The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-07-25


scribes, who put the rights and claims Of
litigants into whatever form they thought
fit, and weighed according to their own
judgment the arguments presented by their
own clerks, or pronounced the decision
ready made by the same subordinates. or
course injustice, extortion, bribery, and cor
ruption assumed gigantic proportions, and
against these evils the Government could
find no better remedy than O scheme OF
formal written procedure OF the most COM
picatcd kind. Such system required for
its application body of thoroughly trained
jurists; but instead of endcavorng to create
them, the State went further and further in
the direction OF letting Judges be chosen
for short period by popular election from
among men who had never received
juridical education or n fair education OF
any kind. We need not say that under these
conditions the decision was again virtually
committed to the minor officials who were
ntrustcd with the getting up Of the case;
or that down to the commencement of the
present reign the chanccllcres or clerks
chambers of the Russian courts were dcns
of pcttifogging rascality.
The commission appointed TO consider
against the old SYSTEM and the legislation
OF 1864 undertook some sweeping reforms. II
was dccreed that the judicial organization
should be completely separated from oil
other branches Of the Government; that the
most ample publicity, with trial by jury in
criminal cases. should be introduced into
the tribunals; that Justice Of Peace Courts
should be created for petty causes, and that
the procedure in the ordinary courts should
be greatly simpliied. In n word, the new
scheme OF judicial administration repro
duccd in theory the best features Of French
and English institutions. Let us see how
this spick and span machine devised by the
doctrndires Of st. Petersburg, has worked
in practice.
1t Is conceded that the management Of the
Justice Of Peace Courts within the narrow
limits of their jurisdiction is either farcical
or vexatious. According to MACKENZIE
WALLACE, the peasants continually submit
to the Justice the most intimate domestic
and matrimonial concerns, and demand the
fulfllment of contracts which are in fragrant
contradiction not only with the written law
but with common morality. Moreover, the
Justice being usually chosen from the peas
ant class, accounts IL his duty in disputes
between master aud servant, or employer
and workman, TO resist the tyranny of capt.
tai and sink his official character in the
role of social rcformer. In the regular
tribunals on the other hand, the Judges are
at least educated men, but they are grossly
deficient in the dspassionatc calmness
which we are wont to associate with the
bench, and they are not always trained IA
the law. In $50, out Of 227 Superior Judges,
not less than a had never receivcda Juridical
education nor had even the Chief Justices
all passed through law school.
As regards trial 10y jury, ten years OK
pcrience has convinced the ST. Petersburg
amateurs that their country is not yet
ripo for such an institution. One jury,
for instance, is said to have returned
verdict Of mot guilty, with extcnu-
ating circumstances; and another, be-
ing unable TO come to II decision, is re-
ported to have cast lots before an Icon, and
to have given a verdict in accordance with
the result. In third case the prisoner had
been proved guilty OF u serious crime, but 1t
| happened to be the eve Of religious fcs-
tiVal. and the jury thought that ia acquit-
ting the prisoner they would be acting a.
good and mcrciiul Christians. The fact,
moreover, is beyond dispute, that iurics re-
pcatcdly acquit prisoners who have con
fcssed their crime in open court. We may
add that in Russia, as in other half-civiizcd
countries, the peasant class, from which the
Jurors are mainly drawn, shows itself par.
ticuarly ruthless in dealing with crimes
against property, but curiously lenieni
toward fraud and offences against the per