Sir Garnet, however, had no such ambition.  Soldiering was the business of his life, and he had had quite enough of constitutionalism in Natal.  Barkly was for the present maintained, and Froude regarded his maintenance as fatal to Federation.  But Sir Bartle Frere, who succeeded him, was not more fortunate, and the real mistake was interference from home.  To Froude his experience of South Africa came as a disagreeable shock.  A passionate believer in Greater Britain, in the expansion of England, in the energy, resources, and prospects of the Queen’s dominions beyond the seas, the parochialism of Cape Colony astonished and perplexed him.  While he was dreaming of a Federated Empire, and Paterson were counting heads in the Cape Assembly, and considering what would be the political result if the eastern provinces set up for themselves.  If South Africa were federated, would Cape Town remain the seat of government?  To Froude such a question was paltry and trivial.  To a Cape Town shopkeeper it loomed as large as Table Mountain.  The attitude of Molteno’s Ministry, on the other hand, seemed as ominous to him as it seemed obvious to the Colonists.  He thought it fatal to the unity of the Empire, and amounting to absolute independence.  He did not understand the people with whom he had to deal.  Most of them were as loyal subjects as himself, and never contemplated for a moment secession from the Empire.  All they claimed was complete freedom to manage their own affairs, to federate or not to federate, as they pleased and when they pleased.  They had only just acquired full constitutional rights; and if they sometimes exaggerated the effect of them, the error was venial.  If Carnarvon, instead of writing for publication an elaborate and official despatch, had explained his policy to the Governor in private letters, and directed him to sound Molteno in confidence, the Cape Ministers might themselves have proposed a scheme; and if they had proposed it, it would have been carried.  Had Froude said nothing at dinners, or on platforms, he might have exercised far more influence behind the scenes.  But he was an enthusiast for Federation by means of a South African Conference, and he made a proselytising tour through the Colony.  The Dutch welcomed him because he acknowledged their rights.  At Grahamstown too, and at Port Elizabeth, he was hailed as the champion of separation for the eastern provinces.  The Legislative Assembly at Cape Town, however, was hostile, and the proposed conference fell through.  Lord Carnarvon did not see the full significance of the fact that the Confederation of Canada had been first mooted within the Dominion itself.

An interesting account of Froude at this time has been given by Sir George Colley, the brilliant and accomplished soldier whose career was cut short six years afterwards at Majuba: