Lord Kimberley had proceeded on exactly the opposite principle, and Lord Carnarvon's object in Federation was certainly not to diminish the area of the British Empire.
If Froude talked in South Africa as he wrote in his journal, his conversation must have been more interesting than discreet.

"Every one," he wrote from Port Elizabeth, on the 27th of September, 1874, "approves of the action of the Natal Government in the Langalibalele affair.

I am told that if Natal is irritated it may petition to relinquish the British connection, and to be allowed to join the Free States.

I cannot but think that it would have been a wise policy, when the Free States were thrown off, to have attached Natal to them." Lord Carnarvon disapproved of the Natal Government's action, released Langalibalele, and recalled the Lieutenant- Governor.

His policy was as wise as it was courageous, and no proposal to relinquish the British connection followed.