Justice In Russia.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11876, 3 November 1893, Page 3

Justice In Russia.

in his latest work Count Tolstoi mentions that on 29th September last year he was travelling in one of the famine districts, when he happened to notice the arrival of an express train carrying a general and small battalion of troops on their way to Toula to punish somo refractory peasants who had dared to resist a flagrant invasion of their rights on thn part of a young but influential landed proprietor. That the punishment would be administered with " exemplary severity " no ono need doubt, for a fow months before somo peasants in the Orloff Government had iccurred the displeasure of the squire, who had quickly and sharply brought them to reason The Count gives the following terrible description of the way in which justice was administered on that occasion, which, he takes care to warn us, ho relates not bocause it forms in any way an exceptional case, but because it happens to bo the only one with which ho himself is personally acquainted, aud for the truth of which he can hirasolt vouch: —

" The troops were drawn up before the district court of justice ; a body of policemen, with new red belts from which hung loaded revolvers, stood marshalled in order around the small band of guilty peasants, awaiting the just punishment of their crime. At a littlo distance off was arranged a

CROWD OP SILENT SPECTATOHS, Borne thousand men, women and children. On arriving at the district court the Governor General alighted from his carriage and delivered a short and touching speech, after which he ordered a bench to be brought. At first the meaning of his strange order was not understood. But the police officer, who was always in attendance on the Governor, and whose Bpecial function it was to sco that punishments were duly and orderly administered, curtly explained that His Excellency wanted a whipping bench to be brought. A bench was quickly found and put in its place, a previously prepared bundle of rods was produced, and the executioners were called to the front. These executioners were a couple of runaway convicts, for no soldier will ever consent to fill the office of flogger, When all was ready the Governor-Goneral ordered the first of the 12 peasants, whom the proprietor had denounced as being the ring-leaders of the revolt, to be led forward. The first of the victims was the father of a family, a man ahout 40 years of age, whose probity had become proverbial, and who enjoyed the trust and esteem of his fellow-villagers. He was ordered to strip, and to take his place on the bench. The peasant did not care to ask for mercy ; he knew that all such PKAYERS WEHB VAIN, and he, therefore, silently crossed himself and lay down. Two policemen rushed orward to keep him steady in his place. A learned doctor stood close by in readiness to render medical assistance in case of necessity. The two convicts firßt spat in their bands, and then gave a preparatory flourish with their whips, and the punishment began. The bench, however, proved too small, and it was difficult to steady the writhing, tortured creature. So the Governor-General ordered another bench to be fetched and a plank to be fixed on either side. One of the 6oldiors gave the military salute, and with the words, " I obey, your Excellency," hurriedly and humbly fulfilled the great man's instructions. In the meantime the half-stripped, poor, mutilated creature remained with scowling brows, eyes cast down, his lower jaw quivering, and his bare legs trembling. Whon the second bench had been brought, he was once more bound down, and the convicts resumed their work. Each moment the scars became more hideous and moro ghastly; the back, sides, and lpgs of the creature were streaming with blood, and after each heavy blow the suflerer gave forth a dull groan, which he tried in vain to repress. And from the crowd that stood around could bo heard the

sobbing or wives. Mothers, obildreD, and relatives of tho dear tortured one, and the frightened halt cries of those who were awaiting their turn.

The unhappy Governor-General, who in the drunkenness of his authority imagined that he was obeying the righteous call of duty, all this while wns counting on his fingers the number of blows, as he placidly smoked his cigarettes, to light which an obsequious adjutant was always ready with a quickly-lighted match. When more than fifty blows had been given the peasant ceased to groan or stir, and the learned doctor, who had placed his services and wisdom at the disposal of the provincial Government hospital, came up to the tortured creature, felt his pulse, bent down to listen if the heart still beat ; and informed the representative of Imnerial authority that the victim was unconscious, and that f urthor punishment would be dangerous to his life. But the unhappy Governor-General more drunk than ever with his brief authority, became savage at the sight , of blood, ordered the punishment to proceed ; and the torturing process went on till the seventieth blow had been struck — seventy seeming to be for some unknown reason the sacred number, below which it were an aflront to justice to stop -and then, taking his cigarette from his month, he quietly raid, " Enough ! bring forward the next."