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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
During the winter of 1867–1868 the Chinese Foreign Office dispatched its first diplomatic mission to the United States and Europe. The stipulated time for treaty revision was drawing near and the Chinese government had reason to expect that the Treaty Powers, under pressure from their merchants doing business in China, would demand a considerable expansion of the privileges which they had forced the Chinese to grant them on previous occasions. Fearful of the internal effects of a great extension of foreign influence and activity, the Foreign Office decided to send a special embassy directly to the governments of the various Treaty Powers to plead for patience and forbearance.
1 For detailed studies of the Burlingame Mission, see Williams, F. Wells, Anson Burlingame and the first Chinese mission to foreign powers (New York, 1912)Google Scholar, and Biggerstaff, Knight, “The official Chinese attitude toward the Burlingame mission,” The American historical review, 41 (July, 1936), 682–702.Google Scholar
2 Williams, op. cit., pp. 103–104.
3 Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo (Peiping, 1929–1951), T'ung-chih section, Ch. 52, pp. 2b–5a.
4 The Chinese text of the Treaty of Tientsin differs somewhat from the official English version.
