AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF AN EMBASSY FROM THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN TO THE EMPEROR OF CHINA 1798 GEORGE STAUNTON

[STAUNTON, George, Sir, 1737-1801]. An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; Including Cursory Observations Made, and Information Obtained, in Travelling through that Ancient Empire, and a Small Part of Chinese Tartary. Together with a Relation of the Voyage Undertaken on the Occasion by his Majesty’s Ship the Lion, and the Ship Hindostan, in the East India Company’s Service, to the Yellow Sea, and Gulf of Pekin; as well as of their Return to Europe; with Notices of the Several Places where they Stopped in their Way Out and Home; being the Islands of Madeira, Teneriffe, and St. Jago; the Port of Rio De Janeiro in South America; the Islands of St. Helena, Tristan D’acunha, and Amsterdam; the Coast of Java, and Sumatra, the Nanka Isles, Pulo Condore, and Cochin-China. Taken chiefly from the papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney, Knight of the Bath, His Majesty’s Embassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China; Sir Erasmus Gower, Commander of the Expedition, and of other Gentlemen in the several departments of the Embassy. London: printed by W. Bulmer and Co. for G. Nicol, Bookseller to his Majesty, Pall-Mall, MDCCXCVII. [1798].

The second edition, corrected. Two volumes of three [consisting of two text volumes - lacking the atlas volume]; quarto (30cm x 23cm); pp. [2], xxxiv, 518; xx, 626. English text. Bound in contemporary full calf; marbled page edges and endpapers; 2 engraved portrait frontispieces of Emperor Tchien Lung and the Earl of Macartney, 26 illustrations in the text and 1 full-page botanical plate. Condition: FAIR to GOOD. Covers somewhat rubbed, spine ends with losses, the joints slightly cracked with some old repairs. Interiors largely very well-preserved with some light foxing to endpapers. Bookplate to front pastedowns. Lacking the atlas volume. Scarce.

Notes: Second, corrected edition of the official account of the first official British Embassy to China, headed by George, Earl Macartney; the first edition was published the previous year. The failed embassy marked a historic missed opportunity in the relationship between China and the Western powers. Macartney was dispatched to Peking in 1792 by a British government "anxious to establish formal diplomatic relations with China and thus open the way for unimpeded trade relations" (Hill). He was accompanied by Staunton, and a retinue of suitably impressive size, including Staunton's 11-year-old son. It emerged on arrival that the boy was the only one to speak Chinese, and was therefore the only person able to converse with the Emperor during the Ambassador's two audiences. The Embassy "sought to improve commercial relations with China, through Canton, and to establish regular diplomatic relations between the two countries" (Guangzhou). Though Macartney and Staunton had an audience with the emperor their proposals were rebuffed, and the party returned to Britain in 1794. Across the expedition the embassy travelled via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope, Indonesia, Macao and St Helena, accounts of which "of considerable interest" are given in this work (Hill). The work was hugely successful, fifteen editions were issued in seven countries in thirty years. [Cordier, Sinica, 2381-83; Hill 1628; Lust 545 & 547].