o relieve their condition,
but in the end their number became so great that he found it
impossible to help every one, and was involuntarily brought to a
fourth matter, which had of late occupied him more than either of the
others.

His fourth concern consisted in solving the question, Why, how and
whence came that remarkable institution called the Criminal Court, to
which was due the existence of that prison, with the inmates of which
he had become somewhat familiar, and all those places of confinement,
beginning with the fortress dedicated to two saints, Peter and Paul,
and ending with the island of Saghalin, where hundreds and thousands
of victims of that wonderful criminal law were languishing?

From personal contact with prisoners, and from information received
from the lawyer, the prison chaplain, the inspector, and from the
prison register, Nekhludoff came to the conclusion that the prisoners,
so-called criminals, could be divided into five classes. The first
class consisted of people entirely innocent, victims of judicial
mistakes, such as that would-be incendiary, Menshov, or Maslova, and
others. There were comparatively few people of this class, according
to the observations of the chaplain--about seven per cent.--but their
condition attracted particular attention. The second class consisted
of people convicted for offenses committed under exceptional
circumstances, such as anger, jealousy, drunkenness, etc.--offenses
which, under similar circumstances, would almost invariably have been
committed by all those who judged and punished them. This class made
up, according to Nekhludoff's observations, more than one-half of all
the prisoners. To the third class belonged those who committed,
according to their own ideas, the most indifferent or even good acts,
but which were considered criminal by people--entire strangers to
them--who were making the laws. To this class belonged all those who
carried on a secret trade in wine, or were bringing in contraband
goods, or were picking herbs, or gathering wood, in private or
government forests. To this class also belonged the predatory
mountaineers.

The fourth class consisted of people who, according to Nekhludoff,
were reckoned among the criminals only because they were morally above
the average level of society. Among these the percentage of those who
resisted interference with their affairs, or were sentenced for
resisting the authorities, was very large.

The fi