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Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/177

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Literary Messenger
157

a review of Robt. R. Howison's "History of Virginia," from the trenchant pen of John M. Daniel, who attained great celebrity as editor of the Examiner, and was once U. S. Chargé at Naples. Some controversy springs up about Curwen's Journal and there is the usual miscellany in prose and poetry. An unknown Southron gets in another instalment of his Collection of Poems, mostly imaginative. The editor "contents himself with an earnest and sincere greeting to all patrons—present and prospective, of not only a Happy New Year, but a Happy year. He has over six pages of notices of new works, in small type, which show that he could not have been idle. He also refers to the historical features of the Messenger and announces the publication by it of Charles Campbell's "History of Virginia." This came about as follows:

The editor had taken up the "History of Virginia" under the title of "Contributions," in imitation of the example of Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks, in his "Church History of Virginia," and had kept them going for several months. But he found that, with proper attention to the Messenger, it was impracticable for him to make the necessary research. His intimate friend, Charles Campbell, had finished his "History of Virginia" and was looking out with some anxiety, for a publisher. He proposed to Mr. Campbell to let