said, he rose for the purpose of moving for leave to bring in a bill to prevent the Sweeping of Chimnies by means of Climbing Boys. As there were many members in the present parliament who were not in the last, he deemed it requisite to mention some of the circumstances which had been stated to a former parliament. The report which a committee appointed by that parliament had made, the communications which had been received from all parts of the country, and the evidence which had been collected and placed before the public for inspection, must have fully justified those who were sanguine last year, in being more sanguine during the present year. It was not necessary for him to detail the miseries to which these poor children were exposed; they met the eye of every man in his daily walks. The report of the surveyor-general of the board of works, which had been drawn up during the recess, stated that the chimnies might be divided into four classes—910 in the first, class, 50 in the second, 80 in the third, and 10 in the fourth, out of every thousand. Of these only 10 could not be swept by means of machinery. The house of a distinguished individual (be believed he might mention his name—it was earl Spencer) was said to have its chimnies constructed in such a manner as to render it impossible that they should be swept by machines: by his advice, however, machines had been applied to them; and he was happy to say, that they had all been swept by them. He would therefore affirm, that there were no chimnies which could not be swept by machines, or, if there were any, that they were only found in the mansions of the rich and opulent. The expense, therefore, of altering them could not be severely felt; or even if it were, ought not to be set in competition with the anguish and misery suffered by these Column 427is located here

climbing children. To show the use of the machine in another point of view, he would only add, that during the last month a chimney had been swept at the Tower with a machine in half an hour, which a boy was five hours sweeping some time since, and in which, as he was informed, a boy was once confined eight and twenty hours. To prevent the recurrence of such misery, he begged leave to bring in the present bill, which had been approved of by the last committee. The only alteration which he had made in it since that time was, to allow two years instead of one, before he called for the total abolition of the present practice of sweeping chimnies.