It was Sir George Grey who first saw the importance of endeavouring to
bring all portions of South Africa, including the Boer Republics and the
Native States, into "federal union with the parent colony" at the Cape.
He was commissioned by the British Government to make enquiries with
this object (1858.) He had obtained the support of the Orange Free
State, whose Volksraad resolved that "a union with the Cape Colony,
either on the plan of federation or otherwise, is desirable," and was
expecting to win over the Transvaal Boers, when the British Government,
alarmed as to the responsibilities it might incur, vetoed the project.
(Such sudden alarms, under the influence of party conflicts at home,
have not been infrequent.)

For seven years, however, this good Governor was permitted to promote a
work of pacification and union.

I shall refer again later to the misfortunes, even the calamities, which
have been the result of our projecting our home system of _Government by
Party_ into the distant regions of South Africa. There are long proved
advantages in that system of party government as existing for our own
country, but it seems to have been at the root of much of the
inconsistency and vacillation of our policy in South Africa. As soon as
a good Governor (appointed by either political party) has begun to
develop his methods, and to lead the Dutch, and English, and Natives
alike to begin to believe that there is something homogeneous in the
principles of British government, a General Election takes place in
England. A new Parliament and a new Government come into power, and,
frequently in obedience to some popular representations at home, the
actual Colonial Governor is recalled, and another is sent out.