80 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



good, but not otherwise. Now that the civil disabili- 

 ties of the Jews have been abolished in this country, 

 we may assume that the English branch of the race 

 will conform to English standards of morality more 

 completely than they have hitherto done ; the fallacy 

 enunciated by Macaulay is none the less instructive. 



Another example of the force of hereditary influ- 

 ence is furnished by the gipsies. Under a variety 

 of names the Eomany race are to be found all over 

 Europe, and their practice of intermarriage has pre- 

 served their characteristics. Nomadic and acknow- 

 ledging no civil authority, they have little or no 

 sense of the sacreduess of property. They thieve by 

 instinct. From highly -policed countries like Eng- 

 land and France they have almost disappeared, but 

 they still flourish in Spain and the east of Europe. 

 All attempts to get them to settle down to civilised 

 life have proved fruitless.^ The Austrian Government 

 once tried to form a regiment of gipsies, but they 

 ran away at the first encounter. Gipsy children who 

 have been put to school take to vagabondage at the 

 age of twelve or fourteen. 



National character, like animal instincts, persists 

 through an endless number of generations. The 



^ Rochas, Les Parias de France et d'Espagne, Boherniens et Cagots. 



