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Auction: 21042 - The Opium Wars Collection
Lot: 52

First Opium War
The Eastern Expedition
The Elliot Negotiations
1840 (25 July) printed circular from Thomson in Macao, to John Gladstone in Liverpool "pr Marseilles", rated "1/-" and with faint "INDIA" in oval, docketed as being received on 14th December.


The printed letter gives details of the different teas exported over the last years with the "written" section telling of the British subjects' discontent with Elliot's directives and includes, "I wrote you pretty fully on the 24th ultimo by the 'Anstruther' when I mentioned the arrival of the first detachment of he Expedition, and the publication of the notice of the blockade. Since then nearly all the expected ships have come in, and started for the north, leaving the Bogue forts untouched. The force they have left to blockade the river is quite inadequate so much so that they find it useless even to attempt to stop the junks from going up the inner passage ... I earnestly hope the Admiral Elliot has not been acting with the same vile half and half policy in the north. If he has, we shall have a most tedious job and double the force will be required to bring the Chinese to their senses that would have been required had they acted with boldness and decision on their first arrival. What we have most to fear is that our old superintendent who has a most ridiculously high opinion of his own powers of diplomacy will manage to persuade the Admiral to allow him to enter into a chop and edict with the Emperor ..." along with a lot of other gossip and information


1840年7月25日來自澳門湯馬斯的報單印刷件; 經馬賽遞送往利物浦的John Gladstone. 費用為 "1/-", 蓋有㰐圓型"INDIA" 戳記, 據記錄於12月14日收到信函. 此印刷報單剖釋了當時在廣州的英國人對其駐華商務總監〈查理義律 Charles Elliot〉的不满, 認為他對清廷的政策不夠强硬. 函內首先敍述了當時絕大部紛原駐廣州之船艦均已北上向舟山群島推進, 因此剩下的軍力不足以有效封銷廣州珠江一帶…..文內又提及真誠盼望現揮軍北上的統帥喬治懿律 (George Elliot) 不要像義律般採取那樣令人討厭的半推半就之敷衍政策,

Estimate
HK$12,000 to HK$15,000

Starting price
HK$10000