We shall say nothing at present as to the wisdom which dictated
these provisions, nor whether others might not have been devised,
better calculated to produce the end desired. Certain it is, that
the laws were never, or very imperfectly, put in force, and for
reasons with which their expediency or equity (which no one at the
time impugned) had no connection whatever.
It is true that, in a country like Spain, abounding in wildernesses
and almost inaccessible mountains, the task of hunting down and
exterminating or banishing the roving bands would have been found
one of no slight difficulty, even if such had ever been attempted;
but it must be remembered, that from an early period colonies of
Gitanos have existed in the principal towns of Spain, where the men
have plied the trades of jockeys and blacksmiths, and the women
subsisted by divination, and all kinds of fraud. These colonies
were, of course, always within the reach of the hand of justice,
yet it does not appear that they were more interfered with than the
roving and independent bands, and that any serious attempts were
made to break them up, though notorious as nurseries and refuges of
crime.
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