“Whatever part in the work of the ministry the Church of England as represented by her Archbishops and Bishops may call upon me to undertake, I trust I shall be willing to accept with all obedience and humility. The same reasons which would prevent me from seeking the office of a bishop, forbid me to decline an authoritative invitation to a post so full of responsibility, but at the same time of spiritual promise.... It has never seemed to me to lie in the power of an individual to choose the field of labour most suited to his own powers. Those who are the eyes of the Church and have seen him acting in the station in which God has placed him, are the best judges whether he ‘ought to go up higher.’ Whether the advancement be at home or abroad ... with whatever prospects or adjuncts of emolument or dignity or without any, the only course seems to be to undertake it at the bidding of the proper authority and to endeavour to execute it with all faithfulness.... Allow me to offer my best thanks to your Lordship for your kind letter and to place myself unreservedly in the hands of the Episcopal Council to dispose my services as they may think best for the Church.” The actual offer had to be made by Lord John Russell and meanwhile doubts had arisen whether Parliament would be willing to grant the money proposed towards the Bishop’s stipend, but this uncertainty did not influence Selwyn’s decision. There were other difficulties which weighed more with him. A colonial bishop was in those days appointed under Letters Patent from the Crown, and these were so worded as to make it appear that the bishop’s right to exercise the spiritual functions of his office was derived solely from the Crown. Selwyn could do no more than make a formal protest against such wording. An absurd blunder was also made in the Letters Patent through the ignorance of the Colonial Office, and jurisdiction was given to the Bishop over sixty-eight more degrees of latitude than was intended. In this way it came about that Melanesia was included in the diocese of New Zealand.