Little blood was shed directly for the separatist cause, and incidents of violence were rare. The “Uitenhage bunfight” was one such incident. It occurred during the visit to the Cape Colony of the Imperial Emissary James Anthony Froude. Froude championed the separatists cause and successfully conflated their cause with the Imperial attempt to hold a conference around confederating southern Africa. At a rally in the eastern town of Uitenhage on 21 September 1875, John X. Merriman, the representative of the Cape government, complained of “imperial agitation” and accused the separatists of advocating economic systems that constituted slavery in disguise. After he was pelted with buns and other food stuffs by Jock Paterson and his supporters, the event descended into fist-fights between pro and anti-separatist partisans.AP Newton: Select Documents Relating to the Unification of South Africa. Routledge 2013. p.30AT Wirgman: Storm and Sunshine in South Africa. Longmans, Green and co. 1922. p.58"Froude was acclaimed nearly everywhere he went on his speaking tour, but the support he found was not so much for the conference as for his endorsement of pet local causes. Separatists would have separation; the Cape Dutch would have redress for their cousins in the Dutch Republics over Griqualand West; and conservatives would have a strict disciplinary native policy. "Chameleon-like, his politics assumed the colour of his surroundings", said a Cape Argus editorial. Froude became more confident of the success of his mission when his Lord and Master Carnarvon decided to switch the site of the conference to Natal. That decision contained the threat - empty as it turned out because Natal and the Republics would not play ball - that the Confederation might comprise Natal, Griqualand West and one or both Dutch Republics, leaving the Cape out in the cold. These hardball tactics produced exactly the opposite of their intended effect upon the Molteno Ministry. It became more rabid in its anti-Imperialist stance. John X. Merriman, who had come to accept responsible government and had become Molteno's Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, mounted slashing counter-attacks upon Froude, "the Imperial Agent." The rhetoric culminated in the famous bread-roll War. Suffice it to say that, with emotions running very high, it was imprudent for the Mayor of Uitenhage to invite the Imperial Agent to a luncheon in honour of the Minister of Crown Lands and Public Works. As Merriman got warmed up on the subject of Imperial agitation, guests - including Paterson - interrupted the Minister, to the annoyance of his supporters. The culmination was a bombardment of the top table with bread rolls, and fist fights among guests. Merriman's remarks may have been ill-advised and intemperate, but the incident did at least persuade Froude to stop making speeches." Basil T. Hone: The First Son of South Africa to be Premier: Thomas Charles Scanlen. Oldwick, New Jersey: Longford Press, 1993. p.61.
