STATE PAPERS. 



305 



In addition to which, it appears, 

 that from the trade being con- 

 stantly overstocked, a large pro- 

 portion of the older chimney 

 sweepers (as it is stated, one lialf) 

 are constantly in a course of being 

 thrown out of employ. Your 

 committee have endeavoured to 

 learn the number of persons who 

 may be considered as engaged in 

 the trade within the bills of mor- 

 tality : they have learnt that the 

 total number of master chimney 

 sweepers might be estimated at 

 200, who had among them 500 

 apprentices ; that not above 20 of 

 those masters were reputable 

 tradesmen in easy circumstances, 

 who appeared generally to conform 

 to the provisions of the act, and 

 which twenty had, upon an aver- 

 age, from four to five apprentices 

 each ; that about ninety were of an 

 inferior class of master chimney- 

 sweepers, who had, upon an ave- 

 rage, three apprentices each, and 

 who were extremely negligent of 

 their health, their morals, and their 

 education ; and that about ninety, 

 the remainder of the 200 masters, 

 were a class of chinmey-sweepers 

 recently journeymen, who took 

 up the trade because they had no 

 other resource — who picked up 

 boys as they could — who lodged 

 them with themselves in huts, 

 sheds, and cellars, in the outskirts 

 of the town, occasionally wander- 

 ing into the villages round : and 

 that in these two classes, being in 

 the proportion of ISO to 20, the 

 miseries of the trade were princi- 

 pally to be found. It is in evi- 

 dence before your conmiittee, that 

 at Hadleigh, Barnet, Uxbridge, 

 and Windsor, female children 

 have been employed. 



Your committee observe, that 

 Vol. LIX. 



in geneial among the most respect- 

 able part of the trade, the ap- 

 prentices are of the age prescribed 

 by the act, viz. from S to 14 j 

 but even among the most respect- 

 able it is the constant practice to 

 borrow the younger boys from 

 one another, for the purpose of 

 sweeping what are called the nar- 

 row flues. No accmate account 

 could be obtained of the ages of 

 the apprentices of the other clas- 

 ses ; but they had the youngest 

 children, who either were their 

 own, or engaged as apprentices ; 

 and who, in many instances, it 

 was ascertained, were much below 

 the prescribed age ; thus, the 

 youngest and most delicate child- 

 ren are in the service of the worst 

 class of masters, and employed 

 exclusively to clean flues, which, 

 from their peculiar construction, 

 cannot be swept without great 

 personal hazard. 



Your committee have had laid 

 before them an account of various 

 accidents that have happened to 

 chimney-sweepers, by being forced 

 to ascend the<e small flues. They 

 beg leave to refer paiticularly to 

 a recent case, which occurred on 

 Thursday the 6th day of March 

 IS 17, and which is contained in 

 the minutes of evidence. They 

 wish also to direct the attention of 

 the House to one of those instances 

 of cruelty, which terminjvted in 

 the death of an infant of about 

 six years of age, in the month 

 of April 181G: William Moles 

 and Sarah his wife were tried 

 at the Old Bailey for the wil- 

 ful murder of John Hevvley alias 

 Haseley, by cruelly beating him. 

 Under the direction of the learned 

 judge, they were acquitted of the 

 crime of murder, but the husband 



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