I came home from the Cape to be of use to him." The Colonial policy of the Liberals Froude had always regarded with suspicion.

Even Lord Kimberley's grant of a constitution to the Cape he interpreted as showing a centrifugal tendency, and Cardwell's withdrawal of troops from Canada was all of a piece.

Disraeli, on the other hand, who never did anything for the Colonies, had been making a speech about them at Manchester, wherein all manner of Colonial possibilities were suggested.

They did not go, if they were ever intended to go, beyond suggestion, and in 1876 the sudden crisis in Eastern affairs superseded all other topics of political interest.
When the Eastern Question was first raised, Froude had taken the side of the Government.
"I like Lord Derby's speech," he wrote to Lady Derby on the 19th of September, 1876, "to the Working Men's Association.

So I think the country will when it recovers from its present intoxication.