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A 1908 biography of the British statesman George Macartney (1737-1806) based on previously unpublished letters and documents.

Financial records, correspondence, descriptions and narratives, rules, edicts, petitions, and other documents concerning Macartney's diplomatic mission to China. Manuscripts in the collection include a commonplace book kept by Macartney while in China, and a log and journal of the HMS Lion, including records of its voyage kept by Sir Erasmus Gower. Correspondents include Francis Baring, the Emperor of China, James Cobb, Henry Dundas, Samuel Garbett, King George III of Britain, Sir Erasmus Gower, Matthew Raper, William Richardson, the Ruling Senate of St. Petersburg, the Secret and Superintending Committee at Canton, and others.

George Macartney (1737-1806) had a long and distinguished political and diplomatic career. He held the post of Secretary for Ireland, was successively governor of Grenada, Madras and the Cape Colony, and served as trade envoy to Russia and China. The son of an Irish landowner, Macartney rose in his profession through diligent diplomacy, perseverance, ambition and integrity; he gradually advanced in both the British and Irish peerage. This two-volume biography by Sir John Barrow, who had accompanied Macartney to China and the Cape, was first published in 1807, and draws heavily on official documents from Macartney's periods in office. Volume 1 contains a chronological account of Macartney's professional life, focusing particularly on the challenges he faced while Governor of Madras in the 1780s, including military threats, wrangling over fiscal policies, the extension of Fort St George, and plans for a Madras police force.

This collection of letters belonging to Lord George Macartney relates to the Macartney Embassy and Sino-British relations.