The same business occupied the attention of the Diet, in 1530, 1544, 1548, and 1551; and was also again enforced in the improved police regulation of Frankfort, in 1577.
Several Princes were however so little attentive to these orders of the empire, that instead of endeavouring to drive out the Gypsies, they on the other hand, furnished them with passports and safe-conducts; but by far the greater number exerted themselves to the utmost, to clear their states of them.
Perhaps there is not any civilized state, Hungary and Transylvania excepted, where this remedy has not been tried; but in the first place it had very little effect, and that little was only temporary. Even if every civilized nation had driven out the Gypsies at the same time, Europe could not have been entirely cleared of them, so long as they preserved an asylum in Turkey. Now as experience evinces there is no country in which a constant, equal attention, is paid to the execution of the laws, they would, in more, or less time, have again insinuated themselves into the neighbouring countries; from these into others; and have recommenced where they left off.
But a general extermination never did take place. The law for banishing them passed in one state before it was thought of in the next, or when a like order had long become obsolete, and sunk into oblivion. These guests were therefore merely compelled to shift their quarters to an adjoining state, where they remained till the Government, there, began to clear them away, upon which the fugitives either retired back whence they came, or went on progressively to a third place, thus making a continual revolution.
Secondly, this remedy was premature: endeavouring to exterminate, was the same as if a surgeon should proceed directly to the amputation of a diseased limb, because it created inconvenience to the rest of the body. Whereas the first inquiry ought to be, whether the disorder is of such a nature as not to be removed, but by entire separation. This is a desperate course, and should only be adopted, when no other can be efficacious.
It is to be regretted that, not until the reign of the Empress Theresa, does there appear to have been any plan laid down for the gaining over these poor ignorant people to virtue, and to the state. Historians represent that the wise dispositions she enjoined respecting the Gypsies in Hungary, were intrusted to people inadequate to the task.