THE Gipseys are a singular phenomenon in Europe; whether we contemplate their habitations, attend at their meals, or merely look in their faces, they always appear particular, and we are each moment struck with something new and extraordinary. What appears most worthy of remark is, that neither time, climate, nor example, has, in general, hitherto, made any alteration. For the space of between three and four hundred years, they have gone wandering about, like pilgrims and strangers: they are found in eastern and western countries, as well among the rude as civilised, the indolent as active, people: yet they remain ever, and in all places, what their fathers were—Gipseys. Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter: they neither learn to be lazy in Spain, nor diligent in Germany: in Turkey, Mahomet, and among Christians, Christ, remain equally without adoration. Around, on every side, they see fixed dwellings, with settled inhabitants; they, nevertheless, proceed in their own way, and continue, for the most part, unsocial wandering robbers. When we search for similar cases, among all the different people who have quitted their mother country, and inhabited a foreign one, we do not meet with a single instance that exactly agrees with that of the Gipseys. History certainly does record accounts of people that have migrated, and remained the same in a strange country; but then this constancy has been on account of religion, either permitted by the regents, or maintained by their victorious arms: though this last circumstance has existed much less frequently than might be imagined. Many instances have occurred in which, the people subdued being more enlightened than their conquerors, the latter have adopted the manners of the former. The Romans became Greeks on the conquest of Greece; and the Franks assumed the manners of the Gauls when in possession of their country: the Mantcheous vanquished the Chinese; but Chinese customs prevailed over those of the Mantcheous. How, then, does it happen that the Gipseys, who never either established their manners and customs by force, or obtained any toleration from governments under which they lived, remain unchanged, and resemble each other exactly, in every place? There are two causes, to which this coincidence is principally owing: one is the place whence they originate, with their consequent mode of thinking; the other arises from the circumstances which have hitherto attended their situation.