So the Middleton farms continued very pretty picturesque farms; Middleton
village grew into a miserable town, and was passed over in 1830, when every
population was putting forth its claims to a share in making the laws of the
United Kingdom; while Oldham, with 30,000 inhabitants, was allotted two
members, (an honour which cost the life of one of them, our best describer of
English rural scenery, in racy Saxon English, William Cobbett); Rochdale,
with 24,000, obtained one, and eventually made itself loudly heard in the
House, in the person of John Bright, a gentleman of pluck not without
eloquence, who has done a good deal, considering the disadvantages he has
laboured under, in not having been brought to his level in a public school,
and in having been brought up in the atmosphere of adulation, to which the
wealthy and clever of a small sect are as much exposed as the scions of a
"proud aristocracy."
A few years ago, the late lord, who had occasionally lived on the estate,
died. His successor pulled down the Manor House, became an absentee, always
in want of ready money, and introduced the Irish system into the management
of his estate. That is to say, good farming became a sure mode of inviting
an increase of rent--for indispensable repairs no ready money was forthcoming,
so tenants who had an indisputable claim to such allowances, received a
reduction of rent instead; they generally accepted the reduction, and did no
more of the repairs than would just make shift.
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