Négociations entre la France et la Chine, en 1860. Livre jaune du baron Gros, ambassadeur extraordinaire et haut commissaire de l'Empereur, en Chine, en 1858 et en 1860. Extrait de sa Correspondance et de son Journal, pendant la seconde mission qu'il a remplie dans l'extrême Orient

First edition. "At the close of a distinguished diplomatic career devoted mainly to Latin America, Baron Gros was one of the architects of the 'opening' of China and Japan in the 1860s."

Contemporary Bradel binding in full cherry calf, spine decorated with gilt fillets, boards slightly and marginally soiled.

Library stamp to the upper right corner of the half-title, a few small spots of foxing.

A pleasing and rare copy.

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1823.

Initially attaché to the embassy in Lisbon, he was appointed to Cairo in 1830. From 1831 to 1834 he served as first secretary in Mexico, then as chargé d’affaires in Bogotá from 1834 to 1838. After 1840 he undertook various delicate missions in South America, particularly in the Plata countries. Under the Second Republic, he was minister in Athens and, in 1856, presided over the commission for the delimitation of the Franco-Spanish frontier." From 1857 to 1859 he undertook a first mission in China. "In March 1859 the embassy returned in full to France and Gros was elevated to the dignity of senator. Yet the Chinese question was far from settled, and with Peking refusing to ratify the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, the scenario of 1858 was replayed in 1860. In August, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros returned to China. The mouth of the Pei-Ho was forced once again, and on 27 August the two ambassadors met in Tien-Tsin. On 21 September, General Cousin-Montauban, following the battle of Palikao, opened the gates of Peking to the allies. Events of profound consequence followed in rapid succession: on 7 October, the looting of the Summer Palace; on 18 October, the burning of the Summer Palace, following the discovery of murdered European envoys. This act of destruction, ordered by Lord Elgin, appears to have been explicitly disapproved of by Gros. On 22 October 1860, Franco-British troops entered Peking through the northern gate (Ngan-Ting-Men). A momentous event: it was the first time a European army penetrated the capital of the Celestial Empire! Three days later, on 25 October, at the Palace of Rites, Baron Gros ratified the 1858 treaty, which opened China to Western diplomats, merchants, and missionaries. Gros’s career was not yet at an end. Appointed ambassador to London in 1862, he was attached in 1863 to the French Scientific Commission of Mexico, which accompanied the expeditionary force overseas. There he was able to share with the commission members his earlier experience of Mexico (1831–1834), and he drafted instructions for the archaeologists charged with studying Aztec monuments."