The result was the break up of the society. The Colonial Department in London had again and again been urged to acknowledge the Wakefield system with a view to its adoption by any colony that might be founded by the Colonisation Society. But Mr. Wilmot Norton, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, persistently opposed this, and an account of his action is given by Mr. E. G. Wakefield, which accounts for tho pessimism in the last entry in Gouger's Journal:—
"This suggestion having been pressed upon the Government by a society established for the purpose of promoting systematic colonisation, Mr. Wilmot Horton, jealous, it would seem, of any interference with a subject, part of which had employed his thoughts for some years, became a member of the society, and then broke it up by getting into the chair at a public meeting, and zealously condemning the objects of those with whom he had professed to unite himself. But, at the same time, he greatly promoted the objects of the society by attacking their views, and thus causing those views to be examined. As an example of the assistance he thus gave to the dispersed members of the society, I may mention that he persuaded Colonel Torrens to join him in conducting a written controversy with two of those gentlemen, and that, in the end, Colonel Torrens became one of the warmest advocates of the measure to which he had objected when it was first submitted to him."[1]
- ↑ "The Art of Colonisation." By E. G. Wakefield. Footnote on p. 280.
