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A Biography of James Augustus St.John
Networking in the Nineteenth Century
In his family research, Oliver St John mentions an article written by James Augustus St.John in the ‘Foreign Quarterly Review’ and reveals it’s consequences:
"An article written in the Foreign Quarterly Review, about the English in Borneo, proved to have important consequences. James was introduced to Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak. They corresponded and became good friends." [1]
There is a letter from James Augustus St John, addressed to James Brooke, concerning his son’s employment in Sarawak . The letter is dated June 23, 1851 and gives the address as 18 North Bank, St Johns Wood.
18, North Bank, St. John's Wood,
June 23, 1851.
MY DEAR BROOKE,
WHEN I first became acquainted with Mr. Wise, he uniformly represented you to me, not only as a philanthropist, and the benefactor of the Indian Archipelago, but a truly great man. In this view of your character he persisted for a length of time, but afterwards changed suddenly, and began to say he had been deceived in you — that you were a very bad man — that all your proceedings in the East were carried on exclusively for your own aggrandizement — that he could supply me with proofs of these allegations — and that if he had not suppressed, or altered a portion of your " Journal," you
would have appeared to the world in the light of a murderer, which it seemed to me evident he wished me to believe you. I replied, that if he would put into my hands the proofs he spoke of, I would attack and denounce you publicly. He promised to furnish me with the proofs (which, of course, he never did), but said the time was not come for bringing the matter before the world. This shook my faith in his trustworthiness, and I began to suspect he was playing some deep game
of his own. Of this I became fully satisfied, when, on your return to England in 1847, he went down to meet you — invited you to dine at his house — and there, in the presence of numerous friends, pronounced the warmest eulogium on your character and on all you had
done in the Archipelago. I was shocked and disgusted by this hypocrisy, and reproached him with it, as well as with causing your portrait, by Mr. Grant, to be copied, framed, and hung in his dining-room, to which his only answer was, that people are compelled
sometimes to do such things by circumstances.
The idea of my son's going out with you to Borneo had originated with him, but he now sought to dissuade me from allowing him to accept the appointment, saying you were the greatest tyrant in the world, as the poor youth would find as soon as he was fairly in your power. To this I replied that if I had fifty sons, I should be too happy to entrust them to you. Our intercourse now became unpleasant, and in a few weeks after you left England, ceased entirely. Allow me, for my own satisfaction, to add, that instead of repenting of having placed by son under your authority, I have every day more and more reason to rejoice at it, and to express my gratitude to you for the undeviating kindness and generosity with which you have treated him. Trusting you will excuse this expression of my feelings, I am, my dear Brooke, Most faithfully and gratefully yours, JAMES AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN.
It needs only to add, that Mr. Wise, in a letter addressed to the Times newspaper, stated that he was ready to meet any distinct charge brought against him. Here is a very distinct and grave charge, resting on the testimony of two gentlemen unknown to each other, and which could, in a lesser degree, be substantiated by Mr. Scott, the Lieutenant-Governor of Labuan, Mr. Low, and Mr. Spencer St. John[2]
The St John's and the 'Foreign Quarterly Review;' are mentioned again in a research index on the 'Internet' along with Thomas Roscoe - whom James Augustus St john supported in his applications for assistance from the 'Literary Fund'. One of James Augustus's son's, Horace Roscoe St John, married one of Thomas Roscoe's daughters.
'Foreign Quarterly Review' unidentified contributions
Thomas Roscoe. In his applications to the Royal Literary Fund (case 975) between February 1848 and February 1862 Roscoe repeatedly claimed that he had contributed to the Foreign Quarterly Review — or was it the Foreign Review? Sometimes he clearly meant ForR when he said FQR (see ForR #56, on Foscolo); at other times his claims were too vague to be helpful. For example, in 1860 he referred to ‘Reviews of Poems—and other works,’ in 1862 to articles on ‘Modern Writers—Italy—Spain, &c.’ He did not mention either ‘foreign review’ in his first two applications, in 1839 and 1842; when he finally did mention them, neither FQR nor ForR was stilll publishing. Once he began to claim contributions to FQR, one of his regular supporters was James Augustus St.John, who himself, with some of his sons, contributed frequently to FQR from January 1844 on. It remains impossible to be sure what or where Roscoe contributed.' [3]
P.S I have not found an index to the 'Foreign Quarterly Review' and it seems the articles in the journals are uncredited. -- Michael Middleton
- ↑ Oliver St.John
- ↑ THE PRIVATE LETTERS SIR JAIES BROOKE, K.C.B. RAJAH OF SARAWAK, NARRATING THE EVENTS OF HIS LIFE, FROM 1838 TO THE PRESENT TIME. EDITED BY JOHN C. TEMPLER, ESQ, & RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET(19853)
- ↑ THE WELLESLEY INDEX: ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS Eileen M. C ('Internet'source)