In the next number of the “Messenger” Mr. White announced that Poe was its editor, or in other words, that he had made arrangements with a gentleman of approved literary taste and attainments to whose especial management the editorial department would be confided, and it was declared that this gentleman would “devote his exclusive attention to the work.”  Poe continued, however, to reside in Baltimore, and it is probable that he was engaged only as a general contributor and a writer of critical notices of books.  In a letter to Mr. White, under the date of the thirtieth of May, he says: 

“In regard to my critique of Mr. Kennedy’s novel, I seriously feel ashamed of what I have written.  I fully intended to give the work a thorough review, and examine it in detail.  Ill health alone prevented me from so doing.  At the time I made the hasty sketch I sent you, I was so ill as to be hardly able to see the paper on which I wrote, and I finished it in a state of complete exhaustion.  I have not, therefore, done anything like justice to the book, and I am vexed about the matter, for Mr. Kennedy has proved himself a kind friend to me in every respect, and I am sincerely grateful to him for many acts of generosity and attention.  You ask me if I am perfectly, satisfied with your course.  I reply that I am—­entirely.  My poor services are not worth what you give me for them.”

About a month afterward he wrote: 

“You ask me if I would be willing to come on to Richmond if you should have occasion, for my services during the coming winter.  I reply that nothing would give me greater pleasure.  I have been desirous for some time past of paying a visit to Richmond, and would be glad of an reasonable excuse for so doing.  Indeed I am anxious to settle myself in that city, and if, by any chance, you hear of a situation likely to suit me, I would gladly accept it, were the salary even the merest trifle.  I should, indeed, feel myself greatly indebted to you if through your means I could accomplish this object.  What you say in the conclusion of your letter, in relation to the supervision of proof-sheets, gives me reason to hope that possibly you might find something for me to do in your office.  If so I should be very glad—­for at present only a very small portion of my time is employed.”

He continued in Baltimore till September.  In this period he wrote several long reviews, which for the most part were rather abstracts of works than critical discussions, and published, with others, “Hans Phall,” a story in some respects very similar to Mr. Locke’s celebrated account of Herschel’s Discoveries in the Moon.  At first he appears to have been ill satisfied with Richmond, or with his duties, for in two or three weeks after his removal to that city we find Mr. Kennedy writing to him: