The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-03-28 00:00:00

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—rrwmgeofit/ etbd.OM* deflarest sit ilia Riffs'
•Pata #4llw•tikicillt. to ti•ento "lOW
-41. 114 !fouler Uistrr brreisr oft •
the inveigles of reolptlppicitikue. fir the. votPettt
bet admits, that a propeatiims of. speAllises met Oh-
"tire some alteration.
The neat clause repeals the former AefOln.ll *Rico*,
that Overseers, with the catmint of Jetta ". way
bind boys who are chargeable to the pod& as Ap-
prentices to Chimney-sweepers, free the ego of
foe:teen lentil they are tinents.sas. •
The objection to this chose is, that boy! bet wren,
14 and 21 yeses of age are of bat little ese in swop-,
tag of chimneys, snipes they silt anosisally ottalikiet,
that age, because there are not posy ihoss FillichrOtalk
boys could climb. .• )to
The sixth dense makes indenteres
poses penalties on persons keeping'

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Affe;ll4lfilidn '
,APProlst4aPa $s
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the age of fourteen; so that irate the hew the Wit
passes into a law, all appriatiqrs seder the ego. q
fourteen mast so Wager be employed ite alimisies
chimneys. ..liwl-•i hoe
The next clause declares, that all iedelattt:ttas Plat
Wore the pessius of the Act shall gefsle„bittfoil
fosse, but the following clause allows easy Master bn
writing ander his band to discherge all such apgretekee
as are under 14 years of age, can informs theeko
what parish they belong. ,
Tap nest disuse informs the Masters, ! he
tta
[ most sot totaigriw their service mere thaewissillgpeesat '
flees each at oise,and the same time, end directs tins
tett of mark that shall be worn on their heads.
1 The neat three ekes*s describes the hoursin *high
the boys may call the streets, and tells them ges. a
Justice of the Peace is to determine all comtKints
between these and their Masters. Thesboy s aro also •
informed, that they may recover evilest their Mastro'
for any breach of covensot or agreement, but rims
out no remedy for Masters against their apprentices
for misbehaviour.
The following chase dies monies on person* •
employisg boys under the age of twentrone to climb
chimneys after the Ist of May, 1819. Thus render-
ing all the former clauses of the Bill nugatory, be-
aten it is not probable that any one would be so
unwise as to appliance out, or take an appreotics
for one year.
The neat clause directs how penalties are to be
levied; and provides, that no warriut of diorese
shall be i..sued for less ing eite.penalty or forfeiture,
costs or chirps, until My days after his, offender .
shall hare been convicted, and an order made anal
erred upon him or her for payment thereof ; aed,as
the Bill does not limit the tine in which penalties
shall be sued fur, it follows that both time and pg.'
willies may alike be endless.
It is not difficult to foresee what consequences Ibis
Bill, if ;passed into a law, would lead to. The smaller
Apprentices would probably be discharged, -because
their Masters could uo longer employ them in climb'
lug of chimneys, these would naturally engage in
some way or other with the older and larger Ap.
prentices or Journeymen, and add to the number of
those itinerants whose miserable way of life has
brought upon the respectable Masters the disgrace
and opprobrium now so universally bat undeservedly
cast upon them. These itinerants would travel the
town and country alternately ; and, as the Bill de-
clares, that no wai i +lot of distress shall issue unlit
six days f.fter an offender shall have been convicted,
and an order made and served upon him, it is erre
than probable that the offender would, before the
expiration of that time, be in another county,dratigieg
with him the wretched boy discharged (by the opera-
tion of the Bill in question), able probably from a re.
spec( Master,who had previously provided him with all
the necessities, and, as far as the nature of the bu-
siness would admit, the comforts and conveniences of
life : can any one say then, tbat the condition of
these boys would be bettered by the change?
The allegation in the Preamble of the Bill, which
says, " Whereas the necessity of employing- sack
Apprentices to cleanse chimneys by climbing Wel no
longer (mists, in consequence of the invention of vs.
rious machines for the plume, which may be
adapted to every construction of flues ;" is contra.
di. Ted by the nest sentence, which says, 66 but as a
proportion of such flues may require some previous
alteration, it is therefore expedient that the climbing
of chimneys be further permitted, under certain re-
gulations, fora time to b.. linii.ed." These Rogow.
flow, as the Reader will have already seen, are,
that no boy under fourteen years of age shall, after
the passing of the Act, be employed to climb chins.
neys ; end the time limited is which boys moss
fourteen years may climb chimneys expires 'text May
twelvemonth, so that those chimneys which cannot
he swept with machinery, must not afterwards be
swept by Climbing Boys under severe penalties, de.
mandabie at any time as well from the employer es
the employed. That machinery may be used to
sweep many flees cannot be denied ; nor can it be
doubted, that if the Master Chimney-sweepers could
use it in all cases, they wool(' be glad to do so, since
they are well satisfied that most of their employers
would readily pay for any extra labour which the
machinery might occasion. Attempts have again and
again been made to cleanse the dues of many of the
public buildings, as well as of private bosses in the
metropolis, by machinery, without success ;. and se
anxious were the Directors of the Bank of England
'for the introduction of machinery for that purpose
into the Bank buildings, that they caused Mr. Smut
sad Mr. Mumfurd, the inventors of the machines, to
be employed, but who, after trying leek utmost art,
succeeded in cleansing only a small number of the
lees. The danger of machinery consign; in its rub.
Wog, and ultimately destroying, the mortar within
the floes, called pargeting (and which meat, as the •
Bill now stands, be afterwards repaired under a pop.
pelt)), and where the pargeting is removed, it is
impossibly to say what the consequences may not be,
if the joints of the brickwork should not be close
mortared, sod especially if there should be any bond
timber, plug, or trimmer within the flue; nor can
the bottoms of flees the least slanting, and not co.
'opted on the tap, be properly cleansed with the ma-
chine, because the rain which falls on the slants
Winders the soot almost impervious to the scraper of
the Climbing Boy ; anti when it is considered that
this machinery mast be put together and worked
within theapartineuts to which the flues brio it is
viiii
doubtful whether the mischief in this teepees . is
not much morwserlees than all the iocou - tw
which Cliatbiog Boys are wow& I!, %I. a+;

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