Molteno considered that he had been personally insulted.

The Legislative Assembly was defiant, and greeted the recital of Carnarvon's words with ironical laughter.

A Ministerial Minute, signed by Molteno and his colleagues, protested against the Colonial Secretary's intrusion, and especially against his rather ill advised reference to a proposed separation of the eastern from the western provinces of the Cape.

It was a fact that Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, where there were very few Dutch, considered that they paid proportionately too much towards the colonial revenues, and desired separate treatment.

But the people of Cape Town strongly objected, and it was unwise for the Secretary of State to take a side in local politics.