Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/139

 Rh for schools, etc., helps out the Editor's Table; but the editor also spreads a hospitable board.

In April, Mr. John Blair Dabney, a scholarly citizen of Virginia, and a fine writer, replies to Simms and De Leon, on the subject of "International Copyright," to which he was opposed. His brother, Prof. George E. Dabney, was also a fine contributor.

A new writer appears, Jas. L. Hunter, of Alabama, on "Poetical Similarities." An anonymous reviewer of Tennyson's poems is not at all complimentary. The welcome Lucian Minor reappears, as Q. Q., with "Gossip about a Few Books." Subaltern continues: so do Nasus and the Consul; and several of the usual contributors are on hand. But perhaps the most important article is that for which this number was enlarged and delayed: A letter addressed to the Hon. Thomas Walker Gilmer, as Secretary of the Navy, by President London C. Garland, of Randolph-Macon College, on the organization of the Marine Observatory, in Washington. Mr. Garland had an interview with the Secretary and was requested to reduce his suggestions to writing. But whilst doing so, Governor Gilmer was killed by that terrible explosion on the Princeton. Mr. Garland was greatly staggered, but at length concluded to finish his paper and offer it to the Messenger. It is dated February 29, 1844, and is