10 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 
Few efforts were made to ascertain whether the conditions there 
were similar to those which had made the Canadian federation 
inevitable and, above all, whether the people concerned really 
desired consolidation in any form. The powerful social and eco¬ 
nomic factors which proved so potent thirty years later in creating 
a sentiment in favor of union were largely non-existent in the 
seventies. At this time even the most tactful of colonial secre¬ 
taries would probably have failed in an endeavor to create a 
federation. 
Several of those who had been responsible for these early 
attempts finally realized that a different method of procedure 
would be necessary in order to achieve success. Sir Bartle Frere, 
in writing to Sir George Colley, August 26,1880, said: ‘ ‘ One great 
mistake hitherto seems to me to have been trying to hasten and 
push on what can only result from natural growth, which must of 
necessity be tardy if it is to be enduring. Lord Kimberley, 
upon resuming the duties of the colonial office, instructed Frere’s 
successor, Sir Hercules Kobinson, to work for federation but 
added, ‘‘It will be more convenient that any fresh movement for 
federation or union should be initiated spontaneously by the 
Colonies. ’ Froude, who had sinned grievously, also saw the light. 
Commenting on the South African confederation effort in his 
Oceana, he says: “ If South Africa is to rule itself under a consti¬ 
tutional system, we must cease to impose English views of what 
is expedient on a people unwilling to act upon them.’^^® And this 
became the established policy of the home government. 
During the eighties and the nineties the Transvaal drifted 
politically farther and farther away from British connections. 
The London convention of 1884 increased the degree of inde¬ 
pendence enjoyed by the republic, but did not accomplish a com¬ 
plete reconciliation. Boers and Britons continued to regard each 
other with a suspicion which increased when the latter blocked all 
efforts on the part of the South African Republic to secure an 
outlet to the sea or to expand into the interior. 
Powerful centripetal forces came into existence, however, with 
the discovery and opening up of the great Witwaters Rand gold 
mines. This region became the economic center of South Africa. 
It provided a market for the produce of the colonies and states, 
^ Martineau, Life of Sir Bartle Frere, II. p.-387. 
«P.P., 1881, LXVI, cd. 2754, p. 4. 
J. A. Froude, Oceana, pp. 59, 60. 
