454 Report of the Society for superseding MAY, 



earnest efforts of the Society, the trade remains in the hands of the old 

 chimney-sweep masters ; and these continue and will continue, unless 

 their customers are excited by a touch of legislation to manage the affair 

 in their own way. 



There does appear, however, to us, to be a course, perfectly obvious 

 on slight consideration, and wholly unobjectionable in its nature, which 

 would do that with the help of a little enactment for the Climbing- 

 Boys' Society, which their personal exertions have little prospect of 

 attaining. 



As the practice stands, we have already stated, that the master 

 chimney-sweepers charge more (twice the sum) for doing their work 

 with the machine than is charged when they employ the boy. This 

 fact alone is enough to stop the progress of the machine- system. Five 

 persons out of six as the public is composed will have their work done 

 in the cheapest way ; and the sixth is very apt, after a time, to discover 

 that he alone can effect nothing, and that his humanity only serves to 

 place him rather in a worse situation than his neighbours. While it 

 costs say a shilling to sweep a chimney with the machinery, and only 

 sixpence to have it swept by a child, small as the total amount is no 

 man of business ought to doubt this for a moment the former never 

 will make its way. But if we could reverse this state of the account, 

 and make the machine-cost only half as much as the work of the boy, 

 or, that which would have the same effect, raise the cost of the boy to 

 two or three times that of the machine, we should do more than would 

 be done by a whole library of philanthropic tracts, to bring the machine- 

 system into general adoption. 



Our proposal, then for our object is to get this discussion into as 

 small a compass as possible our proposition from which we intreat 

 our readers not to start too hastily is TO IMPOSE A TAX UPON THE 

 EMPLOYMENT OF CLIMBING-BOYS ; which, by raising the price of their 

 labour above that of the machines, would gradually lead persons to use 

 the latter, in ill cases where the application of the former was not ab- 

 solutely necessary. 



We repeat our request, that our readers will not start from this project 

 hastily : there is no iota of novelty in the principle of it : the same 

 arrangement is in other matters in operation every day under our eyes 

 as we pledge ourselves to shew. The short detail of our scheme would 

 be this We would oblige every master chimney-sweeper to purchase a 

 licence ; and, if he kept children for the purpose of cleansing chimnies, 

 to enter, and pay an annual duty upon, each child kept for that purpose. 

 Say, in order to make the application certain, that he should be com- 

 pelled to pay a specified duty for every servant kept by him, to be 

 employed in his trade, under sixteen years of age. 



There can be no objection after a single moment's consideration 

 taken to this proposal in point of principle. It would be mere ignorance 

 to speak of it as " petty legislation :" this is the only objection which can 

 ever be set up against it ; and an instant's reflection will shew that com- 

 plaint to be wholly void of force. There can be no more pettiness in 

 compelling a chimney-sweeper to take out a licence, than in compelling 

 a " hawker or pedlar " to do so. No more interference with trade, 

 in making him pay a duty upon every one of his boys, than in 

 making a stable-keeper, who keeps beasts for hire, pay a duty upon 

 every one of his horses. As the law already stands, almost every 

 trade (however seemingly mean) is watched, which either the public 



