"A great reform has taken place, and matters which were formerly in the control of the police are now managed by courts of law. Trial by jury has been established, and though there are many hinderances on account of the scarcity of lawyers and judges and the ignorance of jurors, the system is working well. The law-schools are filled with students, and in a few years the machinery of the courts will not be unlike that of other lands.
[Illustration: OFFICERS SITTING IN JUDGMENT.]
"But the police power is still too great for the safety of the people, and probably no persons are more aware of it than are the Emperor and his advisers. The police can imprison or exile a man for 'administrative purposes' without any trial whatever, and without even letting him know the nature of his offence. The police may, in certain cases, revise a sentence which has been decreed by a court, and punish a man who has been acquitted after trial, but they do not often exercise the right.
"The author of 'Free Russia' says that while he was staying at Archangel an actor and actress were brought there one day and set down in the public square, with orders to take care of themselves, but on no account to leave town without the governor's permission. They had been sent from the capital on a mere order of the police, without trial, without even having been heard in defence, and with no knowledge of the offence alleged against them. They had no means of support, but managed to eke out an existence by converting a barn into a theatre, and giving performances that hardly rose to the dignity of the name of plays.
"An agent of the police had driven up to their doors and told them to get ready to start for Archangel in three hours. That was all; in three hours they were on their way to exile.
"The same writer said there was also at Archangel a lady of middle age who had been banished from St. Petersburg on the mere suspicion that she had been concerned in advising some of the students at the university to send an appeal to the Emperor for certain reforms which they desired. There was no other charge against her, and those who made her acquaintance at Archangel were impressed with her entire innocence, as she did not possess in any way the qualities necessary for intrigue. Like the actor and actress just mentioned, she had had no trial, and no opportunity to be heard in defence.