Part 16 (2/2)

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.

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