mony of a public prosecutor, it was
occasionally used in Moscow as late as 1850.

The defects and abuses of the old system were so flagrant that they
became known even to the Emperor Nicholas I., and caused him momentary
indignation, but he never attempted seriously to root them out. In 1844,
for example, he heard of some gross abuses in a tribunal not far from
the Winter Palace, and ordered an investigation. Baron Korff, to whom
the investigation was entrusted, brought to light what he called "a
yawning abyss of all possible horrors, which have been accumulating for
years," and his Majesty, after reading the report, wrote upon it with
his own hand: "Unheard-of disgrace! The carelessness of the authority
immediately concerned is incredible and unpardonable. I feel ashamed
and sad that such disorder could exist almost under my eyes and remain
unknown to me." Unfortunately the outburst of Imperial indignation did
not last long enough to produce any desirable consequences. The only
result was that one member of the tribunal was dismissed from the
service, and the Governor-General of St. Petersburg had to resign, but
the latter subsequently received an honorary reward, and the
Emperor remarked that he was himself to blame for having kept the
Governor-General so long at his post.

When his Majesty's habitual optimism happened to be troubled by
incidents of this sort he probably consoled himself with remembering
that he had ordered some preparatory work, by which the administration
of justice might be improved, and this work was being diligently carried
out in the legislative section of his own chancery by Count Bludof, one
of the ablest Russian lawyers of his time. Unfortunately the existing
state of things was not thereby improved, because the preparatory work
was not of the kind that was wanted. On the assumption that any evil
which might exist could be removed by improving the laws, Count Bludof
devoted his efforts almost entirely to codification. In reality what was
required was to change radically the organisation of the courts and the
procedure, and above all to let in on their proceedings the cleansing
atmosphere of publicity. This the Emperor Nicholas could not understand,
and if he had understood it he could not have brought himself to
adopt the appropriate remedies, because radical reform and control of
officials by public opinion were his two pet bugbears.

Very different was his son and successor, Alexander II.