258 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
or 6,000 in response. The other main points of the document were that, instead of a Suffragan Bishopric there should be an independent Bishopric, and that the ecclesiastical authorities would under take that for the present the operations of the Bishop would be confined to Lower and Upper Egypt, and not extend to the Soudan. I then obtained Bishop Blyth s approval of the scheme, which I brought home and submitted to the Arch bishop of Canterbury."
" Did the Archbishop take kindly to the scheme ? "
" Yes. After some further communications had passed between Lord Cromer and the Archbishop on the arrival of the former in England, a fresh appeal, based upon this draft scheme, was issued by the Archbishop for the amount required as endow ment for this independent Bishopric. The position of things to-day is that something like ^8,000 has been raised out of the ^30,000 required, and that, as soon as sufficient endowment has been got together, the Bishop can be appointed. It will be seen that the opposition of Lord Cromer to the Egyptian Bishopric was not dictated by any im mutable hostility to the scheme ; but as the repre sentative of the British Government in that country, he felt himself unable to consent to the proposal, unless the active missionary projects attached to it by Churchmen at home were modified. It is no secret in Cairo that Lord Cromer, so far as his own
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