No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
The predominance of British interests in China from the closing years of the eighteenth century up until the nineteen thirties has left us a voluminous documentation, not only of the activities of the British in China but also of the activities of other people, foreigners as well as the Chinese themselves. The English language records of the Foreign Office and missionary archives in London have already been consulted by scholars from all over the world. The recent addition of Chinese language materials, deposited at the Public Record Office (hereafter, PRO), undoubtedly makes London one of the most important centers outside China for research in modern Chinese history.
2 For a brief report on this collection and its contents, see Twitchett, D. C., “About David Pong's work at the Public Record Office in London,” Chʻing-shih wen-tʻi, I, No. 4 (Nov. 1966), 6.Google Scholar
3 It might be added that Iwao's, SeiichiList of Foreign Office Records preserved in the Public Record Office in London relating to China and Japan (Toho Gakkai: Tokyo, 1959) was compiled just too early to include this collection.Google Scholar
4 Wade's memorandum to Elgin, March 10, 1858, in F. O. 17/287. The following paragraphs are also based on this memorandum. I am most grateful to Dr. Jack Gerson of Toronto University for drawing my attention to this document.
5 The author regrets that owing to the fact that the manuscripts concerned are still undergoing reorganization, no useful reference can be given.
6 This is an interpretation arrived at after much discussion with Professors J. K. Fairbank, Lien-shong Yang and D. C. Twitchett.
7 Wakeman, F.Strangers at the Gate, Social Disorder in South China, 1839–1861. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966.Google Scholar
8 To confuse the issue further, it is possible that documents captured from the Chinese on other occasions are also deposited at the Chinese Secretary's Office. Sir John Bowring referred to two such instances when documents were seized from Chinese junks by the British Naval Force on April 4 and June 1, 1857. See Bowring Papers, John Ryland Library—1230—John Bowring Miscellaneous Papers, items 21 and 23. These documents are indistinguishable from the Canton archival materials. Again, the author is indebted to Dr. Gerson for these references.