Carnarvon has
been frightened at the first bad news, there will be danger of real
disturbance. The despatch has created a real enthusiasm, and excited
hopes which must not now be disappointed." "Never," he wrote a few
weeks afterwards, "never did a man of letters volunteer into a more
extraordinary position than that in which I find myself." Sir Garnet
Wolseley stood by him through thick and thin. After Sir Garnet's
departure he had no English friend. His local supporters were "all
looking out for themselves," and there was not one among them in whom
he could feel any real confidence."

--
* The present Lord Wolseley.
+ A favourite expression with Mrs. Carlyle.
--

Of Molteno he made no personal complaint, and he always considered
him the fittest man for his post in South Africa. But Colonial
politicians as a whole were "not gentlemen with whom it was
agreeable to be forced into contact." To give the Colony responsible
government has been "an act of deliberate insanity" on the part of
Lord Kimberley and the Liberal Cabinet. Froude endeavoured loyally
and faithfully to carry out the policy of the Colonial Office, and
his relations with Lord Carnarvon were relations of unbroken
confidence. His objects were purely unselfish and patriotic. It was
his misfortune rather than his fault to become involved in local
politics, from which it was essential for the success of his mission
that he should keep entirely aloof. Circumstances brought him into
much greater favour with the Dutch than with his own countrymen, for
it was thought, not without reason, that he had brought Carnarvon
round to see the truth about the Diamond Fields and the Free State.
He made them speeches, and they received him with enthusiasm. With
Molteno, on the other hand, he found it impossible to act, and the
Governor supported Molteno. Barkly was not unfavourable to
Federation. But he perceived that it could not be forced upon a
self-governing Colony, and that he himself would be powerless unless
he acted in harmony with his constitutional advisers. He, as well as
Molteno, refused to attend the dinner at which Froude on his arrival
was entertained in Cape Town. Molteno advised Froude not to go, or
if he went, not to speak. Froude, however, both went and spoke,
claiming as an Englishman the right of free speech in a British
Colony. The right was of course incontestable. The expediency was a
very different matter. Froude was not accustomed to public spe