In 1792, Sir George Staunton served as principal secretary to Lord Macartney’s embassy to China. The embassy to the Qianlong emperor sought to negotiate a commercial treaty and establish regular diplomatic relations. While Staunton and Macartney had an audience with the emperor, the Chinese believed that the British mission had come to pay tribute and in a lengthy edict addressed to George III (and now housed in the Royal Archives), the proposals were rejected.
Despite its failure, the mission and the subsequent accounts published by Macartney, Staunton and others did much to de-mystify China and Chinese culture in the British imagination.
This is an octavo edition of Staunton’s official account of the embassy, published in 1798.