It is a comfort to think that this is the last work of bishop-making in which it will be necessary for me to engage; and when this is done I may break my wand.” It is not necessary to follow the long controversy over the filling of the See of Dunedin, since after this the matter did not really concern Bishop Selwyn. It was not till 1871 that the difficulty was settled and a Bishop appointed. Writing to E. Coleridge at the end of 1865, Bishop Selwyn had said: “I do not see my way to another visit to England. It is more congenial to my present feelings to sit among my own ruins, not moping, but tracing out the outlines of a new foundation, than to go through another course of public life in England. So much has been said or written of late about my order that I have begun to think it will be well for us to be more sparing of our visits.” When, however, he received a summons from the Archbishop of Canterbury to attend the first conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion, which was to be held at Lambeth in 1867, he felt bound to go. He had always regarded it as a duty to obey the orders of a superior in the service to which he had given his life, and his desire for the general restoration of synodical government in the Church, made him consider the proposed Lambeth Conference as of supreme importance. He left his work in New Zealand with deep regret and there was much sorrow amongst his people at parting with him even for a time, increased by a lurking fear that he might never return. Before he left, his friends met in the little Chapel at Auckland for a last Communion together. There were seventy communicants too many for the chapel to hold and they overflowed into the study behind. One who was there writes: “I doubt if there was a single dry eye in the chapel; and the Bishop’s voice at times was scarcely audible, for the sobs which were heard on every hand.” It was a disappointment to Selwyn to find on reaching England how little interest was shown in the Lambeth Conference, how few even of the clergy realized its importance. He wrote: “From our distant point of view we look upon this Conference as the most important opening for good which has ever been offered to our Anglican Church; but I have not yet seen any signs to lead me to believe that it is so considered here. I have invitations to meetings of all kinds up to the very day of the meeting, and the clergymen who write to me do not seem to be aware that I came to England for one object and that I am prepared to devote all my time and attention to that, and that therefore I must be free in mind and time to prepare for it beforehand, and, after the meeting is over to work up its results.”