"A great book is a great evil," said an ancient writer,--an axiom which an unfortunate Russian author felt to his cost. "Whilst I was at Moscow," says a pleasant traveller, "a quarto volume was published in favor of the liberties of the people,--a singular subject when we consider the place where the book was printed. In this work the iniquitous venality of the public functionaries, and even the conduct of the sovereign, was scrutinized and censured with great freedom. Such a book, and in such a country, naturally attracted general notice, and the offender was taken into custody. After being tried in a very summary way, his production was determined to be a libel, and the writer was condemned to _eat his own words_. The singularity of such a sentence induced me to see it put into execution. A scaffold was erected in one of the most public streets of the city; the imperial provost, the magistrates, the physicians and surgeons of the Czar attended; the book was separated from its binding, the margin cut off, and every leaf rolled up like a lottery ticket when taken out of the wheel at Guildhall. The author was then served with them leaf by leaf by the provost, who put them into his mouth, to the no small diversion of the spectators; he was obliged to swallow this unpalatable food on pain of the knout,--in Russia more dreadful than death. As soon as the medical gentlemen were of opinion that he had received into his stomach as much at the time as was consistent with his safety, the transgressor was sent back to prison, and the business resumed the two following days. After three very hearty but unpleasant meals, I am convinced by ocular proof that every leaf of the book was actually swallowed." _Lon. Pa._ _Boston Palladium._ ------------------------- Here is a clever mode of punishing a wife-beater without the aid of counsel:-- A woman in New-York, who had been beaten by her husband, finding him fast asleep, sewed him up in the bed-clothes, and in that situation thrashed him soundly. _Salem Observer_, April 24, 1827. ------------------------- Conviction of a common scold, Sept. 11, 1821; sentence not reported. _Common Scold_.--Catharine Fields was indicted and convicted for being a common scold. The trial was excessively amusing, from the variety of testimony and the diversified manner in which this Xantippe pursued her virulent propensities. "Ruder than March wind, she blew a hurricane;" and it was given in evidence that after having scolded the family individually, the bipeds and quadrupeds, the neighbours, hogs, poultry, and geese, she would throw the window open at night to scold the watchmen. Her countenance was an index to her temper,--sharp, peaked, sallow, and small eyes. To be sentenced on Saturday week.--_Nat. Adv._