| RefNo | MM/19/120 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Joseph Banks to George Leonard Staunton |
| Date | 24 February 1793 |
| Description | Thanking Staunton for sending specimens to him from Madeira, Teneriffe and Rio de Janeiro.
Banks also offers comments on the political situation in France following the execution of Louis XVI: "I conceive them like a pack of mad foxhounds who cannot be confind to their kennels & feel sometimes a kind of horror lest they should infect too many of the quiet animals who are feeding around them".
In 1792 Staunton was appointed principal secretary to Lord Macartney's embassy to China (and provisionally minister-plenipotentiary in the event of his death). The embassy sought to improve commercial relations with China, through Canton (Guangzhou), and to establish regular diplomatic relations between the two countries. Though Macartney and Staunton had an audience with the emperor their proposals were rebuffed. Macartney kept a detailed journal of his embassy, while in 1797 Staunton published his own, well-known account of this unsuccessful mission, which was later translated into French and German'. (from the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'). |
| Extent | 4 sides |
| Format | Manuscript |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| RelatedMaterial | For more on Banks's links with George Leonard Staunton, see H B Carter, 'Sir Joseph Banks', London: British Museum (Natural History), 1988, pp290-295. |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8116 | Banks; Sir; Joseph (1744 - 1820); naturalist | 1744 - 1820 |
| NA7266 | Staunton; Sir; George Leonard (1737 - 1801) | 1737 - 1801 |