At the Conference he was described as “well nigh the most conspicuous figure and certainly the most attractive spirit there.” Mrs. Selwyn writes that he came back from the meetings “sometimes quite happy, and sometimes quite desponding, the precious time being so frittered away.” He was distressed at “the want of previous arrangement, at the lack of all formality or of anything to give dignity in the eyes of the public or honour to the brethren.” After the Lambeth Conference, he went to the Wolverhampton Church Congress. There he had the support of other Bishops from overseas in claiming that the Church in the Colonies should have the right to manage its own affairs. He himself spoke on Missions “doubtful how he could concentrate the lifetime of twenty-five years into twenty-five minutes.” He did express the spirit in which he had worked when he said: “I do not know what failure means.” He ended with an earnest appeal for unity, the appeal which comes with ever growing force to the Church at home from the mission field, and which again and again falls on deaf ears: “The best assistance you can give to us in our missionary work is to be united amongst yourselves.... I have learned in that great Pacific, on which my islands lie like little gems, to pray for the grace of God to distil from the great ocean of the Catholic Church this essential salt of unity, and with that salt to season all sacrifices, whether prayer, praise or almsgiving, and whether at home or abroad may that sacrifice be acceptable to God.” Shortly after the Wolverhampton Congress, the Bishop of Lichfield died and Lord Derby asked Selwyn to be his successor. Selwyn answered immediately that after having taken counsel with no one but God in prayer: “I have been led to the conclusion that it is my duty to return to New Zealand (1) Because the native race to whose service I was first called, requires all the effort of the few friends that remain to them; (2) Because the organization of the Church in New Zealand is still incomplete; (3) Because I have still so far as I can judge, health and strength for the peculiar duties which habit has made familiar to me; (4) Because my bishopric is not endowed with more than £80 per annum and I have no reason to expect that the C.M.S. will continue their annual grant of £400 to my successor.” These were the chief reasons he gave to Lord Derby and he ended his letter with these words: “I could work with all my heart in the ‘black country’ if it were not that my heart is in New Zealand.” The matter was not allowed to rest there. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to Selwyn asking him to reconsider his decision. The Queen sent for him and expressed her wish that he would accept the bishopric. Selwyn then wrote to the Archbishop: