Whoever framed this law was, moreover, well
acquainted with the manner of administering justice in Spain, and
saw the folly of making statutes which were never put into effect.
Instead, therefore, of relying on corregidors and alguazils for the
extinction of the Gypsy sect, the statute addresses itself more
particularly to the Gitanos themselves, and endeavours to convince
them that it would be for their interest to renounce their much
cherished Gitanismo. Those who framed the former laws had
invariably done their best to brand this race with infamy, and had
marked out for its members, in the event of abandoning their Gypsy
habits, a life to which death itself must have been preferable in
every respect. They were not to speak to each other, nor to
intermarry, though, as they were considered of an impure caste, it
was scarcely to be expected that the other Spaniards would form
with them relations of love or amity, and they were debarred the
exercise of any trade or occupation but hard labour, for which
neither by nature nor habit they were at all adapted. The law of
Carlos Tercero, on the contrary, flung open to them the whole
career of arts and sciences, and declared them capable of following
any trade or profession to which they might please to addict
themselves.
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