THE EFFECTS OF THE ANTI-GIPSY PREJUDICE. 



147 



Bless me, I thought, are all our Scottish 

 Gipsies, of high and low degree, afraid 

 that the ordinary natives would not even 

 eat with them, if they knew them to be 

 Gipsies ? (Ed., p. 362.) 



These poor people were much alarmed 

 when I let them see that I knew they 

 were Gipsies. They thought I was de- 

 spising them, and treating them with 

 contempt ; or they were afraid of being 

 apprehended under the old sanguinary 

 laws, condemning the whole unfortunate 

 race to death ; for the Gipsies, as I have 

 already said, still believe that these 

 bloody statutes are in full force against 

 them at the present day* (p. 290). 



The prejudice of their fellow -crea- 

 tures, which clings to the rae to which 

 they belong, almost overwhelms some 

 of them at times ; but it is only momen- 

 tary ; for such is the independence and 

 elasticity of their nature, that they rise 

 from under it, as self-complacent and 

 proud as ever. They in such cases re- 



* Whatever may be the feeling on the 

 part of the Gipsies.'at the present day, in 

 regard to the old Scottish la\vs,which never 

 were repealed, the following note to the 

 Histoiy of the Gipsies still holds good : 

 " It is interesting to notice the reason for 

 this old Gipsy chief being so backward in 

 giving our author some of his language. 

 > ' He was ashamed to do it.' Pity it is that 

 there should be a man in Scotland, who, 

 independent of personal character, should 

 be ashamed of such a thing. Then, see 

 how the Gipsy woman, in our author's 

 house, said that 'the public would look 

 upon her with horror and contempt, were 

 it known she could speak the Gipsy lan- 

 guage.' And again, the two female Gip- 

 sies, who would rather allow themselves 

 to be murdered than give the meaning of 

 two Gipsy words to Sauchie colliers, for 

 the reason that ' it would have exposed 

 their tribe, and made themselves odious 

 to the world.' And all for knowing the 

 Gipsy language ! which would be con- 

 sidered an accomplishment in another 

 person ! What frightful tyranny ! Mr. 

 Borrow, as we will by and'bv see, says a 

 great deal about the law of Charles III., 

 in regard to the prospects of the Spanish 

 Gipsies. But there is a. law above any 

 legislative enactment the law of society, 

 of one's fellow-creatures which bears so 

 hard upon the Gipsies ; the despotism of 

 caste. If Gipsies, in such humble cir- 

 cumstances, are so afraid of being known 

 to be Gipsies, we can form some idea of 

 the morbid sensitiveness of those in a 

 higher sphere of life" (Ed , p. 313). 



sort to the /// quoque the tit for tat 

 argument as regards their enemies, and 

 ask, " What is this white race, after all ? 

 What were their forefathers a few gen- 

 erations ago ? the Highlands a nest of 

 marauding thieves, and the Borders 

 little better. Or society at the present 

 day what is it but a compound of de- 

 ceit and hypocrisy ? People say that 

 the Gipsies steal. True ; some of them 

 steal chickens, vegetables, and such 

 things ; but what is that, compared to 

 the robbery of widows and orphans, the 

 lying and cheating of traders, the swin- 

 dling, the robberies, the murders, the ig- 

 norance, the squalor, and the debauch- 

 eries of so many of the white race? 

 What are all these, compared to the 

 simple vices of the Gipsies ? What is 

 the ancestry they boast of, compared 

 in point of antiquity to ours ? People 

 may despise the Gipsies, but they cer- 

 tainly despise all others not of their own 

 race : the veriest beggar Gipsy, without 

 shoes to his feet, considers himself bet- 

 ter than the queen that sits upon the 

 throne. People say that Gipsies are 

 blackguards. Well, if some of them are 

 blackguards, they are at least illustrious 

 blackguards as regards descent, and so 

 in fact ; for they never rob each other, 

 and far less do they rob or ruin those of 

 their own family." And they conclude 

 that the odium which clings to the race 

 is but a prejudice (Ed., p. n). 



With regard to the general politics of 

 the Scottish Gipsies, if they entertain 

 any political sentiments at all, I am con- 

 vinced they are monarchical ; and that 

 were any revolutionary convulsion to 

 loosen the bonds of society, and sepa- 

 rate the lower from the higher classes, 

 they would take to the side of the supe- 

 rior portion of the community. They 

 have, at all times, heartily despised the 

 peasantry, and been disposed to treat 

 menials with great contempt, though, at 

 the very moment, they were begging at 

 the doors of their masters. In the few 

 instances which have come to my know- 

 ledge, of Scottish Gipsies forming matri- 

 monial connexions with individuals of 

 the community, those individuals were 

 not of the working or lower classes of 

 society (p. 366). Indeed, they were al- 

 ways much disposed to treat farm-ser- 

 vants with contempt, as quite their in- 

 feriors in the scale of society; and al- 

 ways boasted of their own high birth, 

 and the antiquity of their family (p. 225). 



What our author says of the politics 



