g with Kaffirs, and he
had no more prejudice against slavery than Carlyle himself. But his
sense of justice was offended by the treatment of Langalibalele, and
if he had been Secretary of State he would have done as Lord
Carnarvon did. With the Boers Froude had a good deal of sympathy.
Their religion, a purer Calvinism than existed even in Scotland,
appealed to his deepest sentiments, and he admired the austere
simplicity of their lives. No one could accuse a Cape Dutchman of
complicity in such horrors as progress and the march of intellect.
On his way from Cape Town to Durban Froude was told a characteristic
story of a Dutch farmer. "His estate adjoined the Diamond Fields.
Had he remained where he was, he could have made a large fortune.
Milk, butter, poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit, went up to fabulous
prices. The market was his own to demand what he pleased. But he was
disgusted at the intrusion upon his solitude. The diggers worried
him from morning to night, demanding to buy, while he required his
farm produce for his own family. He sold his land, in his
impatience, for a tenth of what he might have got had he cared to
wait and bargain, mounted his wife and children into his waggon, and
moved off into the wilderness." Froude's sarcastic comment is not
less characteristic than the story. "Which was the wisest man, the
Dutch farmer or the Yankee who was laughing at him? The only book
that the Dutchman had ever read was the Bible, and he knew no
better."*

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* Short Studies, iii. 497.
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The state of Natal, which was then perplexing the Colonial Office,
puzzled Froude still more. Four courses seemed to him possible.
Natal might be annexed to Cape Colony, made a province of a South
African Federation, governed despotically by a soldier, or left to
join the Dutch Republics. The fifth course, which was actually
taken, of giving it responsible government by stages, did not come
within the scope of his ideas. The difficulty of Federation lay, as
it seemed to him, in the native problem.

"If we can make up our minds to allow the colonists to manage the
natives their own way, we may safely confederate the whole country.
The Dutch will be in the majority, and the Dutch method of
management will more or less prevail. They will be left wholly to
themselves for self-defence, and prudence will prevent them from
trying really harsh or aggressive measures. In other respects the
Dutch are politically conservative, and wil