"In answer to your inquiries, I have to say, that within my knowledge, little or nothing has as yet been accomplished for the Gipsies. The Home Missionaries have frequently paid flying visits to their camps, and prayed, read, preached and distributed tracts. In all cases they have been treated with much respect, and their labour has been repaid with the most sincere marks of gratitude. But I never met with very warm support in carrying on this object, but was often exposed to some sarcastical insinuations or sardonic smiles from those who thought the attempt to ameliorate the condition of the Gipsies, only Quixotic. "I think their wandering life is one very great impediment in the way of improving the Gipsy tribes, and yet they are so attached to it, that, when taken into families, as servants, they will not stay. Nor can any good be done to their children; for, like all wild people, the parents are attached to them to a fault; so that they cannot allow them to be absent from them even to enjoy the instruction of a school, suspecting that such a separation might end in their final disunion. "Were a distinct society formed to effect a reformation among the Gipsies, many of the nobility, and other classes of the higher orders, would no doubt subscribe. There is a feeling among them on the subject, and many times the formation of a society has been on the tapis. The Gipsies are singularly attached to the Establishment, and many of them are married at the parish churches; and it is a pity the episcopalian body have not taken them up. There is a prejudice against them which I think is unfounded; but I cannot enter into details in a mere letter. People look on them as vagabonds, and _they_ seem shy in return; and hence they continue a kind of outcast body in a civilized country. "If any further steps are taken, and if I can in any way assist in promoting your good object, you may command my services. "I am, dear sir, respectfully yours, "I. COBBIN." _Extracts from the Letter of a Clergyman's Lady_. "Sir,