two latter questions; the first questions can be
dealt better with by abler hands than mine.

I would say, in the first place, that it is my decided conviction that
the Gipsies were neither more nor less, before they set out upon their
pilgrimage, than a pell-mell gathering of many thousands of low-caste,
good for nothing, idle Indians from Hindustan--not ashamed to beg, with
some amount of sentiment in their nature, as exhibited in their musical
tendencies and love of gaudy colours, and except in rare instances,
without any true religious motives or influences. It may be worth while
to notice that I have come to the conclusion that they were originally
from India by observing them entirely in the light given to me years ago
of the different characters of human beings both in Asia, Europe, and
Africa. Their habits, manners, and customs, to me, is a sufficient test,
without calling in the aid of the philologist to decide the point of
their originality. I may here remark that in order to get at the real
condition of the Gipsies as they are at the present day in this country,
and not to have my mind warped or biassed in any way, I purposely kept
myself in ignorance upon the subject as to what various authors have said
either for or against them until I had made my inquiries and the movement
had been afloat for several months. The first work touching the Gipsy
question I ever handled was presented to me by one of the authors--Mr.
Crofton--at the close of my Social Science Congress paper read at
Manchester last October, entitled "The Dialect of the English Gipsies,"
which work, without any disrespect to the authors--and I know they will
overlook this want of respect--remained uncut for nearly two months.
With further reference to their Indian origin, the following is an
extract from "Hoyland's Historical Survey," in which the author
says:--"The Gipsies have no writing peculiar to themselves in which to
give a specimen of the construction of their dialect. Music is the only
science in which the Gipsies participate in any considerable degree; they
likewise compose, but it is after the manner of the Eastern people,
extempore." Grellmann asserts that the Hindustan language has the
greatest affinity with that of the Gipsies. He also infers from the
following consideration that Gipsies are of the lowest class of Indians,
namely, Parias, or, as they are called in Hindustan, Suders, and goes on
to say that the whole great nati