CHINA; POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND SOCIAL; IN AN OFFICIAL REPORT TO HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT. BY R. MONTGOMERY MARTIN, Esq., LATE HER MAJESTY'S TREASURER FOR THE COLONIAL, CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC SERVICES IN DEDICATION. TO THE QUEEN. MADAM, The gracious permission to dedicate these Volumes to Your Majesty, induces me to solicit a consideration of the great interests involved in the British relations with China; an Empire first opened to our commerce by the patriotic spirit of Queen Elizabeth, and with which our intercourse has been enlarged during the auspicious reign of Your Majesty. To extend personal communication with nearly four hundred million comparatively civilized people-to establish mercantile relations with the immense regions of Central Asia-and to promote the blessings of Christian civilization among myriads of mankind, are the principal objects of this work; and, however imperfectly developed, I trust they will receive the favourable notice of Your Majesty. * Vol. ii., page 1. |