REVOLUTIONISTS IN CHAINS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1179, 27 November 1883, Page 3

REVOLUTIONISTS IN CHAINS.

A batch of 25 Socialists and Revolutionists have been sent off from St Petersburg by the Moscow railway to their destinations in Siberia. They were nearly all well-known revolutionary characters, who figured in the two last political trials. As usual they were all chained together, in couples, like wild beasts ; the women by the wrist and the men by the ankle and wrist, and surrounded by a bristling array of drawn sabres. Their treatment, however, on the whole, seems to have been more humane than is usual in such cases. Each was allowed to sse his or her friends before departure, and to pair any off with chosen companion. The prisoner Pribniloff chose to be chained to his wife, who was one of the party. Each was allowed to carry about 601 b bnggage and various sums of money, collected by friends and non-political sympathisers, to keep their hair long, and to ride to the railway station. The authorities now being in a softer mood, the Times says their obiect appears to be to remove these offenders out of harm's way rather than to give upnecessary pain. But when will this endless file of political criminals come 'to an end ? is the question that involuntarily rises in the mind of every one who has watched for many years past this neverending struggle between the Government and the Nihilists. Undermining works are still frequently discovered, and political trials continue to be held in the principal towns, although attracting but little attention, owing to their frequency and the complete secrecy of the proceedings. The commision of enquiry appointed to enquiie into the condition of political prisoners, for the purpose of mitigating their punishment in deserving cases, has -just decided to reduce the terms of exile and imprisonment in Siberia of 51 persons, to five, four and a small number of years respectively.