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        Most historians of Madras city are aware of the fact that there has been a 'President and Governor of Fort St George' right from the establishment of the fort in 1639. Who was then the first Governor of Madras? He was Lord Macartney who arrived in Madras on 22 June, 1781 and on the following day assumed office as 'President and Governor of Fort St George''. By an Act of Parliament in February 1785, he became the first 'Governor of Madras'.

        Lord Macartney was known for his unimpeachable integrity. Soon after assuming the office of President and Governor of Fort St George, Lord Macartney was invited by the Nabob of Carnatic to honour him with a visit and he promptly complied with it. Lord Macartney was shown every mark of respect on his arrival at the palace of the Nabob of Carnatic in Madras. Lord Macartney was under the wrong impression that he was invited as a mark of courtesy. However, he was taken aback when the Nabob wanted to present to him a sum of money equivalent to 30,000 British Pounds. Lord Macartney expressed his astonishment and declined to accept the money. The Governor asked the Nabob what had prompted His Highness to offer that sum of money. The Nabob meekly replied that it was quite a customary present to every new Governor and that it had never been refused by anyone before him. The Nabob requested Lord Macartney to reconsider his decision. The Governor remained firm in his refusal but assured the Nabob that this refusal would not affect the due discharge of his public duty towards His Highness.

        The news that Lord Macartney had refused to take a present of 30,000 Pounds from the Nabob of Carnatic spread like wildfire throughout Madras in 1781 and caused much public excitement. Macartney's strict refusal to take a present from the Nabob of Carnatic called in question and threatened to put a stop to an elasticity of principle by which officials of the East India Company had profited when approached by natives, anxious to secure 'Master's' favour. Macartney's integrity was everywhere reviled by the servants of the East India Company and they lost no opportunity of slandering him 'for venturing such an innovation upon the system they had so long established'.

        Lord Macartney wrote to the Earl of Hillsborough on 3 September, 1782: 'The real truth is that I have acted like an honest man and a good Englishman and a Governor of Madras of that stamp is by no means such a one they have been accustomed to, or even wish to see again.

        If I had acted like many of my predecessors and come into the Nabob's views, there would have been no problem whatsoever. However, I don't agree with the Nabob that I am a stranger, ignorant of Oriental customs, unwilling to understand or come into the ways of Oriental people, that I am unconciliating etc. I must certainly be next to an idiot if I were ignorant of what is called the Oriental system. Nothing is more easy! Sacrifice the interest of the East India Company and of the creditors, or promise to do so. Write lying paragraphs and encomiums upon the Nabob of Carnatic's policies and attitudes towards us in the public letters to England.

        If I did that, I would end up by having lakhs and lakhs of pagodas to myself. This is the mode in which the Durbar of the Nabob of Carnatic has been managed by some politicians for too long. But my system is different. I am out and out a public servant of the East India Company and nothing else'.

        Before he laid down his office as Governor of Madras, Lord Macartney did the extraordinary thing of filing the following affidavit before Phillip Stowey, Mayor of Madras on 1 June, 1785, a few days before his embarkation for England:

        'I, Lord Macartney, Governor and President of Fort St George in the East Indies, do solemnly swear and declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, from the day of my arrival here on the 22 June, 1781, to this hour, I have never by myself or by any other person for me, directly or indirectly, accepted or received for my own benefit, from any person or persons whomsoever, a present or presents of any kind.

        I have never embezzled or misappropriated to my own use, any part of the East India Company's monies or effects and that I have not been engaged in any trade, traffic or dealing of any kind, but strictly and bona fide observed all my covenants with the Honourable East India Company, and acted in all things for their honour and interest, to the best of my judgement and ability. So help me God!'

        The Court of Directors of the East India Company was not slow in marking its appreciation of Lord Macartney's services in Madras. On 12 April, 1786 it passed a resolution placing on public record its great appreciation of Lord Macartney's public services and sanctioned an annual pension of 15,000 Pounds to Lord Macartney for life. Lord Macartney lived for 20 years after that and died in 1806. Thus he finally received in all 300,000 Pounds spread over a period of 20 years, which was very much more than the equivalent of a sum of 30,000 pounds that he had the moral courage to decline to accept from the Nabob of Carnatic in 1781.

        On 16 April, 1806, three weeks before Lord Macartney's death, in the House of Commons in England, one member called W Keene, during the course of a long speech, referred to the exemplary conduct of Lord Macartney, former Governor of Madras and said that he was a model public servant.

        The Nabob's assertion to Lord Macartney that he had only followed an established precedent in making his offer of a present, definitely involved a reflection upon Lord Macartney's immediate predecessor Sir Thomas Rumbold. What is surprising is that Sir Thomas Rambold's son was very much alive then and yet he did not contradict the observations of W Keene in the House of Commons.

        To conclude, I use the words of a poet:

        'Only the actions of the just

        Smell sweet and blossom in the dust'.