Page images
PDF
EPUB

"I humbly conceive that it is incompatible with the character and wish of the British nation that her own exiles should be exposed to such privations and dangerous temptations, when she is daily feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, and receiving into her friendly, and I may add pious bosom, the stranger, whether savage or civilised, of every nation under heaven. There are, in the whole, under the two principal superintendents, Messrs. Rouse and Oakes, one hundred and eight men, and one hundred and fifty women, and several children; and nearly the whole of them have to find lodgings for themselves when they have performed their government tasks.

"I trust that your Excellency will be fully persuaded that it is totally impossible for the magistrate to support his necessary authority, and to establish a regular police, under such a weight of accumulated and accumulating evils. I am as sensible as anyone can be, that the difficulty of removing these evils will be very great; at the same time, their number and influence may be greatly lessened, if the abandoned male and female convicts are lodged in barracks, and placed under the eye of the police, and the number of licensed houses is reduced. Till something of this kind is done, all attempts of the magistrate, and the public administration of religion, will be attended with little benefit to the general good. I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, SAMUEL MARSDEN."— (Bennet, p. 134.)

Thus much for Botany Bay. As a mere colony, it is too distant and too expensive; and, in future, will of course involve us in many of those just and necessary wars, which deprive Englishmen so rapidly of their comforts, and make England scarcely worth living in. If considered as a place of reform for criminals, its distance, expense, and the society to which it dooms the objects of the experiment are insuperable objections to it. It is in vain to say that the honest people in New South Wales will soon bear a greater proportion to the rogues, and the contamination of bad society will be less fatal. This only proves that it may be a good place for reform hereafter, not that it is a good one now. One of the principal reasons for peopling Botany Bay at all was, that it would be an admirable receptacle, and a school of reform for our convicts. It turns out that, for the first half-century, it will make them worse than they were before, and that, after that period, they may probably begin to improve. A marsh, to be sure, may be drained and cultivated; but no man who has his choice would select it in the meantime for his dwelling-place.

The three books are all books of merit. Mr. O'Hara's is a bookseller's compilation, done in a useful and pleasing manner. Mr. Wentworth is full of information on the present state of Botany Bay. The humanity, the exertions, and the genuine benevolence of Mr. Bennet are too well known to need our commendation.

All persons who have a few guineas in their pocket are now running away from Mr. Nicholas Vansittart to settle in every quarter of the globe. Upon the subject of emigration to Botany Bay, Mr. Wentworth observes, 1st, That any respectable person emigrating to that colony receives as much land gratis as would cost him £400 in the United States; 2ndly, He is allowed as many servants as he may require, at one-third of the wages paid for labour in America; 3rdly, Himself and family are victualled at the expense of Government for six months. He calculates that a man, wife, and two children, with an allowance of five tons for themselves and baggage, could emigrate to Botany Bay for £100, including every expense, provided a whole ship could be freighted; and that a single man could be taken out thither for £30. These points are worthy of serious attention to those who are shedding their country.

CLIMBING BOYS. (E. REVIEW, October, 1819.)

Account of the Proceedings of the Society for superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys.. Baldwin, &c. London. 1816.

AN excellent and well-arranged dinner is a most pleasing occurrence, and a great triumph of civilised life. It is not only the descending morsel, and the

enveloping sauce-but the rank, wealth, wit, and beauty which surround the meats the learned management of light and heat-the silent and rapid services of the attendants-the smiling and sedulous host, proffering gusts and relishes -the exotic bottles-the embossed plate-the pleasant remarks-the handsome dresses-the cunning artifices in fruit and farina! The hour of dinner, in short, includes everything of sensual and intellectual gratification which a great nation glories in producing.

In the midst of all this, who knows that the kitchen chimney caught fire half an hour before dinner! -and that a poor little wretch, of six or seven years old, was sent up in the midst of the flames to put it out? We could not, previous to reading this evidence, have formed a conception of the miseries of these poor wretches, or that there should exist, in a civilised country, a class of human beings destined to such extreme and varied distress. We will give a short epitome of what is developed in the evidence before the two Houses of Parliament.

Boys are made chimney sweepers at the early age of five or six.

Little boys for small flues is a common phrase on the cards left at the door by itinerant chimney sweepers. Flues made to ovens and coppers are often less than nine inches square; and it may easily be conceived how slender the frame of that human body must be, which can force itself through such an aperture.

"What is the age of the youngest boys who have been employed in this trade, to your knowledge? About five years of age: I know one now between five and six years old; it is the man's own son in the Strand: now there is another at Somers Town, I think, said he was between four and five, or about five; Jack Hall, a little lad, takes him about.-Did you ever know any female children employed? Yes, I know one now. About two years ago there was a woman told me she had climbed scores of times, and there is one at Paddington now whose father taught her to climb; but I have often heard talk of them when I was apprentice, in different places.-What is the smallest-sized flue you have ever met with in the course of your experience? About eight inches by nine; these they are always obliged to climb in this posture (describing it), keeping the arms up straight; if they slip their arms down, they get jammed in; unless they get their arms close over their head they cannot climb."Lords' Minutes, No. 1, p. 8.

The following is a specimen of the manner in which they are taught this art of climbing chimneys.

"Do you remember being taught to climb chimneys? Yes.-What did you feel upon the first attempt to climb a chimney? The first chimney I went up, they told me there was some plum-pudding and money up at the top of it, and that is the way they enticed me up; and when I got up, I would not let the other boy get from under me to get at it, I thought he would get it; I could not get up, and shoved the pot and half the chimney down into the yard. Did you experience any inconvenience to your knees, or your elbows? Yes, the skin was off my knees and elbows too, in climbing up the new chimneys they forced me up.-How did they force you up? When I got up, I cried out about my sore knees.-Were you beat or compelled to go up by any violent means? Yes, when I went to a narrow chimney, if I could not do it, I durst not go home; when I used to come down, my master would well beat me with the brush; and not only my master, but when we used to go with the journeymen, if we could not do it, they used to hit us three or four times with the brush."-Lords' Minutes, No. 1, p. 5.

In practising the art of climbing, they are often crippled.

"You talked of the pargeting of chimneys; are many chimneys pargeted? There used to be more than are now; we used to have to go and sit all a-twist to parge them, according to the floors, to keep the smoke from coming out; then I could not straighten my legs; and that is the reason that many are cripples,-from parging and stopping the holes."-Lords' Minutes, No. 1, p. 17.

They are often stuck fast in a chimney, and, after remaining there many hours, are cut out.

"Have you known, in the course of your practice, boys stick in chimneys at all? Yes, frequently. Did you ever know an instance of a boy being suffocated to death? No; I do

not recollect anyone at present, but I have assisted in taking boys out when they have been nearly exhausted.-Did you ever know an instance of its being necessary to break open a chimney to take the boy out? O yes.-Frequently? Monthly I might say; it is done with a cloak, if possible, that it should not be discovered: a master in general wishes it not to be known, and therefore speaks to the people belonging to the house not to mention it, for it was merely the boy's neglect; they often say it was the boy's neglect.-Why do they say that? The boy's climbing shirt is often very bad; the boy coming down, if the chimney be very narrow, and numbers of them are only nine inches, gets his shirt rumpled underneath him, and he has no power after he is fixed in that way (with his hand up).-Does a boy frequently stick in the chimney? Yes; I have known more instances of that the last twelvemonth than before.-Do you ever have to break open in the inside of a room? Yes, I have helped to break through into a kitchen chimney in a dining-room.”—Lords' Minutes, p. 34. To the same effect is the evidence of John Daniels (Minutes, p. 100), and of James Ludford (Lords' Minutes, p. 147).

"You have swept the Penitentiary? I have.--Did you ever know a boy stick in any of the chimneys there? Yes, I have.-Was it one of your boys? It was.-Was there one or two that stuck? Two of them.-How long did they stick there? Two hours.-How were they got out? They were cut out.-Was there any danger while they were in that situation? It was the core from the pargeting of the chimney, and the rubbish that the labourers had thrown down, that stopped them, and when they got it aside them, they could not pass.They both stuck together? Yes."-Lords' Minutes, p. 147.

One more instance we shall give, from the Evidence before the Commons. "Have you heard of any accidents that have recently happened to climbing boys in the small flues? Yes; I have often met with accidents myself when I was a boy; there was lately one in Marylebone, where the boy lost his life in a flue, a boy of the name of Tinsey (his father was of the same trade); that boy I think was about eleven or twelve years old.Was there a coroner's inquest sat on the body of that boy you mentioned? Yes, there was; he was an apprentice of a man of the name of Gay.-How many accidents do you recollect, which were attended with loss of life to the climbing boys? I have heard talk of many more than I know of; I never knew of more than three since I have been at the trade, but I have heard talk of many more.-Of twenty or thirty? I cannot say; I have been near losing my own life several times."-Commons' Report, p. 53.

We come now to burning little chimney sweepers. A large party are invited to dinner-a great display is to be made ;-and about an hour before dinner, there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire! It is impossible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish, the cook is frantic-all eyes are turned upon the sable consolation of the master chimney-sweeper-and up into the midst of the burning chimney is sent one of the miserable little infants of the brush! There is a positive prohibition of this practice, and an enactment of penalties in one of the Acts of Parliament which respect chimney sweepers. But what matter Acts of Parliament, when the pleasures of genteel people are concerned? Or what is a toasted child, compared to the agonies of the mistress of the house with a deranged dinner?

"Did you ever know a boy get burnt up a chimney? Yes.-Is that usual? Yes, I have been burnt myself, and have got the scars on my legs; a year ago I was up a chimney in Liquor-pond Street; I have been up more than forty chimneys where I have been burnt.Did your master or the journeyman ever direct you to go up a chimney that is on fire? Yes, it is a general case.-Do they compel you to go up a chimney that is on fire? Oh yes, it was the general practice for two of us to stop at home on Sunday to be ready in case of a chimney being a-fire.-You say it is general to compel the boys to go up chimneys on fire? Yes, boys get very ill treated if they do not go up."-Lords' Minutes, p. 34.

"Were you ever forced up a chimney on fire? Yes, I was forced up one once, and, because I could not do it, I was taken home and well hided with a brush by the journeyman. -Have you frequently been burnt in ascending chimneys on fire? Three times.-Are such hardships as you have described common in the trade with other boys? Yes, they are."Ibid. p. 100.

"What is the price for sending a boy up a chimney badly on fire? The price allowed is five shillings, but most of them charge half a guinea.-Is any part of that given to the boy? No, but very often the boy gets half a crown; and then the journeyman has half, and his mistress takes the other part to take care of against Sunday.-Have you never seen water thrown down from the top of a chimney when it is on fire? Yes. -Is not that generally

[ocr errors]

done? Yes; I have seen that done twenty times, and the boy in the chimney; at the time when the boy has hallooed out, It is so hot I cannot go any further;' and then the expression is, with an oath, 'Stop, and I will heave a pail of water down.""—Ibid. p. 39.

Chimney sweepers are subject to a peculiar sort of cancer, which often brings them to a premature death.

"He appeared perfectly willing to try the machines everywhere? I must say the man appeared perfectly willing; he had a fear that he and his family would be ruined by them; but I must say of him, that he is very different from other sweeps I have seen; he attends very much to his own business; he was as black as any boy he had got, and unfortunately in the course of conversation he told me he had got a cancer; he was a fine, healthy, stronglooking man; he told me he dreaded having an operation performed, but his father died of the same complaint, and that his father was sweeper to King George the Second."-Lords' Minutes, p. 84.

"What is the nature of the particular diseases? The diseases that we particularly noticed, to which they were subject, were of a cancerous description.-In what part? The scrotum in particular, &c.-Did you ever hear of cases of that description that were fatal? No, I do not think them as being altogether fatal, unless they will not submit to the operation; they have such a dread of the operation that they will not submit to it, and if they do not let it be perfectly removed, they will be liable to the return of it.-To what cause do you attribute that disease? I think it begins from a want of care: the scrotum being in so many folds or crevices, the soot lodges in them and creates an itching, and I conceive that, by scratching it and tearing it, the soot gets in and creates the irritability; which disease we know by the name of the chimney-sweeper's cancer, and is always lectured upon separately as a distinct disease.-Then the Committee understands that the physicians who are intrusted with the care and management of those hospitals think that disease of such common occurrence, that it is necessary to make it a part of surgical education? Most assuredly; I remember Mr. Cline and Mr. Cooper were particular on that subject.-Without an operation there is no cure? I conceive not; I conceive without the operation it is death; for cancers are of that nature that unless you extirpate them entirely, they will never be cured."Commons' Report, pp. 60, 61.

In addition to the life they lead as chimney sweepers, is superadded the occupation of nightmen.

"(By a Lord.) Is it generally the custom that many masters are likewise nightmen? Yes; I forgot that circumstance, which is very grievous; I have been tied round the middle and let down several privies, for the purpose of fetching watches and such things; it is generally made the practice to take the smallest boy, to let him through the hole without taking up the seat, and to paddle about there until he finds it; they do not take a big boy, because it disturbs the seat."—Lords' Minutes, p. 38.

The bed of these poor little wretches is often the soot they have swept in the day.

"How are the boys generally lodged; where do they sleep at night? Some masters may be better than others, but I know I have slept on the soot that was gathered in the day myself. Where do boys generally sleep? Never on a bed; I never slept on a bed myself while I was apprentice.-Do they sleep in cellars? Yes, very often; I have slept in the cellar myself on the sacks I took out.-What had you to cover you? The same.-Had you any pillow? No further than my breeches and jacket under my head.-How were you clothed? When I was apprentice we had a pair of leather breeches and a small flannel jacket. Any shoes and stockings? Oh dear, no; no stockings.-Had you any other clothes for Sunday? Sometimes we had an old bit of a jacket, that we might wash out ourselves, and a shirt."-Lords' Minutes, p. 40.

Girls are occasionally employed as chimney sweepers.

"Another circumstance, which has not been mentioned to the Committee, is, that there are several little girls employed; there are two of the name of Morgan at Windsor, daughters of the chimney sweeper who is employed to sweep the chimneys of the Castle; another instance at Uxbridge, and at Brighton, and at Whitechapel (which was some years ago), and at Hadley near Barnet, and Witham in Essex, and elsewhere."-Commons' Report, p. 71.

Another peculiar danger to which chimney sweepers are exposed, is the rottenness of the pots at the top of chimneys;--for they must ascend to the very summit, and show their brushes above them, or there is no proof that the work is properly completed. These chimney-pots, from their exposed situa

tion, are very subject to decay; and when the poor little wretch has worked his way up to the top, pot and boy give way together, and are both shivered to atoms. There are many instances of this in the evidence before both Houses. When they outgrow the power of going up a chimney, they are fit for nothing else. The miseries they have suffered lead to nothing. They are not only enormous, but unprofitable: having suffered, in what is called the happiest part of life, every misery which a human being can suffer, they are then cast out to rob and steal, and given up to the law.

And as

Not the least of their miseries, while their trial endures, is their exposure to cold. It will easily be believed that much money is not expended on the clothes of a poor boy stolen from his parents, or sold by them for a few shillings, and constantly occupied in dirty work. Yet the nature of their occupation renders chimney sweepers peculiarly susceptible of cold. chimneys must be swept very early, at four or five o'clock of a winter morning, the poor boys are shivering at the door, and attempting by repeated ringings to rouse the profligate footman; but the more they ring, the more the footman does not come.

"Do they go out in the winter time without stockings? Oh yes.-Always? I never saw one go out with stockings; I have known masters make their boys pull off their leggings, and cut off the feet to keep their feet warm when they have chilblains.-Are chimney sweepers' boys peculiarly subject to chilblains? Yes; I believe it is owing to the weather: they often go out at two or three in the morning, and their shoes are generally very bad.Do they go out at that hour at Christmas? Yes; a man will have twenty jobs at four, and twenty more at five or six.-Are chimneys generally swept much about Christmas time? Yes; they are in general; it is left to the Christmas week.-Do you suppose it is frequent that, in the Christmas week, boys are out from three o'clock in the morning to nine or ten? Yes, further than that: I have known that a boy has been only in and out again directly all day till five o'clock in the evening.-Do you consider the journeyman and masters treat those boys generally with greater cruelty than other apprentices in other trades are treated? They do, most horrid and shocking."-Lords' Minutes, p. 33.

The following is the reluctant evidence of a master.

"At what hour in the morning did your boys go out upon their employment? According to orders.-At any time? To be sure; suppose a nobleman wished to have his chimney done before four or five o'clock in the morning, it was done, or how were the servants to get their things done ?-Supposing you had an order to attend at four o'clock in the morning in the month of December, you sent your boy? I was generally with him, or had a careful follower with him.-Do you think those early hours beneficial for him? I do and I have heard that early to bed and early to rise, is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.'Did they always get in as soon as they knocked? No; it would be pleasant to the profession if they could.-How long did they wait? Till the servants please to rise.-How long might that be? According how heavy they were to sleep.-How long was that? It is impossible to say; ten minutes at one house, and twenty at another.-Perhaps half an hour? We cannot see in the dark how the minutes go.-Do you think it healthy to let them stand there twenty minutes at four o'clock in the morning in the winter time? He has a cloth to wrap himself in like a mantle, and keep himself warm."-Lords' Minutes, pp. 138, 139.

We must not forget sore eyes. Soot lodges on their eyelids, produces irritability, which requires friction; and the friction of dirty hands of course increases the disease. The greater proportion of chimney sweepers are in consequence blear-eyed. The boys are very small, but they are compelled to carry heavy loads of soot.

"Are you at all lame yourself? No; but I am 'knapped kneed' with carrying heavy loads when I was an apprentice.-That was the occasion of it? It was. In general, are persons employed in your trade either stunted or knock-kneed by carrying heavy loads during their childhood? It is owing to their masters a great deal; and when they climb a great deal it makes them weak."-Commons' Report, p. 58.

In climbing a chimney, the great hold is by the knees and elbows. A young child of six or seven years old, working with knees and elbows against hard bricks, soon rubs off the skin from these bony projections, and is forced to climb high chimneys with raw and bloody knees and elbows.

« PreviousContinue »