I heard sweepers represent that the passing of the Act of Parliament not only deprived them in many instances of the unexpired term of a boy's apprenticeship in his services as a climber, but "threw open the business to any one." The business, however, it seems, was always "open to any one." There was no art nor mystery in it, as regarded the functions of the master; any one could send a boy up a chimney, and collect and carry away the soot he brought down, quite as readily and far more easily than he can work a machine. Nevertheless, men under the old system could hardly (and some say they were forbidden to) embark in this trade unless they had been apprenticed to it; for they were at a loss how to possess themselves of climbing boys, and how to make a connection. When the machines were introduced, however, a good many persons who were able to raise the price" of one started in the line on their own account. These men have been called by the old hands "leeks" or "green 'uns," to distinguish them from the regularly-trained men, who pride themselves not a little on the fact of their having served seven or eight years, "duly and truly," as they never fail to express it. This increase of fresh hands tended to lower the earnings of the class; and some masters, who were described to me as formerly very "comfortable," and some, comparatively speaking, rich, were considerably reduced by it. The number of "leeks" in 1832 I heard stated, with the exaggeration to which I have been accustomed when uninformed men, ignorant of the relative value of numbers, have expressed their opinions, as 1000!

The several classes in the chimney-sweeping trade may be arranged as follows:

The Master Chimney-Sweepers, called sometimes "Governors" by the journeymen, are divisible into three kinds:

The "large" or "high masters," who employ from 2 to 10 men and 2 boys, and keep sometimes 2 horses and a cart, not particularly for the conveyance of the soot, but to go into the country to a gentleman's house to fulfil orders.

The "small" or "low masters," who employ, on an average, two men, and sometimes but one man and a boy, without either horse or cart.

The "single-handed master-men," who employ neither men nor boys, but do all the work themselves.

Of these three classes of masters there are two subdivisions.

The "leeks" or "green-uns," that is to say, those who have not regularly served their time to the trade.

The "knullers" or "queriers," that is to say, those who solicit custom in an irregular manner, by knocking at the doors of houses and such like.

Of the competition of capitalists in this trade there are, I am told, no instances. "We have our own stations," one master sweeper said, "and if I contract to sweep a genelman's house, here in Pancras, for 25s. a year, or 10s., or anythink, my nearest neighbour, as has men and machines fit, is in Marrybun; and it wouldn't pay to send

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his men a mile and a half, or on to two mile, and work at what I can-let alone less. No, sir, I've known bisness nigh 20 year, and there's nothink in the way of that underworking. The poor creeturs as keeps theirselves with a machine, and nothing to give them a lift beyond it, they'd undertake work at any figure, but nobody employs or can trust to them, but on chance." The contracts, I am told, for a year's chimney-sweeping in any mansion are on the same terms with one master as with another.

As regards the Journeymen Chimney-Sweepers there are also three kinds:

The "foreman" or "first journeyman" sweeper, who accompanies the men to their work, superintends their labours, and receives the money, when paid immediately after sweeping.

The "journeyman" sweeper, whose duty it is to work the machine, and (where no under-journeyman, or boy, kept) to carry the machine and take home the soot.

The "under-journeyman" or "boy," who has to carry the machine, take home the soot, and work the machine up the lower-class flues.

There are, besides these, some 20 climbing men, who ascend such flues as the machines cannot cleanse effectually, and, it must, I regret to say, be added, some 20 to 30 climbing boys, mostly under eleven years of age, who are still used for the same purpose "on the sly." Many of the masters, indeed, lament the change to machinesweeping, saying that their children, who are now useless, would, in "the good old times," have been worth a pound a week to them. It is in the suburbs that these climbing children are mostly employed.

The hours of labour are from the earliest morning till about midday, and sometimes later.

There are no Houses of Call, trade societies, or regulations among these operatives, but there are low public-houses to which they resort, and where they can always be heard of.

When a chimney-sweeper is out of work he merely inquires of others in the same line of business, who, if they know of any one that wants a journeyman, direct their brother sweeper to call and see the master; but though the chimneysweepers have no trade societies, some of the better class belong to sick, and others to burial, funds. The lower class of sweepers, however, seem to have no resource in sickness, or in their utmost need, but the parish. There are sweepers, I am told, in every workhouse in London.

There are three modes of payment common among the sweepers :-

1, in money;

2, partly in money and partly in kind; and 3, by perquisites.

The great majority of the masters pay the men they employ from 28. to 3s., and a few 48. and 6s. per week, together with their board and lodging. It may seem that 38. per week is a small sum, but it was remarked to me that there are few working men who, after supporting themselves, are able to save that sum weekly, while the sweepers have many perquisites of one sort or

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other, which sometimes bring them in 1s., 2s., 3s., 4s., and occasionally 5s. or 6s., a week additional -a sufficient sum to pay for clothes and washing. The journeymen, when lodged in the house of the master, are single men, and if constantly employed might, perhaps, do well, but they are often unemployed, especially in the summer, when there are not so many fires kept burning. As soon as one of them gets married, or what among them is synonymous, "takes up with a woman,” which they commonly do when they are able to purchase some sort of a machine, they set up for themselves, and thus a great number of the men get to be masters on their own account, without being able to employ any extra hands. These are generally reckoned among the "knullers;" they do but little business at first, for the masters long established in a neighbourhood, who are known to the people, and have some standing, are almost always preferred to those who are strangers or mere beginners.

It was very common, but perhaps more common in country towns than in London, for the journeymen, as well as apprentices, in this and many other trades to live at the master's table. But the board and lodging supplied, in lieu of money-wages, to the journeymen sweepers, seems to be one of the few existing instances of such a practice in London. Among slop-working tailors and shoemakers, some unfortunate workmen are boarded and lodged by their employers, but these employers are merely middlemen, who gain their living by serving such masters as "do not like to drive their negroes themselves." But among the sweepers there are no middlemen.

It is not all the journeymen sweepers, however, who are remunerated after this manner, for many receive 12s., and some 14s., and not a few 188. weekly, besides perquisites, but reside at their own homes.

Apprenticeship is now not at all common among the sweepers, as no training to the business is needed. Lord Shaftesbury, however, in July last, gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill to prevent persons who had not been duly apprenticed to the business establishing themselves as sweepers.

The Perquisites of the journeymen sweepers are for measuring, arranging, and putting the soot sold into the purchasers' sacks, or carts; for this is considered extra work. The payment of this perquisite seems to be on no fixed scale, some having 1s. for 50, and some for 100 bushels. When a chimney is on fire and a journeyman sweeper is employed to extinguish it, he receives from 1s. 6d. to 5s. according to the extent of time consumed and the risk of being injured. "Chance sweeping," or the sweeping of a chimney not belonging to a customer, when a journeyman has completed his regular round, ensures him 3d. in some employments, but in fewer than was once the case. The beer-money given by any customer to a journeyman is also his perquisite. Where a foreman is kept, the "brieze," or cinders collected from the grate, belong to him, and the ashes belong to the journeyman; but where there is no foreman, the

brieze and ashes belong to the journeyman solely. These they sell to the poor at the rate of 6d. a bushel. I am told by experienced men that, all these matters considered, it may be stated that one-half of the journeymen in London have perquisites of 1s. 6d., the other half of 2s. 6d. a week.

The Nominal Wages to the journeymen, then, are from 12s. to 18s. weekly, without board and lodging, or from 28. to 6s. in money, with board and lodging, represented as equal to 7s.

The Actual Wages are 2s. 6d. a week more in the form of perquisites, and perhaps 4d. daily in beer or gin.

The wages to the boys are mostly 1s. a week, but many masters pay 1s. 6d. to 28., with board and lodging. These boys have no perquisites, except such bits of broken victuals as are given to them at houses where they go to sweep.

The wages of the foreman are generally 188. per week, but some receive 148. and some 20s. without board and lodging. In one case, where the foreman is kept by the master, only 2s. 6d. in money is given to him weekly. The perquisites of these men average from 4s. to 5s. a week.

The work in the chimney-sweeping trade is more regular than might at first be supposed. The sweepers whose circumstances enable them to employ journeymen send them on regular rounds, and do not engage "chance" hands. If business is brisk, the men and the master, when a working man himself, work later than ordinary, and sometimes another hand is put on and paid the customary amount, by the week, until the brisk-ness ceases; but this is a rare occurrence. There are, however, strong lads, or journeymen out of work, who are occasionally employed in "jobbing," helping to carry the soot and such like.

The labour of the journeymen, as regards the payment by their masters, is continuous, but the men are often discharged for drunkenness, or for endeavouring to "form a connection of their own among their employers' customers, and new hands are then put on. "Chimneys won't wait, you know, sir," was said to me, "and if I quit a hand this week, there's another in his place next. If I discharge a hand for three months in a slack time, I have two on when it's a busy time." Perhaps the average employment of the whole body of operatives may be taken at nine months' work in the year. When out of employment the chief resource of these men is in night-work; some turn street-sellers and bricklayers' labourers.

I am told that a considerable sum of money was left for the purpose of supplying every climbing-boy who called on the first of May at a certain place, with a shilling and some refreshment, but I have not been able to ascertain by whom it was left, or where it was distributed; none of the sweepers with whom I conversed knew anything about it. I also heard, that since the passing of the Act, the money has been invested in some securities or other, and is now accumulating, but to what purpose it is intended to be applied I have no means of learning.

Let us now endeavour to estimate the gross yearly income of the operative sweepers.

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The general wages of the trade, including foreman, journeymen, and boys, and calculating the perquisites to average 28. weekly, will be 108. 6d. a week, the same as the cotton factory operatives. But if 10,500. be the income of the operatives, what do the employers receive who have to pay this sum?

The charge for sweeping one of the lofty chimneys in the public and official edifices, and in the great houses in the aristocratic streets and squares, is 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d.

The chimneys of moderate-sized houses are swept at 1s. to 1s. 6d. each, and those of the poorer classes are charged generally 6d.; some, however, are swept at 3d. and 4d.; and when soot realized a higher price (some of the present master sweepers have sold it at 1s. a bushel), the chimneys of poor persons were swept by the poorer class of sweeps merely for the perquisite of the soot. This is sometimes done even now, but to a very small extent, by a sweeper, " on his own hook," and in want of a job, but generally with an injunction to the person whose chimney has been cleansed on such easy terms, not to mention it, as it "couldn't be made a practice on."

Estimating the number of houses belonging to the wealthy classes of society to be 54,000, and these to be swept eight times a year, and the charge for sweeping to be 2s. 6d. each time; and the number of houses belonging to the middle classes to be 90,000, and each to be swept four times a year, at 18. 6d. each time; and the dwellings of the poor and labouring classes to be swept once a year at 6d. each time, and the number of such dwellings to be 165,000, we find that the total sum paid to the master chinney-sweepers of London is, in round numbers, 85,000l.

The sum obtained for 800,000 bushels of soot collected by the master-sweepers from the houses of London, at 5d. per bushel, is 16,500l. Thus the total annual income of the mastersweepers of London is 100,000.

Out of this 100,000l. per annum, the expenses of the masters would appear to be as follows:

Yearly Expenditure of the Master-Sweepers.

Sum paid in wages to 473 journey

men

Rent, &c., of 350 houses or lodg ings, at 127. yearly each.

The rent here given may seem low at 12. a year, but many of the chimney-sweepers live in parlours, with 'cellars below, in old out-of-the-way places, at a low rental, in Stepney, Shadwell, Wapping, Bethnal-green, Hoxton, Lock's-fields, Walworth, Newington, Islington, Somers-town, Paddington, &c. The better sort of master-sweepers at the West-end often live in a mews. The gains, then, of the master sweepers are as under :

Annual income for cleansing chimneys and soot .

£100,000

Expenditure for wages, rent, wear, and tear, keep of horses, &c., say 20,000 Annual profit of master chimneysweepers of London

£80,000

This amount of profit, divided among 350 masters, gives about 2301. per annum to each individual; it is only by a few, however, that such a sum is realized, as in the 100,000l. paid by the London public to the sweepers' trade, is included the sum received by the men who work single-handed, "on their own hook," as they say, employing no journeymen. Of these men's earnings, the accounts I heard from themselves and the other master sweepers were all accordant, that they barely made journeymen's wages. They have the very worst-paid portion of the trade, receiving neither for their sweeping nor their soot the prices obtained by the better masters; indeed they very frequently sell their soot to their more prosperous brethren. Their general statement is, that they make "eighteen pence a day, and all told." Their receipts then, and they have no perquisites as have the journeymen, are, in a slack time, about 1s. a day (and some days they do not get a job); but in the winter they are busier, as it is then that sweepers are employed by the poor; and at that period the "master-men" may make from 158. to 20s. a week each; so that, I am assured, the average of their weekly takings may be estimated at 12s. 6d.

Now, deducting the expenditure from the receipts of 100,000l. (for sweeping and soot), the balance, as we have seen, is 80,000%., an amount of profit which, if equally divided among the three classes of the trade, will give the following

£10,500

200 0

18,400

500 0

53,000

4,200

Wear and tear of 1000 machines,

11. each yearly

£76,340

Ditto 2000 sacks, at 1s. each yearly