“I had no other reason for going (to New Zealand) than because I was sent. Upon this question of obedience I am still of the same mind. I am a man under authority.... As a soldier of the Church I shall probably feel bound to do whatever my commander-in-chief bids me.” To his dear friend, Sir W. Martin, he wrote first: “My own desire to return to New Zealand is so strong, that I cannot altogether trust my own judgment on a question of conscience.... How I wish I could take counsel with you. I have no one here, except Sarah (his wife), who can even feel the force of the argument on the New Zealand side.... The point of obedience is the only one upon which I see any light.... You may be sure that I shall not rest until everything is made as sure as I can for my dear old land if I am obliged to leave it.” A month later, when he had felt it to be his duty to obey commands and accept the bishopric of Lichfield and all was settled, he wrote again: “I shall go to work immediately to raise an endowment fund for the bishopric. Most of the furniture in the ‘palace’ will be left as an heirloom to the See, with the library.” He had told the Archbishop before his appointment that it would be absolutely necessary for him “to go back to New Zealand, if only for a few weeks. Everything there was left at short notice.” On January 9th, 1868, he was enthroned at Lichfield and for more than a year he was Bishop both of New Zealand and of Lichfield. How he viewed his new work is shown by his determination to give up at once Eccleshall Castle, the house in the country twenty-five miles from Lichfield in which his predecessors had lived, and to settle in the old palace in the Cathedral close. He set to work at once to visit the forty-six rural deaneries in his immense diocese, in order to gain some idea of what his work would be, and he began to lay plans for synodical organization in the diocese. _Punch_ had some verses about his appointment in which it was said that he had been called “to his work among savages this side the main, In the Black country, darker than ever New Zealand Mid worse ills than heathenism’s worst can combine, He must strive with the savages reared in our free land.” He sailed for New Zealand in the summer and reached Auckland in time for the General Synod of the Province in October, when six Bishops were present. Patteson was there, having come from Melanesia in the _Southern Cross_, filled with intense grief at the prospect of losing Bishop Selwyn. He wrote: “I don’t think I ever quite felt till now, what you have been to me for many a long year,” but he went on to say: “It is perfectly clear to my mind that you could not have done otherwise. I don’t grudge you to the mother Church one atom.”