The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-26 00:00:00

REMARkg ON THE. VAGRANT ACT.

'Continued from our Paper of Feb. 16.1
Return we now to the third clause in the examination of
which we'have already made some progress. The weight
of vengeance which falls upon the head of the Bear-wards
we have seen, as well as the extirpating spirit with which
it regards all stage players. We now cynic to
" An persons pretending to be (Posies, an persons pretending
to tell fortunes, or using any .übtle craft. meant, or dewier., by pal-
mistry or otherwite, to deceive or impose noon his :Majesty's sub-
ject.. or playing or betting at any oulawfdl game."
Here, to pretend to be a Gipsy is imde a substantive
offence. Persons pretending to tell fortunes are classed se-
parately. it is not necessary, therefore, under this Act,
that a person pretending to be a Gipsy should commit any
fraud, or be guilty of any species of dab:fluency under that
character. Now we should be curious to learn what is m
he held conclusive evidence of the crime of pretending to
be a Gipsy. Mr. Chetwynd should at least have furnished
us wi.l some definition of a Gipsy; for, hiving made the
pretending to tell fortunes a separate offence, it would seem
as if:there were some peculiar evil properties in the abstract,
descent, and character of a Giicry, which justify the inflict-
ing the severe punishment of a gaol and hard labour on any
person who should put in a claim to be included in that
itinerant and free-born tribe. This extraordinary people,
who are to be found in all parts of Europe, were originally
one of the easter of India, driven out of their own territory,
but preserving everywhere the same features, manner's,
and customs. It is really a curious principle of criminal
jurisprudence that runs through this said Vagrant!
Ad. Gipsies are not punished, nor even adverted to'
as punishable, while all persons pretending to be Gipsies
are made to suffer as the Act directs. We really
cannot comprehend tl:e wisdom or the justice of this. If
it imports any offence to be a gipsy, why does the Act
purposely pass it over ? If it does not import any offence,
I how can persons pretending to be gipsies incur the penal.
ties of an Act, which makes it no offence to be aetualhs
so ? In fact, the crime here is, the not being a gipsy. it
is as if we should punish a man for not being a rogue,
but only pretending to In one! In what school of legisla-
tion can Mr. Chetwynd have studied ? Ile is, we admit,
a most busy and bustling personage ; his activity knows
no repose; hut he reminds us all the while of the de-
scription which IIat.ZAC, in one of his letters, gives of
himself—" I do nothing, and never erase."

Let us now bring up-tile next class of criminals :
" All persons pretending to tell Panne's, or usin • any subtle
craft, means, or device. by pahllistry or otherwise, tedecelye and
n imposet o Here
p°rnea
hgaeanniynsoi tif)hi
eli 6s
p riiati" profound}.:,r 4:
ill lawyer legislates i.ost 1
iast es
quite n theciea samer,
do
not come within the Act ; since it is not those who tell
leqwbuurt.r
ieferettleys
wretched
tathhoasuittsart:eßihm:
eefseproi,gnf,o
secul
,oalyriy ;rue?
ignorance and
ska::
nnn'r
tgielptatsannurdd
r,;:swteellart ehenmo.t i 181 so
amteintitotin4oualsdteonreact-
severe laws expressly to protect his Ilia jesty's sohjects from
being deceived and imposed upon by magicians of this de-
scription. Nothing could have induced this pernicious and
contemptible intenneddling, but the desire that prevails to
bring the most minute irregularities within the cognizance'
of County Magistrates, and to indulge that prevailing
passion for governing which is daily proceeding to such an
oppressive excess. If his Majesty's subjects arc so besotted
as to suffer alarm from the prophecies of cards and coffee-
grounds,—for the statute punishes the pretending to Offer-
tunes by palmistry nr othericise,--they had better learn wis-
Idom by the loss of sixpences, than be thus publicly libelled
iby a statute, which, while it protects them, proclaims their
imbecility. It is certainly not much to our credit, as an
enlightened nation, that it should be necessary to secure us
by penal statutes against the consequences of such pitiful
credulity. But whatever Mr. Chetwynd may think of the
people of this kingdom, we have advanced—with great
deference to his judgment be it said—much beyond that
period of civilization to which this final enactment refers.
Dues he suppose that every lively girl that crosses the
Gipsy's hand with silver, puts faith in her predictions?
Vs hen the servant-maid learns from the fortune-teller the
star that ruled at her nativity. or when the sun-burnt
prophetess traces in her expanded palm the line nflife, bids
her beware of a dad: man, who is her enemy, tells her of
her secret attachment to a fair gentleman, and whispers
the first letter of his name, who will one day be her
husband ;—in all this, there may be a leaven of female
curiosity, or a spice of female weakness ; and some black-
eyed Gipsy may get a few pence by both in the exercise of
her cabalistic science. But is there any thing here which
calls for the grave interference of the legislature? is there
any thing here which demands, that " the King, Lords,
and Commons, in Parliament assembled," should deliber-
ately protect the nation by a severe and express penal
statute ? This science of palmistry and its professors are
of great antiquity; so are magic and witchcraft, but to make
laws against either in these times would be ludicrous, if its
injustice did not make it disgraceful. Mr. Chetwynd
seems wholly unacquainted with the principles upon which
punishment should be regulated. A legislator should be
cautious how he introduces any portion of suffering into
society, without being well satisfied that it is called for as
a remedy for some adequate evil. Laws of this stamp,
carry us back to the sixteenth century, which punished
as crimes offences which the progress of knowledge
has proved were only fit to be laughed at. The
Member for Stafford keeps them in countenance, when
in an Act to consolidate and amend all former Vagrant
Acts, he reserves all the terror of legal authority to
rid the world of the arts of chiromancy. " Opinionum
rommenta delet dies," says CICERO ; and he was a wiser
man and a better lawyer than Mr. Chetwynd.
It may be matter of curious interest to turn our minds
back for a moment upon those times when the belief in
witches and fortune-fellers occupied all that legislative
anxiety which the Act before us expends upon the protest-
sons of astrology. The punishment was greater in degree,
but the principle was the same.
Ths 33d of henry VIII., which was the first statute
against witchcraft, enacts—
That if any person or persons, after the first day of May next
coming, use, devise, practise, or exercise, or cause to be used, de-
vised, practised, or exercised, any invocations or conjurations of
spirits, witchcrafts, enchant.nents, or sorceries, to the intent to get
or and money or treasure, or to tame, consume, or destroy any
person in his body, members, or goods, or to provoke any person
to unlawful love, or by occasion or colour of such things, or any
of them, or for despite of ('heist, or lucre of money, dig tip or pull
down any cross, or by such invocations, &c." should be guilty of fe-
loniut the people, even in those days, did not want pene-
tration. They soon perceived that this charge rf witchcraft
was a ready resource in the hands of the clergy, who never I
failed to resort to this accusation against any enemy who I
could not be otherwise disposed of; and the tumultuous'
feeling which this Act and some others had created was so
strong, that it became necessary to pacify it in the begin-
ning of the new reign, and an Act was accordingly passed,
in the Ist Edward VI., by which all the statutes of Ilenry
VIII., creating these new felonies and treasons, were
repealed.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth—a queen whom those
who know her real character least have most & lighted to
honour—a new law was made against tellehergf?, and pre-
texts for capitally convicting such unmanageable subjects as
gave offence to Church and Slate, were punished through
this medium when all other means failed.
We will transcribe a passage or two from " STRYPE'S
Introduction to thelliatorti the Reformation under Queen
Eta zs sETII," written about one hundred years since:—
" There were some," says this Reverend Divine, " already of
the i'upirts forting, contriving mischief against the Queen, by deal-
ing woh some conjurors, to cast their figures to calculate the
Queen's lite, and the duration of her government, and the like.
And niter having related the proceedings against several of these
conjurors, he goes on thus:—' 'Tis strange to consider how these
soreeries prevailed about this time, and so on for some of the first
years of the Queen's reign, and the mischiefs they did, and the
fears many good and sober men hail of their bewitching the Queen
herself. ('his is evident from a passage in a sermon of Bishop'
Jewel's before the Queen, wherein he thus adtlresseth himself to
her :—By the way, to touch but a word or two of this matter, for
that the horrible using of your poor subjects enforccth thereunto.
It may please your (Dace to understsuol, that this kind of people,
I mean witches wad sorcerers, within this last few years, are mar-
velously increased within your ()race's realm. These eyes have
seen most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Your
Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death, their colour (adrift,
their flesh rotteth, their speech is uenumbcd, their senses are be-
reft. Wherefore your poor subjects' most humble petition unto
your Highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors may be
put in due exettutior.. For the shoal of them is great, their doings
horrible, their malice intolerable, the examples most miserable ;
and I pray God they may never practise further than upon the
subject.' This 1 make no doubt was the occasion of bringing in a
Bill next Parliament, for making enchantments and witchcraft

Idnny.•;
It is wcothy of rerr.orli, that the Clergy, iu those days of

magic and necromancy, were ail et' inuous supporters of
the law which made them capital illowes. There is one
circumstance whieli may assist us to account fort this holy
zeal: the priests /1441 a share is the goods and estates of all
persons so convicted.
Surely, in the nineteenth century, it is not c►editable
to the Parliament of (hest Britain to snactpenal statutes
against palmistry, and to carry the terra ofitsbrfl Vault:o
gipsic, and fitriuse-tellers.

I To be continued')

ASHION .4D..LE_ClrEldifdk_Ztei;

The Archbishop of Canterbury will have a dbrast party on Sa-
turday, at Lambeth Palace.
The Marquis of Lanadown entertaissed another 'distinguished
party at dinner yesterday, itLansdown House, Berkeley-square.
laird Grantham will give a .and dinner die day, at hia house
in tit. James'a-square Der I.uisahlp will have an evening party.
Earl Bathurst will have I rand diner party on the Bth March,
at his 'loose in Stachope-street, May-fair.
Edward Ellice, Esq. M.l'. had a dinner party yesterday, at his
house in New-street, Spring-gardens.
The Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury had a select party yes..
teiday evening, at her hniise in Arlioromstreet.
The Duke of Nortqlk entertained a distinguished party at dinner
yesterday, at his house in St. Jameiv-square.
Lady Gwydyr had an elegant circle of fashionable, yesterday
evening, at her house in Piccadilly.
The Earl of Dartmouth is expected in tonn to.mortow, from Lis
seat, . Sandwell Ball, Staffordshire

ear! l'erularn haaarrked at his house in Grosvenor-square, from
his sent, Gerhambury, Item.
The Countess of Carhampron has arrived at her house in Bruton-
street, Berkeley-square., front her seat, Ken.
William Aladdoeini, Esq. M.P. and family have arrived at their
hinter in Seymour-plate, from their seat, Swath Weiss.
John Taylor, Esq. left Jordan's WWI, St. James's-street, yes-
terdity, for his seat, Spring arove. Witecestershirs.
Amy.is at Reddish's lintel, Jermyn-street :—Warven Mark-
ham, Esq. from York; and Captain ?sups; from a tour.
Mrs. Teesdale and Away nmved, Yesterday, at the British lin-
tel, Jermyn-nreet. from Driduon.
The lion. dirs. Fowler and Min Bersaford arrived, yesterday.
at the Waterloo Hotel, Jermyn-street, from Ireland.
Arrivals at the Royal Hate, St. James's-street :—The lion. F.
Twinleton and Mr. Page, from Belvidere, Kent; Captain Hy,
from a tour; Sir E. Kernson, Bart. from Paris ; and the Rev. A.
Burmester, (tom a tout. Departures :—E. Wolstenholms. Esq.
for Dublin ; d: Sparks, Esq. for his seat in Hants; and J. Moody,
Esq. for Brighton.
Departures front Long's Hotel, Bond-street :—J. Jacking, Esq-
Capt. Clown:, and W. Parris, Esq. for Paris; and H. Ward, Bag •
for Brighton.

SHIPPING INTL f.LIGEArCE.
The following letter front the Almiralty was this morn-
ing received at Lloyd's :
Admiralty Office, 24tb Feb. 1024.

Sot—l am commanded by my Lords Comroissionees of the Ad-
miralty to acquaint you, that one of his 3lajesty's ships will give
convoy from Falmouth to the Trade bound to the Straits of Gibrai:
tar and the Mediterranean, and will sail from Falmouth as too,
after the lit of March is the Trade shall be assembled there, and
wind and weather allow ; and that another convoy will be dispatch:
ed in about a fortnight after, and so on, as the state of affairs, and
the wants of the Trade may seem to require.
(Signed) JOHN BARROW.
To the Chairman of the Committee for managing
the Affairs of Lloyd's.

CUSTOM-HOUSE, FEB. 25.
ENTERED hilt ARKS.
Ptinet of Sate Cobourg, Ladd (De Bit, broker), from Rutter:
dam.
Borussia, Luneke(Windle), from Dangle.
Christine Margaretta,.Endreitten (W. Blake), from Norway.
Carl 14th, Lindberg (Lindgren), from Gottenburgh.
Emanuel, Spier (Windle), from Rorway.
Emanuel, Ambjomson (Molkn), front Norway.
Elizabeth, Sky (Lindgren), from Oottenburgh.
Johanna Christina, De Vries (Mellen). from Ghent.
Industrie, Boddie (Windle), from Norway.
Maria, Brons (De Big). from Antwerp.
Speculation, Aueher (Windle), from Norway.
Tre Venner, hladvig (Cohens), from Copenhagen..
Zwey Gebruder, Stemorth (Brenter), fain Memel.
Zanneuw, Plug (Batten), from Rotterdam.
FROM LLOYD'S LIST.

FALNOTJTH, FEB. 23.—Arrived the Duke of Kent par let.
trim Lisbon, sailed the 15th inst. Sailed the Montague pee K.
for the Leeward 41ands. Off Penzance, the Swift, Walker, from
Tarragoea.
Pwreiotrrs, FEL 23—Airiest! the Euphemia, Lane, from
St. Michael's.

FZllltt ARV 24.—Pat in b contrary winds, the
Raat Baoger, ,M
ay.,
Mat ciaa gawk &lac sad • Wickham.
he
_ _

..—. —.—
Duet. Pus. 24.—Came down from the River and sailed, the
Orpheus, far the Isle of France; Hero, Ritchie, fot Bahia; and
Viscount Exmouth, for Palermo.
The Paragon, Atkinson, from Situderlantl, to London, pot into
Hull, 9Sti inst. leaky.
Lisuoir, its. 14—The Bustler Leader, from Plymouth
which was la near Paddle, 111th ult., has been goc
off
with d . • ved here yesterday.
Liainte "- There are several vessels arrived in the
River, but It , Ay •
veti hard from E. in E.S.E. that they
have not been . Last night and this morning it blew
a perfect hurricane ra I-4
The Rata Packet, Blackeller, from Newfoundland to FiffOtiTS,
Oil totally lost on the Ist inst., near that port.-. Crew and cargo
(damaged) saved.
The Alexandrine., of Amsterdam, Wraaman, from Havre to
wu lost on the 90th ult., near Cape St. Yincenz—Crow
saved,
The Seine, Cunningham, from Madras, has arrived at St.
Helena.
PENZANCE, FEB. 23.—The wreck of the sloop Mayflower.
Jones, from Plymouth for Penzance. which was abandcied by the
crew in the gale of the 14th instant, mule on shore on the morning
of the 19th, near the Land's End.
611VORSTXD, FES. 24.—Arrived, the Emanuel, Catternow ;
Emanuel, Spier; Industry, Buckley; Minerva, Gocn ; and Spe-
culation, Anther. from Norway. Borussia, Luncke, from Draitzie.
Charles 4th, Lindberg; and Llizabeth, Guy, from Gottenboreft.
Two Brothers. Stenors, from Martel and the Lively, Bayes.
from Harlingen. Sailed, the Hopewell, Smith ; Abeona, Turner,
for Jamaica. Hope, Wood; Britannia, Jackson ; Two Brothers,
Robson ; and Perseverance, Menem, for Ilaniburgh. Liber-
ator, Cobden, for Lima; and Kangaroo, Bunnell, tor Genoa.
- - • -