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See also:SIR See also: His services were fully recognized by the See also:Indian authorities, and he received the thanks of both houses of See also:parliament and was made K.C.B . He became a member of the See also:viceroy's See also:council in 18J9, and was especially serviceable in See also:financial matters . In 1862 he was appointed governor of Bombay, where he effected See also:great improvements, such as the demolition of the old ramparts, and the erection of handsome public offices upon a portion of the space, the inauguration of the university buildings and the improvement of the harbour . He established the See also:Deccan See also:College at Poona, as well as a college for instructing natives in civil See also:engineering . The prosperity—due to the See also:American Civil See also:War—which rendered these developments possible brought in its See also:train a speculative See also:mania, which led eventually to the disastrous failure of the Bombay See also:Bank (1866), an affair in which, from neglecting to exercise such means of See also:control as he possessed, Frere incurred severe and not wholly undeserved censure . In 1867 he returned to See also:England, was made G.C.S.I., and received honorary degrees from See also:Oxford and See also:Cam-See also:bridge; he was also appointed a member of the Indian council . In 1872 he was sent by the See also:foreign See also:office to See also:Zanzibar to negotiate a treaty with the See also:sultan, Seyyid Burghash, for the suppression of the slave See also:traffic . In 1875 he accompanied the See also:prince of See also:Wales to Egypt and India . The tour was beyond expectation successful, and to Frere, from See also:Queen See also:Victoria downwards, came acknowledgments of the service he had rendered in piloting the expedition . He was asked by See also:Lord See also:Beaconsfield to choose between being made a See also:baronet or G.C.B . He See also:chose the former, but the queen bestowed both honours upon him . But the greatest service that Frere undertook on behalf of his country was to be attempted not in See also:Asia, but in See also:Africa .
Sir Bartle landed at Cape See also:Town as high commissionerof See also:South Africa on the 31st of March 1877
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He had been chosen by Lord See also:Carnarvon in the previous See also:October as the statesman most capable of carrying his See also:scheme of See also:confederation into effect, and within two years it was hoped that he would be the first governor of the South See also:African Dominion
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He went out in See also:harmony with the aims and See also:enthusiasm of his chief, " hoping to See also:crown by one great constructive effort the work of a See also:bright and See also:noble See also:life." In this See also:hope he was disappointed
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As he stated at the See also:close of his high commissionership, a great See also:mistake seemed to have been made in trying to hasten what could only result from natural growth, and the See also:state of South Africa during Frere's See also:tenure of office was inimical to such growth
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Discord or a policy of See also:blind drifting seemed to be the alternatives presented to Frere upon his arrival at the Cape
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He chose the former as the less dangerous, and the first See also:year of his sway was marked by a Kaffir war on the one See also:hand and by a rupture with the Cape (Molteno-See also:Merriman) See also:ministry on the other
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The See also:Transkei See also:Kaffirs were subjugated See also:early in 1878 by See also:General Thesiger (the 2nd Lord See also:Chelmsford) and a small force of See also:regular and colonial troops
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The constitutional difficulty was solved by Frere dismissing his obstructive See also:cabinet and entrusting the formation of a ministry to Mr (afterwards Sir) See also:Gordon Sprigg
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Frere emerged successfully from a year of crisis, but the advantage was more than counterbalanced by the resignation of Lord Carnarvon early in 1878, at a See also:time when Frere required the steadiest and most unflinching support
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He had reached the conclusion that there was a widespread insurgent spirit pervading the natives, which had its See also:focus and strength in the celibate military organization of See also:Cetywayo and in the See also:prestige which impunity for the outrages he had committed had gained for the Zulu See also: When, however, Frere undertook the responsibility of forwarding, in See also:December 1878, an See also:ultimatum to Cetywayo, the See also:home See also:government abruptly discovered that a native war in South Africa was inopportune and raised difficulties about reinforcements . Having entrusted to Lord Chelmsford the enforcement of the British demands, Frere's immediate responsibility ceased . On the 11th of See also:January 1879 the British troops crossed the See also:Tugela, and fourteen days later the disaster of See also:Isandhlwana was reported; and Frere, attacked and censured in the See also:House of See also:Commons, was but feebly defended by the government . Lord Beaconsfield, it appears, supported Frere; the See also:majority of the cabinet were inclined to recall him . The result was the unsatisfactory See also:compromise by which he was censured and begged to stay on . Frere wrote an elaborate See also:justification of his conduct, which was adversely commented on by the colonial secretary (Sir See also:Michael See also:Hicks See also:Beach), who " did not see why Frere should take See also:notice of attacks; and as to the war, all African See also:wars had been unpopular." Frere's rejoinder was that no other sufficient answer had been made to his critics, and that he wished to See also:place one on See also:record . " Few may now agree with my view as to the See also:necessity of the suppression of the Zulu See also:rebellion . Few, I fear, in this See also:generation . But unless my countrymen are much changed, they will some See also:day do me See also:justice . I shall not leave a name to be permanently dishonoured." The Zulu trouble and the disaffection that was See also:brewing in the See also:Transvaal reacted upon each other in the most disastrous manner . Frere had See also:borne no See also:part in the actual annexation of the Transvaal, which was announced by Sir See also:Theophilus See also:Shepstone a few days after the high commissioner's arrival at Cape Town . The delay in giving the country a constitution afforded a pretext for agitation to the malcontent Boers, a rapidly increasing minority, while the See also:reverse at Isandhlwana had lowered British prestige . Owing to the Kaffir and Zulu wars Sir Bartle had hitherto been unable to give his undivided See also:attention to the state of things in the Transvaal . In See also:April 1879 he was at last able to visit that province, and the conviction was forced upon him that the government had been unsatisfactory in many ways . The country was very unsettled . A large See also:camp, numbering 4000 disaffected Boers, had been formed near See also:Pretoria, and they were terrorizing the country . Frere visited them unarmed and practically alone . Even yet all might have been well, for he won the Boers' respect and liking . On the See also:condition that the Boers dispersed, Frere undertook to See also:present their complaints to the British government, and to urge the fulfilment of the promises that had been made to them . They parted with mutual See also:good feeling, and the Boers did eventually disperse—on the very day upon which Frere received the telegram announcing the government's censure . He returned to Cape Town, and his See also:journey back was in the nature of a See also:triumph . But See also:bad news awaited him at Government House on the 1st of See also:June 1879 the prince imperial had met his death in See also:Zululand—and a few See also:hours later Frere heard that the government of the Transvaal and See also:Natal, together with the high commissionership in the eastern part of South Africa, had been transferred from him to Sir See also:Garnet See also:Wolseley . When See also:Gladstone's ministry came into office in the See also:spring of 1880, Lord See also:Kimberley had no intention of recalling Frere . In June, however, a See also:section of the Liberal party memorialized Gladstone to remove him, and the See also:prime See also:minister weakly complied (1st See also:August 1880) .
Upon his return Frere replied to the charges See also:relating to his conduct respecting See also:Afghanistan as well as South Africa, previously preferred in Gladstone's Midlothian speeches, and was preparing a See also:fuller vindication when he died at See also:Wimbledon from the effect of a severe chill on the 29th of May 1884
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He was buried in St See also:Paul's, and in 1888 a statue of Frere upon the See also:Thames See also:embankment was unveiled by the prince of Wales
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Frere edited the See also:works of his See also:uncle, Hookham Frere, and the popular See also:story-See also:book, Old Deccan Days, written by his daughter, See also:Mary Frere
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He was three times See also:president of the Royal See also:Asiatic Society
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His Life and See also:Correspondence, by John See also:Martineau, was published in 1895
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For the South African anti-confederation view, see P
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A
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Molteno's Life and Times of Sir John See also: |
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