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industry and enterprise, and wish them all possible prosperity and happiness; yet, independently of the effects of such a policy on other sections of the Union, we are satisfied, that we should not advocate their own best interest, by advocating higher duties than already exist. We are not sure, that any branch of trade which cannot flourish with a protective duty of 20 per cent. ad valorem, ought safely to be engaged

in. And it may be taken as a pretty sure and conclusive evidence, that its introduction would be as premature for the exigencies of the country, as the digging a canal, or making a railroad, through an uninhabited country or wilderness; while to undertake to force it, either by bounties or taxes of any kind, would only end in the injury of the parties investing, as well as the general prejudice of the country at large.

ANDREW JACKSON.

BY W. WALLACE, ESQ., AUTHOR OF

PERDITI," ETC.

STAR OF THE WEST! whose steadfast light
Sparkles above our troubled sea,
Well may the watcher of the night

Turn with a trusting heart to thee

To thee, whose strong hand steered the bark
When all around was wild and dark,
And bent the white wing of the mast,
That trembled, like a thing of fear
Within the tempest's thunder-blast,
Before its haven-rest is near.
Undying ray! unfading flame,

Of glory set within our skies,
For ever burning there the same,
Above a nation's destinies,-
And linked with all the noble band
Of Freedom worship in their land,
Whose rolling streams and rugged sod
Still, still no monarch own but God!
Beam on! Beam on! while millions turn
To where thy lofty splendors burn,
Like seraph-wings, whose rainbow plumes,
From Heaven's far battlement unfurl'd,
Shine grandly through the fearful glooms
That pall a sun-deserted world!

CHIEF OF THE BRAVE! 'Twas thine to wield

Resistless arms in battle-field!

'Twas thine to give the gallant blow
That struck the lion-standard low!
E'en as a mighty harp with strings
Thrilling beneath the tempest's wings,
So thrilled the nation's soul, when thou
Trampled the foe beneath thy feet,

And saw, victorious o'er thy brow
Unfurled, Columbia's glory-sheet.

Oh! when the storms of Treason lower
O'er freedom's consecrated tower,
And that for which the grey-haired sire
With boyhood gladly gave his life,
Shall wither fast beneath the fire

Of wild Ambition's demon-strife;
The Patriot then shall boldly start,
With kindled eye and swelling heart,
Murmur devotedly thy name,

Rush where the ranks of Treachery stand,
And fearless quench the unholy flame

Lit on the altars of our land.

What though around thy brow sublime
We see the snowy wreath of Time!
Aye! let the very marble rest,

Old Chieftain! on thy mouldering breast→→→
Thy spirit bravely flashing out,

Like the bright Grecian torch of old

By mailed warriors hurled about,

Shall beam on centuries untold.

Long as a Hero's grave shall be
A cherished altar for the free-
Ah! dearer far, and more divine,
Than Persian orb or orient shrine-
Long as the River, by whose wave
Thou led'st the armies of the brave,
Shall, in the shades of evening dim,
Echo the anthem of the sea,

And mingle with its solemn hymn
The ancient songs of liberty-

Long as the spirits of the blest

Shall hover o'er each patriot's sleepTrue as those planets of the west

That watch the shut eyes of the Deep

Long as our starry banner flies
On dashing seas, through azure skies-
A radiant hope from heaven displayed
To all who groan in tyrant-chains,
That still, despite of throne and blade,
For them a brighter lot remains-
So long, oh! Soldier-Patriot-Sage,
So long, unterrified, sublime,
Shalt thou, unheeding envy's rage,
Tower up, the land-mark of our age,
The noblest glory of thy time!

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THE GYPSIES.*

WE have been wandering awhile over the pleasant hills and valleys of Spain, in company with an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and yet in rather strange company, too, for such a personage to keep, viz.: professional thieves and vagabonds;-and that not officially, with the view of bringing them to justice, but as pure amateurs of humanity, or rather of rascality, in one of its most questionable shapes, and with the design of rendering to these vagabonds no other justice than that of the critic and his torian.

Mr. Borrow has devoted much of his time and attention to the study of the Gypsy race, as it exists at the present day in Europe. He has collected many curious facts concerning it, and his work contains much that is interesting in respect of its past and present condition. Although devoted principally to an account of the Spanish branch of this great family, it gives us a good deal of information touching the other scions of the same stock, and demonstrates beyond a doubt the fact that this people, though now divided into various tribes, having little intercourse with each other, are yet one in their origin and in their language. The facts which Mr. Borrow has laid before us are drawn, not so much from the writings of others, as from his own observation and experience of the Gypsies, during a long and familiar acquaintance with them; facilitated by a knowledge of their peculiar tongue, which few Europeans have had either the opportunity or the patience to acquire. His work has a practical and genuine character belonging only to that information which comes thus, as it were, from the fountain head; and the light which he has thrown upon the habits of this mysterious people, enables us to trace out the rusty and

decaying links that bind them to ages long past, and to far distant lands.

The origin of the Gypsy race has puzzled many an antiquarian, and has given rise to various speculations in the different countries inhabited by them. They have been called by some Moors or Arabs; by others, Tartars; and by others, again, Bohemians, with a great variety of other designations derived by accident and adopted by ignorance. They represent themselves as Egyptians, bound to do penance by their wanderings for the sin of having refused hospitality and protection to the Virgin Mary and her son, when they fled from the wrath of Herod—a solution, doubtless, framed for the problem of their existence by the pious imagination of Oriental Christians, who, glad to demonstrate in every way the stern vengeance of God, laid this sin upon them, and read its punishment in their restless and precarious mode of life. The more extensive learning of the present day teaches us that they came from the heart of India,-which position the shreds and patches that now remain of their original language serve not a little to demonstrate. This language, with the additions it has derived from those of the various countries through which they have passed, would seem to be as curious an organic remain as now exists in the world, a

shadowy image of the confusion of Babel. It is perhaps in itself the most authentic history both of the origin and progress of those who have so long spoken it. At first it was assuredly Sanscrit, but a multitude of Greek, Persian, and Sclavonic words have become mingled with it; while in the present day it has yielded somewhat to the influences of the modern languages of Europe, and the Gypsy dialects of Spain, of Germany, and of England, vary slightly from each other,

*The Zincali; or an Account of the Gypsies of Spain. With an original collection of their songs and poetry. By George Borrow, late Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Spain. Two vols. in one. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway. 1842.

nos.

yet even from these one may easily see how, in an ignorant and superstitious age, they raised themselves to the rank of sorcerers and magicians. Great activity and agility of body, joined to a certain subtlety and acuteness of mind, the knowledge of poisons and precious stones, and a remarkable knowledge of the means of changing the colour and appearance of animals,

and become more and more akin to the from the East, few traces now remain ; tongues of those respective countries. These people are known in different parts of Europe, under different names. In England they are called Gypsies merely; in Russia, Zigani; in the East, Zingarri; in Hungary, Chingany; in Germany, Zigeuner; in Spain, GitaMr. Borrow derives these words from the etymon Zincali, which they sometimes apply to themselves, signifying The black men of Zend or Ind. The name which they all in common give to both themselves and their language, is Rommany, from the Sanscrit word Rom, which our author translates, The Husbands, or that which pertains to them-a strange epithet, truly, and one that marks a time and a country in which strongly metaphorical expressions were in use.

The condition of the Zincali varies somewhat in the several countries in which they have found a refuge. In England they are sometimes smiths, but more generally jockeys, buying and selling horses, the women fortunetellers, and both roving about as if they could find no rest for the soles of their feet. In Russia they are yet thieves and vagabonds, but distinguished in some parts by a wonderful talent for music. In Moscow, the finest choirs are those composed by the Zigani. Their young girls have in some instances married into Russian families of respectability; and Mr. Borrow tells us of a lovely and accomplished Countess, who was once the chief attraction of a Gypsy choir in that city.

The Chingany of Hungary are exempted by the very abjectness of their condition from the servitude which in that country oppresses the peasantry. The tax-gatherer passes them by, for they have nothing to lose,being, in point of property and of standing, one degree lower than the lowest slave. They, too, are tinkers and smiths, wandering from place to place, and living in poverty, but in merriness of heart. They have also a great love of music, and are said to touch the violin with a peculiar excellence, which has given pleasure to even a Parisian audience. In all parts of the world the trade of smith seems to be a favorite one with them, both the taste and the profession being an inheritance from the fathers of their line. Of the arts which they are said to have brought with them

these characteristics might well give them, in the eyes of the credulous and unenlightened Europeans of the middle ages, the reputation of supernatural attributes, and class them as the confederates of the devil himself. The art of preparing and administering poisons, of which the remedies are known to themselves alone, is gradually disappearing among the Spanish Gypsies. In olden times it must have been one of great profit to them, as they were often called upon to cure the illnesses which they themselves had secretly caused; or where the animal was of a kind fit to be eaten, they suffered it to die, and then easily obtained its carcase. But their imagined powers of witchcraft and fortune-telling have been, and still are, their greatest source of revenue. They still gravely pretend to read the fate of their willing dupes in the stars, or in the lines of the palm, and are as gravely believed

often, within our own knowledge, by persons who might be supposed far removed by education and intelligence above the level of absurdities so gross. Mr. Borrow relates an instance which proves equally that no elevation of rank is beyond the reach of their impudence, or above the infatuation of the credulity on which they thus practise:

"There were two Gitanas at Madrid, and Probably they are there still. The name of one was Pepita, and the other was called La Chicharona; the first was a spare, shrewd, witch-like female, about fifty, and was the mother-in-law of La Chicharona, who was remarkable for her stoutness. tune-telling and swindling. It chanced, These women subsisted entirely by forthat the son of Pepita having spirited away a horse, was sent to the presidio of Malaga, for ten years of hard labor. This misfortune caused inexpressible affliction to his wife and mother, who determined to exert every effort to procure his liberation. The readiest way which occurred to them, was to procure an inter

view with the Queen Regent Christina, who, they doubted not, would forthwith pardon the culprit, provided they had an opportunity of assailing her with their gypsy discourse; for, to use their own words, they knew well what to say.' I, at that time, lived close by the palace, in the street of Santiago, and daily, for the space of a month, saw them bending their steps in that direction.

"One day, they came to me in a great hurry, with a strange expression on both of their countenances. "We have seen

Christina, hijo,' (my son,) said Pepita

to me.

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"Within the palace ?' I inquired. "Within the palace, oh child of my garlochin,' answered the sybil: Christina at last saw and sent for us, as I knew she would, I told her bahi (fortune), and Chicharona danced the Romalis, (gypsy dance,) before her.'

"What did you tell her?'

"I told her many things,' said the hag, 'many things which I need not tell you: know, however, that amongst other things, I told her, that the chabori, (little queen,) would die, and then she would be Queen of Spain. I told her, moreover, that within three years she would marry the son of the King of France, and that it was her bahi to die Queen of France and Spain, and to be loved much, and hated much.'

"And did not you dread her anger, when you told her these things?'

"Dread her, the Busnee?' screamed Pepita: no, my child, she dreaded me, far more; I looked at her so-and raised my finger so-and Chicharona clapped her hands, and the Busnee believed all I said, and was afraid of me: and then I asked for the pardon of my son, and she pledged her word to see into the matter, and when we came away, she gave me this baria of gold, and to Chicharona this other, so at all events we have hokkanoed (humbugged?) the Queen. May an evil end overtake her body, the Busnee!" "

The female Gypsy, is, according to Mr. Borrow's account, the better half of her race. She still retains, wild and untaught though she be, some of the best and strongest instincts of woman's nature. As a maid, she is inviolable; as a wife, true and devoted; as a mother, tender and watchful. She has a sense of the beautiful, and feels perhaps the dignity, factitious though it be, which hangs around one who is thought to have some knowledge of the unseen world, and to interpret rightly its hidden purposes, She sends

forth, at times, bright flashes of genius. There is poetry in her soul, as well as in her form and mien. True, she is an impostor, but her imposture has descended to her from many generations; the equivocal trade which she follows is almost respectable from its antiquity; the very lie she tells is, as it were, old enough to be true. Her deceit, too, is but partial, and of a superficial kind, for in her unconscious looks and gestures you read her as she is, a free and fearless creature, with more of nature and perhaps of truth in her, than most civilized women. She is no cultivated and developed flower, but

“A weed of glorious feature,” whose hardy fibres and brilliant hues might be envied by the more refined beauties of the parterre.

better characteristics are always conIt must not be supposed that these fined to the Gypsy woman; there are traits in the man, also, which command our respect, His is indeed a dark picture, but it too is not without its brighter side. There is in him a dignity and independence of character, joined to great courage, a quick and subtile intelligence, and a certain loyalty to the laws of his fathers, and to the brothers of his race. He, however, has coarser tasks, a grosser fraud to practise, and is often not only hardened, but brutalized, by desperate crime.

The following description of a Gitásuch a person some idea of the form na will give those who have not seen which envelopes this wild, erratic spirit:

"She is of the middle stature, neither strongly nor slightly built, and yet her every movement denotes agility and vigor. As she stands erect before you, she appears like a falcon about to soar, and you are almost tempted to believe that the power of volitation is hers; and were you to stretch forth your hand to seize her, she would spring above the house-tops like a bird. Her face is oval, and her features are regular, but somewhat hard and coarse, for she was born among rocks in a thicket, and she has been wind-beaten and sunscorched for many a year, even like her upon her cheek, and perhaps a scar, but parents before her; there is many a speck wrinkled over, though she is yet young. no dimples of love; and her brow is Her complexion is more than dark, for it is almost that of a mulatto; and her hair, which hangs in long locks on either side

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