Such a state of things would have afforded the
Gitanos a favourable opportunity to resume their former kind of
life, and to levy contributions as formerly, wandering about in
bands. Certain it is, however, that they have not sought to repeat
their ancient excesses, taking advantage of the troubles of the
country; they have gone on, with a few exceptions, quietly pursuing
that part of their system to which they still cling, their
jockeyism, which, though based on fraud and robbery, is far
preferable to wandering brigandage, which necessarily involves the
frequent shedding of blood. Can better proof be adduced, that
Gitanismo owes its decline, in Spain, not to force, not to
persecution, not to any want of opportunity of exercising it, but
to some other cause? - and we repeat that we consider the principal
if not the only cause of the decline of Gitanismo to be the
conferring on the Gitanos the rights and privileges of other
subjects.
We have said that the Gitanos have not much availed themselves of
the permission, which the law grants them, of embarking in various
spheres of life. They remain jockeys, but they have ceased to be
wanderers; and the grand object of the law is accomplished.
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