George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
Encyclopedia
- George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George Macartney, a later British statesman.
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, KB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806) was an Irish
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
-born British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
, colonial administrator and diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's success in the Seven Years War
Great Britain in the Seven Years War
The Kingdom of Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War which lasted between 1756 and 1763. Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power having gained a number of new territories at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and established itself as the...
and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
that Britain now controlled "a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets".
Early years
George Macartney was an Irishman descended from an old ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
family, the Macartneys of Auchinleck
Auchinleck
Auchinleck ; is a village five miles south-east of Mauchline, and a couple of miles north-west of Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland.Near the village is Auchinleck House, past home of the lawyer, diarist and biographer James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck.Auchinleck has much been associated...
, who had settled in 1649 at Lissanoure, in Loughguile
Loughguile
Loughguile, also spelt Loughgiel or Loughgeel , is a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is 13 km east of Ballymoney, at the edge of the Glens of Antrim...
, Ballymoney
Ballymoney
Ballymoney is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,021 people in the 2001 Census. It is currently served by Ballymoney Borough Council....
, County Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, Ireland, where he was born. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, in 1759, he became a student of the Temple, London
Inns of Court
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional...
. Through Stephen Fox
Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland
Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland, of Holland, 2nd Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP was briefly a British peer....
, elder brother of Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
, he was taken up by Lord Holland
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP, PC was a leading British politician of the 18th century. He identified primarily with the Whig faction...
.
Appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1764, he succeeded in negotiating with Catherine II
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
an alliance between England and that country. He was returned in 1768 to the Irish House of Commons
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...
as Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough
Armagh Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)
Armagh Borough was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1613 to 1800.-History:This constituency was the borough of Armagh in County Armagh....
, in order to discharge the duties of Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...
. On resigning this office he was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed.
In 1775 he became governor of the British West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
was created Baron Macartney in the Peerage of Ireland
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...
in 1776. He was elected to a seat in the British parliament (Bere Alston
Bere Alston (UK Parliament constituency)
Bere Alston or Beeralston was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1584 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act as a rotten borough.-History:...
) from 1780 to 1781.
Governor of Madras
Mccartney was the Governor of MadrasGovernors of Madras
-English Agents:In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized between the factors of the Masulipatnam factory, represented by Francis Day, and the Raja of Chandragiri. In 1640, Andrew Cogan, the chief of the Masulipatnam factory, made his way to Madras in the company of Francis Day and...
(now known as Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
) from 1781 to 1785. During his's tenure as governor, renovation and strengthening of the walls of Fort St.George was commenced after the siege of 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 in 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. Popham, the brainchild of the steer which would bear his name (Popham's Broadway) submitted a plan for the establishment of a regular police force for Madras and for the building of direct and cross drains in every street. He 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
Treaty of Mangalore
The Treaty of Mangalore was signed between Tippu Sultan and the British East India Company on 11 March 1784. It was signed in Mangalore and brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War.-Background:...
which brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War
Second Anglo-Mysore War
The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in Mughal India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the Franco-British conflict raging on account of the American Revolutionary War helped spark Anglo-Mysorean...
in 1784.
Mccartney declined the governor-generalship of India (then the British territories administered by the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
) and returned to Britain in 1786.
Embassy to China
Michael Shen Fu-Tsung
Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung, also Michel Sin, Michel Chin-fo-tsoung, Shen Fo-tsung, Shen Fuzong , was a Qing Chinese mandarin from Nanjing and a convert to Catholicism who was brought to Europe by the Flemish Jesuit priest Philippe Couplet, Procurator of the China Jesuit Missions in Rome...
in 1685). He led the Macartney Embassy
Macartney Embassy
The Macartney Embassy, also called the Macartney Mission, was a British embassy to China in 1793. The Mission ran from 1792–94 . It is named for the first envoy of Great Britain to China, George Macartney, who led the endeavour...
to Beijing in 1792 with a large British delegation on board a 64-gun man-of-war, HMS Lion
HMS Lion (1777)
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard....
. The embassy was ultimately not successful. This was not due to Macartney's refusal to kowtow
Kowtow
Kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. An alternative Chinese term is ketou, however the meaning is somewhat altered: kòu originally meant "knock with reverence", whereas kē has the general meaning of "touch upon ".In Han...
in the presence of the Qianlong Emperor
Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796...
, as is commonly believed. It was also not a result of the Chinese reliance on tradition in dictating foreign policy but rather a result of competing world views which were uncomprehending and incompatible. After the conclusion of the embassy, Qianlong sent a letter to King George III, 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 the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
as it encountered increasing foreign pressures and internal unrest during the 19th century.
The policies of the Thirteen Factories
Thirteen Factories
The Thirteen Factories was an area of Canton , China, where the first foreign trade was allowed in the 18th century since the hai jin ban on maritime activities...
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
George Leonard Staunton
Sir George Leonard Staunton, 1st Baronet was an employee of the East India Company and a botanist.He was born in Cargins, Co Galway, Ireland and educated at the Jesuit College, Toulouse, France and the School of Medicine in Montpelier, France...
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 Maccauley and from the papers of Sir Erasmus Gower
Erasmus Gower
Sir Erasmus Gower naval officer and colonial governor born Cilgerran, Wales and died Hambledon, Hampshire, England....
, who was Commander of the expedition. Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
, the President
President of the Royal Society
The president of the Royal Society is the elected director of the Royal Society of London. After informal meetings at Gresham College, the Royal Society was founded officially on 15 July 1662 for the encouragement of ‘philosophical studies’, by a royal charter which nominated William Brouncker as...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record.
Selected quotes
Mccartney's journal from the embassy to China included observations and opinions which have become famously associated with the British diplomatLater life
On his return from a confidential mission to Italy in 1795, he was raised to the British peerage as Baron Macartney, and in the end of 1796 was appointed governor of the newly acquired territory of the Cape ColonyCape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, where he remained until ill health compelled him to resign in November 1798. He died at Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, on 31 May 1806, the title becoming extinct, and his property, after the death of his widow (Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute KG, PC , styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain under George III, and was arguably the last important favourite in British politics...
; they were married in 1768), going to his niece, whose son took the name.
See also
- William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst
- Andreas Everardus van Braam HouckgeestAndreas Everardus van Braam HouckgeestAndreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest Dutch-American merchant who is mostly known for his participation in the last Dutch embassy to China under the tributary system.- Early career :...