At Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown Froude was welcomed as an advocate of their local independence, which was what they most desired.

When, with unusual prudence, he declined to take part in a separatist campaign, their zeal for Confederation soon cooled.

On the other hand, the Dutch papers all supported the Conference, although Brand refused to lay his case before it, or to treat with any authority except the British Government at home.
-- * Life of Molteno, vol.i.p.

337.
-- Neither Froude nor Carnarvon made sufficient allowance for Colonial independence and the susceptibilities of Colonial Ministers.

Many of Froude's expressions in public were imprudent, and he himself in his Report apologised for his unguarded language at Grahamstown, where he said that Molteno's reply to Carnarvon's despatch would have meant war if it had come from a foreign state.