The June number of the _Southern Literary Messenger_ has reached us. Its contents are of a highly interesting character—among them is a very able article on the “Right of Instruction,” by a distinguished jurist of Philadelphia, but one in which the conclusions are not such as have obtained in Virginia, nor such as we have always inclined to believe correct. We are rather gratified than otherwise, however, at the introduction into the Messenger of essays upon such topics. Of the prose articles, one entitled “Losing and Winning,” by the author of “Sensibility, &c.” is a most valuable contribution; several others in the same department are very well written. The poetical articles are generally in good taste, and the critical notices are, as usual, able, candid and fearless. The Messenger is taking a higher and still higher stand among the periodicals of the day. {523} From the New Hampshire Patriot. _Southern Literary Messenger_.—In acknowledging our obligations to the publisher for the above work, we cannot do less than express our unqualified approbation of the character, contents and design of the Messenger. We have often seen it favorably noticed by our brethren of the corps editorial, as among the first monthly magazines in this country—by some even placed at the head of the list—but it is only by an examination and perusal of the numbers before us, that we have learned to appreciate the justness of their praise. The correctness, neatness, beauty and elegance of its typographical execution and appearance, not less than the rich and attractive guise thrown over its pages by the combined union of wit, genius and learning therein displayed, certainly surpass any thing to be met with in any similar periodical within our knowledge. We have not space to detail its particular merits, and will only remark generally in the words of another, that the contributions, prose and poetical, are of a high grade of excellence, the _critiques_ precisely what they should be in such a work—faithful mirrors, reflecting in miniature the book reviewed, and exposing alike its beauties and deformities without favor or affection. We should be glad to enrich our columns by transferring to them several articles from the Messenger—perhaps hereafter we may be enabled to do so. At present we can only commend it to the countenance and patronage of our literary friends. From the Charleston Courier. _The Southern Periodicals_.—We have received the April number of “The Southern Literary Messenger.” It contains, among other articles of interest, a highly ingenious attempt to show that Maelzel's Chess Player is not a pure machine, but regulated by mind—by a human agent concealed within it. From the Louisville City Gazette.