his answer declining the proposal, and
the see was offered to another. This decision reveals, as no other act
could do, the magnificent heroism of the man. He had come to New Zealand
twenty-five years before with youthful ambitions of building a new
Jerusalem at the end of the earth. He had met with much success, but now
his work seemed to be destroyed. All he could hope to do was "to sit
amid the ruins of the spiritual temple which he had been allowed to
build, and to trace out new foundations on which to build once more." He
had begun his life with visions of restoring to the faith of Christ the
regions which had been desolated by Islam: he had lived to see his own
once loyal and Christian diocese swept by a propaganda compared to which
even Islam is a noble creed. The task which remained to him in New
Zealand was far harder than that which confronted him when he began his
episcopate. Yet then, he had the buoyancy of youth, and he had offers of
assistance from other youthful and sanguine spirits. Now, he was nearing
the age of 60, and there were no eager volunteers to help. No Pattesons
nor Whyteheads nor Abrahams had come out to him during the last decade:
indeed he had found it hard to secure any new clergy at all. His own
stipend had been cut down to less than half its original amount, and he
could with difficulty raise any funds for his diocese. To refuse an
English bishopric with its honours and emoluments, its seat in the House
of Lords, its great opportunities for influencing the policy of the
Church, and for playing a noble part in the eyes of the nation: surely
this was a sacrifice of the rarest and highest kind. Yet, to his eternal
honour, George Augustus Selwyn made this "great refusal."

The matter, however, was not to end there. At least two other clergymen
refused Lichfield, and then the offer came round again to Selwyn. This
time it was conveyed through the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
consequently it carried more weight. Still he hesitated. Friends drew
attention to the miserable stipend he was now receiving. "If I have to
live on _pipis_ and potatoes," said the bishop, "I would go back."
Lastly, the Queen sent for him. Taking both his hands in hers, she said,
"Dr. Selwyn, I want you to go to Lichfield." This was conclusive, and
the Bishop of New Zealand was soon installed in the old palace in the
Lichfield Cathedral close. He came back to New Zealand in the following
year to hand over the finances of