Froude’s stay was a short one, and early in 1885 he was at Melbourne.  Here the burning question was the German occupation of New Guinea, for which Colonial opinion held Gladstone’s Government, and Lord Derby in particular, responsible.  On the other hand, Lord Derby had suggested Australian Federation, which received a good deal of support, though it led to nothing at the time.  On one point Froude seems always to have met with Sympathy.  Abuse of Gladstone never failed to elicit a favourable response, and the news of Gordon’s death was an opportunity not to be wasted.  But when there came rumours of a possible war with Russia over the Afghan frontier, Froude took the side of Russia, or at all events of peace, and contended with his Tory companion, Lord Elphinstone, who was for war.  In New Zealand he visited the venerable Sir George Grey, who had violated all precedent by entering local politics, and becoming Prime Minister, after the Duke of Buckingham had recalled him from the Governorship of the Colony.  He was not equally successful in his second career, and Froude’s unqualified praise of him was resented by many New Zealanders.  That the Colonies would be true to the mother country if the mother country were true to them was the safe if somewhat vague conclusion at which the returning traveller arrived.  He came home by America, and met with a more formidable antagonist than his old assailant Father Burke, in the shape of a terrific blizzard.

But hardships had no deterring effect upon Froude, and his love of travel, like his love of the classics, suffered no diminution while strength remained.  He returned from the Antipodes early in 1885.  Before 1886 was out he had started on a voyage to the West Indies, so that his survey of our Colonial possessions might be complete.  Ardent imperialist as he was, Froude was not less fully alive than Mr. Goldwin Smith to the difficulties inherent in a policy of Imperial Federation.  “All of us are united at present,” he had written in Oceana,* “by the invisible bonds of relationship and of affection for our common country, for our common sovereign, and for our joint spiritual inheritance.  These links are growing, and if let alone will continue to grow, and the free fibres will of themselves become a rope of steel.  A federation contrived by politicians would snap at the first strain.”  Australian Federation, which Froude did not live to see, was no contrivance of politicians, but the result of spontaneous opinion generated in Australia, and ratified as a matter of course by Parliament at home.

—­ * P. 393. —­

The West Indian Islands had an especial fascination for Froude on account of the great naval exploits of Rodney, Hood, and other British sailors.  ’Kingsley’s At Last had revived his interest in them; and though Kingsley had long been dead, his memory was fresh among all who knew him.  The diary which Froude kept during this journey has been preserved, and I am enabled to make a few extracts from it.  On