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Horatio Nelson Lay (1832-1898, 李泰国), British diplomat. Horatio Nelson Lay was born in London to George Tradescant Lay, who served as British consul in the treaty port of Amoy. Lay's father inspired him to go to China, but he died in 1845 before Lay had a chance to join him.

In 1847, Lay was sent to China to study Chinese under the German lingust and missionary Karl Gützlaff. Lay's proficiency in the Chinese language soon earned him promotion in the British consular service and in 1854 he was appointed acting vice consul in Shanghai. The same year, Lay took part in the founding of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service and he became the first inspector general of the service the following year.

During the Second Opium War, Lay served as Lord Elgin's interpreter and he participated in the negotiation of the Sino-British Treaty of Tianjin. Even though Lay was not in charge of designing the actual treaty, he was instrumental in intimidating the Qing delegation. Among other things, Lay humiliated the Qing representative Qiying by exposing recently captured documents, which revealed Qiying's hositility to the British. The disgraced Qiying later committed suicide.

In 1861, Prince Gong, the head of the Zongli Yamen, appointed him formally as inspector general, but he only served three years in this capacity and he was dismissed in 1864 because of his difficulties cooperating with the Qing government.

• Jack J. Gerson. Horatio Nelson Lay and Sino-British relations, 1854-1864. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
• Jonathan Spence. Western Advisers in China: To change China. London: Penguin, 1980.