A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies Part 18

"Did the friends of _universal education_ require a fresh ill.u.s.tration, they would find it in the scene we are now contemplating; and they would confidently invite those who still entertain a doubt on the subject, to a more close and rigid examination of that scene, satisfied with the effect upon every candid and unprejudiced mind. For, a.s.suredly, "men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles:" and when morality, decency, and order, are gradually occupying the abodes of licentiousness, misery, and guilt, the change must be attributed to some operating cause, and _that_ cause must be derived from the Source of all Good.

"The principles of decorum, of propriety, and of virtue, are instilled into the youthful mind; and by a powerful reaction, they reach the heart of the parent; the moral atmosphere extends-its benefits are felt and appreciated-the Bible takes its proper place in the habitations of poverty; and thus in its simple, natural, and certain course, the _germ_ of _instruction_ yields the happy fruit of _moral reformation_."

If as Grellmann computes, there are not fewer than 700,000 of these people in Europe, who do not either plough, or sow, or the greater part of them contribute in any manner to the improvement of the country, or the support of the State, what a subject is this, for the contemplation of Governments!

In reference to England, it is a beautiful exclamation of the Christian Observer: "Surely when our charity is flowing in so wide a channel, conveying the blessings of the gospel to the most distant quarters of the globe, we shall not hesitate to water this one barren and neglected field, in our own land." Uniting cordially in this appeal, it is a great satisfaction to be able to state, there are traits of character in this people, which encourage attention to Gypsey soil. Let it but be cleared of weeds, and sown with good seed, and the judicious cultivator may calculate upon a crop to compensate his toil.

Greater proof of confidence, as to money transactions, not being misplaced in Gypsies need not be given, than in the testimony of the landlord at Kirk Yetholm, to William Smith, that his master knew he was as sure of their money, as if he had it in his pocket.

In Dr. Clarke's Travels, published in the present year, Part the 2nd of Section 3rd, page 592, are the following observations respecting the Gypsies of Hungary: "The Wallachian Gypsies are not an idle race. They might rather be described as a laborious people; and the greater part of them honestly endeavour to earn a livelihood. It is this part of them who work as gold-washers."

In page 637, the Doctor remarks: "The Wallachians of the Bannat, bear a very bad character, and perhaps many of the offences attributed to Gypsies, may be due to this people, who are the least civilized, and the most ferocious of all the inhabitants of Hungary." {262}

Could grateful sensibility of favors received, and of personal attachment, be more strikingly evinced than in the prompt.i.tude of Will Faa, who when he was eighty years of age, on hearing of his landlord being unwell, undertook, at the hazard of his life, a journey of a hundred miles, to see him before he died?

The attention of Gypsies to the aged and infirm of their fraternity, is not less exhibited in the case of Ann Day, whose age is inserted in a work on human longevity, published at Salisbury in 1799. She was aged 108, and had not slept in a bed during seventy years. She was well known in the counties of Bedford and Herts, and having been a long time blind, she always rode upon an a.s.s, attended by two or three of the tribe. A friend of the author, a farmer near Baldock, who had frequently given food and straw for the old woman, says of the attendants she had, her comfort and support seemed to be their chief concern. He considers her longevity a proof of the kindness she received. Her interment, which was at Arsley, near Henlow, was attended by her son and daughter, the one 82, the other 85 years of age, each having great grand-children.

It must have been a satisfaction to every one interested in the improvement of human nature, to observe the number of advocates who have come forward, within the last ten years, in this country, to plead the cause of this despised and abused people.

In bringing their case before the public, the author has aimed at discharging what he thought inc.u.mbent upon him to undertake on their behalf. He trusts that persons much more competent than himself, will be induced to give effect to whatever measures may be thought best adapted to promote the temporal, as well as spiritual benefit of this people; and that as H, the correspondent of the Christian Observer, remarks: "amidst the great light that prevails, the reproach may be wiped away from our country, of so many of its children walking in darkness, and in the shadow of death."

Can a nation, whose diffusive philanthropy extends to the civilization of a quarter of the globe, and to the evangelization of the whole world, be regardless of any of the children of her own bosom, or suffer the pious, truly patriotic solicitude of her King, for the instruction of the meanest of his subjects to remain unaccomplished.

Many persons appear zealous to send Missionaries to convert heathens in the most distant parts of the world; when, as a late writer {264} observes, "the greatest, perhaps of all heathens, are at home, entirely neglected."

Peace and tranquillity are favorable to the improvement of the internal condition of a country; and can Britain more unequivocally testify her grat.i.tude for the signal favors conferred upon her, than in promoting that object for which rational beings were formed-the glory of G.o.d, and the happiness of his creatures.

In relation to the uncultivated race we have been surveying, may a guarded and religious education prove to them, as the voice crying in the wilderness: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert an highway for our G.o.d." The subsequent declaration, without doubt, is descriptive of what should be effected under the gospel dispensation: "The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and _all flesh_ shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."-Isaiah, Chap. xl. v.

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Footnotes:

{82} In the 31st page of Sir Frederick Morton Eden's Appendix to the State of the Poor, it appears that in 1426, a hay horse, for the Prior (we may suppose of prime quality) cost 1 6s. 8d. and a colt 4s. 6d. And in the year 1448, page 34, the hay of one acre was estimated at 5s.

{89} Weirde, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "_wird_;" _i.e._, fatum, or deafinie, and is used in this sense, in Hollinshed.

{94} Ballie is a material designation in Scotland, agreeing in rank with that of Alderman in England.

{201} Vol. vii. p. 496, 497.

{205} Vol. vii. p. 712.

{206} Vol. viii. p. 286.

{208} Vol. ix. p. 82, 83.

{211} Vol. ix. p. 278, 279, 280.

{212} Since writing the above, a friend has informed me that Norwood is now inclosed, and has ceased to be a rendezvous of Gypsies.

{217} Vol. ix. p. 554, 555.

{221} Frederick Smith, of Croydon, Surry.

{231a} Vide Crabbe's Poems.