LABOURING POPULATION. 171 



the criminals with political prisoners, in speaking of these. 

 So you may hear that a certain prisoner is a " political," 

 and on going carefully into his case you will find that 

 although the man may have been mixed up with politics 

 in some way or another, yet he was sent to Siberia for 

 some crime quite distinct from his political tendencies. 



' I am not,' says he, 'giving my own opinion only, which, 

 like that of other travellers, is very liable to error ; but I 

 am speaking the opinions of mea educated and living oq 

 the spot, honest in their opinions, and well able, to judge ; 

 and I think it only honest, as I have had unusual oppor- 

 tunities of collecting information on the subject, to record 

 what I have heard and seen. 



' It is not my business to justify the act of banishing 

 men from their homes, often for a mere expression of 

 opinion. Their lot is doubtless unhappy enough, in the 

 mere fact of their exile from all that is near or dear to 

 them. It does not need to be painted in blacker colours 

 than the truth will justify, nor exaggerated by false state- 

 ments of cruelties and sufferings which do not exist.' 



' Of late years,' says he again, ' a great improvement has 

 been made in the means of transporting prisoners of all 

 kinds to their destinations. Formerly they walked on 

 foot the whole distance, and months were consumed on the 

 journey, and many fell victims to the fatigue. Now 

 steamers carry them to Perm, and from Perm they are 

 sent on to their destination by carriages. So carefully 

 are they looked after now that in winter they do not 

 travel on the roads. . . . 



' Five years is the shortest term of punishment. The 

 worst kind of criminals have their head shaved, some on 

 one side only, and some all over.' 



A different account of the treatment to which noble 

 exiles, banished to Siberia in the beginning of the reign of 

 Nicholas, and their noble wives were subjected, is given by 

 Atkinson in his volume entitled. Travels in the Regions of 

 the Upper and Lower Amoor ; and statements similar to 



