Secretary for War, withdrew British troops from Canada and New Zealand, holding that the self-governing Colonies should be responsible for their own defence.  That wise policy fostered union rather than separation, by providing that the working classes at home should not be taxed for the benefit of their colonial fellow-subjects.  Lord Carnarvon himself had passed in 1867 the Bill which federated Canada and which his Liberal predecessor had drawn.  He was now anxious to carry out a similar scheme in South Africa, and Froude offered to find out for him how the land lay.  His visit was not to be in any sense official.  He would be ostensibly travelling for his health, which was always set up by a voyage.  He was interested in extending to South Africa Miss Rye’s benevolent plans of emigration to Canada; in the treatment of a Kaffir chief called Langalibalele; and in the disputes which had arisen from the annexation of the Diamond Fields.  Thus there were reasons for his trip enough and to spare.  He would, it was thought, be more likely to obtain accurate information if the principal purpose of his visit were kept in the background.

—­ Table Talk of Shirley, p. 142. —­

There was one great and fundamental difference between the case of Canada and the case of South Africa.  Canada had itself asked for federation, and Parliament simply gave effect to the wish of the Canadians.  Opinion in South Africa was notoriously divided, and the centre of opposition was at Cape Town.  Natal had not yet obtained a full measure of self-government, and the lieutenant-Governor, Sir Benjamin Pine, had excited indignation among all friends of the natives by arbitrary imprisonment, after a mock trial, of a Kaffir chief.  Lord Carnarvon had carefully to consider this case, and also to decide whether the mixed Constitution of Natal, which would not work, should be reformed or annulled.  A still more serious difficulty was connected with the Diamond Fields, officially known as Griqualand West.  The ownership of this district had been disputed between the Orange Free State and a native chief called Nicholas Waterboer.  In 1872 Lord Kimberley, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, had purchased it from Waterboer at a price ludicrously small in proportion to its value, and it had since been annexed to the British dominions by the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly.  Waterboer, who knew nothing about the value of money, was satisfied.  The Orange State vehemently protested, and President Brand denounced the annexation as a breach of faith.  Not only, he said, were the Diamond Fields within the limits of his Republic; the agreement between Waterboer and the Secretary of State was itself a breach of the Orange River Convention, by which Great Britain undertook not to negotiate with any native chief north of the River Vaal.  Lord Kimberley paid no heed to Brand’s remonstrances.  He denied altogether the validity of the Dutch claim, and he would not hear of arbitration.  By the time that Lord Carnarvon