The law in question is dated 19th September 1783. It is entitled,
'Rules for repressing and chastising the vagrant mode of life, and
other excesses, of those who are called Gitanos.' It is in many
respects widely different from all the preceding laws, and on that
account we have separated it from them, deeming it worthy of
particular notice. It is evidently the production of a
comparatively enlightened spirit, for Spain had already begun to
emerge from the dreary night of monachism and bigotry, though the
light which beamed upon her was not that of the Gospel, but of
modern philosophy. The spirit, however, of the writers of the
ENCYCLOPEDIE is to be preferred to that of TORQUEMADA AND MONCADA,
and however deeply we may lament the many grievous omissions in the
law of Carlos Tercero (for no provision was made for the spiritual
instruction of the Gitanos), we prefer it in all points to that of
Philip the Third, and to the law passed during the reign of that
unhappy victim of monkish fraud, perfidy, and poison, Charles the
Second.
Whoever framed the law of Carlos Tercero with respect to the
Gitanos, had sense enough to see that it would be impossible to
reclaim and bring them within the pale of civilised society by
pursuing the course invariably adopted on former occasions - to see
that all the menacing edicts for the last three hundred years,
breathing a spirit of blood and persecution, had been unable to
eradicate Gitanismo from Spain; but on the contrary, had rather
served to extend it.
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