 He was also influential in supporting the local resistance against Carnarvon's attempt to force the region into a British ruled federation.Crucially, he shared with the Cape government the belief that the Cape's non-racial constitution was still fragile and that it was ... ""...impossible that the Cape's native laws would survive a session of bargaining with the Boer republics.Federation in 1875 would have produced the same results as Union did in 1910.