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dence on record, of the summary root-and-branch justice that was frequently executed upon this unhappy race, in terms of the above statute. The following may serve for specimens:—In July 1611, four Faas were sentenced to be hanged—as Egyptians. They pleaded a special licence from the Privy Council, to abide within the country;—but they were held (from failure of their surety,) to have infringed the terms of their protection, and were executed accordingly.—In July 1616, two Faas and a Baillie were capitally convicted on the same principle.—In January 1624, Captain John Faa and seven of his gang (five of whom were Faas,) were doomed to death on the statute—and hanged.—A few days after, Helen Faa, relict of the captain, Lucretia Faa, and other women, to the number of eleven, were in like manner convicted, and condemned to be drowned.^[1]—A similar case occurs in 1636.^[2] This we have inserted at length in another department of our present Number, as a fair specimen of these sanguinary proceedings. In later times, the statute began to be interpreted with a more merciful spirit towards these wretched outcasts, and they were hanged only when convicted (as happened, however, pretty frequently,) of theft, murder, and other violent offences against public order.

Instead of carrying forward, in this manner, our own desultory sketch, we shall place at once before our readers, the accurate and striking account given of the Scottish gypsies, by a celebrated anonymous author of the present day, and by the distinguished person whose authority he has quoted. Considering how very unnecessary, and how difficult it would be to convey the same information in other words—and allowing due attention to the conveniency of those who may not have the book at hand to refer to—we do not apprehend that any apology is necessary for availing ourselves of the following passage from the well-known pages of Guy Mannering.

"It is well known," says the author, "that the gypsies were, at an early period, acknowledged as a separate and independent race by one of the Scottish monarchs; and that they were less favourably distinguished by a subsequent law which rendered the character of gypsey equal, in the judicial balance, to that of common and habitual thief, and prescribed his punishment accordingly. Notwithstanding the severity of this and other statutes, the fraternity prospered amid the distresses of the country, and received large accessions from among those whom famine, oppression, or the sword of war, had deprived of the ordinary means of subsistence. They lost, in a great measure, by this intermixture, the national character of Egyptians, and became a mingled race, having all the idleness and predatory habits of their eastern ancestors, with a ferocity which they probably borrowed from the men of the north who joined their society. They travelled in different bands, and had rules among themselves, by which each tribe was confined to its own district. The slightest invasion of the precincts which had been assigned to another tribe, produced desperate skirmishes, in which there was often much bloodshed.

"The patriotic Fletcher of Saltoun drew a picture of these banditti about a century ago, which my readers will peruse with astonishment.

'There are, at this day, in Scotland (besides a great many poor families, very meanly provided for by the church boxes, with others who, by living upon bad food, fall into various diseases) two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. These are not only no way advantageous, but a very grievous burden to so poor a country. And though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of this present great distress, yet in all times there have been about one hundred thousand of these vagabonds, who have lived without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even those of God and nature; * * * * * * No magistrate could ever discover, or be informed, which way one in a hundred of these wretches died, or that ever they were baptized. Many murders have been discovered among them; and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread, or some kind of provision, to perhaps forty such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but they rob many poor people who live in houses distant from any neighbour-