han render justice to one ill-used helper. He
won over the Society itself to his side by proposing to establish three
new bishoprics in New Zealand, each of which should have a missionary as
its first head. The scheme was never fully carried out, as the course of
our history will show; but its non-fulfilment was due to circumstances
which could not at the moment be foreseen.

In the larger world of English life, also, the bishop made his mark. A
course of Advent sermons before the University of Cambridge had a
wonderful effect in stimulating the interest of the Church in foreign
missions. An appeal for funds for Melanesia resulted in L10,000 being
raised within a few weeks, and also in the gift of a new ship for the
island work; a letter to a young friend who remembered Selwyn's parting
sermon in 1841 secured the noble and saintly Patteson for the same
mission; an interview with another of his early friends--Henry Harper,
vicar of the Berkshire village of Strathfield Mortimer--won from this
humble parish priest the promise to come out to New Zealand for the
bishopric of Christchurch, as soon as a duly authorised request should
be forthcoming. Altogether, Selwyn was able to feel that his visit had
been successful in its objects, and he returned to his diocese in 1855
with new heart for the work, and new means for its effective
prosecution.

As soon as possible after his arrival he proceeded to Canterbury, and
once more convened a meeting of its principal churchmen. Ecclesiastical
affairs had not prospered in this settlement as its promoters had
anticipated. Godley had left in 1852, and the diocese had become wearied
with the continual disappointment of its hopes of seeing a bishop of its
own. The meeting at first urged Selwyn himself to take the position of
Bishop of Christchurch, and on his refusing this offer, a unanimous
resolution was carried in favour of his friend and nominee, the Rev.
Henry John Chitty Harper. By Christmas, 1856, the new bishop had
arrived, and was installed on Christmas Day in the little pro-Cathedral
of St. Michael, Christchurch, amidst the eager expectation of the
community. Selwyn was present at the arrival of his friend, and also at
the installation service. At last he was able to hand over some part of
his diocese to an episcopal colleague: that colleague, moreover, being a
man whom he had known in his early days, and from whom he had received
his own first impulse towards the work of the m