Sir Bartle Frere was vigorously denounced for the war, for the disaster at Isandlhwana, and for everything connected with the matter. Yet it seems to the impartial judgment of later days that he only did what was wise in a most difficult and dangerous situation. There appears to be no doubt that Cetywayo was simply awaiting his chance to over-run the Transvaal and Natal. In writing to the Colonial Office, on March 1, 1879, Sir Bartle Frere pointed out the necessity of taking immediate action, and the difficulty, or worse, of waiting two months--in days prior to cable communication--for exact authority to move in the matter of compelling redress, and added: "The Zulus had violated British territory, slain persons under English protection, and had repeatedly refused the redress we demanded. Could a final demand for redress on this account be postponed? It seems to me clearly not, with any safety to Natal and its inhabitants." In another despatch to the Colonial Office, on January 13, 1880, the High Commissioner replied to some attacks from Mr. Gladstone by declaring that "in the judgment of all military authorities, both before the war and since, it was absolutely impossible for Lord Chelmsford's force, acting on the defensive _within_ the Natal boundary, to prevent a Zulu _impi_ from entering Natal and repeating the same indiscriminate slaughter of all ages and sexes which they boast of having effected in Dingaan's other massacres of forty years ago." He defended Lord Chelmsford, and incidentally stated that the disaster at Isandlhwana was due to disregard of orders. South Africa was for a time, however, the grave of Sir Bartle Frere's reputation, both in this connection and that of the Transvaal, and his recall followed a few months after the writing of the above despatch. But historical retrospect is wiser than political opinion, and time has now revived the fame of a great man and a wise statesman, and declared that there was practical truth and justice in the farewell address presented to him by the people of Albany in the Colony of the Cape: