THE WHITE SLAVE; AND THE RUSSIAN PRINCE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "REVELATIONS OF RUSSIA." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. Second Edition. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER; GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1275. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN giving to the public this Second Edition of the "White Slave," the author cannot help adverting with satisfaction to the change which has taken place in the public opinion of the country, as expressed by its organs, with regard to the condition of the Russian Empire and the nature of its Government. A cunningly devised net work of invisible influences has, until a recent period, so completely succeeded in mystifying the question, and in entangling in its meshes all who could have exposed the character and effects of a system, perhaps, more extensively cruel and demoralizing than any which has ever existed, that hidden under the mask of civilized institutions, the Social Condition of the Russian Empire was as little known as that of China a few years since. It was in fact less known, because the popular ignorance, with regard to China, was the restless ignorance of doubt; whilst that which prevailed respecting the condition of the Russian Empire was based contentedly upon the false impressions imbibed alike from the misrepresentations of men seeking to deceive, and from the silence of those who could have told the truth. Two years ago, amongst the press, apologists of the Government of Nicholas were still forthcoming, but since sufficient light has converged upon it from various quarters, at least, dimly to shadow out its character and effects in their monstrous reality, they have one by one abandoned it to the fate, now rapidly overtaking it. I mean the common execration of all civilized humanity. Is it to be supposed that in the present age any artificial system, however craftily combined, or terrifically supported, will not eventually crumble before the mighty breath of public opinion in the west, whose mere sympathy with suffering when unanimously expressed, will set more millions of hearts palpitating within the pale of the Russian Empire, than all the bayonets of Nicholas can quell? To add what lay in his power to the light, now steadfastly, though yet insufficiently beaming into that once dark arena, where corruption and oppression in the most revolting forms are still daily running riot, battening on the sufferings of millions, and the brutalizing abasement of whole races, was a task which the author proposed to himself in taking up the subject, and in which he has been assiduously progressing. In publishing the "White Slave," his object was to popularize important truths connected |