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informer believed that many crimes and even murders were committed among them, which escaped the cognizance of the ordinary police; the seclusion of their habits, and the solitary paths which they chose, as well as the insignificance of their persons, withdrawing them from the ordinary inspection and attention of the magistrate.

"The Scottish lowland gypsies have not in general so atrocious a character, but are always poachers, robbers of hen-roosts, black-fishers, stealers of wood, &c. and in that respect inconvenient neighbours. A gang of them, Faas and Baillies, lately fought a skirmish with the Duke of Buccleuch's people and some officers of mine, in which a fish-spear was driven into the thigh of one of the game-keepers.

"A lady of rank, who has resided sometime in India, lately informed me, that the gypsies are to be found there in the same way as in England, and practise the same arts of posture-making and tumbling, fortune-telling, stealing, and so forth. The Indian gypsies are called Nuts, or Bazeegurs, and are believed by many to be the remains of an original race, prior even to the Hindhus, and who have never adopted the worship of Bramah. They are entirely different from the Parias, who are Hindhus that have lost caste, and so become degraded.

There is a very curious essay concerning the Nuts in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches, which contains some interesting observations on the origin and language of the European gypsies. But we have been tempted to extend this article already far beyond the limits we propose usually to allot to any subject in the course of a single Number; and though we have still many curious particulars to detail, we find these must necessarily be delayed till our next appearance. We cannot, however, quit this subject for the present without noticing with particular approbation a little work lately published by Mr Hoyland of Sheffield, entitled, "A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, and present State of the Gypsies; designed to develope the origin of this singular people, and to promote the amelioration of their condition."—The author has industriously collected the substance of what previous historians or travellers have related of them, from their first appearance in Europe down to our own times. He has also taken great pains to procure information respecting their present state in Britain—by sending circular queries to the chief provincial magistrates, and by personally visiting several of their encampments—for the purpose of setting on foot some plan for their improvement and civilization. Mr Hoyland, we understand, is a member of the respectable society of Friends or Quakers—whose disinterested and unwearied exertions in the cause of injured humanity are above all praise. It is enough to say of the present object, that it is not unworthy of that Christian philanthropy which accomplished the abolition of the slave trade. We shall account ourselves peculiarly happy, should our humble endeavours in any degree tend to promote Mr H.'s benevolent purpose, by attracting public attention to this degraded race of outcasts—the Parias of Europe—thousands of whom still exist in Britain, in a state of barbarism and wretchedness scarcely equalled by that of their brethren in India.—From such of our readers as may have had opportunities of observing the manners, or investigating the origin and peculiar dialect of this singular people, we respectfully invite communications. Even solitary or seemingly trivial notices on such a subject ought not to be neglected: though singly unimportant, they may lead collectively to valuable results. But we need not multiply observations on this point—since our idea is already so well expressed in the following extract from the same valuable communication which we last quoted.—"I have always considered," says Mr Scott, "as a very curious phenomenon in Society, the existence of those wandering tribes, having nearly the same manners and habits in all the nations of Europe, and mingling everywhere with civil society without ever becoming amalgamated with it. It has been hitherto found difficult to trace their origin, perhaps because there is not a sufficient number of facts to go upon. I have not spared you such as I have heard or observed, though many are trivial: if others who have better opportunities would do the same, some general conclusions might result from the whole."