were, of course, always within the reach of the hand of justice,
yet it does not appear that they were more interfered with than the

roving and independent bands, and that any serious attempts were
made to break them up, though notorious as nurseries and refuges of

crime.
It is a lamentable fact, that pure and uncorrupt justice has never

existed in Spain, as far at least as record will allow us to judge;
not that the principles of justice have been less understood there

than in other countries, but because the entire system of
justiciary administration has ever been shamelessly profligate and

vile.
Spanish justice has invariably been a mockery, a thing to be bought

and sold, terrible only to the feeble and innocent, and an
instrument of cruelty and avarice.

The tremendous satires of Le Sage upon Spanish corregidors and
alguazils are true, even at the present day, and the most notorious

offenders can generally escape, if able to administer sufficient
bribes to the ministers (40) of what is misnamed justice.

The reader, whilst perusing the following extracts from the laws
framed against the Gitanos, will be filled with wonder that the

Gypsy sect still exists in Spain, contrary to the declared will of
the sovereign and the nation, so often repeated during a period of

three hundred years; yet such is the fact, and it can only be
accounted for on the ground of corruption.

It was notorious that the Gitanos had powerful friends and
favourers in every district, who sanctioned and encouraged them in

their Gypsy practices. These their fautors were of all ranks and
grades, from the corregidor of noble blood to the low and obscure

escribano; and from the viceroy of the province to the archer of
the Hermandad.

To the high and noble, they were known as Chalanes, and to the
plebeian functionaries, as people who, notwithstanding their

general poverty, could pay for protection.
A law was even enacted against these protectors of the Gitanos,

which of course failed, as the execution of the law was confided to
the very delinquents against whom it was directed. Thus, the

Gitano bought, sold, and exchanged animals openly, though he
subjected himself to the penalty of death by so doing, or left his

habitation when he thought fit, though such an act, by the law of
the land, was punishable with the galleys.

In one of their songs they have commemorated the impunity with
which they wandered about. The escribano, to whom the Gitanos of

the neighbourhood pay contribution, on a strange Gypsy being
brought before him, instantly orders him to be liberated, assigning

as a reason that he is no Gitano, but a legitimate Spaniard:-
'I left my house, and walked about

They seized me fast, and bound:
It is a Gypsy thief, they shout,

The Spaniards here have found.
'From out the prison me they led,

Before the scribe they brought;
It is no Gypsy thief, he said,

The Spaniards here have caught.'
In a word, nothing was to be gained by interfering with the

Gitanos, by those in whose hands the power was vested; but, on the
contrary, something was to be lost. The chief sufferers were the

labourers, and they had no power to right themselves, though their
wrongs were universally admitted, and laws for their protection

continually being made, which their enemies contrived to set at
nought; as will presently be seen.

The first law issued against the Gypsies appears to have been that
of Ferdinand and Isabella, at Medina del Campo, in 1499. In this

edict they were commanded, under certain penalties, to become
stationary in towns and villages, and to provide themselves with

masters whom they might serve for their maintenance, or in default
thereof, to quit the kingdom at the end of sixty days. No mention

is made of the country to which they were expected to betake
themselves in the event of their quitting Spain. Perhaps, as they

are called Egyptians, it was concluded that they would forthwith
return to Egypt; but the framers of the law never seem to have

considered what means these Egyptians possessed of transporting
their families and themselves across the sea to such a distance, or

if they betook themselves to other countries, what reception a host
of people, confessedly thieves and vagabonds, were likely to meet

with, or whether it was fair in the TWO CHRISTIAN PRINCES to get
rid of such a nuisance at the expense of their neighbours. Such

matters were of course left for the Gypsies themselves to settle.
In this edict, a class of individuals is mentioned in conjunction

with the Gitanos, or Gypsies, but distinguished from them by the
name of foreign tinkers, or Calderos estrangeros. By these, we

presume, were meant the Calabrians, who are still to be seen upon
the roads of Spain, wandering about from town to town, in much the

same way as the itinerant tinkers of England at the present day. A
man, half a savage, a haggard woman, who is generally a Spaniard, a

wretched child, and still more miserabledonkey, compose the group;
the gains are of course exceedinglyscanty, nevertheless this life,

seemingly so wretched, has its charms for these outcasts, who live
without care and anxiety, without a thought beyond the present

hour, and who sleep as sound in ruined posadas and ventas, or in
ravines amongst rocks and pines, as the proudest grandee in his

palace at Seville or Madrid.
Don Carlos and Donna Juanna, at Toledo, 1539, confirmed the edict

of Medina del Campo against the Egyptians, with the addition, that
if any Egyptian, after the expiration of the sixty days, should be

found wandering about, he should be sent to the galleys for six
years, if above the age of twenty and under that of fifty, and if

under or above those years, punished as the preceding law provides.
Philip the Second, at Madrid, 1586, after commanding that all the

laws and edicts be observed, by which the Gypsies are forbidden to
wander about, and commanded to establish themselves, ordains, with

the view of restraining their thievish and cheating practices, that
none of them be permitted to sell anything, either within or

without fairs or markets, if not provided with a testimony signed
by the notary public, to prove that they have a settled residence,

and where it may be; which testimony must also specify and describe
the horses, cattle, linen, and other things, which they carry forth

for sale; otherwise they are to be punished as thieves, and what
they attempt to sell considered as stolen property.

Philip the Third, at Belem, in Portugal, 1619, commands all the
Gypsies of the kingdom to quit the same within the term of six

months, and never to return, under pain of death; those who should
wish to remain are to establish themselves in cities, towns, and

villages, of one thousand families and upwards, and are not to be
allowed the use of the dress, name, and language of Gypsies, IN

ORDER THAT, FORASMUCH AS THEY ARE NOT SUCH BY NATION, THIS NAME AND
MANNER OF LIFE MAY BE FOR EVERMORE CONFOUNDED AND FORGOTTEN. They

are moreoverforbidden, under the same penalty, to have anything to
do with the buying or selling of cattle, whether great or small.

The most curious portion of the above law is the passage in which
these people are declared not to be Gypsies by nation. If they are

not Gypsies, who are they then? Spaniards? If so, what right had
the King of Spain to send the refuse of his subjects abroad, to

corrupt other lands, over which he had no jurisdiction?
The Moors were sent back to Africa, under some colour of justice,

as they came originally" target="_blank" title="ad.本来；独创地">originally from that part of the world; but what would
have been said to such a measure, if the edict which banished them

had declared that they were not Moors, but Spaniards?
The law, moreover, in stating that they are not Gypsies by nation,

seems to have forgotten that in that case it would be impossible to
distinguish them from other Spaniards, so soon as they should have

dropped the name, language, and dress of Gypsies. How, provided
they were like other Spaniards, and did not carry the mark of