Peking the goal, the sole hope of peace : a lecture delivered before the Canton community on the evening of April 14th 1873.

Also titled: Peking the goal, the sole hope of peace. Comprising an inquiry into the origin of the pretension of universal supremacy by China and into the causes of the first war: with incidents of the imprisonment of the foreign community and of the first campaign of Canton. 1841. Canton : s.n., 1873. Small quarto, original printed wrappers (sunned and lightly foxed); pp 100; small loss to top corner of lower wrapper and last leaf, tiny amount of marginal foxing to first and last leaves, otherwise a very good copy; housed in a cloth covered clam shell box with morocco spine lettered in gilt.

Scarce Canton imprint dealing with the causes of the First Opium War (1839-42) and the current political situation in China. 

Writing well after the end of the Second Opium War (1856-60) American diplomat, merchant and writer Gideon Nye rejects the notion that either of the two conflicts – and in particular, the first – was primarily about the import of opium. He argues that both arose from unresolved questions of international boundaries and sovereignty.

Cordier, Sinica, 2281-2