ies peril with it, is
not a pleasant look-out for the future.' He contends that 'if these poor
children, living in vans and tents and under old carts, are to be allowed
to live in these places, they should be registered in a manner analogous
to the Canal Boats Act of 1877, so that the children may be brought under
the compulsory clauses of the Education Acts, and become Christianised
and civilised as other children.'"

The _Illustrated London News_, October 4th, says:--"Among the papers to
be read at Manchester is one on the condition of the Gipsy children and
roadside 'arabs' in our midst, by Mr. George Smith, of Coalville,
Leicester. Here, indeed, is a gentleman who is certainly neither a
dealer in crotchets nor a rider of hobbies. Mr. Smith has done admirable
service on behalf of the poor children on board our barges and
canal-boats, and the even more pitiable boys and girls in our
brick-fields; and to his philanthropic exertions are mainly due the
recent amendments in the Factory Acts regulating the labour of young
children. He has now taken the case of the juvenile 'Romanies' in hand;
and I wish him well in his benevolent crusade. Mr. Smith has obligingly
sent me a proof of his address, from which I gather that, owing to a
superstitious dislike which the Gipsies entertain towards the Census, and
the successfully cunning attempts on their part to baffle the
enumerators, it is only by conjecture and guesswork that we can form any
idea of the number of Bohemians in this country. The result of Mr.
Smith's diligent inquiries has led him to the assumption that there are
not less than 4,000 Gipsy men and women, and from 15,000 to 20,000 Gipsy
and 'arab'--that is to say, tramp--children roaming about the country
'outside the educational laws and the pale of civilisation.'"

The following leading article, relating to my paper upon "The Condition
of the Gipsy Children," appears in the _Daily News_, October 6th:--"At
the Social Science Congress Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, will
to-morrow open a fresh campaign of philanthropy. The philanthropic
Alexander is seldom in the unhappy condition of his Macedonian original,
and generally has plenty of worlds remaining ready to be conquered.
Brick-yards and canal-boats have not exhausted Mr. Smith's energies, and
the field he has now entered upon is wider and perhaps harder to work
than either of these. Mr. Smith desires to bring the Gipsy children
under the operation of th