It contains a sharp condemnation of the morals in the provincial courts of justice, and of the incredible processes of chicanery and bribery through which every business matter was forced to pass.

The types which Kapnist put on the stage, especially the pettifogger Pravoloff, and the types of the presiding judge and members of the bench, were very accurately drawn, and can hardly fail to have been taken from life.

Alarmed by the numerous persecutions of literary men which took place during the last years of Katherine II.'s reign, Kapnist dared not publish his comedy until the accession of the Emperor Paul I., when he dedicated it to the Emperor, and set forth in a poetical preface the entire harmlessness of his satire.

But even this precaution was of no avail.

The comedy created a tremendous uproar and outcry from officialdom in general; the Emperor was petitioned to prohibit the piece, and to administer severe punishment to the "unpatriotic" author.