The Commission appointed to examine into the employment of children
report, among other matters, that the practice of using boys to sweep chimneys still continues. Some two- thousand boys are so used, though the practice is forbidden by law, and illegitimate children are constantly sold by their- mothers to master sweeps. The cruelties used are still hor- rible, every boy's elbows, knees, and thighs being, for example, rubbed with brine when the skin is worn off, and the- little wretches beaten with ash rods to make them bear the infliction. The master sweepers all declare that this severity is unavoidable, and aver that householders do not like the- machines. The Commissioners, therefore, propose that sweeps should be prohibited from havingboysin their employ, under any pretence whatever, as the only mode of stopping the practice.
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