90 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



the country if possible. A second insurrection broke out 

 in 1863, and this also was suppressed. 



Tha population is reported as about five millions of 

 souls. I presume of inhabitants, though in Russia that 

 term is applied to males alone. According to one esti- 

 mate reported to me, about two-fifths of the inhabitants 

 are Jews, and something less than that proportion are 

 Poles. According to a Russian estimate, the Russians 

 are under 10,000 males, and the Jews number upwards 

 of 600,000 males. 



The serfdom of the peasantry was comparatively 

 restricted, but it could be made very oppressive. In the 

 insurrection of 1830 the leaders sought to secure their co- 

 operation by promising them emancipation and a freehold 

 possession of lands in their occupation ; and a similar 

 arrangement was adopted by the Russian Government. 



I have not the information necessary to enable me 

 to form an opinion in regard to the propriety, expediency, 

 or the justice of subsequent proceedings, which brought 

 ruin and exile upon many noble-minded natives of Poland, 

 males and females, nobles and peasants, alike. In the 

 minds of many, Poles and Siberia are closely associated. 

 I have not the means of either verifying or disproving 

 any of the allegations which are current in regard to the 

 number of Poles who have been expatriated by exile 

 thither. But to this I cau testify : for about seven years 

 from 1833 to 1840 inclusive every male going to Siberia 

 was supplied with a copy of the New Testament scriptures. 

 All of these passed through my hands j and in no one year 

 did the number of New Testaments in Polish appear to 

 be disproportionate to the numbers required in other 

 languages spoken in the provinces Finnish, Lettish, 

 Estonian, Swedish, German, and French. 



Of the Polish exiles on their journey to Siberia, 

 Michie, in his volume entitled The Siberian Overland 

 Route from Pekin to St. Petersburg, mentions that the 

 number of Polish prisoners met with on the road 



