Lectures by Percy B. St.John

Preface

The Liberation of Greece

THE RESTORATION OF A CHRISTIAN EMPIRE AT CONSTANTINOPLE

On Wednesday, the 22 of June 1853, in the great chamber of Crosby Hall Percy B. St. John took a stand! This page contains various contemporary accounts of the lecture as well as a prefix by Michael Middleton.

A Lecture on Texas

The April edition of ‘Hood’s Magazine’ of 1846, included an announcement of lectures on Texas: “We perceive that Mr. Percy B. St. John, the author of the " Trapper's Bride," has been induced by the committee of the Marylebone Literary Institution to lecture on Texas, with recollections of personal adventure. As Mr. St. John lectures from personal experience, the course will be of great interest. The dates fixed are Monday, April 27th, and May llth, and we believe any respectable person may obtain a ticket for one shilling, on personal application to the Secretary, 17, Edward Street, Portman Square.

On Sunday, May 17, 1846. The ‘court’ section of ‘Lloyd’s Weekly London Newspaper’ reported:

LECTURE ON TEXAS - Mr Percy St John delivered his second lecture on monday evening last, at the Marylebone Library Literary Institution. The subject mater was Texas, as it fell under the lecturer’s own eye. Though an enthusiast in all things American, Mr.St John held out no inducements for any one to emigrate to Texas, at all events for many years, until the country was in a thoroughly healthy state. Mr St.John asserted that the greater part of the coast was unhealthy, though the interior was very salubrious. The lecture which was attended by a crowded audience, was both useful and agreeable, being delivered in the same lively style which characterizes Mr Percy B. St John’s productions, written and spoken. The lecture was extempore; and at times Mr St John’s anecdotes convulsed his audience with laughter.

But where did the ‘respectable’ people who each paid the respectable sum sum one shilling, to hear Percy. B. St John’s tales of Texas go? ‘The ‘Mirror of Literature. Amusement and Instruction’ of 1846 reveals the venue:

The first of these was written up in THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION” of Saturday 09 1846, giving Percy B. St.John’s lecture on Texas a long review in which it is mentioned that the lecturer had served in the Texan navy during Texas’s struggle for independence against the Mexicans.

LECTURES ON TEXAS (Advertisement) WE perceive that Mr. Percy B. St. John, the author of the " Trapper's Bride," has been induced by the committee of the Marylebone Literary Institution to lecture on Texas, with recollections of personal adventure. As Mr. St. John lectures from personal experience, the course will be of great interest. The dates fixed are Monday, April 27th, and May llth, and we believe any respectable person may obtain a ticket for one shilling, on personal application to the Secretary, 17, Edward Street, Portman Square.

MARYLEBONE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION. This excellent institution, one of the best of its kind in the metropolis, possessing as it does the advantages of an admirable library and reading-rooms, supplied with all the journals and magazines, is about, after fourteen years of existence, to have a dinner. This dinner will take place on the 17th of June, Lord Brougham in the chair, at the Albion Tavern, and we have no doubt will serve admirably the object of its promoters — that of increasing the funds of the institution. Among the stewards, we believe, are Henry Hope, Esq.; the borough members ; J. Hume, M.P. ; Raikes Currie, M.P. ; W. Ewart, M.P.; Messrs. B. B. Cabbell, J.S.Buckingham and Percy B. St. John; Sir Samuel Scott, bart. ; Lord Montfort; Sir Peter Laurie; and others, it has always been a matter of surprise to us that when all the advantages of a circulating library, with lectures, concerts, and reading-rooms, are to be obtained for two guineas per annum, institutions of this kind do* not meet with the most extensive success. No better m 'tins of diffusing literary tastes and feelings, with knowledge and varied information, was ever devised, and the day will come when we shall find them eagerly caught at by hundreds whom indolence and want of thought alone keep from supporting them now. The Marylebone Institution, in Edward- street, Portman- square, is so admirably conducted, its library contains so valuable a collection of books, its lectures are so diversified and useful as well as entertaining, while last, not least, the urbanity of its secretary, Mr. Bingley, is so marked, that? we beg emphatically to encourage every neighbour of the institution to become a member. We have no doubt the advantages of it and similar places will be right well and eloquently dilated on at the dinner, and beneath its genial influence we hope many a new friend will be found for the Marylebone Literary Institution.

Life_in_America

The last of these: “THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, INSTRUCTiON” of JUNE 1847 informs us that Percy B.St John had continued lecturing on America and reviews his lectures in the local Polytecnic Institution

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