THE VICTIMS OF SOCIETY BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. “'Tis you that say it, not I; you do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words." LONDON SAUNDERS AND OTLEY CONDUIT STREET. M.DCCC.XXXVII. PREFACE. one The design of personal satire is sometimes justly, more often erroneously, attributed to those who attempt to paint the manners of the day; and, through the character of a fiction, to delineate the vices or the follies of real life. But as one who refuses the shelter of the anonymous is usually supposed to reject its privileges, so the Author of these volumes ventures to hope that, by pre ne and mes |