The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-30

to protect his or her status as husband. wife, or legitimate child. A few years ago Czar Nicholas overode the courts and quashed the marriage of the crimean proprietor, IlinslSy, whose grown-np chil- dren were thereby declared to be ilegit imate
 Nearly a thousand petitions week are addressed to Nicholas II by prisoners. criminal and political. or their friends. These petitions ask for pardon. shortening of sentence or better treatment In this side of his petitions chancellory the Czar takes real interest. Judicial petitions are all sent for preliminary testing to the ministry of justice. which often recom- inends mercy for ordinary murderers and robbers, but refuses mercy to political prisoners, however slight their offenses.
 This is the policy of Minister of Justice Schtcheglovitofr. thoroughly detested official, who acts in the knowledge that he is here obeying the personal wishes of the Czar. Nicholas keen, almost nor bid interest in these political petitions shows that in one matter he has close | resemblance to ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid | II. Abdul Hamid imagined that the pe- | titions and complaints of his political | victims would yield him useful informa- | ton, and he read them carefully. Nich- | las Czar does the same. About twice year the czar sends unannounced to the ! lliiiho1S bi IuSlitt ana requires int HISl | 50 unsorted political petitions to be sent
 him. The petitions are diligently read, and | Nicholas imagines that he discovers from | them more about the revolutionary move ment than he would get from the timid admissions of his ministers
 l Czar Nicholas curiosity last month led | to him getting nasty slap. M Zulei- l kin Adamovitseh. the justice official charged with examining the petitions I nf xIn1 nd f-4r al
 matter about the czar himself. This was either fake petition sent in by some l joker, or genuine petition from embt- | tered prisoner who knew that in any case he had no chance of mercy, and desired
 to get revenge. M. -Adamovitsch 1 let this petition go to Czar Nicholas with
 49 others. Nicholas read it: and prob ably for the first time in his life learned what his subjects think of him. Next day M. Schtcheglovitoff was summoned to Peterhof was soundly talked to by an- 1 gry Nicholas. M. ZuleilSin- Adamovitsch was dismissed from his post and given the minor job of assistant procuror in the Polish province of ISielce.
 Half a Russians life consists in get l ting petition-a "Prosheniye" to the Czar In theory this Is easy. A peti- ton can be posted like an ordinary let ter. or ii can be thrust into the big l special box attached to the Mariyinsky palace. In theory again. the petition will | be quickly handled and if found at all plausible, will be laid before the Czar. | In reality this happens to about 12 peti- tions a week. These really reach the Cars palace, and are read, if not by
 himself, then by his secretary, Putiatin,
 or the chief of his military field ehaneel- | lory, his bosom friend Prince 0rloff. In practice, it Is a very hard thing to get a petition even seriously considered by the
 chancellory.
 Baron Budberg found the petition hui.
 sance growing so rapidly that he made
 restrictive rules. Petitions must not be
 sent in on bits of dirty paper. They
 must be written on one side of the paper 1only, and clearly expressed. Certain kinds of petitions. those referring to money | and lawsuits, bust be attested by wit
 ness. These restrictions made the hoot
 of petitions fell higher than ever. II order to help the ignorant peasants t' comply with the new rules a new clas of petition advocates has sprung ul l in all the large towns; and these charg' , big fees for drawing petitions in the nev 5 compulsory way. Most of them are pro fessionai scriveners. many are men o l bad character. and these exploit the cred ? ulous peasant The rule is to charg 3 for writing a short petition 50 cents an' per cent of the value of the propert! concerned in the petition. This profes 5 sion paid so well that the petition agents
 set themselves to urge persons who has no idea of prefering petitions, and some } times persons who had no grievances t, send petitions. The number of petition. nearly doubles.
 ] The petition advocates fool the inno
 cent country people with the following
 tales
 That the Czar himself immediately le nr. all paf
 tions.
 That the czar has craze for red } (yellow, green. etc.) paper, and that the petition advocate alone knows this and will draw up the petition on paper of the right color, so that the Czar will
 read 1t with pleasure.
 That the Czar insists on particular
 forms of complicated address, which nc
 one but the petition agent is master of
 To address his majesty correctly is hall the battle.
 That the petition advocate has arranged with the Czar to make a secret mark on the envelope. The Czar will first open envelopes so marked.
 Run h this swindling way the peti- ton advocates business is profitable. The Moscow petition agent Yelaginsky ac- cumulated a large fortune in a few years Theoretically every petition sent In to the Czar is dealt with Petitions which violate Budbergs rules are not destroyed but are postponed. Theoretically the cor rectly drawn petitions are handled in the order sent in. unless they are longer than 15 folios. The decision is come to by committee which classes them as | useless to present to his majesty, I'm possible to deal with for formal req
 sons; refer back for correction, or fur ther information or Ideal with al once" Most of the last are then sent to different state departments. The min istry of war and marine get petitions about pensions of soldiers and sailors the ministry of justice get petitions re- ferring to prisoners, and all petitions from persons whose character have to be verified go to the police. Petitions from men high up-governors who want special health allowances, speedy di- vorces and other privlleges-are dealt with directly, and are sometimes sent to the Czar.
 This system does not work well. The cause Is Russian corruption. The pe- tition department itself is probably in-
 corruptible. Its chief is a man of high character. But the police and other de- partments which answer the preliminary inquiries can be bought for few rou- bles. and often these authorities enter into fraudulent agreements with the pe- titioners The petitioner gets certifi- cate of character, and she shares the spoil with the 'tchinovnis' who grants the certificate. The woman Afanasieva
 begs the Czar for a grant of 300 roube on the ground that her husband died as
 result of fever contracted in the fai
 east war. She has no pension and works hard to support six children. In reality | Afanasieva Is a professional thief This