NEW CHIMNEY-SWEEPING ACT. 85 



may judge of Whig and Tory by their own 

 mutual recriminations in the Senate House, I 

 should say, that poor Britannia is worse off for 

 bad masters than any young sweep in the land. 

 He may get redress, but she cannot ; for her 

 rulers, like the Hanoverian rat, have got pos- 

 session of the land ; and there is no chance of 

 driving them away, or of curbing their love of 

 plunder, 



I am not one of those who see much hardship 

 in the healthy profession of a chimney-sweep ; 

 I had rather be one than be a village tailor, or 

 a cloacina-man, or a tax-gatherer. When I 

 was a lad in the nursery, had I been allowed, I 

 should have liked no better fun, than to have 

 had an occasional spree with the little black 

 fellow up the chimney. 



Let us now look at the new Chimney-sweep- 

 ing Act in its immediate bearings upon society 

 at large. 



Young master sweep, no longer allowed by 

 law to follow up his wonted profession, is put 

 to his shifts, in order to gain his daily bread. 

 He tries the factory ; there, he certainly ex- 

 changes his shining black face for a pale and 



G 3 



