They attend most fairs,
women and men, and on the way frequently bivouac in the fields, but
this practice must not be confounded with systematic wandering.
Gitanismo, therefore, has not been extinguished, only modified; but
that modification has been effected within the memory of man,
whilst previously near four centuries elapsed, during which no
reform had been produced amongst them by the various measures
devised, all of which were distinguished by an absence not only of
true policy, but of common-sense; it is therefore to be hoped, that
if the Gitanos are abandoned to themselves, by which we mean no
arbitrary laws are again enacted for their extinction, the sect
will eventually cease to be, and its members become confounded with
the residue of the population; for certainly no Christian nor
merely philanthropic heart can desire the continuance of any sect
or association of people whose fundamental principle seems to be to
hate all the rest of mankind, and to live by deceiving them; and
such is the practice of the Gitanos.
During the last five years, owing to the civil wars, the ties which
unite society have been considerably relaxed; the law has been
trampled under foot, and the greatest part of Spain overrun with
robbers and miscreants, who, under pretence of carrying on partisan
warfare, and not unfrequently under no pretence at all, have
committed the most frightful excesses, plundering and murdering the
defenceless.
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