NEW CHIMNEY-SWEEPING ACT. 79 



THE NEW CHIMNEY-SWEEPING ACT. 



" Pellitur, paternos in sinu ferens deos, 

 Et vir et uxor, sordidosque natos." Horace. 



We shall be driven out of the house covered 

 with soot. Matthews, immortal mimic, in taking 

 off our western brother Jonathan, used to make 

 him exclaim, " This is a free country, forsooth, 

 and they won't let a man flog his own nigger." 

 Were Matthews here now, he might remark, 

 with equal justness, " This is a land of liberty, 

 and a man can't go up his own chimney by law 

 till he be of age." 



Our philanthropy of the present day too 

 often appears in a questionable shape ; whilst 

 those in power, who support its pretensions, do 

 as much mischief to the public weal, as a troop 

 of monkeys would do to a fruit garden in the 

 month of October. Witness the Act in ques- 

 tion, which our assembled Solons have passed 

 at the entreaty of certain incurable philanthro- 

 pists. 



Whip me those members of both Houses of 

 Parliament, who have doomed us to the smoky 



