The Penn's Grove record., 1893-09-01
That Russian Treaty Again.

Mr.. George KEENAN, holds up to the
light some Of the methods commonly
made use of in the awful system of Rus
sian jurisprudence. Russia is the friend
of the United States, it is true, but that
is no reason why we should assist the
Russian government in pe~rpetrating
crimes Of revolving cruelty.
Mr.. KEENAN, writes in The Forum. He
reminds us in the beginning Of that well
established principleo of international pol
fey which forbids an extradition treaty
between nations whose systems of Grim
inal jurisprudence are totally different.
We would not conclude an extradition
treaty with the shah of Persia or the en-
peror Of China. An American criminal
is tried by q jury of his peers in open
court. \ Chinese criminal may be put
to death with secret tortures by a single
irresponsible and cruel official.
Practically the Chinese system is in
vogue in a large part of Russia. Trial
by jury exists in only a small part of the
Russian empire, and wen where it IS
allowed it has been so limited by the
present emperor that it is Of little effect,
For 10 years a large and important part
Of Russia has been under martial law,
and the trial of thieves and civil Grim
inals is by military court martial. On
May 81, 1886, two mail robbers were
hanged by sentence of court martial in
Tifis. Plenty of such instances are on
record.
Even where a civil trial is granted the
law processes are so medieval, the Rus
sian prisons so foul, that not infrequent-
ly the accused dies of typhus fever be-
fore his case comes Off. The Russian
government is not an honorable govern
ment and cannot be trusted in its meth
DDS of dealing with either civil Oh polit-
ical offenders. Mr.. KEENAN, mentions q
perfectly authentic case in which it
forged kilograms to a refugee in Bull
garia, inducing him to go to CONSTANT
noplo in haste. There he was kidnapped
by Russian minions and sent to prison
in st. Petersburg.
A man who would be tried by jury in
this country certainly should not be CIV
en- up to be tried by secret court martial
in Russia. 1t would be an outrage. Mr..
KEENAN, urges this as an argument why
even ommon criminals should not be
extradited to Russia, much less political
offenders. By the Interpretation Of Rus
sian law a person who even "by
thought" enters into preparations against
the life, health or honor of the car" is
regarded as guilty of the actual crime it
self. Do we want to make an agreement
with Russia to send back to her fero-
cious clutches a person who so much as
thinks a ''cuss word" against the car?
One fact recorded by Mr.. KEENAN, is to
be particularly commended to the atten-
ton of our high authorities, who propose
to force on the American people a Rus
sian extradition treaty whose provisions
are kept a secret from the American peo-
pie themselves. For over 90 years Rus
sian government spies have been in the
habit of opening and reading the private
letters of members of every foreign lega-
ton accredited to the cars realm. 81
have the highest authority for saying
that even now the Russian secret police
at st. Petersburg open and read the pri-
vate letters ofthe American minister and
members of the American legation"
Nice country that, is it not, for any CIV
ilized government to send even starved
dog back TO?