REVOLUTIONISTS IN CHAINS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3308, 8 November 1883, Page 2

REVOLUTIONISTS IN CHAINS.

A batch of 25 Socialists andßevolutioniata has 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 see his or her friends before departure, and to pair off with any 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 baggage and various sums of money, collected by friends and non-political sympathisers, to keep the hair long, and and to ride to the railway station. The authorities now being in softer mood the “Times” correspondent says, their object appears to remove these offenders out of harm’s way rather than to give them unnecessary 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 year past this never-ending 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 commission of enquiry appointed to enquire 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 respoctivoly.