942 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART Iv 
At the Governor's earnest request they agreed to present 
to Parliament copies of Lord Carnarvon’s dispatch, but 
only with the addition of a minute in which they distinctly 
stated that it was most undesirable that the Government 
of the Cape should be represented as proposed by Lord 
Carnarvon. The unfortunate distinction between the two 
provinces which had been productive of much inconvenience 
no longer existed and should certainly not be revived in any 
way. They considered that it should be left to the free 
action of the Colony to decide the numbers of representatives 
and their selection. 
Lord Carnarvon answered the dispatch in which Sir H. 
Barkly reported the decision of his ministers, which had 
been approved by the House of Assembly by a majority of 
32 to 23, in a dispatch of July 15, in which he assured the 
Cape Ministry that he had no desire to interfere with their 
discretion in the administration of their internal affairs, 
but he protested against the doctrine that His Majesty’s 
Government in inviting a group of Colonial Governments 
to deliberate upon matters of common interest were in- 
fringing the rights of a Government which turned out not to 
approve of the invitation. He proposed, however, that if 
the Cape Government decided not to take part in discussion, 
nevertheless discussion should take place between such of the 
other Governments as were anxious to do so. In the Upper 
House of the Cape Parliament the reception of the proposals 
was somewhat more friendly. Mr. Froude, who had been 
selected by Lord Carnarvon to represent him at the Con- 
ference, proceeded to the Cape, and finding that he could not 
induce Mr. Molteno to take part in the Conference, committed 
the indiscretion of taking part in an agitation against the 
Government, especially in the eastern province. Mr. Froude 
' See C. 1399, pp. 5 seq. No such conference was ever held: instead 
matters of importance were discussed separately with Mr. Brand, President 
of the Free State, in London in 1876, but the question of federation was 
not raised, as the Free State Legislature had declined to allow the President 
to discuss it (see C. 1631, p. 47; C. 1980, pp. 17 seq.). An attempt to 
induce Mr. Molteno to share a discussion with Natal representatives then 
failed ; C. 1631, pp. 61-79.