So far as the matter of sentence goes there is little difference between political and criminal exiles.  The sentence is in accordance with the offence to be punished, and may be light or severe.  Some exiles are simply banished to Siberia, and can do almost anything except go away.  They may travel as they choose, engage in business, and even hold official position.  It is no bar to their progress that they emigrated involuntarily.  If they forget their evil ways and are good citizens, others will be equally oblivious and encourage them.  They have special inducements to become colonists and till the soil or develop its mineral wealth.  With honesty and industry they have at least a fair chance in life.

Some exiles are confined to certain districts, governments, towns, or villages, and must report at stated intervals to the Chief of Police.  These intervals are not the same in all cases, but vary from one day to a month, or even more.  Some are not allowed to go beyond specified limits without express permission from the authorities, while others may absent themselves as they choose during the intervals of reporting to the police.  Some can engage in whatever business they find advantageous, while others are prohibited certain employments but not restricted as to others.

If a man is sentenced to become a colonist, the government gives him a house or means to build it, a plot of ground, and the necessary tools.  He is not allowed to be any thing else than a colonist.  Criminals of a certain grade cannot engage in commerce, and the same restriction applies to ‘politiques.’  No criminal can be a teacher, either in a public or private school, and no politique can teach in a public school.  While I was in Siberia an order was issued prohibiting the latter class engaging in any kind of educational work except music, drawing, and painting.

Many criminal and political offenders are ‘drafted in the army’ in much the same manner that our prisons sent their able-bodied men into military service during our late war.  Their terms of enlistment are various, but generally not less than fifteen years.  The men receive the pay and rations of soldiers, and have the possibility of promotion before them.  They are sent to regiments stationed at distant posts in order to diminish the chances of desertion.  The Siberian and Caucasian regiments receive the greater portion of these recruits.  Many members of the peculiar religious sect mentioned elsewhere are sent to the Caucasian frontier.  They are said to be very tractable and obedient, but not reliable for aggressive military operations.