revolutionary formulæ and panaceas, which are always pushed to logical and consequently often unwarrantable conclusions. Russia is no exception to this. England had similar experiences in its earlier history ; India seems to have been passing through such a phase lately; in Russia also the existence of this revolutionary element has given an excuse for the reactionaries to use the system of political exile to hamper the actions of their opponents. In Siberia, however, the system defeats its own ends, and is often rather an agent for the spreading of progressive ideas than for the suppression of revolutionary movements. It is therefore not improbable that the system will in time die a natural death.
One evening while we were in Minusinsk a somewhat imposing personage, dressed in an old uniform with medals and other emblems of officialdom, came to our house. We wondered whether we were wanted by the Siberian police, for our visitor was the governor of the local gaol. We discovered, however, that his object, so far from being to arrest us, was to find a purchaser for a certain gold concession, in which he and some other officials in Minusinsk were interested. Not long before an advantageous offer had been made to us by the administrative official for the district, but I confess that I was even more surprised to have the offer of a gold concession from the governor of a prison! We informed the gentleman that this was not the object of our visit to Siberia. We entertained him at tea, and found that he was a pensioned military officer of a genial and pleasant type with the casual manner which characterizes all Russians. He had no objection to con-
