the wife of your bosom may be. As our author pathetically puts it -"one's uncle, in seeking for a wife, might have stumbled over an Egyptian woman, and, either known or unknown to himself, had his children brought up bitter Gipsies; so that one's cousins may be Gipsies, for anything one knows."

"Let the name of Gipsy," he says again, "be as much respected in Scotland as it is now despised, and the comImunity would stare to see the civilised Gipsies make their appearance; they would come buzzing out like bees, emerging even from places where a person, not in the secret, never would have dreamt of."

Even Mr Simson himself, skilled as he is in this great mystery, confesses that he is sometimes at fault.

"In seeking for Gipsies, I know where to begin, but it puzzles me where to leave off. I would pay no regard to colour of hair or eyes, character, employment, position, or indeed any outward thing. The reader may say 'It must be a difficult matter to detect such mix ed and educated Gipsies as those spoken of.' It is not only difficult, but outwardly impossible. Such Gipsies cannot even tell each other from their personal appearance; but they have signs which they can use, if the others choose to respond to them."

But Mr Simson knows a good many Gipsies-legal, medical, and clerical, if he only chose to tell. He is acquainted with families in Scotland,"occupying some of the highest positions in life, who are Gipsies; not indeed Gipsies in point of purity of blood, but who have Gipsy blood in their veins, and who hold themselves to be Gipsies." But they are naturally loath, as the writer observes in elegant American, "to own up to it ;" though a late pillar of the Scottish Church" bravely did so in his own case. The names of Baillie and Gordon are not unknown in Scotland. Now in 1700, or thereabouts, there was a William Baillie-we beg his pardon, "Captain" Baillie, for he enjoyed that title by courtesy and general consent-who, "for being an Egyptian" and other minor offences (the first, be it re

membered, was quite enough in his time) was adjudged to be hanged. He, however, "entered into a bond with the Privy Council under the penalty of 500 marks" — it gives one a curious impression of Scotch criminal justice in those days-to leave the kingdom, and "to suffer the pains of death in contravention thereof." He either never went away, however, or soon came back again, and lived for some years a very gentlemanly life, with the exception of levying black-mail throughout the country, which might be called his regular profession. He did it in the handsomest way, robbing the rich farmers at the fairs, but discharging arrears of rent for distressed widows, and paying poor pedlars more than the value for the contents of their pack. Though he adopted disguises when it suited his purpose, his usual habit was to ride the country mounted on a splendid horse, with a brace of greyhounds at his heels, himself dressed in a laced scarlet coat, like a gentleman of high degree. He is described by one who knew him well" as "the handsomest, the best dressed, the best looking, and the best bred man he ever saw." With all these fascinating qualifications, the Government were so heartless as again to bring him to trial fifteen years afterwards, and again to condemn him to death. And a second time the sentence was commuted into transportation; the Privy Council, it would appear, not troubling him to give his "bond" this time. The very next year he was again tried and again convicted, and again escaped with a sentence of deportation, which was never carried out, for he was killed in a Gipsy quarrel afterwards. It does all seem 66 very singular," as Mr Simson says; it reads like a fable; but nevertheless it appears to rest upon legal records. Again, in the next generation, one James Baillie, another of the tribe, was twice capitally convicted-once for the mur

66

der of his wife-and twice escaped his sentence. Tradition says that "the then Mistress Baillie of Lamington and her family used all their interest in obtaining these pardons for James Baillie." No doubt of it, says Mr Simson; "I am very much inclined to think Mrs Baillie was a Gipsy." So, about the same date, one Tam Gordon-or "Captain" Gordon-a gentleman of very similar character to the other "Captain," and almost equally respected -was convicted, with his son-inlaw, Ananias Faa, for sheep-stealing, and condemned to death. Both escaped by the intercession of the Duchess of Gordon, the somewhat eccentric patroness of Burns. "What guarantee have we," says Mr Simson again," that the Duchess was not a Gipsy?" There, no doubt, lies the explanation of the whole matter. The mysterious brotherhood has its roots everywhere. Professor Wilson, in his youth, took to roving for a while with a party of these fascinating vagabonds. Innocent people thought it merely one of the whims of restless genius. But in fact there was probably a deeper cause. "Who shall guarantee that he was not taking a look at the old thing?" By which dark phrase we are to understand, here and elsewhere, that magnetic attraction towards the habits and customs of the people which exists in the very nature of every one who has the true Egyptian blood in his veins.

Without committing ourselves rashly to the whole extent of this theory, we confess it offers a solution of an unexplained phenomenon in civilised life. It must have puzzled a good many philosophical inquirers besides ourselves to account for the curious propensity of all classes of English people to rush out into the fields and woods at certain seasons to eat their meals and then come home again. Nothing in the habits or tastes of the native Englishman helps in any degree to account for it. That the town-bred mechanic, condemned to

long exclusion from all country sights and sounds, should gladly rush out, by excursion trains or otherwise, to breathe the fresh air, and hear the birds sing, and eat his dinner under a green hedge, is very natural and intelligible. But that people who live in the country -who can step out into green fields and wander by running brooks whenever they will-should every now and then be seized with a desire to pack up hampers of eatables and carry them with great pains and some damage into the most inaccessible spot in their neighbourhoods, and there devour them in solemn discomfort, and then pack up and go home again, having all the while a comfortable dining-room and a decent cook at home, this has never, so far as we are aware, been satisfactorily accounted for. It has been supposed by some to be (like many of our old national customs) the perpetuation of a religious ceremony whose meaning had died out. Those who were strong upon "Caucasian" influences thought it might be a form of the "dwelling in booths" or the feast of tabernacles. But it seems far more likely that it is the Egpytian blood-the habits of "the tribe "

strong enough to break through even the stringent formalities of English life, and going back, as Mr Simson touchingly expresses it, to "the old thing." What but some overmastering impulse could urge the careful English mother forth with her daughters on these migrations, careless of sunburnt complexions or damp grass, or make an orthodox Briton act in the matter of dinner on no higher principles than a heathen Hottentot? "The days when we went gipsying" were indeed "a long time ago;" not so long, however, but that we remember them. "We too have been in Arcadia ;" have borne unmitigated sunshine, that melted the butter and boiled the sherry, on the top of some hill selected as commanding "a lovely view," and come down with a blistered face that took a month to peel

into propriety have sate "coughing in a shady grove," with Juliana or others, when the sun steadily refused to show, and the wind was dead in the east, and every soul of the party (except some pair of enthusiastic beings who carried a warming apparatus in their hearts, warranted to retain its virtue in all climates) was secretly shivering, and thinking of a fire when they got home; and when the only gleam of cheerfulness was when the damp sticks at last blazed up, and the kettle was boiled for tea. For the boiling of a kettle, be it remarked, is apparently the crowning ceremony of these Egyptian mysteries. It is permissible to do it (and it is so performed by careless celebrants -the latitudinarians of the superstition) in some cottage that stands near; but the correct usage, insisted upon by the orthodox, is that the whole process should take place in the open air. It is unnecessary to add of English out-door sticks that they should be damp, or of amateur bonfire-makers that the position should be so chosen that the wind may blow the smoke full in the faces of the expectant tea-drinkers.

One incidental advantage would accrue to any of us who would have the courage to "own up" honestly to our Gipsy blood, and take the pains to learn a little of the sacred ancestral language :—

"Should they ever be set upon-garotted, for example-all that they will have to do will be to cry out some such expression as Biené raté, calo chabo' (Good-night, Gipsy, or black fellow), when, if there is a Gipsy near them [and where, we should like to know, is there not a Gipsy at hand?] he will protect them." This is a secret worth knowing; not to mention the strong probability, which the author has omitted to dwell upon, that in all likelihood the garotter himself will turn out to be one of the tribe, and in that case will forthwith beg your pardon, return your purse (putting in a few sovereigns additional), and see you safe to your own door. We strongly recommend any timid gentleman who has to go home late on these

dark nights to lose no time in rubbing up his Egyptian. At the same time, we feel bound to warn the too curious amateur who may proceed to study in the Gipsy camp the manners and customs of his probable ancestors, to remember the fate of Mr Hoyland, who, Quaker and philanthropist as he was, was taken in bondage by a young Egyptian whom he sought to convert. As Sir Roger de Coverley remarks-"The sluts have very often white teeth and black eyes.'

Our friend the editor, however, is very anxious that we should all do our best to regenerate these outcasts by forming ourselves-we quote his own words-into "a British AntiGipsy-Prejudice Association." He has not drawn up any body of rules for his proposed society; but he has thrown out two suggestions, which we willingly lay before our readers. The first is, that we shall always, in writing or printing, begin the word Gipsy with a capital G: this "is of no little importance :" most people having written of them hitherto "as if they were describing rats and mice." The second is so original that we give it in full:

"I could propose no better plan to be adopted with some of these people, than to give them a copy of the present work, along with the Pilgrim's Progress,' containing a short account of the Gipsies, and a Gipsy's encampment for a frontispiece. The world may well believe that the Gipsies would read both of them, and be greatly benefited by the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"

And here the editor's modesty stops short. It is certainly a most ingenious idea for getting off an edition. But we cannot undertake, personally, to go about the highways and hedges with Mr Simson in one hand and John Bunyan in the other. We have taken the other hint, however-we have requested our printers to be very particular with their G's; and as we cannot doubt, from what Mr Simson says, that Maga is regularly taken in every respectable encampment, we trust this mark of attention will be appreciated by the tribe.

THE two foremost nations in the world are suffering at this moment from a moral malady, which the Americans, with more force than elegance, call" nigger on the brain." This disease, it may be remarked, does not attack either nations or individuals that are not of AngloSaxon stock, or who profess the Roman Catholic religion, but prevails almost exclusively among English-speaking people and Protestants. It scarcely affects Frenchmen, and leaves Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Roman Catholic Irishmen wholly untouched. In England the imperfectly educated and untravelled crowds who delight in the peculiar Christianity of the Rev. Messrs Stiggins and Chadband, aided by the politicians of the conventicle and of the ultra-radical school, who, if not at heart.republicans, would Americanise the institutions of Great Britain to the utmost extent compatible with the existence of the monarchy, are up in arms to defend the Jamaica negro, not alone as "a man and a brother," but as something more sacred than a European, and as standing in even a tenderer relation than brotherhood to men of white skins. Knowing little or nothing of the character and capabilities of the negro race, except by hearsay -living in a country where a fullblooded Ethiopian is as rare as a black swan, where from January to December even a mulatto is seldom seen, and where, in consequence of this unfamiliarity, no antipathy of race is excited, as in the West Indies and the United States-these philanthropists, who have been well named malignant in the results, though probably not in the motives, of their teaching, have for the last three months been beside them selves with an excess of what they may themselves consider to be Christian charity, but which to

other eyes looks marvellously like unchristian malevolence and theological rancour. Weekly or daily they invoke the vengeance of the law against Governor Eyre, who, in a moment of extreme peril to the small European and white community of which, as well as of the blacks and mulattoes, he was the chief magistrate, presumed to think that the means adequate to suppress a political rebellion of white malcontents, unexasperated by antipathies of race and colour, were not altogether sufficient to stamp out a "Jacquerie" of black peasants, thirsting for the blood of their social superiors, and indulging in such eccentric atrocities as the chopping-up of white magistrates and landowners into little bits, and the commission of other horrors which the tongue refuses to name and the pen to write. In America the same class of persons-whose love for the negro is theological rather than humanitarian, and who promulgate the theory without understanding the truths of ethnology which point to a different conclusion, that "God made of one blood all the nations of the earth"-a class comprising preachers, professional lecturers, salaried philanthropists, and weak-minded women, who equally at home under the ministrations of the Rev. Mr Treacle, or of the Rev. Mr Brimstone, together with the philosophers and the strong-minded women, who are too strong-minded to attend either church or chapel, and all the multitude of theorists who would abolish slavery even at the cost of abolishing the negro-have for the last four years been hounding on their countrymen to mutual slaughter. They have not only thought, but said, with Mr Zachariah Chandler, Senator for Michigan, that the Union "was not worth a cuss without blood-letting," and with Mr Wen

are

dell Phillips that it would be better to exterminate the whole Southern people, and colonise the land afresh, rather than suffer such a wrong as negro slavery to be tenderly treated or gradually abolished. The sacred name of human liberty has been in their mouths, while in their hearts there has been little but an unappeasable desire for the aggrandisement of their political party, and the creation of a central despotism at Washington, sufficiently powerful to make the United States-vice Great Britain and France, deposed and relegated to the second rankthe arbiter of peace and war, and controller of the destinies of Christendom. At this hour the malady rages as virulently as ever. Peace has been nominally restored over the unhappy South, but the moral pest of negrophilism prevents the reconstruction-in fact as well as in theory, in heart as well as in law of the great union of free white people, which it was the main and only legitimate object of the war to accomplish.

The

money cost of the war, even if diminished by two-thirds, would have been enough to purchase the peaceable, gradual, and safe manumission of every slave in the United States; but the sword, in setting them free by violence, has not only cost the conquerors and the conquered half a million of white lives, but diminished the number of the negroes to little more than half of what they were before the outbreak of hostilities-diminished them by neglect, hunger, fever, smallpox, and misery, as well as by the multitudinous casualties of the camp and the battle-field. The sword also, that never in the longrun settles any great moral or social question, has accompanied the gift of freedom to the sad remnant of the blacks, with the calamitous addendum of ruin to their late masters and employers, and present starvation to themselves, with the prospect, but too clearly and palpably defined, of worse evils yet in

store for the weaker of the two

races.

It has been said that no man ever gained, after long and persistent struggles, the thing which he earnestly desired, without making the melancholy discovery that Fate or Providence had attached some condition to the triumph which deprived it of some portion of its value, or lessened its charm and glory. They snatch the golden bowl, filled with the intoxicating liquor of success, and they find a drop of gall, if not of poison, in the draught, and pass it from their lips, if not untasted, unenjoyed. The victorious North is at present in this condition. A vast majority of its people did not care a cent for the abolition of slavery on the day when the South inaugurated the war by the attack on Fort Sumter: many devoutly wished that a nigger" had never been introduced into the country; and as many more, with Mr Lincoln at their head, would have rejoiced exceedingly if the whole race could have been retransported to their native Africa, or shovelled into Central America, to live or die as chance might determine. These people, aiding the abolitionists in their unnatural war against their white brother, not for the sake of the negro, but for the sake of the Union-the great and only object of American reverence and idolatry-have had their triumph. And with the triumph has come the Nemesis, the black shadow of whose avenging hand creeps over the morning sky, and threatens ere noon to darken the whole hemisphere. In liberating the negroes by the sword, the North has itself become a slave. It is bound, like a Siamese twin, to the side of the "irrepressible nigger.' Like the unhappy fisherman in the Arabian tale, it has liberated the dusky genie from the vase in which he was enclosed with the seal of Solomon upon the lid; and the dark vapour and smoke is assuming a form that is ominous alike of the