3-053-811 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Reception of the foreign ministers and consuls by the Emperor of China at Pekin, 1873. 'We are favoured by the Foreign Office with permission to engrave a drawing by Mr. Malet, Secretary to the British Legation, which shows the reception of the foreign representatives by the Emperor, on June 29, at nine o'clock in the morning. The moment represented...is when the Prince of Kung announced to the Emperor that letters from the Sovereigns of different States had been laid before him. These letters were placed on the long table in front of the Ministers...The central figure of the five diplomatic representatives, whose backs only are shown in this drawing, is Mr. Wade, C. B,, the Envoy of her Majesty Queen Victoria. On his right are Governor Low, the United States Minister, and General Vlangaly, the Russian Ambassador, behind whom stands Herr Bismark, Interpreter to the Prussian or German Legation. On the left of Mr. Wade are the French Minister, M. de Geoffroy, and Mr. Ferguson, the representative of Holland. The Chinese official personage who stands a little to their left is their Grand Secretary of State; the kneeling figure near the Emperor, on the raised floor, is the Prince of Kung; and four other Princes stand behind the Imperial throne'.From "Illustrated London News", 1873.