Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Biography. 
his government had produced on an aver- 
age 1000 pagodas per annum, That he 
had never embezzled or misappropriated 
any df the company’s effects, but had ob- 
served his covenants, and acted in all 
-things for their honour and interest. ‘Che 
Declaration stated the exact increase of 
his property, amounting to 81,796 pago- 
das. Soon after his return to Europe, 
Lord Macartney was offered the govern- 
ment of Bengal; but making a British 
peerage the sine gua non of his accepting 
it, and this not being consonant to the 
principles, in regard to Indian appoint- 
ments which Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas had 
laid down, the appointment was bestow- 
ed on Lord Cornwallis. After this he re- 
‘tired for six years to Ireland, where he 
engaged himself principally in the im- 
provement of his paternal estate. In 
1792, a more equal and at the same time 
a more creditable intercourse than had 
been hitherto kept up, was determined 
on with China, On this occasion the 
Court of Directors of the East India Com- 
pany entered with becoming spirit into 
the views of Mr. Dundas: and Lord Mac- 
artney was looked upon as the only. per- 
son capable of undertaking the mission 
with any probability of success. On the 
3d of May, 1792, he received his ap- 
pointment as ambassador extraordinary 
and plenipotentiary from the king of 
Great Britain to the emperor of China, 
and in the month of September set, out 
upon a voyage, the details of which may 
be found in Sir George Staunton’s Au- 
thentic Account of the Embassy. On 
the 5th of September 1794, Lord Macatt- 
ney landed at Portsmouth, where be had 
the gratification to find he had not been 
forgotten by his sovereign, who by patent 
at Dublin, dated the tst of March 1794, 
had been pleased to advance him to the 
title of Earl Macartney, in the county of 
Antrim. The winter which immediately 
followed hisreturn from China, he was per- 
mitted to pass at his ease with his friends ; 
but in June 1795, he was again called 
upon to undertake an important mission to 
Italy of adelicate and confidential nature 
From Italy, he returned through Ger- 
many, and reached Englandin May 1796: 
soon after which his Majesty was further 
pleased to create him a British peer, un- 
der the title of Baron Macartney, of 
Parkhurst in Surry.” In 1797, he sailed 
from Portsmouth to take upon “him the 
government of the Cape of Gocd Hope, 
which had been conferred, entirely on 
the ground of fitness. But his health 
being materially affected, he only stopped 
635 
there till the 20th of November, 1798; 
leaving behind him a declaration on re- 
cord, similar to that which had been left 
in India. He arrived in England in the 
month of January, 1799, with a deter- 
mination to retire wholly from public 
life. The returns of the gout, to which 
he had been accustomed for some years, 
were now quicker and severer than ever; 
and he felt himself unequal to continual 
hurry and bustle. He now passed a few 
years entirely in the society of his friends. 
During the greater part of the year 1805, 
the gout continued to hang about him, 
without advancing to a decided fit; and 
he continued in a languishing reduced 
state tillthe evening of the 31st of March, 
1806, when, while reclining his head on 
his hand, as if dropping into a slumber, 
he sunk into the arms of death without a 
sigh, and without a struggle. 
Such are the particulars minutely detail- 
ed by Mr. Barrow; and it must be owned 
that he has dene no ordinary justice to 
the disinterestedness and unsullied in- 
tegrity of Lord Macartney. Lord Mac- 
artney’s character and general charac- 
teristics form a sort of corollary at the 
close, followed by an Appendix of ori- 
ginal Letters and documents. The se- 
cond volume of the Life is formed of the 
three only writings ef Lord Macartney, 
which appear to have been digested into 
apy thing like the regular shape of Trea- 
tises. The first consists of “ Extracts 
from an Account’ of Russia, 1767.” 
The second contains, ‘¢ A short Sketch 
of the Political State of Ireland;” and 
the third, is “The Journal of his Em- 
bassy to China.” Of these, the last af- 
fords the greatest share of entertainment. 
To abridge it in an analysis here, would 
be impossible. One of its most curious 
articles relates to the population an 
revenues of that vast country, as they 
exist within the great wall, The former, 
stated to Lord Macartney in detail by a 
Mandarin of high rank, amounted to no 
ess than 233,006,000, the latter are 
yated in China at two bundred millions 
of taéls, or 66,666,666]. Of Tartary, 
Lord Macartney observes, the Chinese 
are almost as ignorantas we are: scarcely 
any of them having ever seen it, except 
a few o#icers sent on military duty, and 
persons banished to it for crimes. The 
Chinese talk of Tartary, as of a country 
balf as big as the rest of the world be- 
sides, but their conceptions of its limits 
are very dark and confused. 
- Another valuable work, in the class 
of Biography, has appeared in the late 
4 ‘ 
Dr. 
