The Gipsies Advocate

The Gipsies' Advocate, by James Crabb

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Title: The Gipsies' Advocate or, Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits of The English Gipsies
Author: James Crabb

Release Date: November 17, 2006 [eBook #19852]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIPSIES' ADVOCATE***

Transcribed from the 1831 edition by David Price, email [email protected]

THE GIPSIES' ADVOCATE; OR, OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIGIN, CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND HABITS OF The English Gipsies:
TO WHICH ARE ADDED, MANY INTERESTING ANECDOTES, ON THE SUCCESS THAT HAS ATTENDED THE PLANS OF SEVERAL BENEVOLENT INDIVIDUALS, WHO ANXIOUSLY DESIRE THEIR CONVERSION TO GOD.
BY JAMES CRABB,
AUTHOR OF "THE PENITENT MAGDALEN."
"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." "Let that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus."
LONDON:
SEELEY, FLEET STREET; WESTLEY AND DAVIS, AVE-MARIA-LANE; HATCHARD, PICCADILLY; LINDSAY AND CO., SOUTH STREET, ANDREW STREET, EDINBURGH; COLLINS, GLASGOW; WAKEMAN, DUBLIN, WILSON AND SON, YORK.
1831.
BAKER AND SON, PRINTERS, SOUTHAMPTON.
TO THE JUDGES, MAGISTRATES, AND Ministers of Christ, AS THE ORGANS OF PUBLIC JUSTICE, AND REVEALED TRUTH, THE GIPSIES' ADVOCATE IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND SINCERELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.
The Author of the following pages has been urged by numerous friends, and more particularly by his own conscience, to present to the Christian Public a brief account of the people called Gipsies, now wandering in Britain. This, to many readers, may appear inexpedient; as Grellman and Hoyland have written largely on this neglected part of the human family. But it should be recollected, that there are thousands of respectable and intelligent christians, who never have read, and never may read either of the above authors. The writer of the present work is partly indebted for the sympathies he feels, and which he wishes to awaken in others toward these miserable wanderers, to various authors who have written on them, but more particularly to Grellman and Hoyland, who, in addition to the facts which came under their own immediate notice, have published the observations of travellers and others interested in the history of this people. A list of these authors may be seen in the Appendix.
But his knowledge of this people does not entirely depend on the testimony of others, having had the opportunity of closely examining for himself their habits and character in familiar visits to their tents, and by allowing his door to be free of access to all those encamped near Southampton, when they have needed his help and advice. Thus has he gained a general knowledge of their vicious habits, their comparative virtues, and their unhappy modes of life, which he hopes the following pages will fully prove, and be the means of placing their character in the light of truth, and of correcting various mistakes respecting them, which have given rise to many unjust and injurious prejudices against them.
The Author could have enlarged the present work very considerably, had he detailed all the facts with which he is well acquainted.
His object, however, was to furnish a work which should be concise and cheap, that he might be the means of exciting among his countrymen an energetic benevolence toward this despised people; for it cannot be denied that many thousands of them have never given the condition of the Gipsies a single thought.
Such a work is now presented to the public. Whether the author has succeeded, will be best known to those persons who have the most correct and extensive information relative to the unhappy race in question. Should he be the honoured instrument of exciting in any breasts the same feelings of pity, mercy, love and zeal for these poor English heathens, as is felt and carried into useful plans for the heathens abroad, by christians of all denominations; he will then be certain that, by the blessing of the Redeemer, the confidence of the Gipsies will be gained, and, that they will be led to that Saviour, who has said, Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast him out.

CHAP. I. On the Origin of the Gipsies.
Of the Origin of these wanderers of the human race, the learned are not agreed; for we have no authentic records of their first emigrations. Some suppose them to be the descendants of Israel, and many others, that they are of Egyptian origin. But the evidence adduced in confirmation of these opinions appears very inconclusive. We cannot discover more than fifty Hebrew words in the language they speak, and they have not a ceremony peculiar to the Hebrew nation. They have not a word of Coptic,