The _Publisher_ has the pleasure of announcing to his friends and
patrons that he has made an arrangement with a gentleman of approved
literary taste and attainments, to whose especial management the
editorial department of the "Messenger" has been confided.--This
arrangement, he confidently believes will increase the attractions of
his pages,--for besides the acknowledged capacity of the gentleman
referred to, his abstraction from other pursuits will enable him to
devote his exclusive attention to the work.
With this ample assurance therefore, that the public patronage will be
met by renewed efforts to give general satisfaction, the publisher
earnestly hopes that his friends will aid him in extending the
circulation of the Messenger. A reasonable enlargement of the
subscription list will afford the means of occasionally embellishing
its pages with handsome drawings and engravings--and especially
sketches of some of those remarkable natural curiosities and
picturesque scenes, with which Virginia, and the Southern country
generally, abounds. In this way the publisher hopes to make his
periodical a repository of not only every thing elegant in literature,
but tasteful in the arts; and his generous and intelligent supporters
may rest assured, that whilst a moderate reward for his own labors is
indispensable--his principal aim is to multiply the sources of
intellectual pleasure, and increase the facilities for improvement.
It is due to the gentleman who has acted as editor up to the present
period, that the publisher should, in parting with him, express that
deep feeling of gratitude which his disinterested friendship could not
fail to inspire. At the commencement of the Messenger, when the
prospect of its success was doubtful, and when many judicious friends
augured unfavorably of the enterprise, the late editor volunteered his
aid to pilot the frail bark if possible into safe anchorage--nor did
he desert it until all doubt of success had ceased. The efforts of
that gentleman are the more prized, because they were made at a
considerable sacrifice of ease and leisure, in the midst too of
avocations sufficiently arduous to occupy the entire attention of most
men,--and because they were rendered without hope or expectation of
reward. And the publisher embraces this occasion, to declare that the
success of the Messenger has been greatly owing to the judicious
management of the editorial department by that gentleman. For services
of so much value, rendered with no other object than a desire to
promote the establishment of a literary periodical in Virginia, the
publisher is deeply indebted to him--and the readers of the work will,
we doubt not, long remember his efforts in their behalf. To him
belongs the merit of having given his disinterested aid in the season
of its early feebleness. His successor has but to follow in the path
which has thus been marked out by a hardy and skilful literary
pioneer.
T. W. WHITE, _Publisher and Proprietor_.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.