:''George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George Macartney, a later British statesman.'' George McCartney, 1st Earl McCartney (14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806), also spelt Macartney, was an Anglo-Irish statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat who served as the governor of

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

, Madras and the British-occupied Cape Colony. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's victory in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

and subsequent territorial expansion at the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

that Britain now controlled " a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets".

Early years

He was born in 1737 as the only son of George McCartney, High Sheriff of Antrim and Elizabeth Winder. Macartney descended from a Scottish branch of the

McCartney family Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

whose ancestors originated in Ireland and were granted land in Scotland for serving under

Edward Bruce Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick ( Norman French: ; mga, Edubard a Briuis; Modern Scottish Gaelic: gd, Eideard or ; – 14 October 1318), was a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. He supported his brother in the 1306–1314 st ...

, Robert the Bruce's brother. The Macartneys of Auchenleck,

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

settled in Lissanoure

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, where he was born. After graduating from

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, in 1759, he became a student of the

Temple, London The Temple is an area of London surrounding Temple Church. It is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law, historically and in the present day. It consists of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which a ...

. Through Stephen Fox, elder brother of

Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...

, he was taken up by Lord Holland. Appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1764, he succeeded in negotiating with

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

an alliance between Great Britain and that country. He was returned in 1768 to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...

as Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough, in order to discharge the duties of Chief Secretary for Ireland. On resigning this office he was knighted. In 1775, he became

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

and was created Baron Macartney in the

Peerage of Ireland The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...

in 1776. He was elected to a seat in the British parliament (

Bere Alston Bere Alston is a village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers. History and geography With a population of about 2,000, the village lies in the Bere peninsula, between the river ...

) from 1780 to 1781.

Grenada

Macartney was the

governor of Grenada This is a list of Viceroys of Grenada from the establishment of French rule in 1649 until its independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. Following independence, the viceroy of Grenada ceased to represent the British monarch and British governm ...

from 1776 to 1779. During his governance, the island was attacked in July 1779, by the French royal fleet of the

Comte d'Estaing Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French general and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of the ...

. After losing control of the fortifications on Hospital Hill—an essential defence position located on a prominence overlooking the island capital St. George's—Macartney chose to surrender unconditionally and was taken prisoner to France.

Madras

Macartney was the

governor of Madras This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized b ...

(now known as

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

) from 1781 to 1785. During his tenure as governor, renovation and strengthening of the walls of

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

was commenced after the siege by Thomas Lally, and completed in 1783. It was also during this time that most of the buildings and barracks in the western portion of the Fort were erected. The Palace Street, the Arsenal, the Hanover square and the Western Barracks were constructed during this time. The streets on the eastern side of the Fort were also altered. It was also during this time that idea of a police force for Madras was thought of. Stephen Popham, another British resident and the developer of Pophams Broadway, submitted a plan to Macartney for the establishment of a regular police force for Madras and for the building of direct and cross drains in every street. Popham also advocated measures for the naming and lighting of streets, for the regular registration of births and deaths and for the licensing of liquor,

arrack Arrack is a distilled alcoholic drink typically produced in India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers or sugarcane, and also with grain (e.g. red rice) or fruit depending upon the country of origin ...

and toddy shops. A Board of Police assisted by a Kotwal was subsequently formed. The Kotwal was to be the officer of the markets under the Superintendent of Police. He negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore which brought an end to the

Second Anglo-Mysore War The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in ...

in 1784. Macartney declined the governor-generalship of India—then the British territories administered by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

—and returned to Britain in 1786.

Ambassador to China

After being created Earl Macartney in the Irish peerage in 1792, he was appointed the first envoy of Britain to Qing China, after the failure of a number of previous embassies, including Cathcart's. He led the

Macartney Embassy The Macartney Embassy (), also called the Macartney Mission, was the first British diplomatic mission to China, which took place in 1793. It is named for its leader, George Macartney, Great Britain's first envoy to China. The goals of the missi ...

to Beijing in 1792, with a large British delegation on board a 64-gun man-of-war, under the command of Captain Sir

Erasmus Gower Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (3 December 1742 – 21 June 1814) was a Welsh naval officer and colonial governor. Naval career Gower, aged 13, joined the Royal Navy in 1755 under the patronage of his uncle, Captain John Donkley. He was present at ...

. The embassy was ultimately not successful in its primary aim to open trade with China, although numerous secondary purposes were attained, including a first-hand assessment of the strength of the Chinese empire. The failure to obtain trade concessions was not due to Macartney's refusal to

kowtow A kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. In Sinospheric culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It was widely used to show reverenc ...

in the presence of the Qianlong Emperor, as is commonly believed. It is more likely that the Chinese hegemony of east Asian states meant that China was used to having other states come and offer

vassalage A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...

. In comparison, the European states were used to the order that came out of the Peace of Westphalia. Under that order, all states were formally treated as equals. For this reason, Macartney was negotiating as an equal in the European style, while the Qianlong Emperor was used to conducting diplomacy under Chinese hegemony. After the conclusion of the embassy, the Qianlong Emperor sent a letter to

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

, explaining in greater depth the reasons for his refusal to grant the requests of the embassy. The Macartney Embassy is historically significant because it marked a missed opportunity by the Chinese to move toward some kind of accommodation with the West. This failure would continue to plague China as it encountered increasing foreign pressures and internal unrest during the 19th century. The policies of the

Thirteen Factories The Thirteen Factories, also known as the , was a neighbourhood along the Pearl River in southwestern Guangzhou (Canton) in the Qing Empire from to 1856 around modern day Xiguan, in Guangzhou's Liwan District. These warehouses and stores were ...

remained. The embassy returned to Britain in 1794 without obtaining any concession from China. However, the mission could be construed as a success because it brought back detailed observations. Sir George Staunton was charged with producing the official account of the expedition after their return. This multi-volume work was taken chiefly from the papers of Lord Macartney and from the papers of Sir

, who was Commander of the expedition. Gower also left a more personal record through his private letters to Admiral

John Elliot (Royal Navy officer) John Elliot (1732 – 20 September 1808) was a Scottish officer of the Royal Navy who served during the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence. He rose to the rank of admiral, and served briefly as colonial governor of Newfou ...

and Captain

Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet Captain Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet (1733–1794) was a naval commander whose final appointment was Comptroller of the Navy 1790–1794. Martin was born at Shroton House, Dorset, 29 August 1733. On the death of his brother George in 1748 he b ...

(Comptroller of the Navy). Joseph Banks, the

President of the Royal Society The president of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected Head of the Royal Society of London who presides over meetings of the society's council. After informal meetings at Gresham College, the Royal Society was officially founded on 28 November ...

, was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record. Macartney was expected to lead an embassy to Japan after he completed his mission to China, but his hopes of being able to proceed to Japan were ended by the confirmation when he returned to Canton of news of the outbreak of war with France and consequently of the vulnerability of his ships to attack by French cruisers operating from Batavia. On 23 December, Macartney recorded in his journal: "I have given up my projected visit to Japan, which (though now less alluring in prospect) has always been with me a favourite adventure as a possible opening of a new mine for the exercise of our industry and the purchase of our manufactures".

Later life

On his return from a confidential mission to Italy in 1795, he was raised to the British peerage as Baron Macartney, of Parkhurst in the County of Surrey and Auchinleck in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and at the end of 1796 was appointed governor of the newly acquired territory of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, where he remained until ill health compelled him to resign in November 1798. In early 1797, he was requested to assist with the proposed plan to send an attacking force from the Cape under Major-General J. H. Craig to the South West coast of Spanish America by way of the British colony in New South Wales.Dundas to Macartney, 21 January 1797, "Correspondence of George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, whilst Governor of the Cape of Good Hope", Bodleian Library, GB 0162 MSS.Afr.t.2–4*. See also Robert J. King, "An Australian Perspective on the English Invasions of the Rio de la Plata in 1806 and 1807", ''International Journal of Naval History,'' vol. 8 no.1, April 2009

/ref> He died at Chiswick,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, on 31 May 1806, the title becoming extinct. After the death of his widow (Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bute; they were married in 1768), his property passed to his niece, whose son took the name.

Footnotes

References and further reading

* Barrow, John. (1807)
''Some Account of the Public Life, and a Selection from the Unpublished Writings, of the Earl of Macartney,''
2 vols. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies. * Cranmer-Byng, J. L. "Lord Macartney’s Embassy to Peking in 1793." ''Journal of Oriental Studies.'' Vol. 4, Nos. 1,2 (1957–58): 117–187. * Esherick, Joseph W. "Cherishing Sources from Afar." ''Modern China'' Vol. 24, No. 2 (1998): 135–61. * Hevia, James Louis. (1995)
''Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793.''
Durham:

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 D ...

. * Hibbert, Christopher. ''The Dragon Wakes. China and the West, 1793–1911'' (1970
online free to borrow
* Jacques, Martin. (2009). ''When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.'' New York: Penguin Press.
OCLC 423217571
* Peyrefitte, Alain. (1992)
''The Immobile Empire''
(Jon Rotschild, translator). New York:

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. ** Peyrefitte, Alain. (1990). ''Images de l'Empire immobile ou le choc des mondes. Récit historique.'' Paris:

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayard ...

. * Reddaway, W. F. "Macartney in Russia, 1765-67." ''Cambridge Historical Journal'' 3#3 (1931), pp. 260–294
online
* Robbins, Helen Henrietta Macartney (1908)
''Our First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney with Extracts from His Letters, and the Narrative of His Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737–1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents.''
London : John Murray. Digitized by

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the f ...

Libraries A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...

Digital Initiatives"China Through Western Eyes."review in ''The Athenaeum
* Rockhill, William Woodville
"Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question I,"
''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr. 1897), pp. 427–442. * Rockhill, William Woodville
"Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question II,"
''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul. 1897), pp. 627–643. * Staunton, George Leonard. (1797)
''An Authentic Account of and Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China,''
3 vols. London: G. Nichol. * Turnbull, Patrick. ''Warren Hastings''. New English Library, 1975.

External links

George Macartney papers
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, George Macartney, 1st Earl 1737 births 1806 deaths 19th-century Irish people Ambassadors of Great Britain to China Ambassadors of Great Britain to Russia Governors of the Cape Colony Diplomatic peers Governors of Madras Earls in the Peerage of Ireland Peers of Ireland created by George III Peers of Great Britain created by George III Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Armagh constituencies British East India Company people Alumni of Trinity College Dublin People from County Antrim Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Bere Alston Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 Irish MPs 1769–1776 Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Chief Secretaries for Ireland Governors of British Grenada Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)