However, what has been hitherto omitted, there is still time enough to execute. Few, or scarcely any, of the larger states are so entirely cleared of Gipseys, that these people may not here and there be found by hundreds, in most countries by thousands. The periods when the first sentences of banishment were pronounced, were too unphilosophical for any preferable mode of punishment to be suggested: but it may be expected, from a more informed age, that better maxims will be adopted. We send apostles to the East and West, to the most distant parts of the earth, and, as will be hereafter shewn, into the very country whence the Gipseys migrated, in order to instruct the people who know not God. Is it not inconsistent for men to be solicitous for the welfare of their fellow-creatures in distant regions, and to throw off and leave to chance those who, equally wretched, have brought their errors home to us? If it be a good work, to teach religion and virtue to such as are ignorant of their Creator, why not begin with those nearest to us? especially as neglect, in this particular, is attended with detriment to society in general. The Gipseys have been long enough among civilised people, to prove that they will not be allured, by the mere example of others, to free themselves from the fetters of old customs and vices. In order to accomplish that end, foreign and more effectual help is requisite. It were vain to hope for any considerable progress with those who are grown up; it would be sufficient, by compulsion, to make them quit their unsettled manner of life, and, by instruction and teaching, to convey a glimmering of light to their understanding, and produce some amelioration of the heart. Proper care being taken of the education of the children, society would be more likely to have its endeavours crowned with success.
_Essay on the Improvement of the Gipseys_.
IT would be a lamentable case, if the before-mentioned regulations were merely pious wishes. Let us hope something better! The work has been commenced;—a great empress, Theresa, laid down a plan to win over these poor unfortunate people to virtue and the state. But it is to be regretted, that the execution of her wise dispositions, respecting the Gipseys in Hungary, seems to have been entrusted to people inadequate to the task.