The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-05-23
CRUEL RUSSIA.
Laws More BarbarOuS Than Those Oh
Drac0.
Misery Of the Suspects.

Every manifestation, however
slight, of that independence of spirit
which is the very breath OF life to
intelligent citizens-every freedom
of thought or of speech, it has been
the policy of the Government to re-
quite with exile or the galleys. Re-
bellion was inevitable, and we have
1t in fact. Turn nature out by the
door and she comes back through
the window. Unable to resort to
open revolution, "intelligent Rus
sia' is in state of permanent pas
sive rebellion; and by refusing all
service and aid to the powers that
be, contrives to paralyZe such email
efforts at reform as are attempted
by the Government, which is thus
driven to cOnfide in INSCRIPTIONS
and incompetent adventures.
1t may be said that terrorism is
based upon the creation of a pOliti-
cal prolerariate consisting Of the So
called illegal men" or outlaws of
Russian society. Thissname is given
to all those who continue to live in
open defiance of the police by means
Of false names and passports. This
is a class that exists in no other
country, but is numerous In Russia,
in consequence of the arbitrary &C
ton of one party and the revOlu'
tionary temper of another.
The fact is that in Russia every
one who has the misfortune TO fall
into the hands Of the police as a po-
Iitical offender-no matter how
trivial his offence may be lis, in
ninety zine cases out of a hund ed,
lost man. The preliminary de-
tention is made at the arbitrary
pleasure of the prosecution, which
in Russia is another name for the
police they can arrest and detsih
when they will. No blame attaches
to mistaken arrest; on the con-
trary, the more arrests the greater
the merits Of the prosecutor. For in
stance, at the time of the trial of the
hundred and ninety three" in 1878,
there were, over and above this
number OF the accused, about one
thousand four hundred persons ar
rested. Of these, half were set at
liberty after few months, but the
remainder were kept in prison
during the whole four years that the
case lasted, save only seventy-fve
who died, some by suicide, some of
consumption, some insane. And in
more recent times, when the white
terror followed upon outbreaks of
revolutionary terrorism, and espe>
cially in the reign Of Alexander, III.
who invented species of pollti-
cal pro>consuls, such as Strelmikof,
to devastate towns and provinces,
and arrest right and left-the sever.
tiles have been even greater.
The normal penalties for political
crime are simply Draconian; ten
years at the galleys for q single
speech, or for reading or preserving
a proclamation. And whenever q
prosecution follows an outbreak,
the tribunal receives special orders
to aggravate the penalties 80 as to
make "a salutary example," and the
vordicts become legal assassinatfons
of the most monstrouS character.
The lad Rcsovksy was condemned
to death, and actually hanged at
Kiev on the 9Th of March, 1880, for
merely having in his house the pro-
clamaiion of the executive commits
tee. The same judgment was passed
on the student Efremoff. for having
let room in his house to two rev.
Olutionist5 who were cOncerting a
plan of escape without even taking
their young host into confidence.
But his sentence was committed tc
lifelong condemnation to the galleys
in consee uence of his having the
weakness to appeal for mercy. Dro-
biasgin, Maidansky, L'sogub, Tchu.
baroV were all hanged, some for
having subscribed money to the revs
olutionary cause, others for con-
veying box, of which they did not
know the contents, but which proved
to contain notes for a circular drawn
up by two or three youths, offenses,
one and all, which the actual law of
the country Furnishes only with exile
Or a few years imprisonment.
AGAINsT THE LAW.
But is there not degree of inno-
cencs that can avail even before
Russian tribunal? If a man knows
himself to be uncompromised
in any revolutionary enterprise; If
the police, on searching his house,
could find no compromising docu-
ment; if no treacherous deposition
sggravate his danger, might not this
man get off with few months, or,
at the utmost, one, two or three
years of detention, sud De left in
peace for the rest c. his life, with
health impaired, perhaps, but not
ruined, future spoiled but not de-
stroyed, and the means OF recovery
with time and industry? Even so
poor hope SIS this will prove illu-
sorry in Russia. The principle of
the terrible law Of susps cts IS that
not en- y the act, but the thought
and the int alton, shall be punished.
and that these can be OWNED by the
intuition OF clairvoyant police who
need no proofs to confirm their
guesses. It's an altogether excep-
tionsl and astounding thing for q
man once implicated in state pros
ecution to be ever again left 10
peace. Convicts with definite gen.
fences, just after they have served
out their term of punishment. az