174 FORESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



their reaching their destination. He then addressed to 

 each of them a few words of exhortation and counsel.* 



All of the copies thus distributed by Dr Haas during 

 seven years which I spent in St. Petersburg, passed 

 through my hands as the unpaid agent of the British and 

 Foreign Bible Society. But this gave me no opportunity 

 for learning, by personal observation, the treatment to 

 which the exiles in exile were subjected. 



Dr Lansdell, however, has latterly travelled through the 

 country from the Urals to the Amoor, personally distri- 

 buting the Scriptures, and giving his attention specially 

 to the condition of the exiles; and in his work, entitled 

 Through Siberia, he has published his impressions and 

 the observations on/which they were founded. 



In a lengthened notice of this work, which appeared in 

 the Scotsman when it was published, it is stated : 



' The origin and the objects of the journey were some- 

 what unusual. Mr Lansdell, who is in " holy orders," has 

 travelled in almost every part of Europe, visiting prisons 

 and hospitals, and distributing copies of the Bible and 

 other religious books. A lady friend in Finland reminded 

 him that Siberia was a fine field for this kind of mission 

 work. " Parson Lansdell," she wrote, " do you go to 

 Siberia ; " and, like a true knight-errant, with the aid of 

 funds supplied by a " generous friend," he at once set his 

 face for Tobolsk, His friends all assured him that there 

 was no chance of the Siberian authorities allowing him 



* Nor was it the poor and the prisoner alone whose good he endeavoured to promote. 

 His desire seemed to be ' as he had opportunity, to do good unto all men.' The late 

 Emperor Alexander II., when heir-apparent, visited the public institutions of Moscow 

 the prisons amongst the rest. On that occasion Dr Haas had the honour of con- 

 ducting his Highness through the different cells ; and on leaving the dungeons in 

 which great criminals were confined, he, in a solemn manner, said to him, 'May it 

 please your Highness, there are four things which I urge every one leaving these cells 

 to think of before it be too late : Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell.' Having accom- 

 panied the Grand Duke through the rest of the establishment, he led him into a small 

 apartment in which he kept the New Testaments designed for distribution, and pre- 

 senting to him a copy in Russ, one of those designed for the exiles, he said, ' In every 

 other institution visited by your Highness you must have been presented with bread 

 and salt ; allow me to present to you the Bread of Life.' The volume was graciously 

 received, and handed by the Grand Duke to an aide-de-camp in attendance, with direc- 

 tions to take charge of it till they got home. A copy of the New Testament in French 

 was, at the same time, presented to the page in waiting. 



