A RUSSIAN SOLOMON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3800, 19 September 1883, Page 4

A RUSSIAN SOLOMON.

The Potersburgor Herald, a German paper published in the Russian capital, is responsible for this story : —"A peasant in a villago of Southern Russia was accused of theft. The accused kept out of the way, but sent an advocate to plead his cause before the local judicial magnate. Tho lawyer employed »n his eloquence to convince the Judge that his client was innocent; but his clever appeal had no effect upon the magistrate, who knew the accused, and had probably condemned him before he heard the details of the case. He gave the sentence • —five-and-twenty blows with a rod. The village Solomon was informed that the criminal could not be found. ' Never mind,' ho observed, 'Justice must have its course. As the criminal is not in our hands, avc decree that his advocate shall receive the flogging. The man who has the face to defend such a rascal deserves to bo punished.' The lawyer in vain protested against tho illegality, absurdity, and utter injustice of tho monstrous sentence. The loss of his time and his fees, ho contended, would bo quite sufficient punishment. But the stiff old Russian Solomon was inexorable, and the lawyer was actually seized, bound, and received the twenty-five strokes, as the re2)resontative of the absent criminal.'' Such n story seems incredible, but a journal published in the capital would scarcely dare to invent it, and, so far as we know, it has not yet been contradicted.