ABSTRACT
Lord Shaftesbury virtual resignation of control into the hands of his agent had disastrous consequences. Rumours, true or false, accusing Waters of extravagance, reached the ears of Palmerston, who wrote a tactful letter, urging Shaftesbury to send some trustworthy person down to examine the accounts of the agent, and inquire into the general condition of affairs. Shaftesbury repudiated the agreement, declaring that Waters had no power to make it, ejected Lewer from his yearly tenancy, and, in addition, demanded from him a sum of money spent in draining the land. Shaftesbury told the House of Lords some distressing stories of demoralisation, and he ended by urging that such an inquiry was due to the manufacturers, for Parliament had insisted in their case on investigation and regulation. Parliament was “accused of having been exceedingly sharp in looking after the abuses of factory labour, while they had sheltered those connected with agricultural industry.”
