A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies Part 16

All Gypsies must have some parish to which they belong; and if these parishes were to provide habitations for them, and to hold out encouragement to them to come and settle, and were to bear for the present with any ways which might be different from those of the regular inhabitants, affording them work as tinkers, &c. and providing education and work for their children; and for the present, even bearing with their travelling in the summer; this now almost unprofitable race of beings might be reclaimed to society. Many of them are accustomed, in the seasons, to undertake hay and harvest work. These, I think, with proper encouragement, might be induced to get their living by husbandry work throughout the year.

Should these suggestions lead to any farther discussion upon the subject, or to adopting any measures to promote the desired object; it would give me sincere pleasure to lend my a.s.sistance, either pecuniary or personal.

I am, Sir, &c. J. P.

_Cambridge_, _April_ 28, 1810.

P.S. I recollect having heard that the benevolent Jonas Hanway took a Gypsey for his servant, but I know not on what authority this was said.

_To the Editor of the Christian Observer_. {217}

The candid acknowledgment of your benevolent correspondent, in the Christian Observer for February last, that his attention had been first drawn to the state of the Gypsies by the letter of Fraternicus, was matter of unfeigned satisfaction to me; and as it is probable there may be no want of inclination in the Christian world, to extend relief effectually to them, permit me to solicit a place in your pages, for a thought which has occurred to me in my meditations on the subjects.

It appears from a letter in your number for May, that they are not totally dest.i.tute of a desire for the benefit of instruction.

Information might easily be obtained, as to what part of England they are to be found in the greatest numbers; and if a free school could be inst.i.tuted, and the means of instruction provided for those of their children who were willing to attend, at least in the winter season; might it not be a means of conveying useful knowledge to them?

By degrees, they might be brought to attend divine wors.h.i.+p regularly; and if in the parish of a pious clergyman, he would probably embrace the opportunity of teaching them, more particularly, the way of salvation. Much, however, might be done by a pious schoolmaster, and a schoolmistress, by whom the girls might be instructed in different kinds of work, knitting, sewing, &c.; and if any of the parents should evince a desire for instruction, they could be admitted at different hours in the day. It would be an interesting inquiry, what becomes of orphans among them, and whether there is not a possibility of at least rescuing them from their present state of ignorance and misery.

Should these suggestions be deemed worthy of your insertion, they might, perhaps awaken the attention of some benevolent persons, whose superior talents and experience in the ways of beneficence, would enable them to perfect and carry into execution, a plan for the effectual benefit of those unhappy partners of our kind. That He may grant it, from whom every good thought proceeds, is the fervent prayer of

FRATERNICUS.

SECTION XII.

Review of the Subject, and Suggestions for ameliorating the condition of the Gypsies in the British Empire.

Since the commencement of the present year, 1816, a friend {221} of the author has informed him, that about three weeks before, he was in company with an English and a Persian gentleman, who had lately come from Persia, through Russia; the latter well understood the languages of both countries, and spoke them fluently. He had travelled with the Persian Amba.s.sador; and said that he had met with many hordes of Gypsies in Persia; had many times conversed with them; and was surprised to find their language was the true Hindostanie. He did not then know of Grellmann's work. He further stated, that the Gypsies in Russia were, in language and manners, the same, and exactly corresponded with the Gypsies of this country. Their name in Persia signified _Black Eyes_.

From whatever part of the world we derive intelligence of this people, it tends to corroborate the opinion, that they have all had one peculiar origin. How little has it occupied the contemplation of Britons, that there existed among them, subjects of such great curiosity as the poor and despised Gypsies!

The statute of Henry VIII. imposing a fine of forty pounds upon the importation of a Gypsey, induces the belief they were much in request in England at that period. The attention which their low performances attracted in those times, will not perhaps excite surprise, when we see the encouragement given in our day, to their idly disposed countrymen, termed, _Indian Jugglers_. It is remarkable, that the earliest account of Gypsies in Great Britain, is in a work published to expose and detect the "Art of Juggling," &c.

The first of this people who came into Europe, must have been persons of discernment and discrimination, to have adapted their deceptions so exactly to the genius and habits of the different people they visited, as to ensure success in all countries.

The stratagem to which they had recourse on entering France, evinces consummate artifice of plan, and not a little adroitness and dexterity in the execution. The specious appearance of submission to papal authority, in the penance of wandering seven years without lying in a bed, combined three distinct objects. They could not have devised an expedient more likely to recommend them to the favor of Ecclesiastics; or better concerted for taking advantage of the superst.i.tious credulity of the people, and, at the same time, for securing to themselves the gratification of their own nomadic propensities. So complete was the deception they practised, that we find they wandered up and down in France, under the eye of magistracy, not for seven only, but for more than a hundred years, without molestation.

In 1561, the edict of the States of Orleans directed their expulsion by fire and sword; yet in 1612, they had increased to such a degree, that there was another order for their total extermination. Notwithstanding this severity, in 1671 they were again spread over the kingdom, as appears in the letters of the Marchioness de Sevigne to her friends, and the Countess Grignan, in nine volumes, translated from the last Paris edition: "Bohemians travel up and down the Provinces of France, and get their living by dancing, showing postures, and telling fortunes; but chiefly by pilfering, &c."

It is remarkable, that in all countries, they professed to be Egyptians; but the representation is not only refuted by Bellonius, but by later writers, who a.s.sert, that the "few who are to be found in _Egypt_, wander about as strangers _there_, and form a distinct people."

As historians admit that the greatest numbers of them are to be found in Turkey, and south of Constantinople, there is reason to apprehend they had a pa.s.sage through that country. If many of them did not visit Egypt previously to their arrival in Europe, they probably wished to avail themselves of the reputation the Egyptians had acquired in occult sciences, that they might practise with greater success, the arts to which they had been previously accustomed, and the practice of which is common in various parts of Asia. In other respects the habits of Egypt were very dissimilar to theirs.

We find by the reports on the first question put by the Circular, mentioned in Section IX. that "all Gypsies in this country suppose the first of them came from Egypt;" and this idea is confirmed by many circ.u.mstances that have been brought into view in the course of this work. In addition it may be observed, that before the discovery of the pa.s.sage to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, all the productions of the east, that were distributed in Europe, came to Egyptian ports. Hence we have many concurring testimonies, which render it highly probable, if not evidently clear, that the first Gypsey tribes who came into England, and other parts of Europe, migrated from hordes of that people who had previously found their way into Egypt.

The evidence appears equally strong, that they were not natives of Egypt; but as the Egyptians were in great repute for the practice of the occult sciences, common to them and to the Suder caste; we cannot be surprized to find these crafty itinerants, should avail themselves of such an opportunity, as coming out of that country, to profess themselves Egyptians.

Continental writers exhibit a strange a.s.semblage of crude, and incongruous ideas on the subject of Gypsey extraction. So numerous are the opinions diffusely stated, that Grellmann must have exercised much patient investigation, to deduce from them the rational and satisfactory conclusions which his Dissertation presents.

Our countryman Swinborne, in describing the Gypsies in Calabria, is the first to remark that their peculiar language bears great affinity to the oriental tongues; and that many of their customs resemble those of the heathens. But European ignorance of the habits and speech of Asiatics may be accounted for, whilst the rich productions of India continued to be brought to Egyptian ports, and to be conveyed thence by the Lombard merchants, to be distributed over Europe

The _Cingari_, _Zigeuners_, or _Gypsies_, had been in Germany nearly a century, before the Portuguese discovered the pa.s.sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The stimulus which this discovery gave to improvements in the art of navigation, soon opened immediate intercourse with the eastern world. Vast are the establishments, which have been subsequently effected, in that quarter of the globe by naval powers, and extraordinary have been, of late years, the exertions for the acquisition of oriental languages; yet so numerous are they in those widely extended regions, that European knowledge of Asiatic etymology, is yet but in a state of infancy.

The case of the Gypsies is singular; for it may fairly be questioned, whether it has a parallel in the history of the world. Dispersed over the face of the earth, without any organization of their different hordes; and all concert between them entirely precluded by separations of hundreds of miles from each other, in different parts of the globe, and by their incapacity for literary communication; they have, however, whilst speaking the languages of the respective countries they inhabit, preserved in _all places one_ peculiar to themselves, and have transmitted it through a lapse of centuries to their descendants, almost unimpaired.

Increased acquaintance with oriental customs and tongues, has, at length, discovered the near coincidence they have with the language of the Gypsies, and has developed an origin of this people, of which those of the present age were, till now, entirely ignorant. It will appear extraordinary, that these people should have been able, by oral means alone, and under all disadvantages, to retain their language, and yet not to have handed down with it, any tradition that might lead to a discovery of who they were, or whence they came. But the knowledge recently acquired, of their very abject condition in the country from which they emigrated, offers a reason why the first comers might be anxious to conceal their pedigree, the meanness of which would have but ill accorded with the t.i.tles of rank a.s.sumed by some of their leaders.

The regulations proposed by the Empress Theresa, and the Emperor Joseph II. could they have been carried into effect, would doubtless have improved the state of the Gypsies. But an order for children to be torn away from their parents, was so far from being dictated by the study of human nature, that it did violence to the tenderest sensibilities, and set at nought the kindest emotions. Its tendency was to produce in the minds of Gypsies, disaffection to the state, and to indispose others from aiding in the execution of the edict. The advantages to be derived by Governments from a liberal toleration, being not then so well understood as in succeeding times, they were not duly regarded.

Those potentates considering Zigeuners of Egyptian origin, might reasonably conceive agriculture well adapted to their genius and inclination; but it was a pursuit, which, more than any other, they disapproved.

All other Governments appear to have been misled, in like manner, by the deception which the first Gypsies practised; for had they been apprized of this people's descent, and of the almost unalterable pertinacity of an Indian caste, they would have been sensible that an attempt to change their habits by force, was a measure the least likely to be attended with success.

The Circular introduced in the ninth Section of this work, notices Gypsies being hunted like beasts of prey, from towns.h.i.+p to towns.h.i.+p in England; and it has been ascertained, that in some places they are routed, as it is termed, by order of magistrates, whenever they appear, and sent to prison on the vagrant act, without so much as a charge of depredation upon property. "This is to make their persons, an object of persecution, instead of the protection of our laws."

For the credit of our country it may be hoped, that instances of this sort, respecting Gypsies, are not very numerous; seeing all writers concur in stating, every attempt by coercive means to alter the peculiar habits of this people, have had a tendency to alienate them still more from civil a.s.sociations, and directly to defeat the end proposed. It is time therefore that a better and a more enlightened policy should be adopted in Europe, towards a race of human beings, under so many hereditary disadvantages as are the helpless, the rude, the uninstructed Gypsies.

In the decision on the vagrant case, in Crabbe's "Hall of Justice,"

{231a} and in the treatment of Gypsies on Knoland-Green, {231b} a temper is displayed so truly Christian, and so different from what is just alluded to, that in consulting the best feelings of human nature, it adds dignity to magistracy.

Sir Frederick Morton Eden, in his first volume on the State of the Poor, p. 306, refers to an Act pa.s.sed in 1741, respecting that cla.s.s of the poor, who are considered by the Legislature as the outcasts of society, namely rogues, vagabonds, &c.; and he remarks: "From perusing the catalogue of actions which denominate a man, a disorderly person, a vagabond, or incorrigible rogue, the reader may perhaps incline to think that many of the offences specified in this Act, and in subsequent statutes, on the same subject, are of a very dubious nature, and that it must require nice legal ac.u.men, to distinguish whether a person incurs any, and what, penalty, under the vagrant laws."

In support of this opinion, and of the indefinite and unjustifiable lat.i.tude of those statutes, a late decision at Maidstone, in the action of Robins, v. Boyce, affords a striking demonstration.

If the statutes do not admit of any construction in favor of Gypsies, but enjoin rigorous treatment of them, merely for wandering, it may become a question whether the peculiar circ.u.mstances of their case, might not const.i.tute an exception to the general rule.

However wholesome and salutary vagrant Acts may be, to deter persons from quitting their parishes in order to levy contributions, by practising impositions in places where they are not known, it is obvious that Gypsies, having no parochial settlements, cannot come under that description. Excepting a temporary residence of some of them in winter, their home is a whole county, and the majority of them are too independent to apply to any parish for a.s.sistance.

Here is a trait in their character, which, were it grafted on the stock of half the paupers in the kingdom, would be a national advantage.

It ought to procure some indulgence for the Gypsies, that their wandering mode of life does not originate in any contumacious opposition to judicial order; but in a scrupulous regard to the Inst.i.tutions of their ancestors. For the advantages we possess, shall we return injury to our fellow-men! If after being fully introduced into a situation to taste the comforts of social order, and to acquire a knowledge of mechanical professions, which would render them useful and respectable, any of them, despising these privileges, should indulge wandering dispositions, they might then deserve all the punishment which under the vagrant Acts, can be indicted.

It is worthy of remark, that in the evidence respecting mendicity in London, adduced last year before the Committee of the House of Commons, there is only a single instance in the parish called St. Giles, that noted rendezvous of Gypsies, of one of their tribe, a girl, begging in the streets.

Is it not high time the people of England were undeceived, respecting the motives to Gypsey perseverance in their singular line of conduct. Their invincible attachment to the traditions they have received, is almost proof, in itself, of Grellmann's a.s.sertion, that they are the descendants of an Indian caste; in whose estimation inviolable adherence to the customs of their order, const.i.tutes the highest perfection of character.

When any remark is made to them on their strange mode of conduct, they are ready to reply: "The inhabitants of cieled houses follow the customs of their predecessors; What more do we? Are they creatures of habit? So are we."

After this account, is it surprising that the violent means pursued against them in all countries, have been ineffectual to abolish their peculiarities?

Their humane and intelligent biographer, Grellmann, styles them a "singular phenomenon in Europe;" and it may justly be observed of such of them as inhabit countries accounted the most enlightened, that the contrast which their dest.i.tute state presents to the numerous advantages of civilized life, and to the refinements of polished society, is truly astonis.h.i.+ng. If there possibly can be a single Briton who is a skeptic to the benefits of education, let him only take a view of the intellectual degradation and disgusting condition of the Gypsies. But if Britons have made greater advancement in civilization than some other nations, the Gypsies here are left at a greater distance, and furnish the more occasion for their condition being improved.