The proposal to erect a cathedral was first made in 1887. A committee was formed; a site on the west side of St. George's Hall--where St. John's Church stood--was selected, and a design by Sir William Emerson was approved by Mr. Ewan Christian, the architectural assessor. I was appointed one of the treasurers to the fund, and at once began an active canvass for donations. There was, however, a great lack of enthusiasm; many objected to the site chosen, and the Bishop did not help the cause, for though he was in a way anxious that a cathedral should be built, he freely expressed his opinion, both in public and in private, that additional churches and mission halls would be more useful. We received promises of only £41,000, and then we had to allow the scheme to drop, for it was quite impossible to make further headway. I think the Bishop was disappointed. He was an earnest, good man, and during his episcopate great progress was made in church building in the diocese, but in his heart I do not think he was ever enthusiastic in favour of the cathedral scheme.
No further steps were taken towards the erection of a cathedral during the episcopate of Dr. Ryle. When his successor, Dr. Chavasse, had been consecrated bishop the scheme took shape again, and shortly after he had been installed at his suggestion a small committee was formed to formulate a proposal. The Bishop was good enough to ask me to become the treasurer. I had so ignominiously failed in my first attempt to collect money that I declined, but his lordship was very pressing, and after thinking the matter well over I said I would make an attempt to start a fund, provided no site was selected and no general committee formed until we had received sufficient promises to make the scheme a success; and I added that if my conditions were accepted I would give up all other work for six weeks and devote myself to working up a cathedral fund. I made those conditions because I found on my previous effort the selection of a site and a design was a serious hindrance, as they afforded reasons and excuses for not giving. The Bishop agreed to this proposal. I wrote six or eight begging letters every night and followed them by a call on the day following, and I wrote a series of articles in the daily press, and managed to arouse a considerable amount of interest and enthusiasm in our scheme. We started our list with a handsome donation of £10,000 each from Lord Derby, Sir Alfred Jones, and others. Canvassing was hard work, but Liverpool people were very good and very generous. In my daily rounds I met with much kindness, but with some disappointments. Only one man, whose father made his millions in Liverpool as a steamship owner, was rude and unpleasant, but even he in the end relieved his conscience by sending in a small donation. At the close of six weeks' work I was able to announce to the Bishop's Committee that we had promises amounting to £168,000. We did not, however, stop at this. The ball was rolling and must be kept rolling, and before we called a halt we had promises in meal or malt amounting to £325,000. In this amount are included special donations for windows, organ, etc.