to.

coalescence with our favourite authors, the solemn announcement, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther," must be distinctly recognised and attended Now these are precisely what we conceive to be Mr Foster's sentiments with regard to the majority of our elegant writers. So far from thinking, with Euthus, that his essays cannot bear comparison with the " Evidences of Addison," (which is a good enough book of its kind, though never to be brought in competition with such treatises as those of Clarke and Butler, of Paley or Chalmers,) there are many (and probably just as good judges of these matters as Euthus) who consider them vastly superior, in originality and grandeur of conception, to any thing ever Mr Addison produced.

After his now-refuted attack on Wilberforce and Foster, Euthus concludes his letter with some vague and ill-digested objections to all those associations of Christians, whose professed object is to spread, by all the means in their power, the light of revelation over the world. To vindicate existing societies for the diffusion of revealed religion, is become less necessary than it was a few years ago. The most successful mode of philosophising is, doubtless, the induction of general principles from ascertained facts; and the more numerous and accessible these are, the more confidence we repose in the inferences that are deduced from them. The Christian world has of late been engaged in a succession of experiments; and though occasional failures have occurred, as will always happen when the application of any principle requires a degree of skill superior to what is demanded by objects where its efficiency is no longer uncertain, yet there must be some unaccountable prejudice lurking about that mind, which, so far from congratulating the world upon the trophies which have been reared to the efficacy of the Christian religion in distant lands, can apparently feel an emotion of joy at the prospect of the most dismal calamity that can befall any age or people. Every one who has been the least attentive to the constitutional elements of the societies we allude to, cannot have failed to remark, that they involve whatever will tend ultimately either to accelerate or to overthrow their object. No plan so complicated in its operations,

It

and depending on so many tutelary sources, as the Bible or Missionary Society, can remain stationary. must either take a progressive or a retrograde movement; and the impulse communicated will be analogous to that which is observable in all moving bodies,-either a gradual exhaustion, or an increased velocity. If the societies that exist throughout a great part of the civilized world were the effect of any capricious or indefinable excitement of the passions, communicated by a kind of instantaneous impulse, they might assume, to a dispassionate observer, a very questionable aspect. He might, in vindication of his peculiar sentiments, refer to the history of mankind, and clearly establish the rationality of his doubts upon the subject. He might remind his antagonist of the crusades to the Holy Land, which the nobles and princes of Europe considered it not merely their duty to patronise, but their privilege to accompany; and to shew the futility of invariably reasoning from experience, he might ask, if ever a combination of concurrent circumstances, more apparently adapted to secure the object, could be presented to the mind? The religious feelings, he might continue, were at that time not only wrought up to the highest pitch of intensity, but were so intimately connected with the exercise of political authority, and so congenial with a religion, the fulminations of which could awe the hardiest into silence, that the very idea of failure was little short of impiety. It is not, therefore, upon the principle of the general support which has been afforded to Bible and Missionary Societies, that we would found any argument for their necessary continuance. The expediency of interesting the community in objects of general benevolence; the subserviency of such feelings to the firmer ascendancy of a particular system of politics; with many other considerations unnecessary to specify, might be adduced in support of such schemes, without any explicit reference to the sanctions of Heaven. It is but a very partial view of the subject, in all its bearings, that can induce the friends of religion to rest their claims upon public support, on arguments which at best are addressed to the feelings more than to the understanding. Much good, doubtless, may result from eloquent

weight, however light they may be, when I come to speak of the origin of these curious people. The following particulars are descriptive of the manner and style in which single gypsies of rank, at one period, traversed this country; they assumed characters of no small importance, very opposite to the mean and sorry appearance which they exhibited while they travelled in hordes.

Within these forty-five years, an acquaintance of mine, yet living in Fife, happened to be at a smithy in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, getting the shoes of his riding-horse roughed on a frosty day in winter, to enable him to proceed on his journey, when a gentleman on horseback called at the same smithy for the like purpose. He was mounted on a handsome and beautiful English blood horse, which was saddled and bridled in a superior manner. The equestrian was himself dressed in superfine clothes, having a riding-whip in his hand. He was booted and spurred, with saddle-bags on his croupe behind him, and had altogether, man and horse, the equipment and appearance of a smart English traveller, riding on a mercantile

concern.

There being several horses in the shop, he, in a haughty and consequential manner, inquired at the smith very particularly about whose turn it was to get his horse shod first, indicating, at the same time, a strong desire to be first served, although he was the last who had arrived at the smithy. This bold assurance made my acquaintance take a steady look of the intrusive stranger, surveying him with his eye from head to foot. But what was his astonishment, after having closely examined him, when he found this mighty fictitious gentleman to be no other than "Sandie Brown the tinkler's son, in the neighbourhood of Crief," whom he had often seen strolling over the country in a troop of gypsies, and who had frequently been in his father's house. He could scarcely believe his own eyes, and, to prevent any disagreeable mistake from taking place, he politely asked him if his name was not Brown, observing, at the same time, that he thought he had seen him somewhere before. The surprised tinkler hesitated considerably at this unexpected question, but, after having put some queries on his part, he at

last answered him in the affirmative, adding, that " he would not deny himself, his name was really Brown.' He had, in all likelihood, been travelling under a borrowed name. When he found himself thus discovered, and detected in his impositions, and seeing no danger to be apprehended from this accidental meeting, he very shrewdly shewed great marks of kindness and attention to his acquaintance. Being quite free from embarrassment, he in a little time began to display, as was the gypsey custom, extraordinary feats of his bodily strength, by twisting asunder with his hands strong pieces of iron in the smithy, taking bets regarding his power and abilities in these athletic practices with those who would venture to wager against him. Before parting with my acquaintance, he very kindly insisted upon treating him with a share of a bottle of any kind of liquor he would choose to drink.

At some wild sequestered station of his own tribe, on his road home to Scotland, the equestrian tinkler would unmask himself, pack up his fine clothes, dispose of his riding horse, and assume his leathern apron, ragged coat, and budget, before he would venture to make his appearance among the people of the country who were acquainted with his real character. Here at once an haughty overbearing highway robber, sheathed in the scabbard of excellent apparel, mounted on a good steed, metamorphoses himself in an instant into a poor pitiful wandering beggarly gypsey.

This ambassador or spy was at last hanged in Edinburgh, to expiate the many crimes which he had from time to time committed on the public. His brother-in-law, of the name of Wilson, was hanged along with him on the same day, being also guilty of a number of crimes. These two men, conjunctly, carried on a considerable trade in horse-stealing between Scotland and England. The horses which were stolen in the south were brought to Scotland and sold there; and the Scotch horses were, on the other hand, disposed of in the south, by English gypsies. The crime of horse-stealing, I believe, has brought a great number of these vagrants to an untimely end on the gallows.

While these unhappy men were shivering in the winds of Heaven in the convulsive throes of death, Mar

tha, the mother of the former, and who was also mother-in-law to the latter, was apprehended on the spot, in the act of stealing a pair of double sheets. They were in all probability intended for the winding-sheets of her unfortunate sons who were just suffering in her presence. This woman's looks and visage were horrible in the extreme. One of her daughters, the wife of Jamie Robison, who once lived at Menstry, was sentenced to be transported to Botany Bay; but she was so far advanced in years, that it was not thought worth while to be at the expence and trouble of carrying her over seas, and she was accordingly set at liberty. Her grandson, Joyce Robison, another thorough bred thief, would also have been hanged or banished, but by the assistance of some of his clan he was rescued from Stirling jail, where he was confined. He was so cool and deliberate in his operations in breaking the prison, that he took time to carry along with him a favourite bird in a cage, with which he had amused himself during his solitary confinement in jail. He happened, however, to scatter the contents of his oatmeal bag in the streets, as he proceeded through the town, being anxious to take his victuals also along with him. Brown's widow, another daughter of Martha's, was married to a native of this country, of the name of Fisher. The gypsies having committed some depredations in which he was implicated, and being a mere novice in the trade carried on by the savage society in which he was initiated, he was with ease apprehended, and was tried, condemned, and executed at Perth, while all the other members of the band at that time escaped from justice, owing to their superior dexterity in their dreadful calling.

Sandie Brown, before mentioned, on one occasion happened to be in need of butcher meat for his tribe. He had observed, grazing in a field in the county of Linlithgow, a bullock which had at one period, by some accident, lost about three-fourths of its tail. He purchased from a tanner the tail of a skin of the same colour of this bullock, and, in an ingenious manner, made it fast to the remaining part of the tail of the living animal, by sewing them together. Disguised in this way he drove off his booty; and as he was shipping the beast at Queensferry, in

his way north, a servant, who had been despatched in quest of the depredator, overtook him as he was stepping into the boat. An altercation immediately commenced-the servant said he could swear to the ox in his possession, were it not for its long tail; and was accordingly proceeding to examine it narrowly, to satisfy himself in this particular, when the ready-witted gypsey, ever fertile in expedients to extricate himself from difficulty, took his knife out of his pocket, and, in view of all present, cut the false tail from the animal, taking in part of the real tail along with it, which drew blood instantly. He threw this false tail into the sea, and, with some warmth, called out to his pursuer, "Swear to the ox now, and be damn'd t' ye." The servant, quite confounded, said not another word on the subject; and, being thus imposed upon by this bold stroke of Brown, he returned home to his master, and the unconscionable tinkler prosecuted his journey with his prize. He was, however, not always so fortunate. Being once apprehended near Dumblane, it was the intention of the messengers to carry their prisoner direct to Perth, but they were under the necessity of lodging him in the nearest prison for the night. Brown was no sooner in custody than he began to meditate his escape. He requested it as a favour, that they would sit up all night with him in a public house instead of a prison, promising them as much meat and drink for their indulgence and trouble as they should desire. His request was granted, and four or five officers were accordingly placed in and about the room in which he was confined, as a guard upon his person, being aware of the desperate character they had to deal with. He took care to ply them well with the bottle; and, early next morning before setting out, he desired one of the officers to put up the window a little to cool their apartment, as it was then very warm weather, being in the middle of summer. After having walked several times across the room, the gypsey, all at once, threw himself out at the open window, which was a considerable height from the ground. The hue and cry was at his heels in no time, and as some of the officers were gaining ground upon him in his flight, he boldly faced about upon them, drew forth from below his coat

a dagger which he brandished in the air, and threatened instant death to the first who should approach him. He was at this time suffered to make his escape, as none had the courage to advance upon him. He was, however, at a subsequent period, taken in a wood in Rannoch, being surprised and overpowered by a party of Highlanders, raised for the purpose of apprehending himself and dispersing his band, who lay in the wood in which he was taken. He thought to evade their vigilance and pursuit by clapping close to the ground like a wild beast. Upon his being seized, a furious scuffle ensued; and, during the violent tossing and struggling which took place while they were securing this sturdy wanderer, he, with his teeth, took hold of the bare thigh of one of the Highlanders, beneath his kilt, and bit it most cruelly.

Your readers may take the following as a specimen of the favourite and complete costume worn by young chiefs or captains of the tribe, about half a century ago, in Scotland. When I speak of gypsey captains, I do not generally mean those old patriarchal chiefs of large hordes. These old sagacious persons kept themselves clear of all dangerous scrapes, professing to the public great innocence, honesty, and justice, while their sons, or other principal members of their families, were employed in active service at the head of gangs, plundering for the subsistence of their aged parents.

Brown, before mentioned, when in full dress, wore a hat richly ornamented and trimmed with beautiful gold lace, which, I believe, was then fashionable among the first ranks in Scotland, particularly among the officers of the army; and now, perhaps, with some variation, worn by valets and other menial servants. His coat was made of superfine cloth, of a light green colour, long in the tails, and having one row of buttons at the breast. His shirt, of the finest quality, was ruffled at the breast and hands, with a stock and buckle round his neck. He also wore a pair of handsome boots, with silver plated spurs, all in the fashion of the day. Below his garments he carried a large knife, and in the shaft or butt-end of his huge whip a small spear or dagger was concealed. His brother-in-law, Wilson, was frequently dressed in a

similar garb, and both rode the best horses in the country. Having the appearance of gentlemen in their habit, and assuming the manners of such, which they imitated to a wonderful degree, few persons took these men for gypsies.

Several individuals represent Brown and Wilson to me as very handsome men, tall and stout made, with agreeable and manly countenances; and among the numberless thefts and robberies which they had committed in their day, they were never known to have taken a sixpence from persons of an inferior class, but, on the contrary, rather assisted the poorer classes in their pecuniary matters, with a generous liberality not at all to be looked for from men of their habits and manner of life.

He

Charlie, by some called William, another brother of Sandie Brown's, was run down by a party of military and messengers near Dundee. was carried to Perth, where he was tried, condemned, and hanged, to at one for the numerous crimes of which he was guilty. He was a man of great personal strength, and, after he was hand-cuffed, regretting having allowed himself to be so easily taken, he in wrath drove the messengers before him with his feet as if they had been mere children. He was conveyed to Perth by water, in consequence of it being reported, that the gypsies of Fife, with the Grahams and Ogilvies at their head, were in motion to rescue him from the clutches of the officers of the law.

While he was in that apartment in the prison called the Cage, or rather the condemned cell, he, by a stratagem, freed himself from his heavy irons, and broke his manacles to pieces. By some unknown means, he set fire to the damp straw on which he lay, within his cell, with a design, as it was supposed, to make his escape in the confusion which might take place in consequence of the prison being on fire. Surprised at the house being in flames, and suspecting that Brown had been the cause of it, and that he was free from his chains, ramping like a lion within his den, no person in the hurry could be found who had resolution enough to venture into him, till a brawney broad-shouldered serjeant of the 42d regiment courageously volunteered his services. However, be