940 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
of Lords in the month of July, after its passage without
substantial alteration, and subject only to drafting amend-
ments, had been foreshadowed by the Under-Secretary of
State for the Colonies. It was debated in the Lords on
July 27 and August 3, in the Commons on August 16 and 19,
but no amendments were adopted.
The appearance of the Union Constitution is a striking
example of the rapidity with which a political movement
may under favouring circumstances come to a head. Federa-
tion is indeed old in South Africa, and the Orange Free State
desired in 1858 a political federation, which the Home
Government were not prepared to approve in view of their
anxiety to limit their responsibilities in the north.
It is easy to censure the Imperial Government for lack of
foresight in not accepting Sir G. Grey’s federation scheme,
but the many burdens on the Imperial Government in 1859
rendered its attitude wise. Federation was beyond all doubt
premature when there was not even a single responsible-
government Colony in the whole of South Africa.
Federation was also under consideration when the grant
of self-government to the Cape was being discussed in 1871,
but steps towards bringing it about were rendered imprac-
ticable by the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West,
the consequent dispute as to the ownership of the terri-
tory, and its annexation by the Governor of the Cape on
structions from the Imperial Government. Until that
difficulty was disposed of in 1877 it was quite impossible to
expect the Orange Free State to regard favourably any
proposal whatever which emanated from the Imperial
Government, and Lord Kimberley did not press the matter
further. But Lord Carnarvon, in the Conservative régime,
was more adventurous: he had been connected with the
Colonial Office during the arrangement of Canadian federa-
tion, and he felt a mission to secure a federal union. The
result was the mission of Mr. Froude—ostensibly private—
* The episode is discussed in an interesting way in Henderson’s and
Collier’s Lives of Sir George Grey, and in Cana’s South Africa, pp. 36 seq.
For the official papers. see Parl. Pap.. H. C. 216. 1860. .
