of 
 St. Michael and St. Greorge. 
 
 But still, when all has been said, there will remain, in 
 English hearts — especially throughout the Midlands — the 
 memory that he had also poured a new life into the old 
 organization of the Church at home, and, — in the words of 
 a preacher on the Sunday after his death — "it may be 
 that, fifty years hence, men will trace wp to its source in 
 Bishop Selwyn' s Episcopate at Lichfield a grand system of 
 synodical action, a regular cycle of diocesan visitations by 
 means of annual Confirmations, a probationer-system for rear- 
 ing up young sons of the Church for her Ministry, and other 
 such works, all spreading through the length and breadth of 
 our land, — ^perhaps of our communion."
 
 PROPOSED MEMOKIALS. 79 
 
 After the funeral a meeting was held in the large hall at 
 the Palace, to consider the question of raising a Memorial to 
 the late Bishop; and Mr. Gladstone speaking of him said, 
 " I have known him from his boyhood upwards, and I will 
 only now say that there is one epithet which I hope will 
 always be associated with his name beyond any other in the 
 recollection of those who loved him, and that is the epithet of 
 'noble.' This epithet attached to him by so distinguished a 
 statesman is of itself a memorial ; and its appropriateness has 
 been evidenced by the almost universal adoption of the title, 
 when subsequent speakers and writers have had occasion to 
 mention Bishop Selwyn's name. But in order to meet the 
 universal desire for a substantial and enduring monument to 
 his memory, a committee was formed to consider in what way 
 it could best be carried out. At a meeting of this committee 
 held on April 26th, in the Chapter House of the Cathedral,* it 
 was agreed that part of such memorial should be the restora- 
 tion of the mortuary chapels near to the Bishop's grave, in 
 one of which an effigy of him should be placed. The restora- 
 tion of these chapels had been a favourite idea of the Bishop's, 
 and he had caused plans to be made for the purpose by the 
 late Sir Gilbert Scott. 
 
 A further proposal was then made for a memorial 
 of a wider and more general character : and, on the suggestion 
 of Bishop Abraham, it was agreed in the terms of a resolution 
 proposed by Lord Bagot and seconded by the Earl of Dart- 
 mouth, "That the foundation of a College at Cambridge, 
 to be called the 'Selwyn College,' be submitted to the Church 
 at home and abroad as a worthy object by which to per- 
 petuate the noble name and labours of the late Bishop of 
 
 *See Appendix.
 
 80 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 Lichfield, such College to include provision for the edu- 
 cation of the sons of clergymen and others to fill posts of mis- 
 sionary work, whether at home or abroad." Subscriptions to the 
 amount of £2,210 were promised before the meeting separated ; 
 and there is every reason to believe that this scheme for 
 worthily perpetuating the name of one who has done so much 
 for the Church will be carried into effect. 
 
 But besides the gifts of the noble and the wealthy, the 
 widow's mite and the school-children's offerings must be 
 allowed to have a place in a work of such common interest 
 to rich and poor, old and young. For it was to the service 
 of the poor and of the young that Bishop Selwyn's life 
 was more especially devoted. The poor in the workhouses, 
 the hospitals, and the prisons, all received his unwearied 
 care ; and it was to the 3'oung, in the crowded congre- 
 gations at Derby and at Shrewsbury, that his latest min- 
 istrations were given. In confidence therefore, that many 
 of those who have been confirmed in the Diocese during his 
 ten years' Episcopate (nearly 100,000 in number) will desire 
 to contribute to the Memorial, a movement has been eet on 
 foot to offer to all who were confirmed between 1868 and 1878 
 an opportunity of giving what their means may allow. Amongst 
 the long list of subscribers — some it may be among the highest 
 in the land, — no greater interest will attach to any contribution 
 than to that of the "Confirmation Candidates;" for it will 
 represent the joint offerings of many a "little one," (in the 
 Lord's own sense of the word) many an heir of future glory, 
 gathered in by the loving hand of Bishop Selwyn, and kept 
 from after-wanderings by the memory of his simple loving 
 words who " being dead yet speaketh."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 DIOCESE OF LICHFIELD, 1878. 
 
 "Diocesan Cylcle." 
 
 The followiug circular, drawn up by Bishop Selwyu at the 
 beginniiig of the current year and sent by him to every Parish in 
 the Diocese, is here reprinted as a specimen ot his annual scheme of 
 work.
 
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 APPENDIX. 85 
 
 B. Description OF THE Alms Bason. {From cm American Journal) 
 
 "In the centre is the hemisphere, showing the Atlantic Ocean, 
 "with the Old World on the east of it and the New World on the 
 west A scroll on the oceans bears the inscription, which expresses 
 the spirit of the gift : " Orhis veteri novus, ocddens orienti, Filia Matri,^ 
 At the South Pole is the date, 1871, of the Bishop's visit. In the 
 upper part of the hemisphere is a circular chased medallion, which 
 covers nearly the whole of Great Britain, and bears a ship typical of 
 the Church, having the Cross at its prow, the Labarum on its sail, 
 the Pastoral staff of the Apostolic Episcopate at its mainmast, upheld 
 by two ropes on either side for the other two orders of Priests and 
 Deacons; and 'S.S.' on the rudder, for the 'Sacred Scrij)tures.' 
 This ship is leaving England, and is headed towards the New World, 
 indicating that our Church received its existence from the Catholic 
 Church through the Church of England. 
 
 Outside of this hemisphere is a band about an inch wide, with 
 the names of the six undisputed General Councils of the ancient 
 Church, separated from one another by six hemis23heres of lapis 
 lazuli. As the word 'Catholic' signifies 'all the world over' so this 
 band runs all around the globe. 
 
 From this band, on the oiitside, spring twelve oak leaves, and 
 between them are twelve twigs, each bearing three acorns with 
 burnished kernels. This use of the English oak sets forth the 
 English Church growing outwards, and carrying her Catholicity with 
 her wherever she goes, in every direction. The twelve is the number 
 of Apostolic fulness and perfection, and the three is reference to the 
 doctrine of the Trinity. From behind the oak leaves and acorns 
 spring alternate maple leaves and palmetto leaves, the former sym- 
 bolizing the North, and the latter the South, — thus representing 
 the historical truth that both parts of our American Chui'ch are 
 the outgrowth of the Church of England.
 
 86 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 The rim bears the inscription, ' It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive.' It begins and ends at a jewelled cross, composed of five 
 amethysts, four topazes, eight pearls and eight small garnets, all 
 clustered within a circle, the cross itself thus forming a crown of 
 glory. The words are divided by large stones, more than an inch in 
 diameter. As they refer not to the faith, but to gifts, which are of 
 infinite variety, no two are alike. They are all (within one excep- 
 tion) American stones, the one exception being a species of praise 
 from New Zealand, which was found in a lapidary's shop in Phila- 
 delphia. As Bishop Selwyn has done more than any other one 
 man to organize the system of the Colonial Episcopate, the piece 
 of that New Zealand stone was secured, to be placed first in the 
 series. 
 
 Outside the inscription is a very bold cable moulding, the finish 
 of which shows that it is a threefold cord, not easily broken. This 
 means the three Orders of the Apostolic ministry ; one strand being 
 burnished bright, to represent the Episcopate, the next under it 
 having twelve cross threads representing the Priesthood, and the 
 next below that having seven longitudinal threads, signifying the 
 Diaconate, the original number of the deacons being seven. Out- 
 side this cable moulding, again, is a margin of leaves all growing 
 outward, showing a vigorous outward growth of the Church all the 
 world over. 
 
 On the under side of the rim is a jjlain Latin inscription, more 
 specifically detailing the circumstances of the occasion which called 
 forth this gift from the American to the English Church. It runs 
 thus : — 
 
 " >J< Ecclesise Anglicanse matri, per manus ApostoHcas rever- 
 endissimi Georgii Augusti Selwyn, Dei gratia Episcopi Lichfield- 
 ensis, pacis et benevolentise internuncii, ejusdemque auctoris, hoc 
 pietatis testimonium filii Americani dederunt.>J< " 
 
 On the case there is a circular silver plate ; in the centre is a 
 shield, bearing the Union Jack and the American arms quartered
 
 APPENDIX. 87 
 
 upon a Cross (shaded (julcs), and with a dove for a crest, whoso rays 
 of light and heat fill the circle. This means that the true unity of 
 England and America is a spiritual unity, in maintaining the 
 doctrines of the Cross of Christ. 
 
 C. Letter from Bishop Whipple (of Minnesota) 
 TO Eev. E. J. Edwards. 
 
 The following letter, amongst many others, received whilst these 
 sheets arc passing through the press, testifies to the deep sorrow 
 which the news of Bishop Selwyn's death caused to the Bishops and 
 other members of the American Church. 
 
 Faribault, (U.S.) 
 
 June 3, 1878. 
 
 Dear Brother, — I have received your kind letter announcing the 
 death of that noble servant of God the Bishop of Lichfield. It was 
 very sad news to us. For among the pleasantest memories of my 
 Diocese is the memory of his visit, and his name will long be a 
 household word. Few men in our day and generation have so in- 
 tertwined their memory with the Church, and none have wielded a 
 greater power in deepening her spiritual life. 
 
 We shall miss him everywhere save from our hearts. It will be 
 a work of love for American Churchmen to unite with their Brethren 
 in England in rearing some fitting memorial of this great and good 
 prelate. Owing to the straitness of the times and the condition of 
 our missionary work we can do but little, but that little will be an 
 offering of grateful love. 
 
 I regret that I shall not be able to attend the Lambeth Confer- 
 ence, partly on account of my health, and pressing claims which I 
 cannot disregard.
 
 88 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 I pray God that it may be over-ruled for His glory and the 
 prosperity of His Church. 
 
 Assuring you of my loye, 
 
 I am, 
 
 Faithfully your Friend and Brother, 
 
 H. B. WHIPPLE. 
 Eev. E. J. Edwards. 
 
 D 
 
 Extract from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Speech at the 
 
 Missionary Conference held in S. James Hall, June 28, 1878. 
 
 The following words may be regarded as an honourable testi- 
 mony to the loss, which it was known beforehand the approaching 
 Pan-Anglican Synod must sustain from Bishop Selwyn's absence. 
 And letters from those who had come from afar to attend this Synod 
 bear witness that, after its meetings were closed, none had been found 
 to take that leading place in its counsels, which all were prepared to 
 assign to one whose practical wisdom and long experience had been 
 recognised for the last thirty seven years on all questions affecting 
 the organization of the Church and her Missions. 
 
 " At this our first anniversary meeting since the death of the 
 Bishop of Lichfield, I should forget my duty if I did not in the 
 presence of the Church testify what we owe to him. Other men 
 m.ay have had as difficult a sphere of work : other men, —as Bishop 
 Broughton when he undertook his work in Australia, or, as Bishop 
 Middleton when he planted an Episcopal See of oui- Church on the 
 vast continent of India, — may have had as difficult a task before 
 them, and may have done it as conscientiously. But there was
 
 APPENDIX. 89 
 
 something in tho man we dei^lore which boars us beyond calcula- 
 tions of the exact work he did, and which stamped him as one of 
 God's heroes. His personal appearance, his look, his mien, his 
 voice carried away the young and enthusiastic, or at least made 
 them ready to follow him in any difficult work. He has left a 
 great inheritance to the Church of Christ, and we shall endeavour 
 in the work which is before us in this Society to follow him in that 
 large-hearted spirit which characterised all he did." 
 
 E. Extract from the Appeal put forth by the Committee 
 ON behalf of the proposed selwyn memorial, at 
 Lichfield and Cambridge. 
 
 "The Committee appointed to give effect to these Resolutions 
 desire to lose no time in submitting them for the approval and Hberal 
 support of the members of the Church of England, and of all the 
 Churches in communion with her, and of aU those every where to 
 whom the memory of Bishop Selwyn is dear. 
 
 The First Resolution speaks for itself. It aims at providing a 
 Monumental Effigy, to be placed in one of the Mortuary Chapels in 
 the Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral, which shall hand on a 
 faithful likeness of the great Missionary Bishop to future gener- 
 ations, long after those who have known him on earth shall have 
 passed away. This Proposal will include the restoration of the 
 Mortuary Chapels, so that they may furnish a suitable setting for 
 the Bishop's Monument. It may be added that the restoration of 
 these Chapels was an object which the late Bishop had much 
 at heart. 
 
 With regard to the Second Resolution, the Committee desire 
 earnestly to recommend the establishment of a College in the 
 University of Cambridge, to be called the "Selwyn College."
 
 90 LIFE OF BISHOP SELWYN. 
 
 The distinctive features of tlie proposed College would be that it 
 should be founded upon the broad but definite basis of the Church 
 of England, neither less nor more ; and further that its aim should 
 be to encourage habits of simple living, and to develope the 
 Christian character, in the Students. The Committee have reason 
 to think that large numbers of the Clergy and Professional classes 
 generally would be glad to have it in their power to give to their 
 Sons the advantages of a University Education at Cambridge, in a 
 College founded on these principles. It would also include pro- 
 vision for the special training of those who may desire to devote 
 themselves to Missionary work, whether at home or abroad. 
 
 The Committee believe that there is room for such an Institution 
 in the University of Cambridge ; and they have already received 
 encouraging assurances of support from some distinguished residents 
 in the University, and from others who, though non-resident, may 
 be supposed to be acquainted with the circumstances. They 
 confidentlj' recommend this proposal to found in the University, of 
 which the late Bishop was so illustrious a member, a College which 
 shall aim at fashioning its students after the example of the burning 
 zeal, the high courage, and the manly Christianity, of Geoege 
 Augustus Selwyn."
 
 C. HICKSON, PRINTEE, NEWCASTI^E.

 
 f 
 
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