The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-04 00:00:00

The Child in the Chimney.

(From the Examiner.)
Few people who remember what good ground there was
for the Act of Parliament, passed 20 years ago, prohibiting
the employment by the master chimney-sweeps of young
children to climb up the chimneys and " small boys for
flues," can desire otherwise than to support the efforts of a
society that has been doing all it can to make the act effec-
tive. Instead of few people we should have said nobody, if
we had not met recently with three manifest exceptions in.
the Mayor of Newcastle and the Aldermen Sillick and.
Dodds. At Newcastle the law for the protection.
of children againet this improper and now un-
necessary use of their young lives is said to be very
much set at defiance. An officer of the London
and Birmingham Association for the Protection of
Climbing Boys, has, therefore been to Newcastle,
and on Thursday in last week four master sweeps
were summoned to the Mayor's police court for defiance of
the law. The terms of the Act are clear, and the lowest
penalty for offence against it is declared to be £5, the highest
£lO. Now let us see how this law was administered in.
four cases by the Mayor of Newcastle and the Aldermen.
Sillick and Dodds.
In the first case, James Frame was charged with having
employed a very little boy to sweep the chimney of a butcher
in New Bridge-street. Evidence having been given—
The Bench retired to consider their decision, and on their
return into court the Mayor, addressing the defendant, said.
that the magistrates had some doubt as to his guilt, and
they were inclined to give him the benefit of that doubt,
though they were very much of opinion that he had em-
ployed the boy as alleged. He must be very careful that
he was not brought back again on such a charge, for if he
was he would not be dealt with so leniently. He would be
fined 6d.
The three worthies at once give us the measure of their
wits. They were " very much of opinion" that the case
was proved, but they had some doubt, and were inclined to
give him the benefit of it; so they compounded between
opinion and inclination by substituting for the minimum
legal fine of £5 te,,fine of, sixpence. What right had they
, ,
to fine the man trixience :if the really,!" haefienee, d9u„'•?°.
as to his guilt, and were inClined to give hint the benefit ie.(
that doubt ?" It they really had doubt, they were bound,.
whether inclined menet, to giVe the accused the benefit of
it. But the course of the other three cases will suggest that
what they were in this matter most inclined to, was frus-
tration of the law.
The next charge was not against James Frame, but
against a Robert Frame, for using his nephew, a child of
ten, instead of a machine. The boy was seen to go into •
the house with a sweep's climbing cap on his head, the'
defendant was seen to come out and look up at the chimney-
pot, the boy's hand-brush was seen thrust out at the top,
in evidence to his employer that he had reached the top.
The officer who sew this, testified farther that he went into
the house, heard the boy working his way down, and stvw
comedsw saasidoeid clean,t, fl'rothritkh was efrofimrephliascei produced
in
appearance ntot hceo room.ubret.
But tbtr.e3
Dodds
boy,od h
Alderman
tinalook
as if he swept chimneys." The child stoutly swore that ho
did not go up the chimney, and the mayor and aldermen,
on the strength of such evidence, dismissed the case' the
In the third case, against another master sweep of
• name of John Frame,two witnesses proved the offence, but
the lad who swept the chimney had not received his sum-
mons to appear. That case, therefore, was adjourned.
The fourth case was distinctly proved : does no
Alexander Lumley, a sweep, was then charged with per-
mitting a boy named George btoker to go up a chimney. _
Jane M'Duwell said that on the 23d ult. the prisoner and
a little boy came to her house in High Bridge to sweep the
chimney. The boy went up. She saw the boy go up the'
chimney, and she also saw that they had no machine what-
ever.
Francis Peacock confirmed the evidence of the last wit-
nem,
in the
The prisoner affected ignorance of having ever seen Mrs.
M`Dowell at all, and afterwards said he was not
town that day. He admitted that heould not be able to
s
tined the
case the magistrates considered proved, and they
obtain witnesses to prove the alibi ho had set up. In'
defendant 2s. 6d. •
Did not the
Mayor of Newcastle and Aldermen Siltick and Dodds con-
raider the sweep's asseveration of an alibi a ground for more
In this case may we trust the report ?
ahalf-a-crown to
proportioned to to the former doubt as
aggravatedmase r sweeps to laugh at the
pence? If they "considered the a
inclination to give him the benefit oafs cleoupbrot,voednl,y,, aadsotuhbet
as it was by a lie in.
meant but contempt of the law ?
the imposition, in a case
drTheyeepfdefence,
et
ceerc" uwsl dahyaostn tichyoeuelde:biude:amg ° to re-establish the old . climbing
mitigating circumstance, of a half-crown fine
m
without one
allow
lolcyots
vosfaynaytechild Parliament
ir,
or
r
T
which declares, hat from and after the Ist
under an act
yue:oudcnahgste'llpepebrayon under the age of twenty-
of July, 1842, any person who shall compel or knowingly
to ascend or descend a chimney, or enter a flue,
one years
for the purpose of sweeping, cleaning, or coring,' the same,
or for extinguishing. a fire therein, shall be liable to a penalty
of not more than £lO, nor less than £5."

—There was an old custom of sweeping chimneys by pulling
through them a goose with a string ILA to its leg. 6'hould
that cu6iour be revived, we commend the -Mayor of New-
castle and Alderman Sillick and Dodds to the attention of
all persons troubled with foul chimneys. There in a law to
protect even geese, but if the wisdom of the Newcastle
beach be transmitted front mayor to mayor, and from_
alderman to alderman, wo sae no reason why the discreet
housekeeper should not take a sixpenny pull at a gooses
when, at the worst, she might have them all three through
her chimneys for a fine of half-a-crown a bird.

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