Note 11 — Chapter XXXVII · THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA.

Unfortunately my Siberian statistics are not sufficiently complete to allow a comparison between the numbers of English and Russian convicts. “O. K.” points out that since 1860, out of a population of 84,000,000, Russia has had on an average 20,000 criminals a year; whilst England and Wales, out of little more than a quarter of that population, has annually 12,000 criminal convictions. I am afraid that it is not satisfactory to compare these figures, because the 20,000 Russian criminals does not include, I presume, those left in prisons west of the Urals, but only those sent to Siberia; and, again, 12,000 does not nearly cover the total number of criminals in England and Wales. In the borough and county jails of England and Wales there was, in 1878, a daily average of 19,818 prisoners, besides 10,208 in convict prisons. I think, however, I am right in estimating that there is not a daily average of 10,000 convicts in the prisons of Siberia.