of those who are transported consider it as a party of pleasure-as going out to see the world; they evince no penitence, no contrition, but seem to rejoice in the thing, -many of them to court it. I have heard them, when the sentence of transportation has been passed by the Recorder, return thanks for it, and seem overjoyed at their sentence: the very last party that went off, when they were put into the caravan, shouted and huzzaed, and were very joy ous; several of them called out to the keep ers who were there in the yard, The first fine Sunday we will have aglorious Kangaroo sink of wickedness, in which the great majority of convicts of both sexes become infinitely more depraved than at the period of their arrival. How, as Mr. Bennet very justly observes, can it be otherwise? The felon transported to the American plantations, became an insulated rogue among honest men. He lived for years in the family of some industrious planter, without seeing a picklock, or indulging in pleasant dialogues on the delicious burglaries of his youth. He imperceptibly glided into honest habits, and lost not only the tact for pockets, but the wish to investigate their contents. But in Botany Bay, the felon, as soon as he gets out of the ship, meets with his ancient trull, with the footpad of his heart, the convict of his affections,-the man whose hand he has often met in the same gentleman's pocket-the being whom he would choose from the whole world to take to the road, or to disentangle the locks of Bramah. It is impossible that vice should not become more intense in such society. hunt at the Bay,-seeming to anticipate a great deal of pleasure.' He was asked if those persons were married or single, and his answer was, 'By far the greater number of them were unmarried. Some of them are anxious that their wives and children should follow them: others care nothing about either wives or children, and are glad to get rid of them.'” — (Bennet, pp. 60, 61). It is a scandalous injustice in this colony, that persons transported for seven years have no power of returning when that period is expired. A strong active man may sometimes work his passage home; but what is an old man or an aged female to do? Suppose a Upon the horrid state of morals now convict were to be confined in prison prevalent in Botany Bay, we would for seven years, and then told he might counsel our readers to cast their eyes get out if he could climb over the walls, upon the account given by Mr. Marsor break open the locks, what in general den, in a letter dated July 1815, to would be his chance of liberation? Governor Macquarrie. It is given at But no lock nor doors can be so secure length in the Appendix to Mr. Bennet's a means of detention as the distance book. A more horrid picture of the of Botany Bay. This is a downright trick and fraud in the administration of criminal justice. A poor wretch who is banished from his country for seven years, should be furnished with the means of returning to his country when these seven years are expired. If it is intended he should never return, his sentence should have been banishment for life. state of any settlement was never penned. It carries with it an air of truth and sincerity, and is free from all enthusiastic cant. "I now appeal to your Excellency," he says at the conclusion of his letter, "whether, under such circumstances, any man of common feeling, possessed of the least spark of humanity or religion, who stood in the same official relation that I do to these people, as their spiritual pastor and magistrate, could enjoy one happy moment from the beginning to the end of the week? The most serious charge against the colony, as a place for transportation, and an experiment in criminal justice, "I humbly conceive that it is incompatis the extreme profligacy of manners ible with the character and wish of the which prevails there, and the total want British nation, that her own exiles should of reformation among the convicts. be exposed to such privations and dangerous Upon this subject, except in the regular temptations, when she is daily feeding the letters, officially varnished and filled ceiving into her friendly, and I may add with fraudulent beatitudes for the pub-pious bosom, the stranger, whether savage lie eye, there is, and there can be, but or civilised, of every nation under heaven. ane opinion. New South Wales is a There are, in the whole, under the two hungry and clothing the naked, and re principal superintendents, Messrs. Rouse merit. Mr. O'Hara's is a bookseller's and Oakes, one hundred and eight men, and compilation, done in a useful and pleasone hundred and fifty women, and several ing manner. Mr. Wentworth is full of children; and nearly the whole of them information on the present state of have to find lodgings for themselves when they have performed their government tasks. "I trust that your Excellency will be fully persuaded, that it is totally impossible for the magistrate to support his necessary authority, and to establish a regular police, under such a weight of accumulated and accumulating evils. I am as sensible as any one can be, that the difficulty of removing these evils will be very great; at the same time, their number and influence may be greatly lessened, if the abandoned male and female convicts are lodged in barracks, and placed under the eye of the police, and the number of licensed houses is reduced. Till something of this kind is done, all attempts of the magistrate, and the public administration of religion, will be attended with little benefit to the general good. I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, SAMUEL MARSDEN."-(Bennet, p. 134.) Botany Bay. The humanity, the exertions, and the genuine benevolence of Mr. Bennet, are too well known to need our commendation. All persons who have a few guineas in their pocket, are now running away from Mr. Nicholas Vansittart to settle in every quarter of the globe. Upon the subject of emigration to Botany Bay, Mr. Wentworth observes, 1st, That any respectable person emigrating to that colony, receives as much land gratis as would cost him 400% in the United States; 2dly, He is allowed as many servants as he may require, at one third of the wages paid for labour in America; 3dly, Himself and family are victualled at the expense of Government for six months. He calculates that a man, wife, and two children, with an allowance of five tons for themselves and baggage, could emigrate to Botany Bay for 100, including every expense, provided a whole ship could be freighted; and that a single man could be taken out thither for 301. These points are worthy of serious attention to those who are shedding their country. CHIMNEY SWEEPERS. (E. REVIEW, 1819.) Thus much for Botany Bay. As a mere colony, it is too distant and too expensive; and, in future, will of curse involve us in many of those just and necessary wars, which deprive Englishmen so rapidly of their comforts, and make England scarcely worth living in. If considered as a place of reform for criminals, its distance, expense, and the society to which it dooms the objects of the experiment, are insuper able objections to it. It is in vain to say, that the honest people in New South Wales will soon bear a greater proportion to the rogues, and the con- Account of the Proceedings of the Society tamination of bad society will be less for superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys. Baldwin, &c. London. 1816. fatal. This only proves that it may be a good place for reform hereafter, not AN excellent and well-arranged dinthat it is a good one now. One of the ner is the most pleasing occurrence, principal reasons for peopling Botany and a great triumph of civilised life. Bay at all, was, that it would be an It is not only the descending morsel, admirable receptacle, and a school of and the enveloping sauce - but the reform for our convicts. It turns out, rank, wealth, wit, and beauty which that for the first half century, it will surround the meats the learned make them worse than they were before, management of light and heat-the and that, after that period, they may silent and rapid services of the attendprobably begin to improve. A marsh, ants- the smiling and sedulous host, to be sure, may be drained and culti-proffering gusts and relishes the vated; but no man who has his choice, exotic bottles-the embossed platewould select it in the mean time for his the pleasant remarks the handsome dwelling-place. dresses the cunning artifices in fruit The three books are all books of and farina! The hour of dinner, in short, includes every thing of sensual and intellectual gratification which a great nation glories in producing. In the midst of all this, who knows that the kitchen chimney caught fire half an hour before dinner!- and that a poor little wretch of six or seven years old, was sent up in the midst of the fames to put it out? We could not, previous to reading this evidence, have formed a conception of the miseries of these poor wretches, or that there should exist, in a civilised country, a class of human beings destined to such extreme and varied distress. We will give a short epitome of what is developed in the evidence before the two Houses of Parliament. chimneys? Yes.-What did you feel upon the first attempt to climb a chimney? The first chimney I went up, they told me there was some plum-pudding and money up at ticed me up; and when I got up I would the top of it, and that is the way they ennot let the other boy get from under me to get at it, I thought he would get it; I could not get up, and shoved the pot and half the chimney down into the yard.—Did you experience any inconvenience to your knees, or your elbows? Yes, the skin was off my knees and elbows too, in climbing up the new they force you up? When I got up, I cried chimneys they forced me up.-How did out about my sore knees.-Were you beat or compelled to go up by any violent means? Yes, when I went to a narrow chimney, if I could not do it, I durst not go home; when I used to come down, my master would well beat me with the brush; and not only my Imaster, but when we used to go with the journeymen, if we could not do it, they used to hit us three or four times with the brush." by-(Lords' Minutes, No. 1. p. 5.) Boys are made chimney sweepers at the early age of five or six. Little boys for small flues, is a common phrase in the cards left at the door itinerant chimney sweepers. Flues made to ovens and coppers are often less than nine inches square; and it may be easily conceived, how slender the frame of that human body must be, which can force itself through such an aperture. "What is the age of the youngest boys who have been employed in this trade, to your knowledge? About five years of age: I know one now between five and six years old; it is the man's own son in the Strand: now there is another at Somers Town, I think, said he was between four and five, or about five; Jack Hall, a little lad, takes him about. Did you ever know any female children employed? Yes, I know one now. About two years ago there was a woman told me she had climbed scores of times, and there is one at Paddington now, whose father taught her to climb; but I have often heard talk of them when I was apprentice, in different places.-What is the smallest-sized flue you have ever met with in the course of your experience? About erit inches by nine; these they are always obred to climb in this posture (describing , keeping the arms up straight; if they slip their arms down, they get jammed in; unless they get their arms close over their head, they cannot climb." (Lords Minutes, No. 1. p. 8.) In practising the art of climbing, they are often crippled. "You talked of the pargetting of chimneys; are many chimneys pargetted? There have to go and sit all a-twist to parge them, used to be more than are now; we used to according to the floors, to keep the smoke from coming out; then I could not straighten my legs; and that is the reason that many are cripples,-from parging and stopping the holes."-(Lords' Minutes, No. 1. p. 17.) They are often stuck fast in a chimney, and, after remaining there many hours, are cut out. "Have you known, in the course of your practice, boys stick in chimneys at all? Yes, frequently.--Did you ever know an instance of a boy being suffocated to death? No; I do not recollect any one at present, but I have assisted in taking boys out when they have been nearly exhausted. - Did you ever know an instance of its being necessary to break open a chimney to take the boy out? O yes. Frequently? Monthly I might say; it is done with a cloak, if possible, that it should not be discovered: a master in general wishes it not to be known, and therefore speaks to the people belonging to the house not to mention it, for it was merely the boy's neglect; they often say it was the boy's neglect.The following is a specimen of the Why do they say that? The boy's climbing manner in which they are taught this shirt is often very bad; the boy coming down, if the chimney be very narrow, and art of climbing chimneys. numbers of them are only nine inches, gets "Do you remember being taught to climb his shirt rumpled underneath him, and he VOL. L T has no power after he is fixed in that way is frantic-all eyes are turned upon the To the same effect is the evidence of "You have swept the Penitentiary? I have. Did you ever know a boy stick in any of the chimneys there? Yes, I have. -Was it one of your boys? It wasWas there one or two that stuck? Two of them.-How long did they stick there? Two hours. How were they got out? They were cut out.-Was there any danger while they were in that situation? It was the core from the pargetting of the chimney, and the rubbish that the labourers had thrown down, that stopped them, and when they got it aside them, they could not pass. -They both stuck together? Yes."(Lords' Minutes, p. 147.) One more instance we shall give, from the Evidence before the Commons. Have you heard of any accidents that cerned? Or what is a toasted child "Did you ever know a boy get burnt up do not go up."-(Lords' Minutes, p. 34.) "Were you ever forced up a chimney on Three have recently happened to climbing-boys We come now to burning little chimney sweepers. A large party are invited to dinner-a great display is to be made; - and about an hour before dinner, there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire! It is impo-sible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish, the cook half a guinea.- Is any part of that given to Chimney sweepers are subject to a 2 take the smallest boy, to let him through the hole without taking up the seat, and to paddle about there until he finds it; they do not take a big boy, because it disturbs the seat."- (Lords' Minutes, p. 38.) is often the soot they have swept in the The bed of these poor little wretches day. "How are the boys generally lodged; where do they sleep at night? Some masters may be better than others, but I know I have slept on the soot that was gathered in the day myself. Where do boys gene chimney sweepers. "He appeared perfectly willing to try the machines everywhere? I must say the man appeared perfectly willing; he had a fear that he and his family would be ruined by them; but I must say of him, that he is very different from other sweeps I have seen; he attends very much to his own business; he was as black as any boy he bad got, and unfortunately in the course of conversation he told me he had got a cancer; he was a fine healthy strong-looking man; be told me he dreaded having an operation performed, but his father died of the same complaint, and that his father was sweeper to King George the Second."-(Lords' rally sleep? Never on a bed; I never slept Minutes, p. 84.) on a bed myself while I was apprentice. "What is the nature of the particular-Do they sleep in cellars? Yes, very often; diseases? The diseases that we particularly I have slept in the cellar myself on the noticed, to which they were subject, were sacks I took out. -What had you to cover of a cancerous description.-In what part? you? The same. Had you any pillow? The scrotum in particular, &c.-Did you No further than my breeches and jacket ever hear of cases of that description that under my head.-How were you clothed? were fatal? No, I do not think them as When I was apprentice we had a pair of being altogether fatal, unless they will not leather breeches and a small flannel jacket. submit to the operation; they have such a - Any shoes and stockings? Oh dear no; dread of the operation that they will not no stockings. - Had you any other clothes submit to it, and if they do not let it be for Sunday? Sometimes we had an old bit perfectly removed, they will be liable to the of a jacket, that we might wash out ourreturn of it.-To what cause do you at-selves, and a shirt." (Lords' Minutes, tribute that disease? I think it begins p. 40.) from a want of care: the scrotum being in so many folds or crevices, the soot lodges in them and creates an itching, and I conceive that, by scratching it and tearing it, the sot gets in and creates the irritability; which disease we know by the name of the chimney-sweeper's cancer, and is always lectured upon separately as a distinct disease.-Then the Committee understands that the physicians who are entrusted with the care and management of those hospitals think that disease of such common occurrence, that it is necessary to make it a part of surgical education? Most assuredly; I remember Mr. Cline and Mr. Cooper were particular on that subject. Another peculiar danger to which Without an operation there is no cure? I rottenness of the pots at the top of chimney sweepers are exposed, is the Conceive not; I conceive without the operathe very summit, and show their chimneys; - for they must ascend to brushes above them, or there is no proof that the work is properly completed. These chimney-pots, from their exposed situation, are very subject to decay; and when the poor little wretch has worked his way up to the top, pot and boy give way together and are both shivered to atoms. There are many instances of this in the evidence before both Houses. When they outgrow the power of going up a chimney, they are fit for nothing else. The hon it is death; for cancers are of that nature that unless you extirpate them entirely, they will never be cured,"-(Commons' Rep. pp. 60, 61.) In addition to the life they lead as chimney sweepers, is superadded the occupation of nightmen. "(By a Lord.) Is it generally the custom that many masters are likewise nightmen? Yes; I forgot that circumstance, which is very grievous; I have been tied round the middle and let down several privies, for the purpose of fetching watches and such things; it is generally made the practice to 'Another circumstance, which has not been mentioned to the Committee, is, that there are several little girls employed; there are two of the name of Morgan at Windsor, daughters of the chimney sweeper who is employed to sweep the chimneys of the Castle; another instance at Uxbridge, and at Brighton, and at Whitechapel (which was some years ago), and at Hadley near Barnet, and Witham in Essex, and elsewhere."(Commons' Report, p. 71.) |