The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 2, 1864.

happiness did much no doubt to enliwn the weary

year of these little ill-used urchins, both in prospect
and retrospect. Kindness and good cheer were
theirs at least one day of the 365, and we may be
sure that no fair village maiden, longing to wear her
mimic crown " beneath the hawthorn on the
green" lookcd forwErl to the memorable day with
more eager animation than did these poor children
to their yearly treat. The old custom has now
fallen into desuetude, owing it was thought to the
suppression of the trade, -Wise and good men have
succeeded, after much labour, in getting an act
passed rendering any one who employsboys of tens
der age to sweep chimneys liable to punishment.
Much good has no doubt been done, but some re-
mains to do, and we trust the public will help the
good cause by their warm and constant support.
It appears from the facts brought forward by Mr.
DIGBY SETMOITR on Friday evening, that in many
places the act against employing boys in chimney
sweeping is a dead letter. In Birmingham the
practice is reported increasing, while in Manchester
it is even carried so far that girls of tender age are
employed in the dangerous and miserable task.
When such is the state of things in the great
centres of our commercial activity, it is not, per-
haps, surprising that affairs should be even worse
in more rural districts. At Ashton and Staley-
bridge, it appears from evidence that no less than
73 chimneys were swept in the course of three days
by boys employed by only one master, and as there
is no reason to suppose that his competitors were
innocent of the offence, we must conclude that the
number of victims to this cruel practice is very
great in those places alone. At Buckingham, most
of the inhabitants, in defiance of the Act, prefer to
have boys, and prominent among them is one of the
legislators themselves, who has apparently no more
respect for law than for humanity. Other locali-
ties are equally culpable—in one, the flue of tte
parish church being swept by a boy Iteve. down.
taving been
wards; in another, two inquests
lately held on boys killed in tte act. Accord-
ing to the evidence of a Leicester magistrate,
there is a regular System of hire and sale of
t'aese unfortunate children carried on, and for
many years people believed that the practice was
entirely abandoned ! It is needless to recapitulate
the horrors of the trade—the dreadful apprentice.
ship of hardening the tender young flesh by means
of brine rubbed in before a hot fire, the cores, the
deformity, the " sooty cancer" which adds to the
terrors of their fate. As Mr. SEYMOUR very justly
observed in statement of their case, the horrors of
negro slavery are exceeded by the daily miseries
undergone by the chimney-sweepers' miserable
assistants. How is it, then, that Englishmen
must bear arch a reproach to their humanity
as the sufferance or even the encourage-
ment of such a trade ? How is it that
any question of trivial advantage of conveniencee
is suffered to weigh against the tortures inflicted on
these poor little children ? How is it that open
infraction of the law is constantly practised, and
that magistrates so far from rooting out the evil
by every means in their power, and visiting the
offenders with the severest penalties allowed them
actually hesitate to enforce the law and shrink from
the imposit,o n of fines ? Such apathy is marvellous.
It was assuredly never intended at the time of pass.
ins the Act that it should be a dead letter. Have
we then go ,re backwards in our social progress, has
our human ity grown cooler and more calculating,
our sense c d justice less acute, that so far from taking
fresh step a for the protection of the weak and help-
less, we fit) not even use the weapons provided for
us in thei r behalf. It is quite time that this was
looked tc o, and Mr. DIGBY SEYMOUR deserves the
thanks :iof all humane persons, as he will assurvaly
obtain those of his poor oppressed little clients, for
bring it ig the metter forward. The learned gentle-
man r 3minded the House of the fact that in Sept-
ic practice was unknown, owing to the police
rbl nee
vs;
,ndu tr,
empowered to interfere, anti to master sweeps
ig a lie: c° which of course is forfeited by
re.tsc9nii unt, Here then is Et very serious evil, one