Mr. Thompson says: "Once more we greet our subscribers in a new volume of the Messenger. The good old magazine has, we hope, some vitality in it yet, and we confidently appeal to the contents of the present number for the interest and piquancy which our contributors lend to its pages. With the new year, we have formed new associations with writers in various parts of the country, which will enable us to maintain the character of the Messenger and make it still worthier of the Southern public. * * * It is for them we strive and it is their encouragement we most desire." He also trusts that the cherished literary friends of the work are held to it by such ties of enduring affection and pleasing reminiscence, that they will not withdraw their valued aid.
Miss Susan A. Talley opens with a fine prose article on "Reading." There is a good deal more from the Lee papers and early letters from Arthur Lee, whilst he was pursuing his education in Europe. There are "Letters from a Spinster," by J. D. P. Tuckerman takes hold of Balzac and afterwards of Sleep. A Traveller treats of "The Thugs of India" and afterwards of "Funeral Rites in the East" and religious novels are discussed. Venerable William and Mary is burned a short time before a celebration there, on its 166th aniversary, to which Hon.
