Note 6 — Chapter IV · THE EXILES.

On reaching England I was referred to what had appeared in the Daily Telegraph, first, on June 2nd, under the heading, “Reign of Terror in Russia,” where it was stated that “a large number of convicts are about to be despatched to Sakhalin from Odessa, the service which provides for the ordinary transportation of criminals to Siberia being already overtaxed.” Again, on July 28th, under the same heading appeared half a column of large print, speaking of “the appalling evidence of Russian barbarity” which their “own correspondent” had obtained. The correspondent informant visited the ship, and observed to the officer in command that the prisoners so badly provided for would never survive the passage, to which the Russian officer was said to have replied, “Well, so much the better for all parties if they do not,” and so on. On the next day, under the heading “Russian Barbarities,” it appeared that Mr. Joseph Cowen asked in Parliament whether the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had received information that 700 persons, mostly men and women of education, had been packed in the hold of a small ship—(the Daily Telegraph had described it the same day as a man-of-war of 4,000 tons)—that 250 had died on board, and 150 were landed in a dying state, etc. Most of this appeared in large print, and attention was called thereto. But by August 5th a change had come over the scene, and all or nearly all the foregoing was found to be untrue; and then, in their smallest print, simply headed “Reuter’s Telegram,” the Daily Telegraph informed its readers in six lines that “the Novoe Vremya of August 4th states that the steamer Nijni Novgorod arrived at Nagasaki on Friday last, and that the convicts were well in health.” Now here would appear to have been ample room for, if not an apology, yet an expression of regret that the Russians had been so very much misrepresented; but, if such appeared, it has escaped me. On August 9th, the Russian journals are alluded to as joining in a chorus of indignation against Messrs. Cowen and Mundella for their motion in Parliament, but nothing is recalled of what had been said. I know not how the foregoing extracts may strike the reader, but the perusal of them did not cause me to plume myself on the score of English fairness and our supposed love of justice.