J. P., in a letter from Cambridge to the Christian Observer, very feelingly states the case of a Gypsey family, the father of which, being a travelling tinker and fiddler, intimated, he would be glad to have all his children brought up to some other mode of life, and even to embrace some other himself; but he finds a difficulty in it. Not having been brought up in husbandry, he could not go through the labour of it; and few, if any persons, would be willing to employ [248] his children, on account of
the bad character which his race bears, and from the censure and ridicule which would attach to the taking of them.”
There appears so little probability of any useful change being effected in the nomadic habits of adult Gypsies, that it seems better to bear with that propensity for some time longer, than by directly counteracting it, so disturb the minds of parents, as to indispose them to consent to the education of their children. There are thousands of other people in the nation, who, more than half their time, live out of doors in like manner. Were they all obliged to take out licences, this measure might operate in some degree as a check upon them; at least it would be a tacit acknowledgment of a controlling power, and might admit of some regulation of their conduct. At present, numbers of them resemble a lawless banditti, and may not inaptly be termed, Imperium in imperio.
It appears by J. P.’s letter from Cambridge, that six years ago, he had engaged a Gypsey boy to be sent to a school on the Belleian and
Lancasterian plan. At that time, the system had been but little appropriated in the country to the instruction of girls; and the application of it to boys only, would have been doing the work by halves. But the time seems now to have arrived, when the minds of Gypsies have generally received an impression in favor of the education, both of their sons and daughters, as has been manifest in various parts of this Survey; and that some of those who lodge in London, have been themselves at the expense of sending their children to school. But if all of them could be thus taught, three months in a year, would not their running wild the other nine, under the influence of dissolute and unrestrained example, be likely to defeat every purpose of instruction.
Were they to be educated during the whole of the year, it is obvious that some establishment would be necessary for their maintenance and clothing. The author of this Survey is not aware of any Institutions so much adapted to their case, as the charity schools for boys and girls, which are common to every part of the
kingdom. It is not probable that Gypsey population would furnish more than two boys, and two girls, for each of these schools. Their being placed among a much greater number of children, and those of settled, and in some degree of civilized habits, would greatly facilitate the training of Gypsies to salutary discipline and subordination; and the associations it provided for them out of school hours, being under the superintendence of a regular family, would, in an especial manner, be favorable to their domestication.
Charity schools, by admitting children so early as at six years of age, and continuing them to fourteen, seem particularly suited to the case of Gypsies, in supplying all that is requisite until the boys are at an age to go out apprentices, and the girls to service in families.
Gypsies being the children of a whole county, if not of the nation at large, perhaps the expense of their maintenance might, without inconsistency, be defrayed out of county rates, which would prevent its being burdensome to any particular district. By a process so simple
and easy, expensive establishments on the account of Gypsies, might be entirely avoided. And many parents among them, express a willingness to part with their children, for education, provided they were cared for in other respects.