may
perhaps be called the newest part of the new institutions, became
thoroughly acclimatised, as if they had existed for generations. As
soon as they were opened they became extremely popular. In Moscow the
authorities had calculated that under the new system the number of cases
would be more than doubled, and that on an average each justice would
have nearly a thousand cases brought before him in the course of the
year. The reality far exceeded their expectations: each justice had on
an average 2,800 cases. In St. Petersburg and the other large towns the
amount of work which the justices had to get through was equally great.

To understand the popularity of the Justice of Peace Courts, we must
know something of the old police courts which they supplanted. The
nobles, the military, and the small officials had always looked on
the police with contempt, because their position secured them against
interference, and the merchants acquired a similar immunity by
submitting to blackmail, which often took the form of a fixed subsidy;
but the lower classes in town and country stood, in fear of the humblest
policeman, and did not dare to complain of him to his superiors. If
two workmen brought their differences before a police court, instead of
getting their case decided on grounds of equity, they were pretty sure
to get scolded in language unfit for ears polite, or to receive still
worse treatment. Even among the higher officers of the force many became
famous for their brutality. A Gorodnitchi of the town of Tcherkassy, for
example, made for himself in this respect a considerable reputation. If
any humble individual ventured to offer an objection to him, he had at
once recourse to his fists, and any reference to the law put him into a
state of frenzy. "The town," he was wont to say on such occasions, "has
been entrusted to me by his Majesty, and you dare to talk to me of the
law? There is the law for you!"--the remark being accompanied with a
blow. Another officer of the same type, long resident in Kief, had a
somewhat different method of maintaining order. He habitually drove
about the town with a Cossack escort, and when any one of the lower
classes had the misfortune to displease him, he ordered one of his
Cossacks to apply a little corporal punishment on the spot without any
legal formalities.

In the Justice of Peace Courts things were conducted in a very different
style. The justice, always scrupulously polite without d