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"I simply mean to say that those rights that touch me ... my

interest, I shall always defend to the best of my ability; that

when they made raids on us students, and the police read our

letters, I was ready to defend those rights to the utmost, to

defend my rights to education and freedom. I can understand

compulsory military service, which affects my children, my

brothers, and myself, I am ready to deliberate on what concerns

me; but deliberating on how to spend forty thousand roubles of

district council money, or judging the half-witted Alioshka-I

don't understand, and I can't do it."

Konstantin Levin spoke as though the floodgates of his speech had

burst open. Sergey Ivanovitch smiled.

"But tomorrow it'll be your turn to be tried; would it have

suited your tastes better to be tried in the old criminal

tribunal?"