“Instead of making it possible for a man to order his life in a new place, he is put into prison. The Government has already voted six and a half millions for the enlargement of prisons. And this money will again be flayed off the peasants, for there is nowhere else to take it from.”
Of our courts of justice Tolstoi said:
“How absurd our courts are can be seen at each stage. For example, take the case of the Tula priest. How was it that the Tula court acquitted him, and then after the acquittal the Oriol court sentenced him to hard labour for twenty years? If such uncertainty is possible, what are those verdicts worth? Indeed, it depends on a thousand accidents: the temper of the jurymen, the behaviour of the prisoner at the bar—the prisoner bursts into tears, and the impression produced secures his acquittal. It is merely a game of heads and tails! It would be simpler and easier to say: Heads or tails, and to give sentence accordingly. It simply baffles me how decent people can be judges!”
Of the case of S. I. Mamontov, Tolstoi said:
“One is certainly very sorry for him: he is an old, unhappy man; but, on the other hand, you have to remember that the man has squandered twelve millions, or whatever it may be; he certainly spent between one and two hundred thousand roubles per annum, and is then acquitted, while another wretched man steals a trifle and is condemned for it. And in his case, too, money was spent on expensive lawyers. This reminds me of the anecdote I read in the papers. A cashier who embezzled twenty-five thousand roubles came to a lawyer to ask him to undertake his defence. The lawyer asked him: ‘Is there any more money left?’ The cashier said that there was another twenty-five thousand. Then the lawyer said: ‘Take the rest and give it to me, and then I will undertake your case.’
“And why should the jury be able to pardon? Only the plaintiff can pardon; but the jury whom he has not hurt have nothing to pardon him for.
“I once talked to N. V. Davidov, and said to him that all punishment may be dispensed with, yet an enquiry ought to be made; and when the crime is proved, they should go to the criminal and accuse him in the presence of all of his crime, and should bring forward the proof of his guilt. It is quite likely that the man will say: ‘Be damned to you, it is none of your business!’ But still I think that this method would more often give positive results than the existing system of punishment.”
Speaking of the Government, Tolstoi said:
“I wonder why they have not put me into prison yet? Particularly now, after my article on ‘Patriotism.’ Perhaps they have not read it yet? It ought to be sent to them.”
Tolstoi spoke again of his indifference to modern complicated music: