jourtas beautifully situated, and on inquiry was informed
they contained a colony of banished men, sent there by order of the
government. They appeared very well off, having comfortable houses, with
cattle, an abundant supply of fish, and good pastures, so that they
could never suffer from want, unless too indolent to secure the
necessaries of life. They call themselves Possellencies or colonists,
but are stiled Neshchastnie Loodie, or unfortunate people, by the
natives, who avoid, even by a name, to remind them of their unhappy
fate.

"Banishment, then," remarks Mr. Dobell, "to such a country as
Siberia, is certainly no such terrible infliction, except to a
Russian, who, perhaps, of all beings upon earth, possesses the
strongest attachment to the soil on which he grows--taking root
like the trees that surround him, and pining when transplanted
to another spot, even though it should be a neighbouring
province, better than his own. Too much praise cannot be
bestowed on the humane system adopted by the Russian government
in saving the lives of criminals without distinction, and
transporting them to Siberia, to augment the population of a
fine country, much in want of inhabitants, where their morals
are strictly watched, and where they soon become useful, good
people. Death, in fact, is so transitory a punishment, that
unless a man has religion, and a perfect idea of rewards and
penalties in a world to come, it may have no terrors for him,
nor will its anticipation ever prevent the commission of crimes
so well as the idea of banishment and long suffering. I would
not be thought to be the advocate of cruelty; on the contrary,
I warmly espouse the principle of producing a perfect
contrition and change of sentiments and actions in the
criminal, ere we send him into the presence of his God. To
bring about this in an effectual manner, and be satisfied it
springs from a thorough conviction of his error, we must not
confine him in chains, with a priest praying at his side, until
the moment he is launched into eternity. He should be made, as
he generally is in Siberia, so far a free agent, as to have the
power of again doing wrong; else his firmness and resolution
are never put to the test; nor can that repentance be called
sincere, which springs from the imperious necessity of
im