if it could be known who that editor was. Rev. Mr. Chapin had gone back to the North and nothing can be ascertained in regard to Mr. Sparhawk spoken of by Mr. Whitty and Mr. Fergusson. It is known, however, that a good deal of editorial assistance was rendered by Lieut. M. F. Maury, from Washington City. This editorship was greatly facilitated by the Hon. Wm. B. Lewis, Auditor of the U. S. Treasury Department, who granted the Messenger the liberal use of his franking privilege. This privilege was afterwards much restricted; but Major Lewis had no scruples about promoting the plans and objects of the Southern Literary Messenger. That Maury edited the above article on the "University of Virginia" is shown by his handwriting on the MS. and he was still editing the Messenger, in the same way, when it was sold.
Mr. N. C. Brooks has published a poem on the Church and is complimented for "a fine classical style blended with a hallowed spirit of piety." Park Benjamin reappears and has started in New York the weekly New World, which the Messenger lauds very highly. Erastus Brooks has something about the Congressional Buryingground, in Washington. Mrs. Seba Smith favors us with the seven parts of her poem the "Sinless Child." John Blair Dabney (?) pokes exquisite fun at the proposed "Whisker Order," by which
