Neither Froude nor Carnarvon made sufficient allowance for Colonial independence and the susceptibilities of Colonial Ministers.  Many of Froude’s expressions in public were imprudent, and he himself in his Report apologised for his unguarded language at Grahamstown, where he said that Molteno’s reply to Carnarvon’s despatch would have meant war if it had come from a foreign state.  Yet in the main their policy was a wise one, and they saw farther ahead than the men who worked the political machine at Cape Town.  Froude was too sanguine when he wrote, “A Confederate South African Dominion, embracing all the States, both English and Dutch, under a common flag, may be expected as likely to follow, and perhaps at no very distant period.”  But he added that it would have to come by the deliberate action of the South African communities themselves.  That was not the only discovery he had made in South Africa.  He had found that the Transavll, reputed then and long afterwards in England to be worthless, was rich in minerals, including gold.  He warned the Colonial Office that Cetewayo, with forty thousand armed men, was a serious danger to Natal.  He saw clearly, and said plainly that unless South Africa was to be despotically governed, it must be administered with the consent and approval of the Dutch.  He dwelt strongly upon the danger of allowing and encouraging natives to procure arms in Griqualand West as an enticement to work for the diamond owners.  The secret designs of Sir Theophilus Shepstone he did not penetrate, and therefore he was unprepared for the next development in the South African drama.  The South African Conference in London, which he attended during August, 1876, led to no useful result because Molteno, though he had come to London, and was discussing the affairs of Griqualand with Lord Carnarvon, refused to attend it.  This was the end of South African Confederation, and the permissive Act of 1877, passed after the Transvaal had been annexed, remained a dead letter on the Statute Book.

Although the immediate purpose of Froude’s visits to South Africa was not attained, it would be a mistake to infer that they had no results at all.  Early in 1877 the annexation of the Transvaal, to which Froude was strongly opposed, changed the whole aspect of affairs, and from that time the strongest opponents of Federalism were the Dutch.  But the credit of settling with the Orange Free State a dispute which might have led to infinite mischief is as much Froude’s as Carnarvon’s, and as a consequence of their wise conduct President Brand became for the rest of his life a steady friend to the British power in South Africa.  Ninety thousand pounds was a small price to pay for the double achievement of reconciling a model State and wiping out a stain upon England’s honour.