l constitutional rights; and if they sometimes exaggerated
the effect of them, the error was venial. If Carnarvon, instead of
writing for publication an elaborate and official despatch, had
explained his policy to the Governor in private letters, and directed
him to sound Molteno in confidence, the Cape Ministers might
themselves have proposed a scheme; and if they had proposed it, it
would have been carried. Had Froude said nothing at dinners, or on
platforms, he might have exercised far more influence behind the
scenes. But he was an enthusiast for Federation by means of a South
African Conference, and he made a proselytising tour through the
Colony. The Dutch welcomed him because he acknowledged their rights.
At Grahamstown too, and at Port Elizabeth, he was hailed as the
champion of separation for the eastern provinces. The Legislative
Assembly at Cape Town, however, was hostile, and the proposed
conference fell through. Lord Carnarvon did not see the full
significance of the fact that the Confederation of Canada had been
first mooted within the Dominion itself.

An interesting account of Froude at this time has been given by Sir
George Colley, the brilliant and accomplished soldier whose career
was cut short six years afterwards at Majuba:

"I came home from the Cape, and almost lived on the way with Mr.
Froude .... It was rather a sad mind, sometimes grand, sometimes
pathetic and tender, usually cynical, but often relating with the
highest appreciation, and with wonderful beauty of language, some
gallant deed of some of his heroes of the fifteenth or sixteenth
centuries. He seemed to have gone through every phase of thought,
and come to the end 'All is vanity.' He himself used to say the
interest of life to a thinking man was exhausted at thirty, or
thirty-five. After that there remained nothing but disappointment of
earlier visions and hopes. Sometimes there was something almost
fearful in the gloom, and utter disbelief, and defiance of his
mind."*

--
* Butler's Life of Colley, p. 145.
--

The picture is a sombre one. But it must be remembered that the
death of his wife was still weighing heavily upon Froude.

A few days after his return to London Froude wrote a long and
interesting Report to the Secretary of State, which was laid before
Parliament in due course. Few documents more thoroughly unofficial
have ever appeared in a Blue Book. The excellence of the paper as a
literary essay is conspicuous. Bu