BISHOP SELWYN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5372, 15 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

BISHOP SELWYN.

The Sonic News, of the 25th April, says : The late Bishop of Lichfield's death will be received with deep sorrow in the diocese where he worked so indefatigably and so long. New Zealand may well be proud of the fact that it was his first Episcopate, and that in the field which it afforded for his; extraordinary energies and zeal, the true character of this great and good man was revealed to the world. Of his remarkable physical vigor much has been said—how he rowed in the Cambridge eight ; how he walked often from Eton to London and back in the same day ; how he braved the elements, and spent long hours in the saddle when a consecrated bishop in the discharge of his sacred duties ; how since his translation to Lichfield he toiled among the roughs of his English diocese. But perhaps the strongest testimony to his worth is that given by Mr. Gladstone, who, in a recent letter to The Times, tells us that Bishop Selwyn offered himself as a candidate for the bishopric of New Zealand, because one of his family had first accepted and then declined it. He did not wish the name of Selwyn discredited, and for this he sacrificed prospects of certain advancement in the Church at Home, to face the perils and trials of a see in what was then a semi-bar-barous and comparatively unknown land. On the 16th April his remains were interred by his express desire alongside those of, the late Dean Champneys, in the yard of Lichfield Cathedral, on April 16. About 500 clergy followed, Dr. Browne, who attended the Bishop, and the Eev. F. Thatcher, the Bishop’s secretary, carrying the pastoral staff. The pall-bearers were the*Ven, Archdeacon Allen, the Bishop of Hereford, Lord Powis, Lord Hatherton, Sir Peroival Haywood, Sir W. Martin, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., and the Eev. Dr. Goodward, Provost of Eton. The mourners were Miss Selwyn, sister of the Bishop, the Eev.'VY. Selwyn and Mrs. Selwyn, Miss E. Selwyn, Mr. Jasper Selwyn, Lord Selborne, the Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Perry, late Bishop of Melbourne, the Eev. W. G. Bullock, representing the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the eldest son of Sir Charles Clifford, who was the first Speaker in the New Zealand House of Eepresentatives, representing his father. At the Dean’s Walk the procession was joined by the Mayor and Corporation, and by the mourners. Tke Dean conducted the burial service, assisted by Bishops Abraham and Hobhouse. A meeting was afterwards held at the Palace to consider what steps should be takon towards a memorial to the late bishop. The Dean said they were very anxious to take the first opportunity which presented itself, for starting some movement by which they could testify their deep and affectionate respect for the distinguished prelate whom they had just laid in the grave. He was able to inform them that the Bishop desired the restoration of two or three mortuary chapels on the south side of the Lady Chapel, which had been left just as they were in the desolating war in the seventeenth century. It was his particular desire that the mortuary chapels should bo renovated and made • fit to receive one or two, or even three monuments, as occasion might serve. Some plans were prepared by the late Sir Gilbert Scott for the restoration of these chapels. They wore not entirely completed, but they could easily bo finished and earned out by Sir Gilbert Scott’s successors. He did not dictate to the meeting what the form of the memorial should take, but he thought it right to mention the circumstance. Mr. Gladstone, who was present, said ho folt himself disabled from addressing them in any ordinary sense of the term. As to speaking of the bishop it was a taisfc which would be difficult at any time, and which would be totally impossible for any one to undertake who had known him so long as he had, from his boyhood upwards. Ho could only say that there was one epithet which he hoped would always be associated \yith his name beyond any other, and that was the epithet “ noble.” He trusted there would not be that competition of memorials which sometimes operated most unfortunately, even upon the aggregate result as well as upon the relative result. He earnestly trusted they would show their reverence an'd love for the memory of that extraordinary man by endeavoring to walk in accordance with his wishes in the matter of his memorial. Sir Peroival Hoywood suggested that in addition to thd restoration of the chapels they should do more, and that was to divide tho diocese and to provide the necessary funds. Lord Selborne concurred in this ; and a provisional committee was unanimously appointed to consider what stops should bo taken. Mr. Gladstone tells the world that Bishop Solwyn’s adoption of a colonial career was accidental rather than designed. Ho was living at Eton, and had every inducement which bright prospects could offer to remain in England. It had long been arranged that a relative of his bearing his name should bo the bishop of the new colony. But when the time came the gentleman in question found it impossible to leave England. , One afternoon, some thirty-six years ago. Geo. Selwyn called upon Mr. Gladstone, explained that “hecould not bear that anyone of his name should be associated with a retreat from an arduous call of this description,” and asked Mr. Gladstone’s opinion whether he would bo accepted as a substitute. Mr. Gladstone referred him to the resident chaplain of the then Primate, Archbishop Howley, and the result was that to New Zealand he went. “ I may add," writes Mr. Gladstone,

that the connection thus formed waa maintained by him with singvdar fidelity, I have

ifc under his hand that ho. only consented to exchange his colonial see for the Peer-Bishopric of Lichfield at the wish and instance specially conveyed of those authorities which for him were the highest.” This view receives indirect confirmation, if-such confirmation were needed, in the letter of another correspondent of The Times, who. says that Selwyn, up to the close of his life, frequently found himself signing his name “G. New. Zealand,”, instead of “ G-. Lichfield.” A third correspondent points out that, since the reforms which Selwyn as a boy instituted in the , management of the boating arrangements at Eton, there have been no cases of drowning ; and in a letter published in The Times of April 23, a, former schoolfellow of the Bishop's at that institution points out that before Selwyn went to Eton he had been educated at Ealing School.