THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH. 



201 



opportunities for examining his 

 favourite subject, in the aspects of 

 its ethnological, social, and historic- 

 al development, in reply to what I 

 wrote in the History of the Gipsies, 

 published in London, in 1865, and 

 in New York, in 1866, and in Con- 

 tributions under consideration ; and 

 never having made any sign in con- 

 nexion with either, he cannot com- 

 plain if he is now counted out and 

 shelved without ceremony. And 

 yet I find one of his recruits writing 

 of him, in a London journal, as fol- 

 lows : 



" We can stand all this pretty well, 

 but we are up in arms when George 

 Borrow .... is taken to task in a 

 cold-blooded manner for all sorts of mis- 

 leading statements, and is proved to be 

 altogether an incompetent and ignorant 

 guide on the subject. This is too much 

 for our equanimity, and we honestly 

 confess that we are weak enough to 

 prefer George Borrow's stories to Mr. 

 Simson's arguments." And like that of 

 a raw recruit, his parting shot is " In 

 short, the world is full of blockheads ; 

 but there is one wise man left, and his 

 name is Simson." 



Indeed, George Borrow, Frank 

 Buckland, and Charles Waterton 

 may be described, without offence, 

 as three impulsive, headstrong, ex- 

 cathedra-talking dogmatists, inca- 

 pable, when left to themselves, of 

 constructing an argument of a com- 

 plex nature, or of giving a satisfac- 

 tory exposition of an intricate sub- 

 ject that could stand scrutiny. To 

 train a thirteen-inch bomb on them, 

 in that respect, would be superfluous, 

 for a thimbleful of " sparrow-hail " 

 would suffice. The judicious use 

 of that " little crooked thing which 

 asks questions," called an interrog- 

 atory, would dispose of much that 

 has been advanced by all of them. 



Of the Gipsy tribe, mixed as it is 

 in regard to blood, and large in 

 point of numbers, that is to be found 

 pretty much everywhere, in many 

 positions of life, from a tinker up- 

 wards, with the character and fre- 



quently the appearance of ordinary 

 natives of the soil, I have said 

 that its perpetuity is based on the 



"Simple ground that they are the 

 children or descendants of ordinary 

 Gipsies, having their blood, an inherent 

 sense of being members of the tribe, 

 and some of the language and signs 

 peculiar to themselves, like a Masonic 

 society, although the possession of these 

 words and signs is not absolutely neces- 

 sary to constitute them Gipsies ; for the 

 mere consciousness of the fafft of being 

 Gipsies, transmitted from generation to 

 generation, and made the basis of mar- 

 riages and the intimate associations of 

 life, is in itself perfectly sufficient,' 1 (p. 

 152). 



That this people should be openly 

 acknowledged by the rest of the 

 population, and " treated on their 

 individual merits as ordinarily re- 

 cognized by society," and allowed 

 to "form themselves into societies 

 for such purposes as the world re- 

 cognizes," may well be considered 

 the subject of a "research" con- 

 ducted by the labour and at the ex- 

 pense of him making it that stands 

 in no need of an " endowment," but 

 merits the attention of a variety of 

 classes too numerous to mention, 

 provided that it is carefully studied, 

 and has a corresponding interest 

 created for it. 



The pride which the Gipsies have 

 in their peculiar sept, their exclusive 

 and secretive characteristics, which 

 are inherent in them, and their 

 natural resentment of the prejudice 

 existing against the name and race, 

 have made an amalgamation with 

 the natives almost impossible, un- 

 less these become incorporated with 

 them, whatever their habits or 

 positions in life; and an absolute 

 silence is observed on the subject 

 of their nationality or society with 

 outsiders, even in many cases Gipsies 

 being afraid of being known as such 

 to other Gipsies. The consequence 

 is, that as the race perpetuates itself 

 and develops its condition, it main- 

 tains such a reserve in regard to it- 



