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.
"A young novelist named Gierst published some stories which evidently gave offence. He was called upon at midnight, and told to get ready to depart immediately. Away he went, not knowing whither, until the horses stopped at the town of Totma, six hundred miles from St. Petersburg. There he was told to stay until fresh orders came from the Ministry of Police. None of his friends knew where he had gone; his lodgings were empty, and all the information that could be obtained was from a servant who had seen him start. His letters were seized, the newspapers were forbidden to say anything about him, and it was only by a ruse that he was able to let his friends know where he was.
"Any number of these incidents are narrated," the Doctor continued, "and they all show the dangerous power that is in the hands of the police. It is said that it would have been curtailed years ago but for the rise and spread of Nihilism, which has rendered it necessary to continue the privilege of the police to revise sentences, or imprison and exile without trial, 'for administrative purposes.' Let us hope that the better day will come very soon."