Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan, in the Years 1857, '58, '59
Journal: Cambridge University Press eBooks
Year: 2012

In 1857 Laurence Oliphant (1829–88), lawyer, journalist, diplomat, and sometime spy, later Liberal MP, satirical novelist, and, for a time, adherent of the religious mystic Thomas Harris, became private secretary to Lord Elgin (1811–63), accompanying him to China, and thence to Japan, on a mission to protect and extend British trading interests in the region. Oliphant's 1859 account of the trip was published in two volumes. Volume 1 deals with the events of the Second Opium War, from the 'Arrow