[Illustration: WALL OF THE KITAI-GOROD. VARVARKA VOROT]
In the administration of justice much was lacking, the principle of the paternal rule of the sovereign necessitating direct appeal by means of a petition. Later, a _Prikase_ or office of direction was established, and this was followed by others empowered with the control of affairs relating respectively to carmen, Siberia, criminals, etc. As in all countries, misdemeanours against the property or liberties of individuals was regarded as a matter for personal redress by the party aggrieved; only those against the crown called for the active interference of the sovereign through his body-guard. The use of torture and some western methods of judicial procedure were introduced by Sophia Palealogus and the Italians who followed her, and were grafted upon native customs.
In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, legal procedure was as follows:--
"When any dispute arises they appoint, in the first place, the land owners to act as judges, and these if unable to settle the dispute, refer the case to a higher magistrate. The complainant asks the magistrate for leave to summon his adversary to court; the leave granted, he calls an attendant (sergeant), cites the accused and hurries him along to the court. The attendant keeps scourging the man about the shins with the knout, until he can bring forward someone who on his behalf can satisfy the law. If he has no friend to go bail for him, the sergeant, grasping him by the neck, drags him along and subjects him to blows, until before the court to plead his cause. If it be a suit to recover a debt, the defendant is asked by the magistrate whether he is in debt to the plaintiff, and replies that he is not in his debt. Then the judge asks, 'In what form can you make denial!' The defendant answers, 'Upon my oath.' Thereupon the sergeant is forbidden by the magistrate to administer further blows, until the evidence makes the case clearer.
"The Muscovites are exempt from a great curse to a community, in that they have no pettifogging lawyers. Every man conducts his own case, and the plaint of the pursuer and defence of the accused are submitted to the prince in the form of written petitions, craving for a just sentence at his hands. When each party has supported his case with all the arguments available, the judge asks the accuser whether any arguments remain. He answers that he himself, or his champion for him, will, with a strong hand, make good his accusation on the person of his opponent, and he further demands leave to engage with him in single combat. Liberty to fight is accorded both disputants, who rush simultaneously to the onset. But if one or both be not strong enough to fight, they engage professional pugilists as substitutes. These men enter the lists armed, chiefly with a war-club and a hunting-pole. The fighting is on foot. He whose champion is beaten is cast at once in prison, where he is most shamefully treated, until he ends his dispute with his enemy. If of high rank it is not allowed to get proxies. If a poor man has incurred a debt, and is unable to pay, the creditor carries him off and makes him labour for him, yea he even lets out his services on hire to someone else, until by his labour he fills up the amount of his debt."