with a warrant, or dispossess them of their properties, as disturb them in their ideas, however ill-founded.* In one of his articles in Blackwood's Magazine, the author, in reference to the more original kind of Gipsy, said :— "What vexed me not a little was, when I put questions on the subject to sensible individuals, they generally burst out a-laughing, and asked me, Who would trouble themselves about tinklers?', Such is, and has been, the conduct and manners of the Gipsies, that the very word tinkler excites merriment whenever it is mentioned." In Scotland to-day, most people are surprised when the word Gipsy is mentioned, and will ask, "Do you mean thae tinkler bodies? Wha would bother themselves wi' a wheen tinklers?" In the work, the author wrote : "The fact is, the Gipsies have hitherto been so completely despised, and held in such thorough contempt, that few ever thought of, or would venture to make inquiries of them relative to, their ancient customs and manners; and that, when any of their ceremonies were actually observed by the people at large, they were looked upon as the mere frolics, the unmeaning and extravagant practices of a race of beggarly thieves and vagabonds, unworthy of the slightest attention or credit." "As the Jews, during their pilgrimage in the Wilderness, were protected from their enemies by a cloud, so have the Gipsies, in their increase and development, been shielded from theirs by a mist of ignorance, which, it would seem, requires no little trouble to dispel." I think I have said enough to create in your mind a curiosity and interest towards the subject of the Gipsies, and the more so by the many narrow escapes the MS. had from being lost, and the peculiar way the work is now brought under your notice. What, under Providence, may be its ultimate destiny in Scotland, will depend greatly up on those to whom this communication is addressed. There is to be encountered, in the first place, the prejudice (I will not call it the hostility) of centuries, that has become a feeling of caste-the most difficult thing to grapple with. Yet no one can be blamed for that feeling; it is but the result of preceding causes or circumstances. It has had this effect upon the tribe, that they are ashamed" to let it be known that they are Gipsies, and (as it may be). can speak the language; and they think they "would become odious" to the world, and would be "looked on with horror and contempt," in consequence. The result is, that the subject has become like a substance The apathy and contempt, and unreflecting incredulity, here spoken of, naturally blind people to facts the most obvious and incontestable, and become, under Providence, a complete protection against any in-hermetically sealed from the public, * It is hardly necessary for me to point out the trifling fallacy in comparing the idea of being a member of the Gipsy tribe, that exists in Scotland and every other country, with that of a person hav: ing had a remote ancestor from one of the tropical countries visited by Scotchmen. And yet there is some of such blood in the country. So accustomed are people to be influenced by what is conventional only, that few could attach a meaning to the phrase "a Scotch Negro," while that of "American Negro" would pass current anywhere. which retains its inherent qualities undiminished when kept in that position. It is unfortunate that there should be such a feeling entertained for a people that have lived in Scotland for 365 years. It cannot be said that it is applied to other Gipsies than those of the old stock, for the question has never been tested. The organs of society do not seem to have noticed the subject, perhaps The leading ideas to be kept in mind, in such a movement, should be, 1st. That the subject of the Gipsies should be investigated and decided on its merits, whatever the consequences. 2d. That no Scotchman is to be disparaged on account of his blood, but should be treated on his individual merits, as ordinarily recognized by society. 3d. That being a Gipsy should entitle the person to greater honour, in proportion to his good character, and the hard name the race has hitherto borne. 4th. That it would be gratifying to have the race "clothed and in its right mind," and "raised up and openly acknowledged," and respected by the rest of the population. 5th. That it would be interesting, and every way advantageous to themselves and the community at large, for the tribe to acknowledge themselves freely and openly, and form themselves into societies for such purposes as the world recognizes. 6th. That it should be a credit, rather than a disparagement, for any one to speak the Gipsy language. 7th. That the word Gipsy should invariably begin with a capital letter. for the reason that they do not | ters, that difficulties will disappear, think the people will receive what or will not prove so formidable as at they may say in regard to it. It is first imagined. on that account I have addressed this letter to you, with the hope that you will consider it a duty, a privilege, and a pleasure, to do something in the way of diffusing a knowledge and creating an opinion on the subject, and a sympathy and respect for the people described. Your position in society is very influential, and the liberality of your education, particularly as regards logic and metaphysics, gives you a great advantage in drawing the distinctions necessary to be made, in investigating the subject treated. I do not mean that you should necessarily take any public or official notice of it, but that, as a private Christian gentleman, you should do your best, among your friends and neighbours, to bring about a change of ideas and feelings, in a quiet, genial, and gradual manner, as the ruder season passes into the more gentle, and as a purely social and moral movement should be made; just as Christianity itself, in its general principles, spread its benign influences over all that came within its reach. I intend sending this communication to all the Scotch clergy, and many people holding positions of trust and influence, as well as to the press; in short, to people who will not be apt to laugh" at the subject, when they come to understand what it means, so that no hesitation need be shown in alluding to it in society. What is wanted, is to "make a beginning," and it will happen, as in most mat To show you how the ideas of society change, I may remind you that not long ago none but such as led about bears, monkeys, and raccoons, would dare to wear beards and mustaches; but that soon thereafter they became fashionable among all kinds of people, not excepting grave and reverend clergymen. A WAS JOHN BUNYAN A GIPSY? S regards the nationality of John | Bunyan, it can be said that he told us most positively what he was, and what he was not, and it would be strange if no intelligible meaning could be attached to what he informed us on that head. You know that we hang people on circumstan- | tial evidence, actually hang them on the mere force of circumstances, without direct proof, and justly so. Cannot we then use such evidence to prove a simple fact regarding the nationality of a man whose praises are in all the Churches, and indeed in all the world, when every moral and religious, every humane and God-like purpose is to be served by it? And why cannot a question of that kind be settled by society by as rigid rules as would be enforced in a court of justice? Each juryman is sworn to decide by the evidence laid before him, and in no other way. He is also challenged, and if he has already made up his mind on the case, he is excluded. A witness is sworn, and can be imprisoned if he will not testify, and if he testifies falsely, sent to the hulks. In Grace Abounding, John Bun yan says: "For my descent, it was, as is well known to many, of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families of the land." Here he speaks most positively of what he was-that is, the meanest and most despised of ALL the families of the land, and as positively of what he was not : "Another thought came into my mind, and that was, whether we [his family and relations] were of the Israelites or no? For finding in the Scriptures that they were once the peculiar people of God, thought I, if I were one of this race [how significant is the expression !] my soul must needs be hapPy. Now, again, I found within mea great longing to be resolved about this question, but could not tell how I should. At last I asked my father of it, who told me, No, we [his father included] were not. Can we possibly apply the language contained in these two exTo assert that Bunyan was not a tracts to any other than the Gipsies? Gipsy, but a tinker, would be as meaningless as to say that he was not a Gipsy, but a tailor. There can be no question that the generation and family to which he belonged were Gipsies—the meanest, and most despised of all those of the land, where they had lived for upwards of a century, and had existed in Europe for more than two centuries. Hence, as the tribe is an enigma to itself, no less than to others, the question, and the great trouble to solve it, on John Bunyan's part, to ascertain whether he was a Jew. Could the language quoted, by any possibility, mean that he was a common native of England of any kind or calling? But why did he not say plainly that he was a Gipsy ? Simply for the reason that it was death by law to be a Gipsy, and “ felony without benefit of clergy ” for “ any person, being fourteen years, whe ther natural-born subject or stranger, who had been seen in the fellowship of such persons, or disguised like them, and remained with them one month at once or several times;" to say nothing of the popular odium attaching to the name, which was, in all probability, the greatest reason he had for not using the word, as it is the greatest bar (Ĭ might say the only bar) to his nationality being acknowledged to day. Even in the United States, I find intelligent and liberal-minded Scotchmen, twenty years absent from their native country, saying, “I would not like it to be said," and others, "I would not have it said that Bunyan was a Gipsy." Notwithstanding all that, the writer in Blackwood says: "John Bunyan was so exceedingly plain-spoken, that he would most likely have called himself a Gipsy if he were really one," even if he were to be hanged for it, or treated as a felon "without benefit of clergy," and incurred the odium of his fellow-creatures of the native race, when there was no call or occasion for him to say anything about his ancestry or family; and that, “Our editor's idea of a conclusive' proof is a defiance and anathema to any who shall dare to assert the contrary." It sounds strange, as coming from the seat of legal science in Scotland, to be told that a thing cannot be proved against a man unless he confesses it; and that he is not even to be believed on the point if he does confess it, but declines using a word to which the law and society attach so severe a penalty as the one in question. You will perceive at once the bearing that Bunyan's nationality will have on the raising up of the name of the Gipsy tribe. People will get accustomed and reconciled to the idea, and entertain a becoming respect for it, were it only on his account; for it unfortunately happens that, owing to the peculiarity of their origin, and the prejudice of the rest of the population, the race hide the fact of their being Gipsies from the rest of the world, as they acquire settled habits, or even leave the tent, so that they never get the credit of any good that may spring from them as a people.* In the Disquisition on the Gipsies, I have said that "the world never can do justice to Bunyan unless it takes him up as a Gipsy; nor can the Christian, unless he considers him as being a Gipsy, in Abraham's bosom. His biographers have not, even in one instance, done justice to him; for, while it is altogether wicked tinker,' the 'depraved Bunout of the question to call him the yan,' it is unreasonable to style him a blackguard,' as Southey has done" (p. 519). (p. 519). The argument showing that he was a Gipsy is very fully given on pages 506-523. I may give here a few extracts bearing on his nationality generally :— his history as he dared to do. John Bunyan has told us as much of It was a subject upon which, in some respects, he for it cannot be supposed that a man doubtless maintained a great reserve; occupying so prominent and popular a position, as a preacher and writer, and of so singular an origin, should have had no investigations made into his hishis friends, at least by his enemies, who tory, and that of his family; if not by seemed to have been capable of doing anything to injure and discredit him.* But, very probably, his being a tinker was, with friends and enemies, a circumstance so altogether discreditable, as to render any investigation of the kind perfectly superfluous. In mentioning that much of himself which he did, Bunyan doubtless imagined that the world understood, or would have understood, what he meant, and would, sooner or later, acknowledge the race to which he belonged. And yet it has remained in this unacknowledged state for two centuries since his time. How unreasonable it is to imagine that Bunyan should have said, in as many words, that he was a Gipsy, when the world generally is so apt to become fired with indignation, should we now say that he was one of the race. How applicable are * It is not impossible that people intimouth that he was a Gipsy, but suppressmate with Bunyan learned from his own ed the information, under the influence of the unfortunate prejudice that exists against the name, with all the timidity What follows did not appear in the that makes sheep huddle together when paper sent to the Scottish clergy. attacked by a ravenous animal. the words of his wife, to Sir Matthew, Hale, to the people of the present day :— "Because he is a tinker, and a poor man, he is despised, and cannot have justice." John Bunyan was simply a Gipsy of mixed blood, who must have spoken the Gipsy language in great purity; for, considering the extent to which it is spoken in England to-day, we can well believe that it was very pure two centuries ago, and that Bunyan might have written works even in that language (p. 516). To a candid and unprejudiced person, it should afford a relief, in thinking of the immortal dreamer, that he should have been a member of this singular race, emerging from a state of comparative barbarism, and struggling upwards, amid so many difficulties, rather than he should have been of the very lowest of our own race; for in that case, there is an originality and dignity connected with him personally, that could not well attach to him, in the event of his having belonged to the dregs of the common natives. Beyond being a Gipsy, it is impossible to say what his pedigree really was. His grandfather might have been an ordinary native, even of fair birth, who, in a thoughtless moment, might have "gone off with the Gipsies;" or his ancestor, on the native side of the house, might have been one of the many English loiterers" who joined the Gipsies on their arrival in England, when they were "esteemed and held in great admiration;" or he might have been a kidnapped infant; or such a" foreign tinker as is alluded to in the Spanish Gipsy edicts, and in the Act of Queen Elizabeth, in which mention is made of "strangers," as distinguished from natural-born subjects, being with the Gipsies. The last is most probable, as the name, Bunyan, would seem to be of foreign origin. It is, therefore, very likely that there was not a drop of common English blood in Bunyan's veins. John Bunyan belongs to the world at large, and England is only entitled to the credit of the formation of his character. Be all that as it may, Bunyan's father seems to have been a superior, and therefore important, man in the tribe, from the fact, as Southey says, of his having “put his son to school in an age when very few of the poor were taught to read and write" (p. 518). The day is gone by when it cannot be said who John Bunyan was. In Cowper's time his name dare not be mentioned, "lest it should move a sneer." Let us hope that we are living in happier times. Tinkering was Bunyan's occupation; his race the Gipsy-a fact that cannot be questioned. His having been a Gipsy adds, by contrast, a lustre to his name, and reflects an immortality upon his character; and he stands out, from among all the men of the latter half of the seventeenth century, in all his solitary grandeur, a monument of the grace of God, and a prodigy of genius. Let us, then, enroll John Bunyan as the first (that is known to the world) of eminent Gipsies, the prince of allegorists, and Christians. What others of this race there may be who have distinguished themselves among mankind, are known to God and, it may be, some of the Gipsies. The saintly Doctor to whom I have alluded was one of this singular his admission of the fact cannot be depeople; and one beyond question, for nied by any one. Any life of John Bunyan, or any edition of his works, one of the most remarkable of men and that does not contain a record of the fact of his having been a Gipsy, lacks with the man that makes everything rethe most important feature connected lating to him personally interesting to mankind (p. 523). The innkeeper evidently thought himself in bad company, when our author asked him for the Tinkler's house, or that any intercourse with a Tinkler would contaminate and degrade him. In this light read an anecdote in the history of John Bunyan, who was one of the same people, as I shall afterwards show. In applying for his release from Bedford jail, his wife said to Justice Hale, "Moreover, my lord, I have four small children that cannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and we have nothing to live upon but the charity of good people." Thereat Justice Hale, looking very soberly on the matter, said, "Alas, poor woman!" "What is his calling?"" continued the judge. And some of the company, that stood by, said (evidently in interruption, and with a bitter sneer), "A tinker, my lord!" "Yes," replied Bunyan's wife," and because he is a tinker, and a poor man, therefore he is despised, and cannot have justice." Noble woman! wife of a noble Gipsy! If the world wishes to know who John Bunyan really was, it |