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In 1860, naval officer Sherard Osborn (1822–75), a veteran of both Opium Wars, published this collection of remarks and predictions on Chinese affairs in relation to British imperial interests. Osborn writes in forthright style of his time in the East and his negative experiences of Chinese diplomacy to support his view that 'the European has ever to use force rather than argument to obtain his ends in China, be they however moderate, however just'. He also sets out some advice on how to prevent British smugglers from taking advantage of the Chinese. A number of Osborn's other publications are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, including Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal (1852), The Discovery of the North-West Passage by HMS Investigator (1856), and The Career, Last Voyage, and Fate of Captain Sir John Franklin (1860)

An English civil servant who worked in British India and Nepal, Brian Houghton Hodgson (c.1801–94) was also a specialist in Tibetan Buddhism. First published in 1874, this is a collection of his essays on nineteenth-century Nepal and Tibet, earlier versions of which had appeared in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society and two books of Hodgson's own, later updated for the Phoenix, a monthly magazine for China, Japan and eastern Asia. Diverse in coverage, the essays represent over thirty years' research. Those in Part 1 focus on Buddhism, covering religious practices, writing, literature, attitudes to Buddhism and the differences between Buddhism and Shaivism. The pieces in Part 2 explore other aspects of Nepal and the Himalayas, such as tribal culture, colonisation and commerce. Discussing a range of linguistic, cultural, sociological and economic topics, this collection remains relevant to scholars working in these fields