15 MAY 1909, Page 1

The trial of M. Lopukhin, the ex-police official who was

accused of dealings with Russian revolutionaries, has ended in his being found guilty of belonging to a criminal associa.. tion, and he has been sentenced to five years' hard labour and the loss of civil rights. The judgment will be referred to the Imperial sanction, and it is believed that ho will be pardoned. The proceedings are stated by the Times correspondent at

St. Petersburg to have provoked a great deal of dissatisfaction. The Government's decision to hold a public trial is declared to have been stultified by the refusal of the President to admit a large number of docuinents relating to Azoff's criminal acts and by his muzzling of the accused. Considering the Meagre amount of facts disclosed, it is impossible to conic to any definite conclusion on this puzzling case. We can only feel that the Azeff mystery is deeper than ever.