The object of deportation is to people Siberia; if the government permitted cruelties that caused half of the exiles to die on the road, as some accounts aver, it would be inconsistent with its policy.  As before mentioned, the ripe age to which most of the Decembrists lived, is a proof that they were not subjected to physical torture.  In the eyes of the government these men were the very worst offenders, and if they did not suffer hardships and cruelties it is not probable that all others would be generally ill-used.  I do not for a moment suppose exile is either attractive or desirable, but, so far as I know, it does not possess the horrors attributed to it.  The worst part of exile is to be sent to hard labor, but the unpleasant features of such punishment are not confined to Siberia.  Plenty of testimony on this point can be obtained at Sing Sing and Pentonville.

It is unpleasant to leave one’s home and become an involuntary emigrant to a far country.  The Siberian road is one I would never travel out of pure pleasure, and I can well understand that it must be many times disagreeable when one journeys unwillingly.  But, once in Siberia, the worldly circumstances of many exiles are better than they were at home.  If a man can forget that he is deprived of liberty, and I presume this is the most difficult thing of all, he is not, under ordinary circumstances, very badly off in Siberia.  Certainly many exiles choose to remain when their term of banishment is ended.  A laboring man is better paid for his services and is more certain of employment than in European Russia.  He leads a more independent life and has better prospects of advancement than in the older civilization.  Many Poles say they were drawn unwillingly into the acts that led to their exile, and if they return home they may be involved in like trouble again.  In Poland they are at the partial mercy of malcontents who have nothing to lose and can never remain at ease.  In Siberia there are no such disturbing influences.

About ten thousand exiles are sent to Siberia every year.  Except in times of political disturbance in Poland or elsewhere, nearly all the exiles are offenders against society or property.  The notion that they are generally ‘politiques,’ is very far from correct.  As well might one suppose the majority of the convicts at Sing Sing were from the upper classes of New York.  The regular stream of exiles is composed almost entirely of criminal offenders; occasional floods of revolutionists follow the attempts at independence.

I made frequent inquiries concerning the condition of the exiles, and so far as I could learn they were generally well off.  I say ‘generally,’ because I heard of some cases of poverty and hardship, and doubtless there were others that I never heard of.  A large part of the Siberian population is made up of exiles and their descendants.  A gentleman frequently sent me his carriage during my stay at Irkutsk.  It was managed by an intelligent driver who pleased me with his skill and dash.  One evening, when he was a little intoxicated, my friend and myself commented in French on his condition, and were a little surprised to find that he understood us.  He was an exile from St. Petersburg, where he had been coachman to a French merchant.