This is a most extraordinary testimony, and, if true, would show a total abandonment of principle on the part of your Agents, and the servants of the Hospital, and brings to mind the vulgar adage, “Surely if the old woman had not hidden in the oven herself, she would never have looked there for her daughter.” Probably Mr. Bentley is not at church when that beautiful characteristic of Christianity is insisted on in these words, “Charity thinketh no evil; and charity hopeth all things.”
By this allusion to the church, Mr. Bentley appears willing to work upon the sympathies of the public, to a certain extent, so that it does not interfere with his own purpose.
It is deeply to be regretted that the energies of good people are directed to “bettering the condition of these poor children,” as it is called, when, by a little Christian co-operation, the employment which gives them their singularity, and which is said to prevent their mingling with other children, might be done away. The value of religious instruction, and the imperative duty of all constantly to attend the services of religion, are too self-evident to require an enforcement here. But why those who are so kindly disposed, should prefer ministering to these children in their wretchedness, to freeing them from the wretchedness itself, is a mystery hard to be understood.
Your Committee would state that the Agents of the Society are exclusively employed in the houses of Fifteen Noblemen, and that the Society is gaining most exceedingly upon the good opinion of the community in general.
A Resolution has passed the Town Council of Bath, ordaining that the chimneys in all the houses belonging to that Corporation shall in future be swept by machinery. The Mayor’s Lady writes:—“Finding upon inquiry that here, as in Bristol, the machine keepers, though professing to forego the use of boys, keep them, and most generally use them, it occurred to me that we might have one of Glass’s Machines, and establish it on our own terms. I am enabled to inform you, that the machine has arrived, and answers very well. Not wishing to have one of the chimney-sweeping fraternity, we have selected a respectable man, who appears to manage the undertaking very well. He is already feeling some of the trials of the business, in the persecuting spirit of the chimney-sweepers; but having the Mayor of the city as his patron, we hope we may proceed without much opposition.”
Your Agents are constantly employed in One Hundred and Ten Government and other Public Buildings, and in Eleven Banking Houses.
Twenty-two Thousand One Hundred and Ninety-three chimneys have been swept by your Agents in London and its immediate neighbourhood during the past year.
Machines have been purchased since the last Report by His Grace the Duke of Leinster; the Earl of Cawdor; Lord Skelmersdale; Lord Lynedoch; the Right Hon. B. Bathurst, Lydney Park. And by persons at the following places—Bath, 2; Belfast, 1; Brighton, 4; Deptford, 1; Gloucester, 1; Greenwich, 1; Hounslow, 1; Ipswich, 1; London, 6; Liverpool, 1; Margate, 1; March, 1; Northampton, 1; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1; Stone, 1; Wellington, 1; Wisbeach, 1.—Total, 31.
Thirteen soot doors have been put into Thirteen chimneys during the past year, at an average expense of 14s. 7-1/2d. each, to adapt these ill-built chimneys to the use of the machine: this is all that is required, and this alteration is the real amount of what is described by the enemies of the cause as a most serious destruction of house property, and involving an outlay of money, not for one moment to be conceded.
The foregoing has been selected from among the agreeable transactions of the year.