Talk:George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney

Membership of Parliaments

The dates in the text for his membership of the British parliament, and its sequence with his membership of the Irish parliament, were inconsistent with the summary boxes. I have made them consistent, but have no source to check the accuracy of any of it; the reference on the text does not refer to his election. Also the dates we now have make him an MP at the same time as being governor of Madras; I don't suppose that's impossible, but it should be checked. seglea (talk) 20:09, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Selected quotes

The selected quotes identify the 1908 source:

• 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Extracts from His Letters, and the Narrative of His Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737-1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents.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 Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes."

However, the specific pages for each quote are not shown.

The section appears to be the subject of serial disputes or a slow-motion edit war. Blocks of text are deleted (and then restored) with no more than a brief edit summary as explanation or no comment, e.g.,

• 2008: diff 15:15, 26 October 2008 Arilang1234 (talk | contribs) (15,637 bytes)
• 2010: diff 16:21, 13 September 2010 178.97.182.90 (talk) (15,928 bytes) (→Extracts from Journal of Embassy to China)
• 2011: diff 10:36, 21 January 2011 Arilang1234 (16,249 bytes) (Remove possible copyvios)

This strategic section-blanking tactic is inconsistent with WP:Five Pillars. Compare Arilang1234's edit at Macartney Embassy:

• 2009: diff 23:17, 20 September 2009 Arilang1234 (17,192 bytes) (→See also)

This is an appropriate topic for talk page discussion. --Tenmei (talk) 14:18, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

• Just because you can copy freely doesn't mean you should... If you want it in, I suggest that it be rewritten in prose and woven in to the article. Having one quarter of the article as straight quotes from a PD text is just plain bone-idleness. Please refer to WP:QUOTEFARM. --Ohconfucius ^¡digame! 14:49, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Ohconfucius -- Not "bone-idelness", although the phrase does have allure and charm.

Mccartney is a controversial figure, and these selected quotes have been deleted and restored and deleted without discussion more than once. The "quote farm" overlay identifies a legitimate issue, yes; but in this specific case, it obscures and complicates the resolution of a somewhat different, long-standing problem which is evidenced in the edit history of this article.

This line of reasoning illustrates a problem which is described more fully at WP:Escalating alphabeticals.

In other words, the reflexive "quotefarm" reaction caused you to overlook an elephant in the room. Please reconsider; and see here and here. --Tenmei (talk) 16:34, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

"In 1775 he became governor of the British West Indies"

1. Not true, he was just governor of Grenada, the Grenadines and Tobago in the West Indies
2. Why omit the facts about how his job was ended?
3. What about the fact that he was a French prisoner of war for a short period

Avihu (talk) 20:26, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

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