GIGANTIC TRIAL IN RUSSIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 573, 11 April 1873, Page 2

GIGANTIC TRIAL IN RUSSIA.

In the whole history of criminal ju isprudeuce there has never pro ha ly been anything equal to the gigankc trial which has conclude.l at Moscow, in Russia, on the 21st of November, and in which were arrainged live hundred prisoners, upward of two hundred of whom were convicted and sente ced to cruel penalties. Among the accused were persons of every station of life—guyhaired men and youths, men and wonui ; among the latter some highly aocnmp i dit-a and prepossessing in appearance- All the prisoners were charged with one of the gravestoffence-iinthccriminalcodoof Russia —thatof counterfd:ing: That code says: “The person that counterfeit the coin or currency of ihc inperial government shall suffer death.” Notwithstan in; this rigoro.i3 provision Russia, hash, .n fl oded '• many years past with well executed co. J forfeits <f the Government treasury notes' At length, in last July, a curious, accident gave the Government the long looked for clue. -Three thousand men and women were arrested, but after a preliminary examination twenty-live ban Ire I of them were discharge 1, ai l about live hundred were hold for trial. Among the latter were six Frenchmen, of St. Petersburg, who had been caught printing the counterfeh notes, and acoiuparativc'y large num' o of women. On the 2Utli of October the tri il was opened in the largo hall of the Krem'in. which ho di nearly live tin uiands persons. Two hundred and throe of them were found guilty, among them about fifty women. .Sentence of death was pared upon the six French printers, and the other convicte I parties wore confined to hard labor in the gold nib os of the Ural mountains for life, or for tea years. The do uned men and women burst into piercing sliri -ks and howls, and well they might, for in the case of the former the sentence included barbarous flogging and branding on the forehead wih red hot iron; while the women, some of whom were of refined descent, shtv'dcrcd at theidcaof having to do the most menial work for life of ten years at the station-lions, s, where the keepers of the male prisoners'reside, j In their despair sonic of the unfortunates throw themselves upon the ground ami their piercing cries mingled with the clanking of their chains produced a truly horrible j effect. Tlieexcitement and frenzy of'.he ci n- ] demned grew from minute to minute more intense, and the Judges in order to restore quietude, had to call in the soldiers, who with theur kantscliubs, beat the prisoners right and left and then dragged then hackle the vanltj of the Kremlin,