1828.] the Necessity of Climbing-Boys in sweeping Chimnies. 457 



no hesitation to admit, that where the safety, or we fear we must say 

 the general convenience of society, demand the exposure of any of its 

 members to noisome and dangerous duties, the necessary sacrifice must 

 be made. We could not have refused, a few months since, to empty the 

 great sewer at Paris though this was clone at very considerable peril 

 to the workmen when the health of the city was found to depend upon 

 its being cleansed ; nor can we refuse to run some risk in pulling down 

 a house which is already in danger of falling, where a greater danger 

 would result to the community from permitting it to remain. But while 

 we are bound, even at the hazard of individuals, to undertake a great 

 variety of duties which are both noisome and perilous on the other 

 hand, it is no less our imperative duty to diminish the risk of all such 

 works as far as possible ; and to dispense with human agency in every 

 one of them in which mechanical means can be* with equal advantage 

 employed. 



There is only, one circumstance worthy of consideration farther. The 

 trade of sweeping chimnies, by climbing- children, is one, it should never 

 be forgotten, of itself alone. There is no other calling in which children 

 of a helpless age are exposed to so much cruelty of treatment, or sub- 

 jected our own eyes are daily witnesses of the fact to so much hard 

 labour and privation. The public hears much, from day to day, on the 

 abominations of slave-ownership, and of the sufferings of the unhappy 

 negroes in our colonies : will any man, who knows the condition of 

 those colonies, venture to assert that there is even any comparison 1 

 between the treatment and condition of the slave children in the West 

 Indies, and that of the miserable little beings who are employed in 

 climbing chimnies, in the most philanthropic as well as wealthy country 

 in the world ? In fact, it is not likely that there should be any parity 

 between the cases ; for all " law" is (practically) equally silent and 

 inoperative in both ; while the interests of the masters are, by a singular 

 coincidence, in one and the other, diametrically opposite. The slave- 

 owner, whose slave is his property, and who must maintain him under 

 all circumstances, has a decided interest in managing the child, so as to 

 render it as strong and as vigorous as possible : while the chimney- 

 sweeper, on the other hand, for the immediate purposes of his trade, is 

 interested in keeping the children apprenticed to him as slight and 

 diminutive as possible ; their utility to him ceasing altogether as soon as 

 they arrive at a certain stage of growth; and his liability to maintain 

 them expiring whenever it suits his convenience that it should do so. 



We cannot agree, that, because this question touches the interests of 

 only a small, and exceedingly friendless, portion of the community, 

 therefore it ought to be neglected : or that, because it is found impossible 

 wholly and suddenly to get rid of an objectionable practice, that there- 

 fore it is not worth while (if we can) to get rid of nineteen-twentieths of 

 it. We should suggest the convenience of trying such a bill as we pro- 

 pose, in the first instance as applied to the metropolis only, or to a limit 

 not exceeding the country ten miles round it. Should the plan be found, 

 upon experiment, to succeed, there will then be no difficulty in extending 

 its operation over the kingdom generally. We may add that the Com- 

 mittee of the Society possesses within its own numbers the most abundant 

 and valuable facilities for introducing such a bill to both Houses of Par- 

 liament ; and we think it scarcely possible, if such a measure were brought 

 forward determinately, to doubt of its being carried. 



M.M. New Scries. VOL. V. Ko. 29. 3 N 



