1828.] the Necessity of Climbing-Boys in sweeping Chimnies. 455 



security or the interest of the revenue requires should be subject to such 

 inspection. A Jew cannot cry quills, or a carman sell sand, about the 

 country, without a regular licence. We have inspectors appointed to 

 watch the premises of horse-slaughterers ; rights secured to search the 

 houses, at all times, of dealers in second-hand cordage or metals. Every 

 title is assumed, and every precaution taken, where any thing like pecu- 

 niary interest is concerned ; and there seems to be no reason why a very 

 slight descent into particulars should be urged as an objection to a 

 course which concerns the interests of humanity. 



The cost of the licence to be required in this case would be merely 

 nominal : ten or fifteen shillings a year would be sufficient. The duty 

 paid for each climbing-boy kept would be much larger ; and ought cer- 

 tainly not to be less than five pounds a year perhaps from five to ten : 

 the object being, in fact, as will be recollected, to prohibit to make 

 the tax as unproductive as possible. This duty, however, it is to be 

 remembered,, can form no tax upon the master chimney-sweeper: 

 he will transfer it, with an additional charge, and that, in proportion, 

 a considerably additional one, to his customer. Upon the individual, 

 or " consumer" if the latter term can properly be made use of in such 

 a case the tax will no doubt fall : but, even here, it will operate so 

 lightly as but just to turn the balance in every possible case in favour 

 of the cheaper method. If we suppose that the duty raised the price of 

 sweeping a chimney by a climbing-boy (as we would desire it should do) 

 to treble the present amount, the whole result would be, that, where a child 

 now cleanses a chimney for the cost of sixpence, the householder would 

 have to pay eighteen-pence. This imposition would be quite sufficient 

 to induce the man who had twelve chimnies in his house, to sweep eleven 

 of them by machinery, if that course were practicable ; and yet it would 

 not be so heavy as to make the employment of the boy (for the twelfth) 

 a burthen to be complained of. And it should be observed, that it is 

 only where chimnies require to be swept by manual labour, that the 

 duty although paid would be felt by the public. All the work of 

 repairing, or examining chimnies that work in which the labour of 

 children, though required but seldom, cannot, when wanted, be dispen- 

 sed with all this is now treated as an " extraordinary job/' and paid 

 for at a high rate. The master-sweep gets a fee of a crown, for instance, 

 or more frequently half-a-guinea, for his " job," in clearing or repairing 

 a chimney, or examining one that has been on fire : and whether the 

 child that performed the duty paid sixpence of tax more or less, that 

 " extra fee" always paid where the real necessity exists would not be 

 increased. 



A law like this would operate, in two or three ways, beneficially. 

 As all persons, where machinery could be used, would then be dis- 

 posed to use it, the number of climbing-boys employed would at once 

 be most materially and rapidly diminished. The mere higher price paid 

 for the service of such children as remained, would have some tendency 

 to improve their condition for there are -few instances, where any em- 

 ployment is largely paid, in which the labourer does not receive a small 

 portion of the peculiar advantage. And, moreover, from the very fact of 

 the chimney-sweep being a " licensed" trader, there would be a more 

 ready and certain means of surveillance over his conduct, and a better 

 security consequently for the good treatment of the children whom he 

 employed than we have at present. 



And for any objection to such a course on the score of (C petty 



