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

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

and the

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

. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's victory in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris 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 Macartney, High Sheriff of Antrim and Elizabeth Winder. Macartney descended from a Scottish family with origins in Ireland, who were granted land in Scotland for serving under Edward Bruce, brother of

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against Kingdom of Eng ...

. The Macartneys of Auchenleck,

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

settled in Lissanoure

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

, Ireland, where he was born. After graduating from

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, in 1759, he became a student of the

Temple, London The Temple is an area or precinct of the City of London surrounding Temple Church. It is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It consists of the Inner Temple an ...

. 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 British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centurie ...

, he was taken up by Lord Holland. Appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1764, he succeeded in negotiating an alliance between Great Britain and Russia with

Catherine II Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

. In 1768, he returned 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 the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

as a Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough, in order to discharge the duties of

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British Dublin Castle administration, administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretar ...

. On resigning this office, he was knighted. In 1775, he became

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

of the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were the territories in the West Indies under British Empire, British rule, including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Antigua and Barb ...

and was created Baron Macartney in the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

in 1776. He was elected to a seat in the British parliament ( Bere Alston) from 1780 to 1781.

Grenada

Macartney was the governor of Grenada 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, Count of Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French military officer and writer. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of wa ...

. 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 (now known as

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

) from 1781 to 1785. During his tenure as governor, renovation and strengthening of the walls of Fort St. George 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 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 The Treaty of Mangalore was signed between Tipu Sultan and the British East India Company on 11 March 1784. It was signed in Mangaluru and brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Background Hyder Ali became dalwai Dalavayi of Mysore b ...

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 t ...

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 that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

—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 The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty ...

, after the failure of a number of previous embassies, including Cathcart's. He led the

Macartney Embassy The Macartney Embassy ( zh, t=馬加爾尼使團), 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 Ch ...

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. 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 East Asian cultural sphere, Sinospheric culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It w ...

in the presence of the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...

, 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 suzerai ...

. In comparison, the European states were used to the order that came out of the

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire ...

. 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

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 King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

, 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 t ...

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

Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet (29 August 1733 – 1 August 1794) was a Royal Navy officer whose final appointment was Comptroller of the Navy (Navy Board), Comptroller of the Navy from 1790 to 1794. Martin was born a ...

(Comptroller of the Navy).

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

, the

President of the Royal Society The president of the Royal Society (PRS), also known as the Royal Society of London, is the elected Head of the Royal Society who presides over meetings of the society's council. After an informal meeting (a lecture) by Christopher Wren at Gres ...

, 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

, 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 Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, 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.

Coat of arms

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 ...

. * 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/

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

. ** 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 Fayar ...

. * 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) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

Libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

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 Politicians from County Antrim Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Bere Alston Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons 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) People from Loughguile