Chimney sweepers' boys. The resolutions and petition to Parliament ... of the inhabitants of Sheffield ... To which is added an address ... / by Samuel Roberts.

  • Sheffield (England)
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chimney sweepers' boys. The resolutions and petition to Parliament ... of the inhabitants of Sheffield ... To which is added an address ... / by Samuel Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ]& course of their lives, experience,—a degree of suffering under which many sink,—many die. In a recent instance, In this Town, when a Master Chimney Sweeper was brought before the Magistrates, for so ill using one boy, that he died, and another so as to endanger his life, the defence set up by the IVIaster was, not that tne boy had not been cruelly used, (the wounds on every part of his body too clearlv proved that he had ;) No i ne boldly asserted, that such sufferings were inseparable from the trade,_and that no child could become a Climbing Boy, without going through this painful and dangerous ordeal. He therefore airgued, that he had been no way to blame, though he did not attempt to deny that the formei boy had died in toe course of this liecessaiy baldening. Fearful that this single assertion might not, on such an occasion, he thought conclusive, he brought another Master Chimney Sweeper with him, who asserted the same thing, and by way of establishing tne fact beyond controversy, the latter exhibited his own son, whose scars sufficiently proved that he had not been exempted from this common lot of Climbing Boys, only, that he had in consequence of either more care, or a stionger constitution, survived the seasoning. Now, Sir, whatever defence this might seem to afford to the Master, it will, I presume, afford none to those who linnecessaiily cd- courage such a trade. . . The feeling mind revolts at the sight of animals taught, to perform any acts not natural to them, such as dogs dancing, &c. &c. because we well know, that they must have been severely tortured in learning these thirigs. We, however, without remorse, employ poor children in the performance of a task much more revolt¬ ing to their nature, and which we are thus assuicd they cannot be taught, but by such tortures as gicatly en¬ danger and frequently abridge their existence, though it will hardlv be asserted in extenuation, that vheii per¬ formances are amusing. They are certainly not neces¬ sary ! . It may be said, Sir, that there are laws to protect the Climbing Boys from oppression ! rI here are, it is true, laws intended so to do. So there are. to piotect the slaves in the West Indies, but where the objects to