PERCY B. ST. JOHN'S LECTURES ON LIFE IN AMERICA AND COMMERCE OF PRAIRIES, in Birmingham.

On Monday evening, MR. PERCY B. ST. JOHN delivered, to the members of the Polytechuic Institution, an extra lecture on "Life in America." Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the theatre of the Philosophical Institution was filled with a respectable audience. The lecture was devoted to a description of the manners of the people of the United States, and to the advantages and evils of their constitution and government. The various topics were treated with shrewdness and judgment, and the lecture, which argued close and extensive observation, was enlivened by some amusing anecdotes, told with great humour. — Midland Counties Herald, Feb. 11.

On Tuesday evening (continues the same journal), Mr. PERCY B. ST. JOHN delivered the last of his course of lectures, " On Mexico, Texas, &c." The attendance was the largest on any occasion during the course. The first topic illustrated was the commerce of the prairies, the lecturer describing with his customary effectiveness the journey of a caravan of traders from St. Louis, across the prairie, to Santa Fé, in New Mexico. The goods taken on this journey were, he observed, principally calicoes, cloths, and hardware, the greatest portion of which was the produce of this country; and he thought that it would
 be much better if Britain would conduct the trade in a more direct way. The goods could be taken direct to Texas in British ships, and then carried across the country to Santa Fé, which was a short and easy route, compared with the four months' journey from New York, by way of St, Louis and the Great Prairie.  

The only obstacle would be the tariff on the importation of goods into Texas, now part of the American Union, and he hoped that would not be heavy. He then passed on to describe the crossing of the Rocky Mountains, and the life of the trapper in the more northerly regions, where the elk and the beaver are the objects of pursuit. He expressed a deep regret that the conduct of civilised nations towards the Indian had been so little governed by the principles of Christianity, and that the red man had always been considered by the white man as "in the way." The United States, he remarked, had often passed acts guaranteeing "permanent" possession of lands to the Indians; but the law was always violated, when the white man found it for his interest to do so. He feared that the time was not far distant when the red man, along with the beaver and the buffalo, would disappear from North America. It was, he considered, in the power of Britain, by remonstrance, to secure for the red race better treatment; if she herself always treated the aborigines rightly, the example would soon tell upon the American people. He earnestly hoped that it would be so; for he loved the Indian character: it was Cooper's masterly delineation which had led him (Mr. St. John) to America, and all he had seen had only tended to increase the interest which he felt in the red race. The lecturer concluded by thanking his audience for his exceedingly gratifying reception in Birmingham, and expressing, amid loud applause, his hope to meet them on some future occasion Mr. Evans, the secretary of the Institution, said he was sure, from the manner in which the concluding words of the lecturer had been received, that the audience would be glad to hear that there was a probability that Mr. St. John would, on a future occasion, deliver another course of lectures to them.