A comparative view of their customs and habits, and how far they appear coincident in different countries,
may afford a criterion by which to judge if they have all had one origin. By thus tracing them to that source, we may possibly discover the occasion of their peculiarities; and if the means hitherto employed to counteract them, have proved unsuccessful, we may be prepared to consider of others, better adapted to correct the errors of their education.
Conceiving that any scheme for ameliorating the condition of the Gypsies, would not only be premature, but might prove highly injudicious, before obtaining a knowledge of their history, the author has endeavoured to collect, from the most authentic European authorities to which he could have access, a general view of this people, in the different parts of the world to which they have resorted; and from these and the other sources of information, he has subjoined accounts of their state in Great Britain, and of the suggestions offered by other individuals for their improvement; concluding the subject with a review of the whole, and proposing a plan to be set on foot for accomplishing this desirable object.
CONTENTS.
SECTION I. | |
Various Appellations of them—Their arrival inEurope | page [9] |
SECTION II. | |
Accounts of the Gypsies in various Countries | page [17] |
SECTION III. | |
The Habits, Occupations, and Polity ofthe Continental Gypsies | page [37] |
SECTION IV. | |
Political Regulations on the Continent respectingGypsies | page [61] |
SECTION V. | |
The Gypsies in Great Britain | page [75] |
SECTION VI. | |
The present State of the Gypsies in Scotland | page [91] |
SECTION VII. | |
On the Origin of the Gypsies | page [112] |
Comparative view of the Gypsey, Hindostanie,and Turkish languages | page [131] |
SECTION IX. | |
Present State of the Gypsies in England | page [151] |
SECTION X. | |
Present State of the Gypsies in and aboutLondon | page [175] |
SECTION XI. | |
Sentiments of various persons on the moral condition ofthe Gypsies | page [191] |
SECTION XII. | |
Review of the Subject, and Suggestions forameliorating the condition of the Gypsies in the BritishEmpire | page [221] |
SECTION I.
Various appellations of them—Their arrival in Europe.
The different appellations by which the People whom we denominate Gypsies, have been distinguished, appear generally to have had reference to the countries, from which it was supposed they had emigrated.
Grellmann states, that the French, having the first accounts of them from Bohemia, gave them the name of Bohémiens, Bohemians. That the Dutch apprehending they came from Egypt, called them Heydens, Heathens. In Denmark, Sweden, and in some parts of Germany, Tartars were thought of. The Moors
and Arabians, perceiving the propensity the Gypsies had to thieving, adopted the name Charami, Robbers, for them.