Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/297

 Men who slay their masters, betrayers of the camp, church robbers, kidnappers, and also those who secretly introduce things into another man's house, and then say that they have been stolen from themselves (whom they call podmetzchek), as well as incendiaries, and such as are evident malefactors, are liable to capital punishment. He who is convicted of theft for the first time, unless perhaps he be accused of sacrilege or kidnapping, is not to be punished with death, but to receive public correction, that is, he is to be beaten with rods and to be fined in money by the judge. If he be caught a second time in theft, and have not wherewith to satisfy his accuser or the judge, he must suffer death. If otherwise a convicted thief have not wherewith he can satisfy his accuser, he must be beaten with rods, and delivered to his accuser.

If any man be accused of theft, and any person of respectability declare with an oath that he has also been convicted of theft before, or has been reconciled to another on the score of theft without a judicial verdict, he must suffer death, and his goods are to be disposed of as above.

If any man of low condition or suspected life be charged with theft, he must be summoned to an examination. But if he cannot be convicted of theft, he is remanded on bail for further inquiry.

For the giving sentence or delivering judgment in an arbitration of one ruble, ten dengs are to be paid to the judge, one altin to the secretary who has the seal, and three dengs to the notary.

Governors who have no authority, on hearing a case, to decide or give a verdict, may condemn either party in so many rubles, and then send the case for judgment to the ordinary judges; and if the sentence seem to them just and according to equity, then for every ruble one altin must be paid to the judge, and four dengs to the secretary.

Whoever wishes to lay an accusation against another for