BUBNIIAM SEECHES. 26!) 



so under these considerations, knowing how grievous a penalty 

 the quitting a tenement would be to any East Burnham resident, 

 I was obliged to lay aside whatever intention I had before 

 cherished of seeking to aid my poor neighbours in this matter." 



While tenacious to the last degree of her rights, 

 or supposed rights, Lady Grenville took no pains to 

 preserve order or even decency in the Manor. The 

 roads were neglected. The gates which had formerly 

 prevented cattle from straying from the Common were 

 not maintained. Pigs, unrung, were allowed to tear up 

 the surface of the Common. 



Mrs. Grote attributed much of the evil to the fact 

 that Lady Grenville, on account of her great age, 

 delegated her power to an irresponsible and ignorant 

 agent. 



" The situation in which the large estate of Lady Grenville 

 found itself at this period is one not unfrequently exhibited in 

 England, but which is not only unfavourable to the interest of 

 the inhabitants, and of those who are in any way dependent on 

 the property, but is, in a minor degree, inconvenient to all 

 residents in its vicinity. An aged landed proprietor delegates 

 her authority over her lands and Manors to persons of an inferior 

 station in life, who cannot take the same view either of public 

 interests, or of the credit attaching to the condition of a gentleman, 

 as the proprietor herself. . . . The whole system under which 

 the district was administered revolved round Lady Grenville 

 represented by a paid agent (living three hundred miles away in 

 Cornwall), and he again by a young deputy instructed to keep 

 down expenses and to maintain ' rights/ The poor were left 

 without anybody to care for them, all trembling at the nod of 

 1 the steward.' " 



The annoyance, vexation, and sense of injustice 



