From whatever part of the world we derive intelligence of this people, it tends to corroborate the opinion, that they have all had one peculiar origin. How little has it occupied the contemplation of Britons, that there existed among them, subjects of such great curiosity as the poor and despised Gypsies! The statute of Henry VIII. imposing a fine of forty pounds upon the importation of a Gypsey, induces the belief they were much in request in England at that period. The attention which their low performances attracted in those times, will not perhaps excite surprise, when we see the encouragement given in our day, to their idly disposed countrymen, termed, _Indian Jugglers_. It is remarkable, that the earliest account of Gypsies in Great Britain, is in a work published to expose and detect the “Art of Juggling,” &c. The first of this people who came into Europe, must have been persons of discernment and discrimination, to have adapted their deceptions so exactly to the genius and habits of the different people they visited, as to ensure success in all countries. The stratagem to which they had recourse on entering France, evinces consummate artifice of plan, and not a little adroitness and dexterity in the execution. The specious appearance of submission to papal authority, in the penance of wandering seven years without lying in a bed, combined three distinct objects. They could not have devised an expedient more likely to recommend them to the favor of Ecclesiastics; or better concerted for taking advantage of the superstitious credulity of the people, and, at the same time, for securing to themselves the gratification of their own nomadic propensities. So complete was the deception they practised, that we find they wandered up and down in France, under the eye of magistracy, not for seven only, but for more than a hundred years, without molestation. In 1561, the edict of the States of Orleans directed their expulsion by fire and sword; yet in 1612, they had increased to such a degree, that there was another order for their total extermination. Notwithstanding this severity, in 1671 they were again spread over the kingdom, as appears in the letters of the Marchioness de Sévigné to her friends, and the Countess Grignan, in nine volumes, translated from the last Paris edition: “Bohemians travel up and down the Provinces of France, and get their living by dancing, showing postures, and telling fortunes; but chiefly by pilfering, &c.” It is remarkable, that in all countries, they professed to be Egyptians; but the representation is not only refuted by Bellonius, but by later writers, who assert, that the “few who are to be found in _Egypt_, wander about as strangers _there_, and form a distinct people.”