The British embassy was a measure which it was absolutely necessary to adopt, for reasons that are stated at full length in the first chapter of Sir George Staunton's valuable work, and the foundation it has laid for future advantages more than counterbalances the trifling expence it occasioned to the East India Company, which did not exceed two per cent. on the annual amount of their trade from England to Canton. Those who had formed immoderate expectations must have little understood the laws and customs of China, which admit not the system of mutual intercourse between distant nations, by means of embassadors or resident ministers at the respective courts. Their custom is to receive embassadors with respect and hospitality; to consider them as visitors to the Emperor, and to entertain them accordingly as his particular guests, from the moment they enter the country till they return to the boundaries of his empire. This being necessarily attended with an enormous expence[3], the court of ceremonies has prescribed forty days for the residence of foreign embassadors, either in the capital, or wherever the court may happen to be; though on particular occasions, or by accident, the term may sometimes be extended to double that time. [3] The expence occasioned to the court of China by the British embassy, will be stated in a subsequent chapter. Thus by consulting the accounts of the different European embassies that have been sent to China in the two last centuries, it will be found that the residence of none of them was extended to thrice the term fixed by the court of ceremonies, and two of them did not remain the period allowed. The first embassy sent by the Dutch arrived in Pekin the 17th July 1656, and departed the 16th October following, having remained ninety-one days. The second Dutch embassy arrived in Pekin the 20th June 1667, and departed the 5th August, having resided forty-six days. The first Russian embassy arrived at the capital on the 5th November 1692, and left it on the 17th February 1693, having remained there one hundred and six days. The second Russian embassy arrived at Pekin on the 18th November 1720, and did not leave it till the 2d March 1721, being one hundred and fourteen days. These two embassies were immediately connected with the commercial concerns of the two nations, which were then transacted in the capital of China, but now confined to the adjoining frontiers. The Pope's embassy arrived in Pekin on the 15th December 1720, and departed the 24th March 1721, being ninety-nine days. The Portugueze embassy entered Pekin the 1st May 1753, and left it the 8th June following, being only thirty-nine days. The British embassy arrived in Pekin the 21st August 1793, and departed the 7th October, being forty-seven days. The third Dutch embassy entered the capital the 10th January 1795, and left it the 15th February, being thirty-six days.