b06 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



was detained to take his trial for 

 a niisdenieanor, of which he v^as 

 convicted itpon the fullest evi- 

 dence, and sentenced to two years 

 imprisonment. The facts of the 

 case were, that this infant was 

 forced up the chimney on the 

 shoulder of a lai-ger boy, and 

 afterwards violently pulled down 

 again by the leg, and dashed 

 against a marble hearth ; his leg- 

 was thus broken, and he died a 

 few hours after ; on his body and 

 knees were found sores, arisirig 

 frinn wounds of a much older date. 

 £!ut it is not only the ill-treatment 

 .which the regular appicntices 

 suffer from tlie cruel conduct of 

 some masters that your committee 

 are anxious to comment on ; it 

 appears that in order to evade the 

 penalty of the act of parliament, 

 some of these masters frequently 

 hire young lads as journeymen 

 wlio have not been apprenticed to 

 chimney-sweepers 5 these are chil- 

 dren who have no parents, and 

 who ai-e enticed away from the 

 different workhouses of the Me- 

 tropolis. 



Having thus shortly detailed (he 

 leading facts of the evidence which 

 has been given before them, of 

 the niiserics whicli the unfortu- 

 nate class of beings who are sold 

 to this trade experience, your 

 committee have with great anxiety 

 examined various persons, as to 

 the possibility of peiforming by 

 tlie aid of machinery what is now 

 done by the laboiirof thecliu>bing 

 boys : the result of their inquiries 

 is, that though tiiere maybe some 

 difference of opinion as to the ex- 

 tent to which machinery is here 

 applicable, yet the lowest calcula- 

 tion of practical and experienced 

 persons, master chimney-sweepers 



themselves, who have been biought 

 up in the trade, establishes the 

 fact, tliat of the chimneys in the 

 metropolis three-fourths may he 

 as well-i as cleanly, and as cheajyly 

 swept l^y mec'liunical means as by 

 the present method ; and the re- 

 maining part being, on the very 

 greatest calculation, 6ne>- fourth of 

 the whole number, with altera- 

 tions that may easily and cheaply 

 be made, can be swept also with- 

 out the employment of the climb- 

 ing boy. ^Ir. Bcvans, an archi- 

 tect much conversant with build- 

 ings in the Metropohs, has no 

 do\d)t that 95 out of 100 can Tbe 

 swept by the machines that are at 

 present iy use ; and he has also 

 no doubt that, supposing there 

 was to be a legislative enactment 

 that no chimney should be swept 

 by the means of climbing boys, 

 that easy substitutes could be 

 foimd that Avould sweep every 

 chimney that now exists. He 

 adds, that though there may be 

 diHicultics in cleaning an horizon- 

 tal flue, from the quantity of Soot, 

 yet it is equally bad for the boys 

 as for tlie machine ; because the 

 boy, as he comes down, has an ac- 

 cumulaticm of soot about him, 

 which stops up the circulation of 

 air necessary to support life. So 

 that it is evident, in all those 

 chimneys where, under their pre- 

 sent construction, the liiachine 

 cannot be used, the hazard of loss 

 of life U) the boy who sw'ecps 

 them, is most imminent. 



Some of tliese flues are stated 

 not to he abne seven inches square; 

 and one of the witnesses, wlio re- 

 lates this fact to the Committee, 

 informs them, that he himself had 

 been often in hazard of his life ; 

 and that he lias frequently swept 



a lon,tr 



