The political
prisoners may practise handicrafts, and, by special permission,
medicine. A 'political' is not identified with the criminal any more
than a debtor is identified with a felon in England. Such offenders do
not travel with other prisoners in a gang. A 'political' may be on a
train going into exile; but no one knows it besides himself and the
members of the police travelling in the same carriage. Politicals get
about L1. 10_s._ a month from the government, but this varies according
to the district to which they are sent. Wives who accompany their
husbands are allowed 36 lb. of bread a month, but must submit to the
regulations of the _etape_. If all goes well with a 'political' he gets
permission to settle in some Siberian town with his family, but any
allowance from the government then ceases. He is just the same as any
other resident, save that he can never leave Siberia. If he wishes to
farm, the government will give him a plot of land and money to work it.
But this money must be paid back by instalments." He states, as will be
seen, "he can never leave Siberia," but what, I fancy, was really meant
by his informant was "never return to Russia." We can hardly think, in a
land where the executive is so indulgent as to allow a dangerous
criminal to "week-end" with a friend, that they will be less considerate
to a political of good character wishing to go to a better climate and
letting it be understood that Russia would not be the place selected.
There is the human touch about everything in that country of spacious
and large ideas, and it is not lacking either in the treatment of
political offenders or with other criminals and felons also.

Mr. Harry de Windt is not only explicit but even amusing and
entertaining as he tells us what he found at Yakutsk, which is quite
remote enough from civilization, on the great Lena post road, to make
one feel that the lot of the banished there must be sad indeed; but at
the same time we can enter a little, perhaps, into his feelings of
amazement when he found that "the political exiles there seemed to be
no worse off, socially, than any one else, for they moved about in
society and were constantly favoured guests of the Chief of Police. The
exiles, however, were not permitted to take part in the private
theatricals I have mentioned, a restriction which caused them great
annoyance. Their loud and unfavourable criticisms from the stalls on the
evening in question were certain