the vortex of ruin, as so many thousands have done before. It is not
unlikely but that I shall, in saying plain things about the Gipsies,
expose myself to some inconvenience, misrepresentation, malice, and spite
from those who would keep the Gipsies in ignorance, and also from shadow
philanthropists, who are always on the look out for other people's
brains; but these things, so long as God gives me strength, will not
deter me from doing what I consider to be right in the interest of the
children, so long as I can see the finger of Providence pointing the way,
and it is to Him I must look for the reward, "Well done," which will more
than repay me for all the inconvenience I have undergone, or may have
still to undergo, in the cause of the "little ones." That man is no real
friend to the Gipsies who seeks to improve them by flattery and
deception. A Gipsy, with all his faults, likes to be dealt fairly and
openly with--a little praise but no flattery suits him. They can
practise cunning, but they do not care to have any one practising it upon
them.

I dare not be sanguine enough to hope that I shall be successful, but I
have tried thus far to show, first, the past and present condition of the
Gipsies; second, the little we, as a nation, have done to reclaim them;
and, third, what we ought to do to improve them in the future, so as to
remove the stigma from our shoulders of having 20,000 to 30,000 Gipsies,
show people, and others living in vans, &c., in our midst, fast drifting
into heathenism and barbarism, not five per cent. of whom can read and
write, at least, so far as the Gipsies are concerned; and those children
travelling with "gingerbread" stalls, rifle galleries, and auctioneers
are but little better, for all the parents tell me their children lose in
the summer what little they learn at school in the winter, for the want
of means being adopted whereby their children could go to school during
the daytime as they are travelling through the country with their wares,
_i.e._, at their halting-places.

In bringing this book to a close, I would say, in the name of all that is
just, fair, honourable, and reasonable, in the name of science, religion,
philosophy, and humanity, and in the name of all that is Christ-like,
God-like, and heavenly, I ask, nay I claim, the attention of our noble
Queen--whose deep interest in the children of the labouring population is
unbounded--statesmen, Christians, and my countrymen to t