More than four years after his second return from South Africa, in January, 1880, Froude delivered two lectures to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, in which his view of South African policy is with perfect clearness set forth.  He condemns the annexation of the Transvaal, and the Zulu war.  He expresses a wish that Lord Carnarvon, who had resigned two years before, could be permanent Secretary for the Colonies.  “I would give back the Transvaal to the Dutch,” he said.  Again, in even more emphatic language, “The Transvaal, in spite of prejudices about the British flag, I still hope that we shall return to its lawful owners."* What is more surprising, he recommended that Zululand should be restored to Cetewayo, or Cetewayo to Zululand.  He had predicted in 1875 that Cetewayo would prove a troublesome person, and few men had less of the sentiment which used to be associated with Exeter Hall.  The restoration of Cetewayo, when it came was disastrous both to himself and to others.  Frere understood the Zulus better than Froude or Colenso.  The surrender of the Transvaal, which was a good deal nearer than Froude thought, was at least successful for a time, a longer time than Froude’s own life.  He did not share Gladstone’s ignorance of its value; he knew it to be rich in minerals, especially in gold.  But he knew also that Carnarvon had been deceived about the willingness of the inhabitants to become British subjects, and he sympathised with their independence.  It illustrates his own fairness and detachment of mind that he should have taken so strong and so unpopular a line when the Boers were generally supposed in England to have acquiesced in the loss of their liberties, and when his hero Sir Garnet Wolseley, to whom he dedicated his English in Ireland, had declared that the Vaal would run back to the Drakensberg before the British flag ceased to wave over Pretoria.

—­ * Two Lectures on South Africa, pp. 80, 81, 85. —­

Froude’s South African policy was to work with the Dutch, and keep the natives in their places.  He had no personal interest in the question.  It was through Lord Carnarvon that he came in contact with South Africa at all, and there were few statesmen with whom he more thoroughly agreed.  When Disraeli came for the second time into office, and for the first time into power, Froude was well pleased.

In 1875, after his legal disqualification had been removed, he was again invited to become a candidate for Parliament.  But he did not really know to which party he belonged.

“Four weeks ago,” he wrote to Lady Derby on the 3rd of April, “the Liberal Whip (Mr. Adam) asked me to stand for the Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities on very easy terms to myself.  I declined, because I should have had to commit myself to the Liberal party, which I did not choose to do.  Lord Carnarvon afterwards spoke to me with regret at my resolution.  He had a conversation with Mr. D’Israeli, and it was agreed that if possible I should be brought