[4] Broome returned to London in 1869, and for the following six years was a regular contributor to The Times, being the newspaper's correspondent at the Duke of Edinburgh's marriage at St. Petersburg, and on many other occasions.

That year he donated a small but important collection of Aboriginal artefacts from Western Australia to the British Museum.

When the colony was preparing for responsible government, Broome acted as intermediary between the Legislative Council and the British secretary of state.

After considerable correspondence, the details of the new constitution were settled, and a bill, approved by Her Majesty's Government, finally passed the local legislature in 1889.

Sir Frederick and two leading members of the Western Australian legislature travelled to England in December 1889 to give evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons, to which, early in the session of 1890, the Constitution Bill was referred.

Broome finally left Western Australia in December 1889, on a mission to England in connection with the Constitution Bill, and his tenure as governor ended in September 1890.