We have shown that it has
been erroneously confounded with the Rommany, or Gitano language,
with which it has nevertheless some points of similarity. The two
languages are, at the present day, used for the same purpose,
namely, to enable habitual breakers of the law to carry on their
consultations with more secrecy and privacy than by the ordinary
means. Yet it must not be forgotten that the thieves' jargon was
invented for that purpose, whilst the Rommany, originally the
proper and only speech of a particular nation, has been preserved
from falling into entire disuse and oblivion, because adapted to
answer the same end. It was impossible to treat of the Rommany in
a manner calculated to exhaust the subject, and to leave no ground
for future cavilling, without devoting a considerable space to the
consideration of the robber dialect, on which account we hope we
shall be excused many of the dry details which we have introduced
into the present essay. There is a link of connection between the
history of the Roma, or wanderers from Hindustan, who first made
their appearance in Europe at the commencement of the fifteenth
century, and that of modern roguery.
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