The regulations proposed by the Empress Theresa, and the Emperor Joseph II. could they have been carried into effect, would doubtless have improved the state of the Gypsies. But an order for children to be torn away from their parents, was so far from being dictated by the study of human nature, that it did violence to the tenderest sensibilities, and set at nought the kindest emotions. Its tendency was to produce in the minds of Gypsies, disaffection to the state, and to indispose others from aiding in the execution of the edict. The advantages to be derived by Governments from a liberal toleration, being not then so well understood as in succeeding times, they were not duly regarded.
Those potentates considering Zigeuners of Egyptian origin, might reasonably conceive agriculture well adapted to their genius and inclination; but it was a pursuit, which, more than any other, they disapproved.
All other Governments appear to have been misled, in like manner, by the deception which the first Gypsies practised; for had they been apprized of this people’s descent, and of the almost unalterable pertinacity of an Indian caste, they would have been sensible that an attempt to change their habits by force, was a measure the least likely to be attended with success.
The Circular introduced in the ninth Section of this work, notices Gypsies being hunted like beasts of prey, from township to township in England; and it has been ascertained, that in some places they are routed, as it is termed, by order of magistrates, whenever they appear, and sent to prison on the vagrant act, without so much as a charge of depredation upon property. “This is to make their persons, an object of persecution, instead of the protection of our laws.”
For the credit of our country it may be hoped, that instances of this sort, respecting Gypsies, are not very numerous; seeing all writers concur in stating, every attempt by coercive means to alter the peculiar habits of this people, have had a tendency to alienate them still more from civil associations, and directly to defeat the end proposed. It is time therefore that a better and a more enlightened policy should be adopted in Europe, towards a race of human beings, under so many hereditary disadvantages as are the helpless, the rude, the uninstructed Gypsies.