George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
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- George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George McCartney, a later British statesman.
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, KB (14 May 1737 - 31 May 1806) was a British statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat.
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[edit] Biography
George Macartney was descended from an old Scottish family, the Macartneys of Auchinleck, who had settled in 1649 at Lissanoure, near Loughguile, Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland, where he was born. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1759, he became a student of the Temple, London. Through Stephen Fox, elder brother of Charles James Fox, he was taken up by Lord Holland.
Appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1764, he succeeded in negotiating with Catherine II an alliance between England and that country. After occupying a seat in the British parliament, he was returned in 1769 to the Irish House of Commons as MP 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 of the British West Indies was created Baron Macartney in the Peerage of Ireland in 1776, and became governor of Madras (now known as Chennai) in 1780. He declined the governor-generalship of India (then the British territories administered by the British East India Company) , and returned to Great Britain in 1786.
[edit] Embassy to China
After being created Earl Macartney in the Irish peerage (1792), he was appointed the first envoy of Britain to China (his visit followed by more than a hundred years the first visit to England by a Chinese man, Michael Shen Fu-Tsung in 1685). He led the Macartney Embassy to Beijing in 1793 with a large British delegation on board of a 64-gun man-of-war. He met the Emperor Qianlong, despite his famous refusal to kowtow and insult over a jade gift (which Macartney referred to as a worthless rock), but failed in negotiating the British requests:
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- the relaxation of the restrictions on trade between Britain and China
- the acquisition by Britain of "a small unfortified island near Chusan for the residence of British traders, storage of goods, and outfitting of ships"
- the establishment of a permanent British embassy in Beijing
Despite the denial of MacCartney, according to Chinese court denouncements, he and his depute, George Staunton, complied with China's request of kowtow under the pressure of reduction of provisions. Such records showed a consistent Chinese worldview before mid 19th century that the world outside China was uncivilized and should be treated as subject vassal states. This arrogance finally led to a tragic defeat of the Chinese by England in 1839. Till then, China completely ignored the material and military progress of Western world.
The policies of the Thirteen Factories remained. The embassy returned to Britain in 1794 without obtaining any concession from China. However, the mission was a success as its experts conducted detailed observation and spy activities to understand how fragile China was.
On his return from a confidential mission to Italy (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 Colony, where he remained until ill health compelled him to resign in November 1798. He died at Chiswick, Middlesex, on May 31, 1806, the title becoming extinct, and his property, after the death of his widow (Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bute; they were married in 1768), going to his niece, whose son took the name.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Two members of the embassy to China published detailed accounts:
- An account of Macartney's embassy to China, by Sir George Leonard Staunton, was published in 1797, and has been frequently reprinted.
- Some Account of the Public Life, and a Selection from the Unpublished Writings, of the Earl of Macartney, by Sir John Barrow, appeared in 1807 by London: T. Cadell and W. Davies.
- See also Mrs Helen Macartney Robbins's biography, Our First Ambassador to China: : An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney (1908), based on previously unpublished materials in possession of the family.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Earl of Buckinghamshire |
Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Russia 1764–1766 |
Succeeded by Hans Stanley |
| Preceded by Hans Stanley |
Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Russia 1767–1768 |
Succeeded by The Lord Cathcart |
| Parliament of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Robert Cuninghame and Barry Maxwell |
Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough with Charles O'Hara 1768–1776 |
Succeeded by Philip Tisdall and Henry Meredyth |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Lord Frederick Campbell |
Chief Secretary for Ireland 1769–1772 |
Succeeded by Sir John Blaquiere |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by William Young |
Governor of Grenada 1776–1779 |
Succeeded by Jean-François, comte de Durat as Governor-General of Grenada |
| New creation | Governor of the Cape Colony 1797–1798 |
Succeeded by Francis Dundas, acting |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by New Creation |
Baron Macartney 1776–1806 |
Succeeded by Extinct |
| Earl Macartney 1792–1806 |
||
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Macartney 1795–1806 |
Extinct |
