NEW CHIMNEY- SWEEPING ACT. 83 



which there ought to be the rose and lily : — to 

 meet a tattered urchin riding on a donkey, with 

 his soot bag for a saddle ; or perhaps trudging 

 barefoot along the road ; all this impresses on a 

 philanthropist the idea, that the lot of this youth 

 is miserable, and that it must be amended. Let 

 us take a nearer view of this little son of soot. 

 See the beauty of the rogue's teeth! — they are 

 as white as ivory, for the soot has polished and 

 preserved them, whilst our own are discoloured 

 and some of them gone to decay in spite of 

 old Rowland's Odonto. His back too is as 

 straight as a lance, and his limbs of the finest 

 proportions. His voice informs you that he 

 knows not sorrow ; for he whistles as he goes 

 along ; and every now and then, beguiles the 

 length of the road by some favourite ditty. 

 And when he has performed his task up to the 

 chimney's top, he crows there, like the morning 

 cock, to tell us all is right, and that we our* 

 selves ought to be stirring* 



The little sweep is the gnat, to which I 

 alluded in the beginning of this paper. I 

 meddle not with the camel. The celebrated 

 Mr. Ferrand has already taken it in hand. But 

 is there no danger nor difficulty in ascending a 



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