to grope about in the dark as their inclinations might lead them.

Sixth. The families who are seeking a living as hawkers, show people,
&c., apart from the Gipsies, are on the increase. By travelling up and
down the country in this way they not only escape rates and taxes, but
their children are going without education, as no provision is made in
the education acts to meet cases of this kind. By bringing the Gipsy
children under the influence of the schoolmaster our law-makers will be
adding the last stroke to the system of compulsory education introduced
and carried into law through its first difficult and intricate phases by
the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., when he was at the head of the
Education Department under the Liberal Government, and through its second
stages by the Right Hon. Lord Sandon, M.P., when he was at the head of
the Education Department under the Conservative Government.

Seventh. There is an universal desire among people of the classes I have
before referred to for the education of their children, in fact, I have
not met with one exception during my inquiries, and the Gipsies will be
glad to make some sacrifices to carry it out if the Government will do
their part in the matter.

Eighth. The Gipsies and other travellers of the same kind use our roads,
locate on our commons, live in our lanes, and send their poor, halt,
maimed, and blind to our workhouses, infirmaries, and asylums, towards
the support of which they do not contribute one farthing.

Ninth. As a Christian nation professing to send the Gospel all over the
world, to preach glad tidings, peace upon earth and good-will towards men
everywhere, to take steps for the conversion of the Gipsies in India, the
African, the Chinese, the South Sea Islander, the Turk, the black, the
white, the bond, the free, in fact everywhere where an Englishman goes
the Gospel is supposed to go too, and yet--and it is with sadness,
sorrow, and shame I relate it--we have had on an average during the last
three hundred and sixty-five years not less than 15,000 Gipsies moving
among us, and not less than 150,000 have died and been buried, either
under water, in the ditches, or on the roadside, on the commons, or in
the cemeteries or churchyards, and we, as Christians of Christian
England, have not spent 150,000 pence to reclaim the adult Gipsies, or to
educate their children.

Tenth. As a civilised country we are supposed to lead the van in
civilising