The last No. of the Messenger (for December) which commences the 2d volume, is most emphatically admired and extensively complimented by the American Press, and we have read portions of it with much satisfaction. Among the rest, our friend Noah expresses his pleasure, and any dealer in Literary wares may be happy to receive the countenance of so fine a genius as the Major. We are no critics, and beg leave to adopt his review with some qualification. We would praise the Barbary Sketches more, for we really view them as the very best specimens of History by any American. We will not subscribe to the sentence against "Eliza of Richmond;" and the Major must look over the "Broken Heart" again, and the next time wipe the moisture from his specs. The Critical Notices are much to our taste--decided in their character, correct (as we think) in judgment, and lashing dullness, as it always deserves to be lashed, with a cat-o'-nine-tails. Major Noah says-- _The Southern Literary Messenger for December. Richmond, Va.: T. W. White, Proprietor._ We have repeatedly called the attention of our literary friends to this excellent periodical, now commencing the second volume, and sustaining its deservedly acquired reputation. It is not only the neatest in typographical execution--in whiteness of paper and elegance of type, of any American publication of the kind, but contains also a greater amount of useful and entertaining original matter, both in prose and poetry--especially the latter, which, taken _en masse_, is quite different from the namby-pamby trash that is spreading like an epidemic over the republic of letters--choking and smothering with its noxious weeds those gems and flowers of purer mould, which are the offspring and inspiration of nature and of genius. The "Sketches of the Barbary States," are written by an able pen, and are full of valuable historical details. The lines to "October," by _Eliza_, of Maine, possess the vein of true poetry; the tenderness and the luxuriant imagery of some of Mrs. Hemans'. How rich the pageantry of some of the author's thoughts when describing the gorgeous tints of an autumnal foliage: "And the rays of glorious sunshine there in saddening lustre fall-- 'Tis the funeral pageant of a king with his gold and crimson pall."