[Page 5]
[Letter addressed to King George IV]
Sire
A sense of duty prompts me to represent to Your Majesty that there is now a peculiar conjunction of circumstances, which might not only have some effect in promoting & facilitating the direct object of an Embassy from Your Majesty to the Emperor of China, but might be propitious to the advancement of general knowledge.
The Englishman who has the high Honor of submitting this notice to Your Majesty, has, with great labor, acquired such a critical knowledge of the Chinese Idioms, both oral & written, as, he believes, no European before has ever reached to. ---- He has lately obtained from the Rajah of Bootan a passport of permission to travel to Lassa [Lhasa]. From Lassa he intends to attempt entering China: But, unprotected, his opportunities of conversing with the learned Natives of that that Empire, will, he fears, be few; and from the caution he must under such circumstances necessarily use, but partially productive of instruction. If he could have the happiness, on his arrival at Canton of knowing that it were Your Majesty's Gracious Intention to send out an Embassy, he would would wait there in order to reenter the empire in the an Embassedor's suite; & would, both from Duty & from Inclination, render himself a useful as his means admit
If