THE CLIMBING BOY'S SOLILOQUIES. In the summer of 1807, a local association for the purpose of "superseding the employment of Climbing Boys in sweeping chimneys, and bettering the condition of those who were already so engaged," was established in Sheffield. Through three-and-thirty years, that object has been kept in view, though many and long interruptions have crippled or retarded our active exertions towards the desired accomplishment. But our interest in the subject, and our sympathy towards the infantine and juvenile victims of so unnatural a practice, have been periodically quickened, on every return of Easter Monday, when a good dinner has been given by our small Committee to all the Climbing Children of this district. The change,-which this attention to their welfare has gradually occasioned in the personal appearance, decent behaviour, and improved intelligence (most of them having been Sunday scholars) of the successive generations of these poor creatures, which have passed before us during that period,-has been very creditable to their Masters and very encouraging to ourselves under the disheartening hinderances to our progress, in attempting otherwise to lessen the evils of the occupation in our own neighbourhood, and the repeated failures of our endeavours to obtain legislative redress for the grievance itself throughout the whole kingdom. The experience of ten years convinced us, that all efforts as well as plans materially and permanently to benefit this class of boys must be unavailing, because so long as the employment was authorized by the legislature, it would never be superseded by the introduction of mechanical apparatus :-it being the interest, or rather the practice, of the masters, as much as possible, to disgust their customers, by wilfully negligent, or slovenly mismanagement of such substitutes when required to use them. This repugnance arose principally from a desire to spare themselves, and lay upon their apprentices (who were often their own children) the labour and torture of a villanous trade, which cannot be taught without cruelty, learnt without suffering, or practised without peril to life and limb, under the most humane master, and by the most obedient scholar. This fact is the unanswerable objection to the whole system,-it cannot be mended, though its inevitable miseries may be, and are, in numberless instances, frightfully aggravated. Wherefore, in March, 1817, we roused our townspeople to set the first example of moving the legislature against this sin of the nation. A public meeting was accordingly held, and a petition adopted, earnestly imploring the House of Commons, to whom it was primarily addressed, to take the subject into early and serious consideration. This was presented by Lord Milton, (now Earl Fitzwilliam,) one of the representatives for Yorkshire, with a view merely of its being received and laid upon the table; for no expectation was entertained of any immediate steps being taken upon it by those to whom we appealed. Though temperately worded, and supported only by a few frank and plain expressions of his own kind disposition towards the suffering children, the reading of this document produced so happy an impression upon the minds of the members present, that his Lordship, availing himself of the propitious omen, immediately moved for the appointment of a Committee to investigate the subject and report on the same. Meanwhile similar petitions coming in from other quarters, and the result of the Committee's inquiries proving highly satisfactory, the Metropolitan Society, (instituted in 1803, for the same benevolent purposes as ours at a later period,) using their utmost zeal and diligence to promote the object, on the 25th of June following a Bill was brought into the House of Commons, for prohibiting the employment of Climbing Boys in sweeping chimneys, from as brief a prospective date as should be found practicable under existing circumstances. Certain technical difficulties, however, respecting the nature of the Bill, and the probability of Parliament being prorogued before an Act could be passed, caused the postponement of further proceedings till the next Session. In the following year, 1818, the Bill was revived, carried triumphantly through the Commons, sent up to the Lords, read, committed, counsel heard, evidence examined, favourably reported, but withdrawn before the third reading, to give to the government surveyors, and other professional gentlemen, opportunity to make certain experiments and estimates, recommended by their Lordships' Committee, previous to their ultimate decision on the merits of the case. In the third year, 1819, the Bill was again introduced in the House of Peers, when, after some very strange discussion, it was summarily thrown out. Two causes, exceedingly dissimilar, concurred to effect this catastrophe: namely, certain grave doubts, expressed by high legal authority, whether, in making laws, more tenderness were due to old chimneys or to young children;-the former being inveterately crooked and therefore incurable, whereas (though this was left to be inferred) the latter (the children) might easily be made crooked, by accommodating their pliable bodies to the perverse ways through which they followed their craft. The second stumbling-block, on which indeed the neck of the Bill was broken, deserves more distinct exposure. A noble Earl, who resisted the Bill less by argument than by banter, among other illustrations of the calamities which would befall the nation, if the use of Climbing Boys were abolished, is reported to have said :-"I'might illustrate the confined humanity of the supporters of this measure, by repeating a story, commonly told in Ireland. It was usual in that country to sweep chimneys by tying a string to the leg of a goose, and dragging the unfortunate bird down the chimney. This practice was reprobated by many humane persons, who looked upon the goose as very ill treated; but an honest Irishman having asked what he should use instead of the goose, one of the humane gentlemen replied, 'Why don't you get a couple of ducks?'-Such was the humanity that dictated this measure, which, dwelling on the sufferings of the Climbing Boys, forgot every care for the safety of society, which, considering the few children employed in sweeping chimneys, threw out of its protection the many children who should be exposed to the hazards of fire, and to be tossed out of the windows." This pleasant sally put their Lordships into such good humour, that, to borrow a couple of the noble Earl's phrases, the Bill was either "tossed out of the window," or "exposed to the hazard of fire," for aught that I could ever learn of its fate. The report of the foregoing debate and decision in the House of Peers was published in my newspaper of March 23, 1819. Under the date of April the 13th following, I find this paragraph, written by myself, and for the authenticity of which I can as conscientiously vouch, as his Lordship could for the truth of “a story commonly told in Ireland :”— "Yesterday (being Easter Monday), at the Cutlers' Hall, in this town, the Committee for abolishing the use of Climbing Boys, and bettering the condition of Chimney Sweepers' Apprentices, gave their annual dinner to the children employed in that business here. Twenty-two were present; and though the lads of this town and neighbourhood fare as well, if not better, than others in the like situation elsewhere, their friends here are more and more convinced, from experience, observation, and reflection during twelve years past, that the practice of employing Climbing Boys to sweep chimneys is a national crime as well as a national disgrace, and ought to be prohibited. "A boy, about thirteen years of age, who attended the dinner at the Cutlers' Hall, on last Easter Monday, lately came to a shocking and premature end, in the following manner, as we were, on this occasion, informed by his companions. Their master being asleep in a public house, in a village in Derbyshire, his two apprentices, who had been sweeping in the neighbourhood, were left with a company of fellows who were drinking together, and became the butts of their brutal conversation. Among other things, it was wantonly proposed to the younger apprentice to go up the chimney of the room in which they were sitting, while there was a fire in the range. He refused; but the elder, tempted by a promise of sixpence, ventured, and was helped up into the flue. Before he reached the top, however, the soot fell down in such quantities upon the fire below, that the chimney was soon in a blaze, and the poor boy struggled to the bottom through the flames, and was dragged out by the legs before he came direct upon the live coals in the grate. He was so miserably scorched, that he died, after lingering three weeks in excruciating torture." I need not further pursue the history of parliamentary proceedings on this subject, in which my friends and I bore our part from time to time, till, during the last Session, an Act for the total discontinuance of the evil practice passed both Houses, almost without a murmur of opposition, under the direct sanction of Her Majesty's Government. Among other intervening means for eventually bringing to pass this great purpose, Mr. Roberts projected the publication of a volume, to be entitled "The Chimney Sweepers' Friend, and Climbing Boys' Album," of which he persuaded me to undertake the editorship. The first part of the work, when completed, contained, in various forms, a summary of such information on the general question as we had been enabled to collect, during seventeen years, from the commencement of our labours and inquiries. The second part consisted of essays and tales, in prose and verse, illustrative of the unpitied and unalleviated sufferings of children, under this unnatural bondage, through more than a century since its introduction. These were chiefly furnished, at my solicitation, by living authors of distinction. The volume was dedicated, by permission, to His Majesty, George IV., and being soon out of print, a new edition was issued at York, by a benevolent bookseller, and sold extensively through the northern provinces. The following small pieces were my quota of contributions to this work. PROLOGUE.-A WORD WITH MYSELF. I KNOW they scorn the Climbing Boy, Is mockery with the thoughtless crowd. But let his country bear the shame, And feel the iron at her heart. I cannot coldly pass him by, Stript, wounded, left by thieves half dead; Nor see an infant Lazarus lie At rich men's gates, imploring bread. A frame as sensitive as mine, A naked, helpless, weeping child; My equal he will be again, Down in that cold, oblivious gloom, My equal in the judgment day, He shall stand up before the throne, And good and evil only known. And is he not mine equal now? Am I less fall'n from God and truth, Though "Wretch" be written on his brow, And leprosy consume his youth? If holy nature yet have laws Binding on man, of woman born, Arrest the doom, or share the scorn. Yes, let the scorn that haunts his course If I the fatherless forsake. Sheffield, Feb. 28, 1824. NO. I. THE COMPLAINT. WHO loves the Climbing Boy? Who cares If well or ill I be ? Is there a living soul that shares I've had no parents since my birth, I wake and see the morning shine, Ah! these they could not make him feel- Who bound me to that man of steel Whom mercy cannot melt. Yet not for wealth or ease I sigh, Many may be as poor as I, For all I know have kin and kind, Some home, some hope, some joy; Who knows the Climbing Boy? |