Sir George Staunton, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Thomas Staunton, 2nd Baronet was an English traveller and Orientalist.
Sir George Thomas Staunton, 2nd Baronet.
Lady Jane Staunton (d. 1823) with her son, afterwards Sir George Thomas Staunton Bart. (1781–1859), and a Chinese attendant holding a chest of tea. (John Hoppner, circa 1792)
One of the follies that Staunton had built on his Leigh estate
The Macartney Embassy, also called the Macartney Mission, was the first British diplomatic mission to China, which took place in 1793. It is named for its leader, George Macartney, Great Britain's first envoy to China. The goals of the mission included the opening of new ports for British trade in China, the establishment of a permanent embassy in Beijing, the cession of a small island for British use along China's coast, and the relaxation of trade restrictions on British merchants in Guangzhou (Canton). Macartney's delegation met with the Qianlong Emperor, who rejected all of the British requests. Although the mission failed to achieve its official objectives, it was later noted for the extensive cultural, political, and geographical observations its participants recorded in China and brought back to Europe. It came to light in 1796 that a court official Heshen was stealing state funds and frustrated the mission.
Lord Macartney's embassy, 1793
View of Canton, by Jakob van der Schley (1749)
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville