UNIVERSITY OP I' 
 CALIFORNIA ^ 
 SAN
 
 Mtn of Action 
 
 LOKD OLIVE
 
 First Edition 1890. Reprinted 1893
 
 LORD CLIVE
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 BY 
 
 COLONEL SIR CHAELES (WILSON 
 
 Vx 
 
 iLontron 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1893 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN INDIA . . . .13 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY LIFE ARGOT . .... 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 CAVERIPAK TRICHINOPOLY . . . . .47 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE WAR IN BENGAL . . . . . . 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 PLASSEY . 90
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE FIRST GOVERNORSHIP OF BENGAL . Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 LIFE IN ENGLAND . . . . .337 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL . . .162 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY AND LAST YEARS IN 
 
 ENGLAND 186 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 CLIVE'S POLICY AND CHARACTER 203
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 WHEN, at the close of the seventeenth century, Aurung- 
 zebe was holding court at Delhi, all India was subject 
 to his will. The mass of the people were Hindus, the 
 minority were Moslems. The latter, who represented 
 the ruling power, were of every country of Asia 
 Afghans, Mongols, Turks, and Hindus who had adopted 
 Islam as their creed. Each successive wave of Moslem 
 conquest left behind it numbers of men who, seduced 
 by a finer climate and easier conditions of existence, 
 settled down and made India their home. These men, 
 coming of a more vigorous stock than the natives, 
 easily rose to positions of responsibility ; and, at every 
 local seat of government their descendants claimed, as 
 a right, lucrative employment in the service of the State. 
 The mighty empire over which the Padishah l ruled 
 was divided into subahs (provinces), governed by Suba- 
 clars (viceroys), who were appointed by the Crown, and 
 who were sometimes princes of the blood royal. The 
 Subadar was charged with the general administration of 
 his province. He maintained a large army to crush 
 
 1 The title by which the Mogul Emperors of India were gener- 
 ally known.
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 the rebellion of a Eajah or curb the ambition of a too 
 powerful Nawab ; and he had the right, subject to 
 approval, of filling death vacancies amongst his deputies, 
 the Nawabs. By the side of the Subadar stood two 
 independent officials, the Kadi, who, as in all Moslem 
 countries, administered justice according to the sacred 
 law; and the Diwan (finance minister), appointed by 
 the Crown, who collected the royal share of the revenue, 
 and remitted it to the Imperial Treasury. It was the 
 grant of the diwani of Bengal to the East India Com- 
 pany in 1765 which laid the foundation of the British 
 Empire in India. Ea<?h province was formed of a 
 varying number of districts, which were entirely sub- 
 ject to the Padishah; and of Native States that, at 
 the time of their conquest, had been left in posses- 
 sion of their Rajahs. The districts were governed by 
 Fujdars, or Nawabs, who were appointed by the Crown, 
 or, in the case of a death vacancy, by a Viceroy. 
 Their appointments were not valid until they had been 
 confirmed by royal letter and the insignia of investiture. 
 The Nawabs Avere summoned to Delhi, kept there, or 
 transferred to other districts, at the will of the Imperial 
 Ministry. In later times^they were so frequently changed 
 that a story was current of a newly-appointed Nawab 
 who left Delhi with his face to his elephant's tail, look- 
 ing out for his successor. The Nawab, assisted by a 
 Kadi and a Diwan, administered his district under 
 the Subadar. He maintained a small army and was 
 obliged to accompany his superior on all military ex- 
 peditions within the province. The Rajah ruled his 
 hereditary state, subject to the payment of tribute, 
 Avhich was collected by the Subadar or by one of the
 
 THE EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS 
 
 Nawabs, and in accordance with the terms of the treaty 
 made at the date of conquest. 
 
 In the conquered territories directly administered by 
 the Mogul government the Padishah was the sole pro- 
 prietor of the soil. He gave lands at will, as revenues 
 for life, to his feudatories, and on their deaths continued 
 them to their heirs or re-granted them to new men. Such 
 grants were called jagirs, and they were given to men for 
 distinguished service to the Crown. The feudatory had 
 no power to dispose of his lands ; he simply received the 
 Government share of the produce from the zamindar, or 
 landowner, who in turn was paid rent by the cultivator, 
 or ryot. The ryot retained the right of selling or 
 bequeathing his holding, subject to the rent due to the 
 Padishah or to the feudatory. The East India Company 
 held their first settlements at Madras and Calcutta as 
 zamindars, and paid rent as such to the Nawabs. 
 
 In the collection of the revenue there was the greatest 
 conflict of interests. Each public official tried to squeeze 
 money out of the one next below him. The consequence 
 was that the ryot tried to cheat the zamindar by keep- 
 ing back part of his harvest, and the zamindar the 
 revenue collector. The Nawab retained part of the 
 revenue of his district, and the Subadar and his Diwan 
 were frequently in collusion to defraud the Imperial 
 Treasury. Few men could resist the temptation to 
 appropriate some of the money that passed through 
 their hands. The system of giving presents was uni- 
 versal ; no one could approach a superior or present a 
 petition without making a propitiatory offering. Every 
 one bribed when he had an object to attain, and money 
 could purchase absolution for the foulest crimes.
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 At the head of the state was the Padishah, whose 
 will was law. He was absolute and irresponsible ; 
 exercising power of life and death over his subjects ; 
 and there was no check on his actions except the dread 
 of rebellion or assassination. The Mogul sovereigns re- 
 tained something of the nomadic habits of their ances- 
 tors. When the Court was not at Delhi or Lahore they 
 wandered over their Empire with vast armies, which 
 wasted the country as completely as the hordes of 
 Ghenghiz and Timour. The camp of Jahangir, according 
 to Sir Thomas Roe, was twenty miles in circumference. 
 The Padishah and his chief officers had their elephants, 
 their seraglios, and their servants ; each horseman had 
 his grasscutter and syce; and all private soldiers their 
 wives and children. A bazaar, or movable town of 
 shops, followed the camp and ministered to its wants. 
 The whole country was requisitioned and exhausted ; 
 and the ryots starved whilst the soldiers of the Padishah 
 feasted. Subadars and Nawabs followed the example of 
 their sovereign. The camp of Nasir Jung is said to 
 have contained two hundred thousand fighting men 
 and five hundred thousand followers. The Nawab of 
 Arcot, when paying a visit to the Governor of Madras, 
 travelled with ten elephants, five thousand sepoys, and 
 ten thousand followers, besides horsemen. The native 
 armies, vast as they were, had no real elements of 
 strength. The leaders were inexperienced in modern 
 war, and ignorant of the advantages of discipline. They 
 were not wanting in personal courage, but they were 
 superstitious, strict observers of lucky and unlucky days, 
 and firm believers in omens. If the beasts in their 
 menageries were savage they attacked the enemy, if they
 
 ITS WEAKNESS 
 
 were sullen they sulked in their tents. In battle the 
 officer in command mounted an elephant and became 
 the standard of his army. All eyes were turned towards 
 him ; so long as he was visible the troops rallied round 
 him ; directly he fell or turned they dispersed, and the 
 day was lost. It was thus possible for a single well- 
 directed shot from a field-piece to decide the fate of a 
 battle. The men were in great part hasty levies from 
 all parts of the country, and had no discipline. The 
 trooper, whose sole property was his horse, hesitated to 
 expose it to artillery fire. The foot-soldier dreaded the 
 enemy'.s guns, and placed unlimited confidence in his 
 own unwieldy pieces. In the native camps there was 
 neither order nor vigilance. By midnight the soldiers, 
 gorged with rice and stupefied with opiates, were buried 
 in profound slumber, and no precautions were taken to 
 guard against surprise. An army so constituted could 
 scarcely prevail against the serried ranks, the superior dis- 
 cipline, and the greater mobility of European troops. Yet, 
 so great was iheprestige of the native soldiers that for more 
 than a hundred years the European settlers on the coast 
 acknowledged their superiority. The glory of inaugurat- 
 ing a new era belongs to Paradis, a Swiss officer in the 
 French service, who, on October 24th, 1746, defeated a 
 native army with a single battalion, and showed how 
 weak was the foundation upon which the power of the 
 Padishah rested. 
 
 The elements of permanence were wanting in the 
 Mogul Empire. The death of each sovereign was fol- 
 lowed by a war for the succession, and there were 
 constant rebellions from within and invasions from 
 without. Patriotism and public spirit were unknown,
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and the weak fabric of government was sustained by 
 a complicated system of intrigue and terrorism. The 
 earlier Padishahs had .been lax and indifferent in 
 matters of religion. Moslems only in name, they had 
 allowed men of every creed to live in peace, and they 
 had known how to reconcile the discordant elements 
 in the Empire. Aurungzebe, when he came to the 
 throne, abandoned this wise policy for one of intoler- 
 ance. He employed Moslems in all situations, threw 
 down the temples and prohibited the festivals of 
 the Hindus, and levied a heavy poll-tax on all non- 
 Moslems. The Mahrattas were the first to discern 
 the weakness of the Mogul Empire and the signs of 
 its approaching decline. Whilst professing perpetual 
 obedience and fidelity to Aurungzebe, the " King of the 
 World," they swooped down from their strongholds in 
 the western Ghauts to harry the rich plains of the 
 Deccan. The leader of these wild freebooters was 
 Sivaji, who founded an empire and a dynasty, and 
 established a system of blackmail, known as chout, under 
 which the unfortunate ryot purchased safety for himself 
 and his crops. 
 
 The death of Aurungzebe, in 1707, was followed by 
 a period of disorder, during which sovereign succeeded 
 sovereign in quick succession. The descendants of the 
 Great Mogul became little more than puppets in the 
 hands of their ministers, and, after Nadir Shah had 
 plundered Delhi in 1739, the great Empire which Baber 
 had founded and his successors had raised to such 
 a height of splendour lost all vitality. The supreme 
 power ceased to exercise its due authority in the pro- 
 vinces. The Subadars appointed their own Nawabs;
 
 THE MAHRATTAS 
 
 they gave at best but a half-hearted allegiance to 
 the Crown, and in some instances they established 
 themselves in their vice -royal ties as hereditary sove- 
 reigns. The Nawabs maintained themselves in their 
 districts in open or covert opposition alike to the 
 Subadar and the throne, and appointed their successors 
 without reference to higher authority. Disputes as to 
 succession naturally arose, and these, Avith the raids 
 of the Mahrattas, and the intrigues of ambitious men, 
 led to a series of local wars, in which the great trading 
 companies of England and France were, almost perforce, 
 involved. The whole peninsula became one gigantic 
 battlefield, swarming with soldiers and marauding bands. 
 The field of fortune was open to every one, Avhether of 
 Persia, Arabia, or Turkistan, who had the courage to use 
 his sword or the talents that nature had given him. 
 Every Nawab kept in his pay a band of Pathans men 
 familiar with assassination, who did not scruple to re- 
 move those who were obnoxious to their masters. The 
 Mahrattas founded states which stretched from sea to 
 sea, and extended their devastating incursions to the 
 whole Empire. Always ready to serve the highest 
 bidder, and constantly changing sides, they were equally 
 dreaded by the friends whom they ruined by their extor- 
 tion and by the foe whose country they ravaged. They 
 harassed the unwieldy armies of the Padishah by galloping 
 round them and cutting off convoys ; and when the troops 
 were once broken they charged home with irresistible fury. 
 Their cavalry moved in large bodies with almost in- 
 credible rapidity, and boasted that they watered their 
 horses alike in the Indus and the Cauvery. " Wherever 
 their kettledrums were heard the peasant threw his bag of
 
 8 LORD CLIVE 
 
 rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, 
 and fled with his wife and children to the mountains or 
 the jungles, to the milder neighbourhood of the hysena 
 and the tiger." 
 
 The Carnatic, 1 in which Clive commenced his Indian 
 career, was a district of the Deccan, and one of the 
 latest conquests of Aurungzebe. The first Nawab, Saadat 
 Ullah, having no children, adopted two nephews, Dost 
 Ali and Boker Ali. When he died, in 1732, Dost 
 AH proclaimed himself Nawab without reference to 
 his Subadar, Nizam ul-Mulk ; and Boker became gover- 
 nor of the important fortress of Vellore. The suc- 
 cession was peacefully effected, but the Nizam, resenting 
 the want of deference shown to his authority, pre- 
 , vented the issue of the royal letters of confirmation. 
 Dost Ali, hoping to secure French support in the event 
 of a conflict with his Subadar, entered into intimate 
 relations with M. Dumas, the governor of Pondi- 
 cherry. He had several daughters, one of whom was 
 married to her cousin, Murtaza Ali, and another to 
 Chunda Sahib, a man of great capacity and restless 
 ambition, who soon contrived to obtain for himself the 
 office of Diwan. The Nawab of the Carnatic was 
 charged with the collection of tribute from two native 
 states, Trichinopoly and Tanjore. In 1736 the Rajah of 
 Trichinopoly died, and Dost Ali, under pretext of col- 
 lecting the tribute, sent his eldest son, Sufdar Ali, and 
 Chunda Sahib with an army to seize the city. The force 
 marched by way of Madras and Ponclicherry, and soon 
 
 1 The country, from Cape Comorin to the Northern Circars, 
 lying east of the Ghauts and reaching to the sea on the Cororaandel 
 coast.
 
 I FRENCH PRESTIGE 9 
 
 accomplished its object. Chunda Sahib was appointed 
 governor, and Sufdar Ali returned to Arcot. Chunda 
 Sahib, who was destined to undergo such strange 
 vicissitudes of fortune during the struggle between 
 the English and French, was not only possessed of 
 great military ability, but skilled in those intrigues 
 which are the life and soul of oriental politics. He 
 was a warm admirer of M. Dumas and the 'French, and 
 at an early period offered to- assist them in extending 
 the territory under their rule. At Trichinopoly he soon 
 began to affect independence, without openly throwing 
 off his allegiance to the Nawab, and, in 1739, he con- 
 quered Carical for the French. 
 
 In 1740 the Mahrattas overran the Carnatic. Dost 
 Ali was slain in battle, and his son, who now became 
 Nawab, was only too glad to purchase peace at the 
 cost of a year's revenue, and a secret agreement 
 under which the wild marauders were empowered to 
 attack Chunda Sahib, and take possession of Trichi- 
 nopoly. Towards the end of the year the compact 
 was carried out. The Mahrattas reappeared ; Trichi- 
 nopoly was captured after a gallant defence, and Chunda 
 Sahib was carried captive to Satara. The Mahrattas 
 next swept down upon Pondicherry, and demanded 
 the surrender of Chunda Sahib's wife and family, who 
 had been sent for protection to the French settle- 
 ment. M. Dumas refused, and an' attempt to capture 
 the fort completely failed. The bold refusal of the 
 French governor to surrender his guests, and his 
 successful defence of Pondicherry, created a profound 
 impression. The Padishah gave him the rank and title 
 of Nawab, with the command of horse ; and from Cape
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Comorin to the Himalayas the prestige of the French 
 was raised to a greater height than any European power 
 had previously attained. 
 
 In October 1742 Sufdar Ali was murdered at Vellore 
 by his brother-in-law, Murtaza Ali, Avho at once pro- 
 claimed himself Nawab. The revolution so treacher- 
 ously effected was not generally accepted, and after a 
 short time Said Mahomed Khan, the youthful son of 
 Sufdar Ali, was proclaimed Nawab by the army. Before 
 the agitation produced by these events had subsided, 
 Asaf Jah, better known under his title of Nizam ul-Mulk, 
 paid his memorable visit to the Carnatic. He had held 
 high office under Aurungzebe ; and after his death had 
 played a leading part in the war which seated Mahomed 
 Shah upon the throne. His austerity of manner and 
 his open censure of the profligacy of the Court rendered 
 him obnoxious to the Padishah and his dissolute courtiers ; 
 and a quarrel with the Vizier in 1723 led to his with- 
 drawal in anger to the Deccan. From that date, though 
 no overt act of rebellion could be charged against him, 
 Nizam ul-Mulk became practically independent, and one- 
 fourth of the mighty Empire of Aurungzebe passed for 
 ever from the throne of Delhi. When Dost Ali assumed 
 the office of Nawab, the Nizam had been too much 
 engaged in keeping a firm front towards Delhi, and in 
 intriguing at the Imperial Court, to pay much attention 
 to the affairs of the Carnatic. But having secured his 
 position by the appointment of his son, Ghazi-ud-din, as 
 captain-general of the Mogul army, he determined to 
 put an end to the disorder in the countries south of the 
 Kistna. He reached Arcot with an army of eighty 
 thousand men in March 1743, and was astonished at
 
 I AFFAIRS IN THE CARNATIC \\ 
 
 the anarchy that prevailed. Every petty governor was 
 introduced as a Nawab, an assumption of rank which 
 so enraged him that, after eighteen had been presented 
 in one day, he ordered his guards to scourge the next 
 visitor who ventured to assume the title in his presence. 
 
 Amongst those who did homage to the Nizam was the 
 son of Sufdar Ali. He was well received, but, in view 
 of his extreme youth, Asaf Jah appointed the com- 
 mander of his own army Nawab of the Carnatic ; and, 
 on his death, selected Anwar-ud-din Khan, a brave ex- 
 perienced soldier, to succeed him. Until the Nizam's 
 visit the Carnatic had been governed by members of a 
 Nowait family, which, at the time of the Mogul conquest, 
 had received extensive jagirs in the district. Their rule 
 had, on the whole, been mild and generous; and the 
 introduction of a stranger caused general dissatisfaction. 
 In deference to this feeling the Nizam only appointed 
 Anwar-ud-din administrator of the district and guardian 
 of the young prince, who was to be installed as Nawab 
 when he came of age. 
 
 Anwar-ud-din arrived at Arcot in April 1744, and at 
 first all went well. A fitting provision was made for the 
 maintenance of Said Mahomed in his palace at Arcot ; and 
 the only source of disquietude was the overbearing con- 
 duct of the Pathans who had been in his father's service. 
 In June 1744 Said Mahomed presided at the wedding 
 of one of his relations, and in this capacity had to 
 receive Murtaza Ali, the murderer of his father. Anwar- 
 ud-din was also invited, and as Said went forward 
 to meet him, with his richly attired guests, the leader 
 of the Pathans came forward and plunged a dagger into 
 his heart. As the lad fell a thousand swords leaped
 
 12 LORD CLIVE CHAP. I 
 
 from their scabbards to avenge his death, and the mur- 
 derer and his companions were cut to pieces by the enraged 
 people. Anwar-ud-din expressed great indignation at the 
 murder ; but it was generally believed that the assassina- 
 tion had been previously arranged between him and 
 Murtaza Ali. He received, soon afterwards, a regular 
 commission as Nawab of the Carnatic; but he never 
 completely succeeded in winning the confidence of the 
 people. The angry feelings aroused by the fatal ter- 
 mination to the tragic drama at Arcot had scarcely sub- 
 sided when Eobert Clive, a penniless lad, scarce nine- 
 teen years old, and without a friend in the country, 
 landed at Madras to take up his duties as a "writer" in 
 the East India Company's service.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN INDIA 
 
 IN the same year, 1744, Avar was declared between Eng- 
 land and France. The two countries had taken opposite 
 sides in the war of the Austrian succession ; they had 
 hitherto acted as auxiliaries, they were now to take part 
 in it as principals. Ever since the death of the Emperor, 
 Charles the Sixth, war had been imminent, and as early as 
 1741 the fertile brain of La Bourdonnais had conceived 
 the idea of capturing Madras, and firmly establishing 
 French predominance in India by assembling an over- 
 whelming naval force in the Indian seas. During the 
 continuance of peace the French governors of Pondi- 
 cherry, MM. Dumas and Dupleix, made all possible pre- 
 paration for the struggle ; the English did nothing. 
 
 Early in the seventeenth century the English established 
 a factory at Surat. In 1639 they founded Madras on a 
 narrow strip of coast land, which they had acquired from 
 the Kajah of Chandragiri. They occupied the position of 
 zamindars, or permanent occupiers, and paid a fixed annual 
 rental to the native ruler of the district. The French, 
 Dutch, and Portuguese settlements were founded on lands 
 held upon similar terms. The early history of Madras was 
 a troubled one. The settlers were threatened alternately
 
 14 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 by the French and the Dutch; they were constantly 
 exposed to extortionate demands for money from the 
 native princes and their ministers ; and they were 
 occasionally besieged by native armies. The town, 
 which for many years was the chief emporium of the 
 English in India, was divided into White Town, or 
 Fort St. George, where the Europeans lived, and Black 
 Town, which was occupied by the natives. Business 
 was conducted by the governor and his council, under 
 whom were the merchants, factors, and writers. All 
 received pay that was little more than nominal, but 
 every servant of the Company was allowed to engage in 
 private trade, and in this manner large fortunes were 
 made. The native custom of receiving presents was 
 universally followed. The Company's servants lived 
 together in the factory, and took their early dinner in 
 the governor's house. Most of them had their palanquins 
 fitted with soft cushions, and every European, when he 
 went out, was followed by a boy bearing a sun-umbrella. 
 The young men were exposed to many temptations; 
 there was a general extravagance and looseness in the 
 mode of living, much gambling and drinking, and 
 frequent brawls at the punch-shops in Black Town. A 
 few European soldiers were maintained as a guard, and, 
 in times of danger Europeans and natives were called 
 to arms, but it was generally more convenient to buy off 
 an enemy than to fight. A strict policy of non-interfer- 
 ence in native affairs was followed, and no attempt was 
 made to raise and train companies of native soldiers 
 after European models. 
 
 The French Compagnic des Indes established a factory 
 at Masulipatam in 1669, the first settlement in India
 
 ii THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 15 
 
 having been made in the previous year; and in 
 1674 M. Martin founded Pondicherry. In 1688 the 
 French formed a settlement at Chandernagore, and 
 in 1739 they took possession of Carical. Pondicherry, 
 sheltered from the monsoon and free from surf, was 
 selected as the seat of government. Its first governor, 
 M. Martin, a man of rare energy and discretion, estab- 
 lished most cordial relations with the native powers, 
 and instituted the wise policy of treating the natives 
 as friends and equals. In October 1741 M. Dupleix, 
 who had already shown proofs of genius by making 
 Chandernagore the most flourishing settlement in Bengal, 
 was appointed governor. He at once had himself 
 proclaimed Nawab in succession to M. Dumas, and 
 continued his predecessor's policy of establishing friendly 
 intercourse with the native princes. MM. Dumas and 
 Dupleix laid great stress on the fact that they held their 
 rank direct from the Padishah, and as Nawabs they 
 maintained a certain military state which was entirely 
 wanting in the English settlements. To M. Dumas 
 belongs the credit of forming the first sepoy army, for, 
 when besieged by the Mahrattas in 1740, he raised a 
 force of four thousand natives, and armed and drilled 
 them like Europeans. The French company was State- 
 aided and State-directed ; but, when war broke out, it 
 was heavily in debt in India, and its finances were em- 
 barrassed. The English company had to make payments 
 to the State and overcome the indifference of the king's 
 government ; yet it was well supplied with money, and 
 sending remittances to the proprietors in England. 
 
 The relations between the European trading companies 
 and the native rulers in 1744, the year of Olive's arrival
 
 16 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 in India, are best described in a letter from De Bussy to 
 Dupleix, written when the French power in India was 
 at its zenith. 
 
 To form a true judgment of the advantageous change in 
 the affairs of the French in India, we must go back to the 
 times when they were obliged, for the interest of their com- 
 merce, in a servile manner, to carry their presents, and pay 
 their homage to those petty chiefs whom we do not at 
 present deign to admit to our durbar, except when some par- 
 ticular interest requires it. ... The Nawab of Arcot, incon- 
 siderable as he is with regard to the Subadar of the Deccan 
 . . . behaved to us as a sovereign to his subjects. His * 
 letters to our governors ran in a strain of authority 
 opprobrious to the French nation. We never appeared be- 
 fore him but as suppliants, carrying presents, which he con- 
 tinually exacted from us. If any even of his inferior officers 
 came towards Pondicherry, formal deputations were sent out 
 to meet them with the greatest marks of respect. . . . For 
 a Subadar of the Deccan to condescend to write to the com- 
 mandant-general of the French was a thing unheard of, and 
 not to be expected. When Nizam ul-Mulk . . . came into 
 the province of Arcot . . . the European nations strove who 
 should give him the strongest marks of their submission, and 
 omitted no means of gaining his favour ; yet he deigned not 
 to write to any of the governors who represented those 
 nations ; and hardly honoured with a look the rich presents 
 laid with all imaginable respect at his feet, as a token of 
 homage and dependence. . . . 
 
 The great plain of the Carnatic, which was now to 
 become the theatre of war, was well cultivated and 
 thickly peopled. Reservoirs, maintained by Government, 
 supplied water for irrigation. The roads were bordered 
 by large trees, which gave a grateful shade, and added 
 to the beauty of the country. Every three or four miles 
 the traveller found a choultry, or way -side resting- 
 place, with its attendant Brahman, in which he might
 
 POSITION OF ENGLAND 
 
 rest and cool his thirst. The country was so free from 
 robbers that the diamond-merchants passed through it 
 without carrying a weapon of defence ; and it yielded 
 a revenue, in proportion to its extent, equal to that of 
 the richest country in Europe. When the great struggle 
 ended with the fall of Pondicherry, the fertile lands 
 were waste, the villages deserted, and the roads haunted 
 by marauding bands. 
 
 The position of France in India, on the outbreak of 
 the Avar of 1744, was in several respects stronger than that 
 of England. Her political influence amongst the natives 
 and her military resources were greater; her ablest 
 sailor, La Bourdonnais, was at Mauritius, and her settle- 
 ments were governed by a man of commanding genius 
 Dupleix. It was clear that the Power which could first 
 bring a strong naval force into the Indian seas would be 
 master of the situation. That advantage was gained by 
 England, and was recklessly thrown away. Directly 
 Dupleix heard that an English squadron was expected 
 on the coast he tried to induce Governor Morse of 
 Madras to agree that, notwithstanding the war, there 
 should be peace between the two countries in India. 
 Mr. Morse refused, and Dupleix then persuaded the 
 Nawab to forbid hostilities. Anwar-ud-din informed the 
 English governor that he would not allow any attack 
 upon the French settlements, and, at the same time, 
 promised that, should the occasion arise, he would 
 protect the English from French aggression. Morse 
 was obliged to comply; and when in 1745 Commodore 
 Barnet reached Madras, he requested him to confine 
 his operations to the sea. 
 
 In 1746 La Bourdonnais appeared on the scene, and 
 C
 
 iS LORD CLIYE CHAP. 
 
 the English fleet, after an indecisive action, little credit- 
 able to Commodore Peyton, who had succeeded to the 
 command, sailed for Trincomali. The situation was now 
 completely changed. La Bourdonnais had carried out the 
 first part of his long-cherished plan. He had obtained 
 command of the Indian seas, and Madras, badly fortified 
 and garrisoned by only three hundred men, was at his 
 mercy. Differences of opinion between Dupleix and La 
 Bourdonnais delayed the attack; but, on September 21st, 
 1746, Madras surrendered after a feeble resistance to 
 the French Admiral. Under the terms of the capitula- 
 tion the English were to be prisoners of war ; all 
 property belonging to the East India Company was to 
 be handed over to the French, and the town was to be 
 given up and afterwards ransomed. The terms of the 
 ransom were settled by a separate treaty, and La Bour- 
 donnais is said to have received a private present of 
 40,000. 
 
 When Peyton was driven from Madras Mr. Morse 
 reminded the Nawab of his promised protection, but he 
 carelessly omitted to forward a propitiatory gift. His 
 representations were consequently ignored, and no steps 
 were taken to restrain the French. Whilst the siege was 
 in progress Dupleix kept the Nawab quiet by promising 
 him Madras when it fell, and by telling him that the 
 English would pay a large sum for its ransom. When, 
 however, the town surrendered, and Anwar-ud-din found 
 that the French showed no disposition to give it up, he 
 sent his son, Mahfuz Khan, with an army of ten thousand 
 men to drive them out. The young prince on approach- 
 ing Madras was roughly handled by the French in a 
 sortie, and thought it prudent to take up a position near
 
 II FRENCH OCCUPATION OF MADRAS 19 
 
 St. Thome', Avhere he could intercept reinforcements 
 arriving from Pondicherry. Here, on October 24th, 1746, 
 he was defeated by M. Paradis in the memorable battle 
 which completely altered the relations between the 
 Europeans and the native princes, and paved the way 
 for the ambitious schemes of Dupleix. The superiority 
 of disciplined troops to native levies was firmly estab- 
 lished, and the European traders who, previous to the 
 battle, had been despised as inferiors were after it re- 
 garded as equals to be at once courted and feared. 
 Paradis, Avho had only two hundred and thirty Europeans 
 and seven hundred sepoys, owed his victory to the 
 discipline of his men and to the promptness and boldness 
 of his attack on the enemy's guns. The success of 
 the brilliant Swiss soldier and the causes which led to 
 it appear to have made a lasting impression on the 
 mind of young Clive, then a prisoner of war at Madras. 
 After the victory Paradis was appointed Governor of 
 Madras, and, under instructions from Dupleix, declared 
 the treaty of ransom and all engagements between Gover- 
 nor Morse and Admiral La Bourdonnais null and void. 
 The terms of the capitulation were violated and more 
 onerous ones imposed. Mr. Morse and several of the 
 principal merchants were removed to Pondicherry ; many 
 of the settlers were ruined ; and others, amongst whom 
 was Clive, escaped to Fort St. David, where a bolder 
 spirit ruled over the destinies of the English. La 
 Bourdonnais, in agreeing to the terms of capitula- 
 tion and signing the treaty of ransom, relied upon his 
 instructions from home, and refused to recognise the 
 authority of the Governor of Pondicherry. Dupleix, on 
 the other hand, claimed supreme power as Governor-
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 General of India, but he would probably not have 
 ignored the solemn promises of the Admiral if Paradis 
 had not previously dispersed the army of the Nawab. 
 The disputes and animosities of the two great French- 
 men saved the English in India from complete de- 
 struction. 
 
 During the winter of 1746-47 the French attempted, 
 in a half-hearted manner, to capture Cuddalore and Fort 
 St. David, which had now become the seat of govern- 
 ment; and in June 1748 they made a more determined 
 attack on the former place, which was sharply repulsed 
 by Major Stringer Lawrence. Throughout this period 
 Dupleix was all-powerful. He had a large force of 
 Europeans, and had succeeded in signing a treaty of amity 
 with the Nawab, yet he never made the one vigorous 
 effort that was necessary to dislodge the two hundred 
 Englishmen who guarded the ramparts of Fort St. David. 
 The golden opportunity was lost, for on August llth, 
 1748, English preponderance was restored by the arrival 
 of Admiral BoscaAven with an overwhelming force. 
 On September 6th Boscawen moved on Pondicherry. 
 He held a commission as Admiral and Commander-in- 
 Chief of the land and sea forces ; but he was without 
 experience of military operations, and Lawrence, the 
 only man who could have helped him in his difficulties, 
 had been taken prisoner at Ariankupam. The siege was 
 pushed forward with little energy and less skill; the 
 defence was conducted with the greatest determination 
 and gallantry. There could be but one result. The 
 English, after the loss of more than one thousand 
 Europeans, were obliged to raise the siege, and on October 
 17th they retired thoroughly disheartened to Fort St.
 
 n ITS RESTORATION TO THE ENGLISH 21 
 
 David. Dupleix at once sent messengers to inform the 
 native princes of his successful defence of Pondicherry 
 against the most formidable army that had ever landed 
 on the shores of India. The fame of his exploits reached 
 Delhi, and throughout the peninsula men believed that 
 soldiers of France were superior to those of England. 
 The siege was little creditable to the British arms, yet 
 Clive, who served in the trenches, found an opportunity 
 of showing, by his gallant conduct, that high military 
 spirit which was conspicuous throughout his career. 
 
 Early in December news arrived that a cessation 
 of hostilities had been proclaimed in Europe, pending 
 negotiations for peace. The treaty itself, under which 
 there was to be a mutual restitution of conquests, was 
 signed at Aix-la-Chapelle on October 18th, 1748; but 
 it was not until August 1749 that its terms were 
 carried out in India by the restoration of Madras to 
 Admiral Boscawen. The sword was sheathed, but the 
 struggle, which had left behind it so many angry 
 passions and mutual jealousies, was soon to recom- 
 mence in another form. Henceforward, however, the 
 history of the English in India becomes more and 
 more intimately connected with the life of Robert 
 Clive.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY LIFE ARGOT 
 
 ROBERT, LORD CLIVE, was born at Styche, near Market 
 Drayton in Shropshire, on September 29th, 1725. His 
 father, Richard Clive, finding the income from the old 
 family estate of Styche too small for the support of a 
 large family, followed the profession of the law. He 
 appears to have been a man of hasty, sometimes violent, 
 temper, who never appreciated his son's merits until he 
 had made himself famous, though he was afterwards 
 so unduly elated by his success that he could talk and 
 write of nothing but " Bobby's " triumphs. His mother, 
 to whom he always said that he owed more than to 
 any school, was a lady remarkable for her virtues, her 
 talents, and her sterling good sense. She was a daughter 
 of Mr. Gaskill of Manchester, and of her sisters one 
 married Mr. Bayley of Hope Hall, near Manchester, and 
 another Hugh, eleventh Lord Sempill. 
 
 Robert Clive, who was the eldest son, was sent to 
 Hope Hall before he was three years old, and for 
 several years was trained and educated in Mr. Bayley's 
 family. When not more than four or five he had two 
 severe attacks of fever, which appear to have left a con- 
 stitutional weakness that was the source of much trouble
 
 CHAP, in OLIVE'S BOYHOOD 23 
 
 in after life. His school life commenced while he was 
 still very young at Dr. Eaton's private school at Lostocke 
 in Cheshire. At the age of eleven he was removed to 
 the care of the Eev. Mr. Burslem at Market Drayton, 
 with whom he remained a few years, and then, after a 
 brief public school experience at Merchant Taylors', he 
 went to a private school kept by Mr. Sterling at Hemel 
 Hemstead in Hertfordshire. At the last place he re- 
 mained until he was appointed in 1743 a writer in the 
 East India Company's service. 
 
 In early life Clive's waywardness and his neglect of 
 school studies appear to have produced an unfavourable 
 impression upon his masters. One indeed, Dr. Eaton, 
 had the happy foresight to predict, " If that lad should 
 live to be a man, and an opportunity be given for the 
 exertion of his talents, few names will be greater than 
 his." To the others he was only " the most unlucky boy 
 they had ever had in their schools." Yet strong indica- 
 tions of future character were not wanting in the lad's 
 imperious temper, his insensibility to danger, his im- 
 patience of control, his dislike to the drudgery of the 
 desk, and his keen desire to excel in all boyish pursuits. 
 Before he was seven years old his temper was the subject 
 of anxious care to his relations. "I am satisfied," Mr. 
 Bayley writes, " that his fighting (to which he is out of 
 measure addicted) gives his temper [such] a fierceness and 
 imperiousness that he flies out upon every trifling occa- 
 sion; for this reason I do what I can to suppress the hero, 
 that I may help forward the more valuable qualities of 
 meekness, benevolence, and patience." When at Market 
 Drayton he is said to have been the leader of a band of 
 youthful Mohawks in all their mischievous tricks, now
 
 24 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 levying blackmail on anxious shopkeepers trembling for 
 the security of their windows ; now turning his body into 
 a temporary clam across the street-gutter, to flood the 
 shop of an offending tradesman. It was in the same 
 town that, on one occasion, he climbed out to obtain a 
 smooth stone that lay in one of the dragon -headed 
 gargoyles of the old Gothic church, and calmly seated 
 himself in mid-air, to the wondering alarm of his com- 
 panions. 
 
 Olive left England in 1743, and, after a delay of nine 
 months in the Brazils, reached Madras towards the end 
 of 1744. The enforced detention, though it enabled him 
 to learn Portuguese, was unfortunate, for he found on 
 landing that the gentleman to whom he had been given 
 letters of introduction had left for England. For some 
 little time he was without money and without friends, 
 and he appears to have felt his position acutely. His 
 early letters to his relations, while they show a 
 warm, affectionate heart, are despondent in tone, and 
 display a distrust of his own powers remarkable in 
 one who was to give such early proof of indomit- 
 able will. He was dissatisfied, and begged his father 
 to get him transferred to Bengal, or promoted to 
 the rank of factor. "I don't doubt," he says, "but 
 you'll make use of all possible means for my advance- 
 ment. The world seems to be greatly debased of late, 
 and interest carries it entirely before merit, especially 
 in this service, though I should think myself very un- 
 deserving were I only to build my foundation on the 
 strength of the former." To a cousin he writes that 
 "the intemperance of the climate, together with the 
 excessive heat of the sun, are very noxious to our health ;
 
 in HIS ATTEMPTED SUICIDE 25 
 
 and I really think the advantages which accrue to us 
 here are greatly overbalanced by the sacrifices we make 
 of our constitutions. I have not been unacquainted with 
 the fickleness of fortune, and may safely say I have not 
 enjoyed one happy day since I left my native country. 
 I am not acquainted with any one family in the place, 
 and have not assurance enough to introduce myself 
 without being asked." 
 
 After his arrival in India Clive was fortunate enough 
 to obtain access to an excellent library in Government 
 House, and he must have made good use of the oppor- 
 tunity. There is no record of the manner in which he 
 fitted himself for his work in life, but before Madras 
 surrendered he seems to have made himself a fair Latin 
 scholar, and to have acquired that intimate acquaintance 
 with the politics and character of the natives which 
 contributed so largely to his successful career. His 
 strong, decided character is said to have "rendered his 
 appointment as troublesome to his superiors as it was 
 irksome to himself ; " and his abhorrence of compulsion 
 is amusingly illustrated by his reply to an invitation from 
 the Governor's secretary, to whom he had been ordered 
 to apologise : "No, sir, the Governor did not command 
 me to dine with you." Yet when he obtained a com- 
 mission he never complained of military discipline, 
 and never grew impatient under its yoke. During 
 this period he is said, either in a fit of despair or of low 
 spirits, to have attempted suicide. A companion, coming 
 into his room on one occasion, was requested to take up 
 a pistol and fire it out of the window. He did so ; 
 whereupon Clive, who was in one of his gloomy moods, 
 sprang up, and exclaimed : " Well, I am reserved for
 
 26 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 something ! I have twice snapped that pistol at my 
 own head." 
 
 The disgraceful surrender of Madras to the French, 
 and the infraction of the terms of the capitulation by 
 Dupleix, mark a turning-point in dive's career. The 
 proud spirit of the young civilian could ill bear the 
 humiliating position at Madras. He disguised himself 
 in native attire and fled, with Edmund Maskelyne his 
 future brother-in-law, to Fort St. David, where the British 
 flag still waved over men determined to uphold the honour 
 of their country. Soon after his arrival at the fort he 
 fought a duel with one of two ensigns in the Company's 
 service who had been detected cheating at cards. He 
 had lost and, in refusing to pay, passed some strong 
 remarks on the conduct of the officer, who at once called 
 him out. Clive fired and missed his opponent, who, 
 Avalking up to him, held the pistol to his head and bade 
 him ask for his life. After some hesitation he complied, 
 but, when further pressed to withdraw his remarks and 
 promise payment, he replied, " Fire and be d d ! I 
 said you cheated; I say so still, and I will never pay 
 you." The astonished ensign, finding threats useless, called 
 him a madman, and flung his pistol away. When Olive's 
 friends complimented him on his behaviour, he generously 
 remarked, " The man has given me my life ; and though 
 I will never pay him nor associate with him again, I 
 have no right in future to mention his behaviour at the 
 card-table." 
 
 Clive was at Fort St. David when the French made 
 their three abortive attempts upon the place during the 
 winter of 1746-47 ; and though his name is not mentioned 
 in connection with military affairs, he no doubt took his
 
 in ENTERS THE ARMY 27 
 
 turn of duty with the rest of the garrison, and was a 
 keen, observant spectator of all that passed. The 
 liability of the French troops to panic, the native dread 
 of well -served artillery, the ease with which a small 
 disciplined force could keep a native army in check, 
 were lessons not to be lightly forgotten. It was a time 
 when a writer in the Company's service had little to do ; 
 and it is not surprising that a man of Olive's energetic 
 temperament should have elected to enter the army. In 
 1747 he asked for and obtained a commission as ensign ; 
 and in the following year he showed, at the siege of 
 Pondicherry, some of those soldierly qualities which, in 
 after years, won for him the admiration and confidence 
 of the troops. Upon one occasion, whilst the French 
 were making a vigorous sortie, he ran back from the 
 advanced trench to bring up powder to the battery in 
 which he was serving. The incident gave rise to a 
 remark that he had quitted his post from fear. Clive, 
 on hearing what had been said, went with a friend to 
 the officer who had made the remark, and insisted upon 
 instant satisfaction. As they were retiring to settle the 
 dispute the officer, who was following, struck him on 
 the ear. He at once drew, and his example was followed 
 by his opponent, but before they had crossed swords 
 they were separated. A court of inquiry was held, and 
 the officer who had defamed Clive was ordered to beg 
 his pardon at the head of the battalion. The court, 
 however, unwilling to break him, took no notice of the 
 blow. After the siege had been raised, and the troops 
 had retired upon Fort St. David, Clive demanded 
 satisfaction for this last insult, and when it was refused 
 he laid his cane on the officer's head, and told him he
 
 28 LORD CLIVE 
 
 could not think of thrashing such a contemptible coward. 
 The next day the officer resigned his commission. 
 
 In these early incidents of his career Olive never 
 appears as the aggressor. He expresses his opinion 
 firmly and decidedly, and he is ever ready to resent an 
 insult; but he never seeks a quarrel. If he had possessed 
 the turbulent disposition with which he has been credited, 
 he would, in an age when duelling prevailed, have de- 
 generated into a bully. The haughty reserve of his 
 manner was ill calculated to make him popular with the 
 young writers and ensigns who were his daily com- 
 panions, and with whom there must have been frequent 
 sources of quarrel, yet his worst enemies were unable 
 to bring forward any anecdote to his dishonour or dis- 
 credit. He was soon to give proof of the high qualities 
 that he possessed. 
 
 When hostilities ceased in December 1748 England 
 and France had an unusual number of troops in India 
 whose presence was the source of considerable anxiety 
 to the local governors. It was impossible for either 
 nation to disband before the arrival of definite news 
 that peace had been concluded ; and it was at the same 
 time necessary to find employment and sustenance for 
 the soldiers. Each side, partly from motives of economy, 
 partly from a desire to gain some material advantage, 
 resolved to employ its troops as mercenaries in the 
 quarrels of the native princes. The adoption of this 
 policy, which Dupleix justifies in a remarkable letter 
 to the French Company, marks a turning-point in the 
 history of India. In carrying it out the English " acted 
 with great indiscretion, the French with the utmost 
 ambition."
 
 in HIS GALLANTR Y AT DE VICO TTA 29 
 
 The first venture of the English was in favour of a 
 native prince, Seiaji, who some years previously had 
 been compelled to vacate the throne of Tan j ore in 
 favour of his brother, Pertab Sing. He had been much 
 impressed by the ease with which the disciplined troops 
 of Paradis had defeated Mahfuz Khan, and determined 
 to solicit European assistance in an attempt to regain 
 his throne. An old quarrel with the French having ren- 
 dered the success of an appeal to Dupleix doubtful, Seiaji 
 applied to the English and offered, if they would restore 
 him, to cede Devicotta and pay the cost of the war. 
 Devicotta, near the mouth of the Colerun, was the chief 
 outlet for the trade of a rich district, sometimes called 
 " the garden of Southern India," and immediate advant- 
 ages would result from its possession. The English, still 
 smarting under the loss of Madras and the humiliating 
 retreat from Pondicherry, were unable to resist the 
 temptation, and espoused the cause of Seiaji. A first 
 attempt to take Devicotta in April 1749 failed. 
 Captain Cope, who commanded the British force, found 
 the ramparts manned by "innumerable troops," and, 
 though urged by Clive to blow the gates open and 
 deliver an assault, retired to Fort St. David. A second 
 expedition under Major Stringer Lawrence was more 
 successful. Devicotta was taken, and the Tanjore army 
 was afterwards sharply repulsed in an attempt to capture 
 the pagoda of Atchaveram, which the English had 
 occupied. At this moment the Eajah heard of the defeat 
 and death of the Nawab of the Carnatic, and hastened 
 to conclude peace. During the second attack on Devi- 
 cotta, Clive, who led the forlorn hope, behaved with 
 great gallantry. Advancing with thirty-four Europeans
 
 30 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and seven hundred sepoys, he had some difficulty in 
 crossing a rivulet under a smart fire from the fort. The 
 sepoys hesitated and held back, while Clive and the 
 Europeans pushed on to the foot of the breach, where 
 they were suddenly charged by a party of Tanjore 
 horse. So impetuous was the attack that twenty-six men 
 were cut down in a moment, and Clive himself narrowly 
 escaped being sabred. 
 
 At the close of the operations Clive, through the 
 influence of Lawrence, was appointed Commissary to 
 the British troops. He had, however, scarcely taken 
 over his duties when he was prostrated by a severe 
 attack of fever, accompanied " by a hard swelling at the 
 pit of the stomach," which so affected his spirits that 
 the constant presence of an attendant was absolutely 
 necessary. On the subsidence of the fever he went to 
 Bengal for change of air, and returned with much im- 
 proved health ; but his constitution had been so severely 
 shaken that " during the remainder of his life, excepting 
 when his mind was ardently engaged, the oppression on 
 his spirits frequently returned." 
 
 Whilst the English were engaged in supporting the 
 cause of Seiaji, the French, under the guidance of 
 Dupleix, had been making themselves masters of the 
 Carnatic. Soon after his arrival at Pondicherry 
 Dupleix entered into communication with Chunda Sahib, 
 then a prisoner at Satara. He deemed it prudent to 
 keep on friendly terms with a man who might again be 
 in a position to advance French commercial interests, 
 and did not at first think of questioning the power of 
 the native princes. There can, however, be little doubt 
 that, after Paradis had gained the victory of St. Thom6,
 
 in DUPLEIX'S DESIGNS 31 
 
 visions of future empire and of a quicker road to fame 
 and fortune than the slow paths of commerce became 
 more and more familiar to his mind. His dream was to 
 rule the Carnatic, perhaps India itself, through natives 
 who owed their elevation and retention of office to his 
 support. He saw that by skilfully taking advantage of 
 the mutual jealousies and rivalries of the native princes, 
 and by discreetly holding the balance of power between 
 them, he could obtain all that he wanted and enjoy the 
 sweets of empire without its responsibilities. He had 
 found in Chunda Sahib a fitting instrument for his 
 schemes ; and it was only necessary to wait for a favour- 
 able opportunity to carry out the subtle policy he had 
 conceived. 
 
 In June 1748 the Subadar of the Deccan died, and 
 his death was immediately followed by a war for the 
 succession between his second son, Nasir Jung, -and his 
 grandson, Muzuffar Jung. Muzuffar went to Satara to 
 ask Balaji Rao, the Mahratta chieftain, to support his 
 cause, and there met Chunda Sahib, who readily entered 
 into his schemes on being promised the post of Xawab 
 of the Carnatic. The negotiations with the Mahrattas 
 were communicated to Dupleix, who saw that by sup- 
 porting Muzuffar Jung and Chunda Sahib he would be 
 in a position to give a Subadar to the Deccan and a 
 Nawab to the Carnatic. He guaranteed the ransom 
 (70,000) demanded for the release of Chunda Sahib, 
 and promised to help Muzuffar Jung with a mixed force 
 of Europeans and sepoys. Operations were to commence 
 in the Carnatic, where the people were in favour of 
 Chunda Sahib, and the French could most easily support 
 the movement. There was some delay in consequence
 
 32 LORD CLIVE 
 
 of the siege of Pondicherry and the threatening atti- 
 tude which Admiral Boscawen, who was in superior 
 force at Fort St. David, afterwards maintained. But 
 as soon as the English were fully occupied in Tan j ore 
 Muzuffar Jung and Chunda Sahib swooped down upon 
 the Carnatic, and on August 3rd, with the aid of 
 a French detachment, gained a decisive victory over 
 the Nawab at Ambur. Anwar-ud-din was killed, his 
 eldest son, Mahfuz Khan, was taken prisoner, and 
 his second son, Mahomed Ali, fled to Trichinopoly. 
 Arcot was occupied next day, and Muzuffar Jung, after 
 proclaiming himself Subadar, invested Chunda Sahib 
 with the government of the Carnatic. Dupleix, who 
 afterwards entertained the victors Avith great magnifi- 
 cence at Pondicherry, received the zamindari of eighty- 
 one villages in return for his support. The capture of 
 the fortress of Trichinopoly, in which Mahomed Ali 
 had taken refuge, now became of paramount importance. 
 It Avould complete the conquest of the Carnatic, and 
 firmly establish the supremacy of the French Nawab 
 before Nasir Jung, who was already gathering his forces, 
 could appear on the scene. Dupleix repeatedly urged 
 upon Chunda Sahib the necessity for immediate action, 
 but he could not induce him to move as long as Boscawen 
 remained at Madras. 
 
 Mahomed Ali, immediately after his father's death, 
 applied to the English for assistance. Admiral Boscawen 
 was in favour of supporting him, but the Governor of 
 Fort St. David, Mr. Floyer, was anxious to regain pos- 
 session of Madras, and hesitated to embark on what 
 seemed likely to prove a doubtful enterprise. The 
 English complimented Chunda Sahib on his accession,
 
 in INDECISION OF THE ENGLISH 33 
 
 and it was only when his reception at Pondicherry 
 showed the true nature of Dupleix's schemes that they 
 realised the necessity of supporting Mahomed Ali 
 in their own self-defence. They reoccupied Madras at 
 the end of August, and it was Boscawen's wish to 
 adopt energetic measures in defence of English interests. 
 Mr. Floyer was incapable of acting with decision. He 
 sent Captain Cope with a few men to Trichinopoly to 
 protect Mahomed Ali until the will of Nasir Jung was 
 known, and allowed Boscawen to sail, with all his men 
 except three hundred, on November 1st. The follow- 
 ing day Chunda Sahib left Pondicherry with a large 
 native force and a strong European contingent under 
 M. Duquesne. His destination was Trichinopoly, but 
 he was in want of money, and turned aside to plunder 
 the Rajah of Tanjore. On this expedition he wasted 
 precious time, which should have been devoted to the 
 destruction of the last refuge of his only rival ; and he 
 was still before Tanjore when Nasir Jung entered the 
 Carnatic with an army of two hundred thousand men. 
 Chunda Sahib at once retired to Pondicherry, whilst 
 Mahomed Ali and Captain Cope joined Nasir Jung 
 at Vilnur, a few miles from the French settlement. 
 Dupleix made vigorous efforts to meet the threatened 
 attack, and by the end of March Muzuffar Jung and 
 Chunda Sahib, with two thousand Europeans under 
 D'Auteuil, were able to take up a strong position in front 
 of Vilnur. On April 2nd Lawrence reached the camp 
 of Nasir Jung with six hundred men, and the soldiers 
 of England and France were ranged for the first time in 
 hostile camps as mercenaries of the native princes. An 
 inquiry into the pretensions of the rival Subadars would 
 
 D
 
 34 LORD CL1VE CHAP. 
 
 be fruitless, the claimants to the power which Nizam ul- 
 Mulk had gained by usurpation could appeal to no other 
 law than that by which it had been obtained. The 
 European companies gave little attention to the justice 
 of the cause. Each sought only its own aggrandisement 
 and the humiliation of its rival. Dupleix having taken 
 the part of Muzuffar the English were obliged in self- 
 defence to support Nasir Jiing. On the 3rd, before 
 hostilities commenced, D'Auteuil sent a messenger to tell 
 Lawrence that he had no wish or intention to spill 
 European blood, and that, as he did not know his posi- 
 tion in the field, he could not be blamed if a shot came 
 that way and hurt an Englishman. Lawrence replied 
 that his position might be easily recognised by the 
 English colours on his flag-gun, and that if any shots 
 came his way he would certainly return them. A 
 brief cannonade followed, and during the night D'Au- 
 teuil, in consequence of a mutiny amongst the French 
 officers, withdrew to Pondicherry. Muzuffar Jung 
 surrendered to his uncle, and was at once placed in 
 irons. It seemed for the moment as if the ambitious 
 schemes of the French governor had completely failed. 
 The disaster only served to show the fertility of his 
 genius. Whilst Lawrence was openly pressing Nasir 
 Jung to follow up his advantage, Dupleix was success- 
 fully intriguing with the French party in his camp. 
 The Subadar refused to grant the extension of Madras 
 territory which had been promised as the price of 
 English assistance, and retired to lead a life of debauch- 
 ery and indolence at Arcot. Lawrence returned in dis- 
 gust to Fort St. David, and the French soon redeemed 
 their reputation by a successful attack on a part of
 
 in TRIUMPH OF DUPLEIX 35 
 
 the Subadar's army, and by the capture of Masulipatam 
 and Tiruvadi. On September 1st Chunda Sahib and 
 the French attacked and entirely routed Mahomed Ali ; 
 and on the llth De Bussy stormed Gingi, a fortress that 
 was regarded as impregnable. Nasir Jung was at last 
 roused to action ; he moved his camp to within twelve 
 miles of Gingi, and commenced negotiations with the 
 French. Dupleix, whilst discussing the terms of a treaty, 
 entered into communication with some discontented 
 Pathan Xawabs and others in the Subadar's camp, and 
 promised to support them when their plans were ripe 
 for execution. On the morning of December 16th the 
 French attacked Nasir Jung, who, whilst the action 
 was in progress, was shot by one of the conspirators. 
 His fall terminated the engagement. Immense treasure 
 in money and jewels fell into the hands of the French, 
 and their proUgd, Muzuffar Jung, released from his bonds, 
 became Subadar of the Deccan. On December 26th 
 the victorious army returned to Pondicherry, and the 
 division of the spoil commenced. Dupleix was ap- 
 pointed governor of all the countries south of the Kistna, 
 and was granted as a personal jagir the fortress of 
 Valdavur, with its lands and villages, and 10,000 a 
 year; Chunda Sahib was formally appointed Nawab 
 of the Carnatic under the French governor ; 50,000 
 were given to the soldiers; and the same sum, with 
 land yielding 40,000 a year, to the French Company. 
 
 Dupleix now assumed the state and ceremony of an 
 oriental prince. He clad himself in costly native 
 dresses, trimmed with jewels, and held regular durbars, 
 at which even the members of his council were com- 
 pelled to offer the customary presents on bended knee.
 
 36 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 He was always surrounded \>\ richly-attired attendants, 
 and when he rode out on his elephant he was accom- 
 panied by men bearing the banners and emblems 
 appropriate to his rank. With a deep knowledge of 
 the native character, he decreed the foundation of a 
 town, to be called Diipleix-Futtehabad (the place of the 
 victory of Dupleix), on the spot where Nasir Jung fell. 
 His energy, his tact, and his audacity had been re- 
 warded by marvellous but well -deserved success ; he 
 ruled southern India through a puppet prince, and his 
 dreams of empire were at last realised. French suprem- 
 acy seemed so firmly established in the Carnatic that 
 Dupleix allowed De Bussy, with a small European force, 
 to accompany Muzuffar Jung to Aurungabad. They left 
 Pondicherry in January 1751, and not long after there 
 was another revolution, during which Muzuffar Jung 
 was killed. M. de Bussy proclaimed Salabat Jung, one 
 of the imprisoned sons of Nizam ul-Mulk, Subadar, and 
 obtained from him a confirmation of all grants made by 
 his predecessor to Dupleix. The army then continued 
 its march. 
 
 In the summer of 1750 the government of Fort St. 
 David had passed into the hands of Mr. Saunders, a man 
 of sound judgment, great courage, and indomitable 
 firmness. He saw the danger to which the death of Nasir 
 Jung had exposed the English settlements, and that the 
 establishment of French supremacy was incompatible 
 with their existence. Lawrence had left, and the British 
 force on the coast was much inferior to that of the 
 French, yet with a courage and promptitude that have 
 never been sufficiently acknowledged, he decided to 
 support Mahomed AH with all the means at his dis-
 
 in PANIC OF THE ENGLISH 37 
 
 posal. In January 1751 Captain Cope was sent with a 
 strong detachment to Trichinopoly, and an unsuccessful 
 attempt was made to capture Madura. In March 
 the French took the field, and an English force under 
 Captain Gingen, with whom Clive, now restored to 
 health, served as commissariat officer, was ordered to 
 observe them. Having ascertained that their destina- 
 tion was Trichinopol}*, Gingen established himself at 
 Volcondah, a large town forty-five miles from Trichi- 
 nopoly on the road to Arcot. On July 20th an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to take the fort at that place led to a 
 disgraceful panic. The English fled amidst the taunts of 
 their native allies and abandoned their camp, guns, and 
 ammunition. With hardly an attempt at resistance they 
 were driven from one strong position to another until, 
 on July 28th, they found safety beneath the walls of 
 Trichinopoly. Clive, who with others had attempted 
 to rally the fugitives, returned to Fort St. David, where 
 his gallantry was afterwards rewarded by promotion to 
 the rank of captain. 
 
 The town of Trichinopoly is situated in a plain about 
 half a mile from the right bank of the Cauvery, and at 
 the time of the siege it was rectangular in form, and 
 nearly four miles in circumference. It was protected 
 by a double enceinte of masonry with flanking towers, 
 and by a ditch thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. 
 In the north quarter of the town a large mass of gneiss, 
 crowned by a Siva temple, rose abruptly to a height 
 of two hundred and thirty-six feet, and afforded a com- 
 manding view over the historic plain upon which England 
 and France contended for the supremacy of India. The 
 plain, though apparently level, is full of hollow ways,
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 which afford good cover for troops, and give a person 
 thoroughly acquainted with the ground great advan- 
 tages ; and water can always be obtained. South of the 
 town the rock is everywhere close to the surface, and 
 in this direction are the Sugar-loaf Eock, and the 
 Golden Eock, about a hundred feet high ; while to 
 the east are some low hills, known as the French 
 Eocks, and the almost inaccessible rock of Elmiseram. 
 These rocks were much used by both armies, and one 
 of them, the Golden Eock, was immortalised by the 
 heroism of Lawrence's grenadiers. Some twelve miles 
 west of Trichinopoly the Cauvery is divided by the island 
 of Seringham into two branches, which would naturally 
 reunite fifteen miles east of the town if they were not 
 kept apart by an ancient dam. The northern arm takes 
 the name of Colerun, and, after a course of ninety miles, 
 reaches the sea near Devicotta; the southern spreads 
 out into innumerable channels, and converts the district 
 of Tanjore into the garden of southern India. On an 
 island, in face of Trichinopoly, is the celebrated pagoda 
 of Seringham, with its hall of a thousand columns and its 
 elaborately-carved granite monoliths, and not far from 
 it is the less important temple of Jamba Kishna. The 
 island, with its two pagodas, is a convenient position for 
 a besieging army that can keep its communications open ; 
 when that ceases to be the case it becomes a trap. The 
 ancient dam, erected to regulate the irrigation of Tanjore, 
 was protected by the fort of Koiladi, which belonged to 
 Trichinopoly, and the rulers of this place, by threatening 
 to cut off the water supply, could always ensure the sub- 
 mission of Tanjore. A knowledge of this fact ranged 
 the Eajah of Tanjore on the side of the English, and
 
 in SIEGE OF TRICHINOPOLY 39 
 
 for a long time their only communication between the 
 coast and Trichinopoly was through his territory. 
 
 When Captain Gingen fell back on Trichinopoly, 
 Chunda Sahib and the French, under M. Law, occupied 
 Seringham, and, crossing the Cauvery, established bat- 
 teries at the French Rocks, to the east of the town. 
 Mr. Saunders, who was fully alive to the gravity of the 
 crisis, determined to hold on at all hazards to Trichino- 
 poly. Reinforcements arrived from England at the end of 
 June, and soon afterwards Mr. Pigot, a member of Council, 
 and Clive succeeded in passing men and stores into the 
 town. As they were returning they were attacked, and 
 had to seek safety in flight after their ammunition was 
 exhausted, and seven of their small escort of twelve 
 sepoys had been killed. A little later, Clive, after a 
 sharp skirmish with the French, entered Trichinopoly 
 with a second convoy. On his return to Fort St. David 
 in August he drew a lamentable picture of the condition 
 of the garrison. The men were disheartened, and had 
 lost all confidence in their commander. The officers 
 were without enterprise ; they passed their time in 
 quarrelling, and made no attempt to annoy the enemy, 
 who were in superior force, and seemed inclined to 
 press the siege vigorously. It was clear that the town 
 would fall unless a vigorous effort were made to relieve 
 it; and that, when it fell, the safety of the British 
 settlements would be seriously endangered. The position 
 of the English Avas in truth well-nigh desperate. 
 
 This crisis of the Avar was Clive's opportunity. 
 With true military instinct he saw that Dupleix, by 
 detaching De Bussy to Aurungabad, and sending M. 
 Law and Chunda Sahib to Trichinopoly, had left Arcot
 
 40 LORD CLIVE 
 
 unprotected ; and that an attack on the capital of the 
 Carnatic would probably induce the enemy to detach a 
 portion of his besieging force from Trichinopoly for 
 its protection. He proposed to the Governor of Fort 
 St. David to lead an expedition against Arcot, and his 
 suggestion was eagerly adopted. Mr. Saunders almost 
 denuded Madras and Fort St. David of troops to form 
 the detachment ; though after all it only consisted of 
 two hundred Europeans and three hundred sepoys, 
 with three light field -pieces. To command the men 
 there were eight officers, of whom six had never seen 
 a shot fired in anger, and four had, like tfeeir chief, 
 exchanged the pen for the sword. With this small 
 force, apparently so little fitted for a perilous enter- 
 prise, Clive marched out of Madras, on September 
 6th, to win deathless renown. On the 9th he was 
 at Conjeveram, and, hearing there that Arcot was 
 garrisoned by eleven hundred men, sent back to 
 Madras for two eighteen -pounders. There was, how- 
 ever, no pause, and on the llth the detachment, after 
 marching with unbroken ranks through one of those 
 fierce thunderstorms that occasionally sweep over the 
 plains of the Carnatic, halted within ten miles of 
 Arcot. During the march Clive showed that he pos- 
 sessed that insight into native character which is so 
 essential to success in an oriental country, and proved 
 himself a born leader of men. In six short days he 
 welded his hastily-gathered force together, and imparted 
 to it his own enthusiastic confidence in the result of the 
 enterprise. The natives were awed by the strict discipline 
 maintained, and by the steady onward march, unchecked 
 by the horrors of the driving storm. The garrison fled
 
 CLIVE HOLDS ARCOT 41 
 
 without firing a shot, and the British column marched 
 through streets thronged with one hundred thousand 
 wondering spectators, to take possession of the fort. 
 
 The prize was won, but Clive knew well that the enemy 
 would dispute his power to keep it as soon as they had 
 recovered from their panic and realised the smallness of 
 his force. Preparations were at once made to resist the 
 inevitable siege. The principal inhabitants were con- 
 ciliated by the restoration of their property ; the towns- 
 people were so well treated that they remained neutral 
 throughout the operations ; provisions and stores were 
 collected ; the existing defences were strengthened, and 
 new works thrown up. A purely defensive policy, how 
 ever, would have created a bad impression, and was 
 little suited to the impetuosity of Olive's character. 
 On September 15th and 17th he beat up the enemy's 
 quarters, and on the 25th he surprised their camp 
 before daylight, and completely dispersed them without 
 the loss of a man. Shortly afterwards the enemy, em- 
 boldened by the absence of a strong detachment, which 
 had been sent to Conjeveram to meet and escort the two 
 eighteen-pounders from Madras, hazarded a night attack. 
 Two attempts were made to force the main gates, and 
 throughout the night a continuous fire of musketry was 
 directed against the fort ; but everywhere a bold front 
 was shown by the garrison, and when, in the gray dawn, 
 the absent detachment was seen entering the town the 
 enemy fled. Meantime the occupation of Arcot had 
 produced the desired effect. Chunda Sahib detached four 
 thousand men from the force with which he was block- 
 ading Trichinopoly, and entrusted the recovery of his 
 capital to his son, Rezza Sahib, who was joined on the
 
 42 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 march by one hundred and fifty French soldiers from 
 Pondicherry. 
 
 Rezza Sahib entered the city on October 3rd, and took 
 up his quarters in the palace of the Nawab. The next day 
 Clive made a vigorous sortie, and drove the French troops 
 from their guns ; but he was unable to follow up his ad- 
 vantage, and was eventually obliged to withdraw with 
 heavy loss. On the 6th Murtaza Ali joined Rezza Sahib 
 with two thousand men, and completed the investment. 
 The siege that followed is one of the most remarkable 
 in history. The fort was near the centre of the town, 
 and more than a mile in circumference. The walls 
 were crumbling. The ramparts were too narrow for 
 guns in action. The parapets were low and of peril- 
 ously weak profile. The flanking towers were either in 
 ruins or so small that only one gun could be mounted 
 on each. The fausse-braie was unfinished and had no 
 parapet. The wet ditch, nearly everywhere fordable, 
 was in places dry or choked with rubbish. The two 
 gateways, huge piles of masonry projecting forty feet 
 beyond the wall, were approached by solid causeways 
 that had no drawbridges; and the houses, which ran 
 up to the foot of the glads, gave excellent cover to 
 sharpshooters within easy musket-shot of the ramparts. 
 Such was the place that Clive dared to defend with a 
 handful of men against an army of one hundred and 
 fifty Europeans, two thousand trained sepoys, three thou- 
 sand native cavalry and five thousand native footmen. 
 For seven long weeks the fort was girdled with fire : 
 from the adjoining houses came a ceaseless rattle of 
 musketry, from the gun and mortar batteries an almost 
 continuous storm of shot and shell. Incautious exposure
 
 m HIS GALLANT DEFENCE 43 
 
 on the ramparts was certain death, and no one was 
 allowed to remain upon them except those whose duty 
 it was to watch the foe. Clive, whose sleepless vigil- 
 ance and fearless courage were conspicuous throughout, 
 kept up the spirits of his men by repeated sorties. He 
 constructed retrenchments in rear of the breaches in the 
 walls, and raised a mound from which his gunners 
 could fire upon the Nawab's palace. Messengers to beg 
 for aid were despatched to Madras and to Morar Rao, 
 the Mahratta chieftain, who, though engaged to assist 
 Mahomed Ali, was waiting to see which side would 
 prove the stronger. A small detachment sent from 
 Madras was compelled to return without attaining its 
 object. Morar Rao, filled with admiration of the fighting 
 qualities of Clive and his men, promised immediate 
 assistance. 
 
 On November 10th Eezza Sahib made a last attempt 
 to bribe Clive, and, when that failed, to intimidate 
 him into a peaceful surrender of the fort ; his over- 
 tures and threats were alike treated with contempt. 
 On the 20th the garrison were cheered by the ap- 
 pearance of the Mahratta horsemen, who swept like a 
 Avhirlwind round the city and intercepted the enemy's 
 supplies. About the same time news reached Rezza Sahib 
 that the Madras detachment, strongly reinforced, was 
 again advancing under Captain Kilpatrick, and he 
 determined to hazard an assault before its arrival com- 
 pelled him to retire. The day selected for the attempt 
 was the first of Moharram, the festival of the martyred 
 Imams, Hassan and Hussein, which fell that year on 
 November 25th. Clive, warned by his spies of the 
 designs of the enemy, made his dispositions, and then,
 
 44 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 worn out with fatigue, lay down to sleep. The assault 
 was delivered at dawn, and the stormers, inflamed to 
 madness by bang, and impelled by religious frenzy, 
 rushed forward with impetuosity to win death and the 
 joys of Paradise in the deadly breach. Four columns 
 advanced to the attack. Two tried to force open the 
 gates by employing elephants, with iron plates on their 
 heads, as battering-rams ; but the huge beasts, galled by 
 the musketry fire from the fort, turned and, charging 
 the advancing columns, threw them into disorder. The 
 remaining columns attempted to storm the two breaches. 
 The assailants crossed the ditch and crowded into the 
 unfinished faiisse-braie and the breaches. The defenders 
 reserved their fire until the stormers reached the ditches 
 of the retrenchments, and then delivered it with crushing 
 effect. Hand-grenades and shells, previously prepared, 
 were rolled over the parapet into the surging crowds in 
 the fausse-braie, while the supports, as they advanced, 
 were met by a heavy fire of musketry and artillery. 
 Clive himself, at a critical moment, laid one of the field- 
 pieces with his own hands, and sank a raft on which the 
 enemy were crossing the ditch. After an hour's struggle 
 the enemy were repulsed at every point, and the shattered 
 columns slowly withdrew to the adjacent houses, whence 
 they kept up a harassing fire against the fort. Suddenly 
 the firing ceased. The enemy had hurriedly decamped, 
 leaving guns, ammunition, and treasure chest behind ; 
 and when daylight broke, two hundred unconquered 
 soldiers, who had survived the perils of the siege, 
 marched out to reap the fruits of victory. Who shall 
 apportion praise where all were worthy ? Officers and 
 men, European and sepoy, were animated by the same
 
 in HIS SUCCESS IN OPEN FIELD 45 
 
 undaunted spirit; they were one in their absolute 
 devotion to the young chief who had taught them to 
 triumph over every obstacle, and one in their heroic 
 endurance of hardship and privation. When the rice 
 began to fail the sepoys begged that the grain might 
 be reserved for their European comrades, and that 
 they might be given only the water in which it was 
 boiled. Military history, full as it is of noble acts of 
 heroism, records no more touching instance of self- 
 devotion. 
 
 On the evening of the 26th Kilpatrick marched into 
 Arcot with the long-expected reinforcements, and on 
 the 30th Clive took the field with two hundred Euro- 
 peans, seven hundred sepoys, and one thousand Mahratta 
 horse. After receiving the submission of Timeri, and 
 makine: a demonstration towards Vellore, he marched 
 
 o ' 
 
 on Ami, and on December 14th defeated Rezza Sahib 
 and a force of "five thousand men, including three 
 hundred Europeans who had recently arrived from 
 Pondicherry. The victory, which was greatly due to 
 the skilful use made by Clive of his artillery, was com- 
 plete ; the enemy retired in disorder, and much booty 
 fell into the hands of the victors. The effect produced 
 by this first success of the English in the open field was 
 instantaneous ; six hundred trained sepoys passed over 
 with their arms, and were enrolled in the British force ; 
 and many of the small local chiefs submitted to Ma- 
 homed Ali. The force of Rezza Sahib having thus 
 been dispersed, Clive determined to reduce the great 
 pagoda of Conjeveram, on the line of communication 
 between Madras and Arcot, which was still occupied ])y 
 the French. The commandant held out until the walla
 
 46 LORD CLIVE 
 
 were breached, and then evacuated the pagoda. Olive, 
 after destroying the defences and reinforcing the garri- 
 son of Arcot, returned to Madras, and thence proceeded 
 to Fort St. David to report to Government on the 
 insult of his campaign.
 
 CAVERIPAK TRICHINOPOLY 
 
 CLIVE had no sooner retired from the field than Rezza 
 Sahib began to reassemble his troops and ravage the 
 Company's territory. Villages were burned, and even 
 the country houses of the English at the foot of St. 
 Thomas's Mount were plundered. The Compaq's 
 revenue was so seriously impaired by these inroads 
 that it was deemed indispensable to check them 
 before an attempt was made to relieve Trichinopoly. 
 Early in February Clive was sent to Madras, and on 
 the 22nd he again took the field with three hundred 
 and eighty Europeans, one thousand three hundred 
 sepoys, and six field -pieces. The force opposed to 
 him, which consisted of four hundred Europeans, two 
 thousand sepoys, two thousand five hundred native 
 cavalry, and a large train of artillery, was then lying in 
 an entrenched camp at Vendalore, about seventeen miles 
 south-west of Madras. Clive, half of whose men had 
 been drawn from the Arcot garrison, marched on Ven- 
 dalore, and on reaching that place ascertained that Rezza 
 Sahib had broken up his camp and concentrated at Con- 
 jeveram. He at once realised the serious danger to which 
 Arcot was exposed, and fearing the result of a sudden
 
 48 LORD CUTE CHAP. 
 
 attack on its weakened garrison, made a forced march 
 to Conjeveram, which surrendered at the first summons. 
 The troops were too fatigued to continue their march 
 that day, but next morning they followed Rezza Sahib. 
 who was now known to be in full march on Arcot. At 
 sunset, when in sight of Caveripak, the column unex- 
 pectedly came into contact with the enemy, and was 
 greeted by a heavy fire from nine guns, which had been 
 posted in a thick mango grove some two hundred and 
 fifty yards to the right of the road. Clive, whose 
 presence of mind never forsook him, at once provided 
 for the safety of his baggage, and disposed his troops 
 for action. He ordered part of them to take cover in a 
 watercourse to the left of the road, and sent the re- 
 mainder to hold Rezza Sahib's cavalry in check on the 
 plain beyond. After two hours' desultory fighting by 
 moonlight, during which the English guns were almost 
 silenced by the superior fire of the enemy, Clive saw that 
 he must either gain possession of the guns in the grove or 
 retire. The French battery was protected in front by a 
 ditch and bank and supported by one hundred Europeans 
 and a large force of sepoys, but a sergeant who had been 
 sent forward to reconnoitre reported that the enemy were 
 eagerly watching the fight in front and had posted no 
 sentries behind the grove. Clive immediately ordered 
 a detachment to attack the battery in rear, and for a 
 short distance accompanied its advance. On his return 
 he found that the men in the watercourse, discouraged 
 by his absence, were on the point of giving way, and it 
 was with some difficulty that he was able to rally them. 
 Soon afterwards the detachment, after narrowly escaping 
 detection, entered the grove and delivered a volley at
 
 iv DECLINE OF THE FRENCH POWER 49 
 
 thirty yards. The enemy, taken by surprise, abandoned 
 their guns and fled, Avhilst the English remained under 
 arms until daylight disclosed the completeness of the 
 victory they had won. The army which Dupleix had raised 
 with so much difficulty was destroyed, and the reputa- 
 tion of the British arms was firmly established. 
 
 Clive, after receiving the surrender of the fort at 
 Caveripak, marched to Arcot, and next day moved to- 
 wards Vellore. But whilst on the march he received 
 orders to return to Fort St. David with his whole force 
 and take command of an expedition for the relief of 
 Trichinopoly. On his way to the coast he passed the 
 rising town of Dupleix-Futtehabad, where Dupleix had 
 planned the erection of a lofty monument, with inscrip- 
 tions in various Eastern languages to commemorate the 
 triumph of his arms. Clive, who well understood the 
 impressionable nature of the native character, deter- 
 mined to remove all visible trace of French supremacy. 
 The stately buildings were razed to the ground, and 
 the spell of Dupleix's genius was broken when it was 
 known that an Englishman had dared to destroy his 
 most cherished trophies. 
 
 Three days after his arrival at Fort St. David, Clive 
 was again ready to take the field, and he was on the 
 point of marching when Lawrence arrived from England 
 and assumed the command as senior officer. It was no 
 doubt a great disappointment, but he cheerfully took 
 service under his old chief, and remained with him 
 throughout the operations, The gallant defence of 
 Arcot had induced the Eajahs of Mysore and Tanjore to 
 support Mahomed Ali, and at the close of 1751 the 
 garrison of Trichinopoly was awaiting the arrival of the 
 
 E
 
 50 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Mysore army which was on its way from Seringapatam. 
 A junction was effected on February 6th, 1752, after 
 two affairs with the enemy, in one of which the English 
 were worsted ; and shortly afterwards a small force 
 arrived from Tanjore. Captain Gingen, who commanded 
 at Trichinopoly, was without ability and without enter- 
 prise; and the fatal spirit of division amongst the 
 officers, to which we have already alluded, had lowered 
 them in the estimation of the native princes. Towards 
 the end of March the situation had become serious, and 
 the safety of the town depended upon Lawrence's rapid 
 advance. Dupleix, kept well informed of the move- 
 ments of the English, was fully alive to the gravity of 
 the crisis, and knew that if he could only crush the 
 relieving column Trichinopoly would fall, and French 
 influence be firmly re-established. He had repeatedly 
 pressed M. Law to storm the town while Clive was at 
 Arcot, and now he sent forward every soldier he could 
 spare, and ordered him to mass his troops and attack 
 Lawrence while on the march. Law decided to Avait until 
 the English column reached the vicinity of Trichinopoly, 
 but when the time for action came he was so morbidly 
 anxious for the safety of his camp and his communica- 
 tions that he divided his force instead of massing it, 
 and lost his opportunity. 
 
 Lawrence marched from Fort St. David on March 28th, 
 and on April 7th arrived within eighteen miles of Trichino- 
 poly. The next day he passed within range of the guns of 
 Koiladi fort, and on the 9th he completely outmanoeuvred 
 Law and entered the town with his convoy. On this last 
 occasion Clive distinguished himself by seizing a large 
 stone building on the plain, and holding the French in
 
 iv BEFORE TRICHINOPOLY 51 
 
 check while the relieving column filed past. On the 
 10th Lawrence arranged with the Nawab and his allies 
 to attack the French camp, but natives, ready and 
 resolute as they appear to be in council, are slow and 
 dilatory in execution. They are tied down by fasts and 
 feasts, by lucky and unlucky days, and the opportunity is 
 lost before they are ready to attack. Such was the case 
 in this instance. Law became aware of the design, and 
 on the 14th, without having been defeated in the field, 
 and in spite of the protests of Chunda Sahib, he burned 
 his stores and withdrew to Seringham. He committed 
 the fatal mistake of massing his troops on an island, in 
 the presence of a force strong enough to operate on both 
 sides of the river. Lawrence, an experienced soldier, 
 well tried in many a hard fight, was not the man to 
 allow such a blunder to remain unpunished. On the 
 17th he 1 ordered Clive with a picked body of troops to 
 cross the river and take up a position that would enable 
 him to intercept all supplies sent from Pondicherry. 
 The selection of Clive, who was the junior captain with 
 the force, for this service led to a remonstrance on the 
 part of his seniors, but the question was soon settled by 
 the refusal of the Mahrattas and native allies to serve 
 under any other leader. The detachment crossed the two 
 rivers before daylight and occupied the two pagodas and 
 village of Samiaveram, ten miles from Seringham, on the 
 high road to Pondicherry. 
 
 On the 19th Lawrence visited Clive to concert 
 further measures, and arrangements were then made 
 to attack the fortified pagoda of Pitchanda, which 
 protected the passage of the river opposite Seringham. 
 The fort of Lalgudi, in which grain for ten thousand
 
 52 LORD CLIVE 
 
 men for two months had been, stored, was stormed on 
 the 22nd ; and, on the 26th, Clive, after leaving a small 
 party at the pagodas, moved out to intercept D'Auteuil, 
 who was reported to be at Uttatur with a convoy and 
 reinforcements. On reaching Uttatur he could hear 
 nothing of the French convoy, and, suspecting that he 
 was the victim of a ruse to draw him from his post, 
 he hurriedly retraced his steps and re-entered Samia- 
 veram about 11 P.M., after having marched thirty miles 
 since daybreak. Law, who had been informed of the 
 march, ordered a detachment of eighty Europeans, of 
 whom forty were English deserters, and seven hundred 
 sepoys to march after dark and attack the pagodas at 
 dawn. The French, unaware of Clive's return, reached 
 Samiaveram about 4 A.M. on the 27th, and were challenged 
 by the English sentries, who, receiving the answer 
 "Friends" from one of the deserters, suspected nothing 
 until the French fired a volley. Clive, springing from 
 his bed, which was struck by a shot, ran towards the 
 firing, and thus joined the French sepoys as they were 
 forcing their way into the lower pagoda. Believing them 
 to be his own men seeking shelter under the influence of 
 a panic, he began to abuse them in their own language, 
 when one of the native officers, suspecting him to be an 
 Englishman, attempted to cut him down. Clive parried 
 the blow by running in and receiving it from the hilt on 
 his shoulder, and then, realising his mistake, disengaged 
 himself and went in search of his European detachment, 
 which he found drawn up under arms. Meantime the 
 French had obtained possession of the pagoda, and in an 
 attempt to retake it an officer and several men were killed. 
 It was then decided to bring the guns up and wait for
 
 iv NARROW ESCAPE OF CLIVE 53 
 
 daylight. When day broke the French commander at- 
 tempted to cut his way out at the head of his troops, 
 but he and the leading men were shot down, and those 
 who escaped retired to the pagoda. Clive now "ad- 
 vanced into the porch of the gate to parley with the 
 enemy, and, being weak with the loss of blood and fatigue, 
 stood with his back to the wall of the porch, and leaned, 
 stooping forward, on the shoulders of two sergeants. 
 The officer of the English deserters presented himself 
 with great insolence, and telling Captain Clive with 
 abusive language that he would shoot him, fired his 
 musket. The ball missed him, but went through the 
 bodies of both the sergeants on whom he was leaning, 
 and they both fell mortally wounded." The French 
 within the pagoda soon afterwards surrendered ; but 
 their sepoys, who were outside, tried to escape, and 
 were sabred to a man by the Mahratta horse. Pit- 
 chanda submitted on May 21st, and on June 8th 
 D'Auteuil, who had been collecting stores at Volcondah, 
 surrendered with his whole force to Clive. Law was 
 now completely cut off from Pondicherry and had lost all 
 hope of relief; desertions on a large scale became frequent, 
 and on the 14th he capitulated. The same day Chunda 
 Sahib, who had previously given himself up to the Tan- 
 jore general, was barbarously murdered in circumstances 
 not altogether creditable to Lawrence and the English. 
 
 The surrender of Law was followed by disputes 
 betAveen Mahomed AH and his allies, which were 
 fostered by Diipleix as a means of retrieving the dis- 
 aster to his arms. Mahomed Ali, who had promised 
 Trichinopoly to the Rajah of Mysore as the price of 
 his assistance, declined to hand the town over until
 
 54 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 he had been placed in full possession of the Carnatic. 
 The Mysore general insisted on the fulfilment of the 
 agreement. The Rajah of Tan j ore could not allow the 
 town to fall into the hands of Mysore. And Morar Rao, 
 the Mahratta chief, urged both sides to stand firm, in the 
 hope that a quarrel might break out which would give 
 him a chance of seizing the prize. Lawrence, after vainly 
 pressing the native chiefs to advance on Arcot, moved 
 northwards, and on July 18th reached Tiruvadi, Avhere 
 he was taken ill and obliged to hand over the command 
 to Captain Gingen. The Governor, though temporarily 
 deprived of his best leaders for Clive also was ill was 
 unwilling to remain inactive, and determined to complete 
 the discomfiture of the French by capturing Gingi, the 
 only important fortress that remained in their hands. 
 Lawrence, ill as he was, went to Madras to protest 
 against an expedition which, without a leader of the 
 stamp of Clive or De Bussy, was foredoomed to failure ; 
 but his opinion was overruled by Mr. Saunders, and the 
 result was disastrous. The English were beaten, and 
 the French, following up their success, advanced to the 
 bounds of Fort St. David. The advantages gained by 
 the brilliant operations round Trichinopoly were lost, 
 and the situation became so serious that Lawrence, 
 though still unwell, was obliged to take the field. On 
 August 28th he left Fort St. David, and two days 
 later defeated the French, and took Dupleix's nephew, 
 who was in command, prisoner. The bad impression 
 produced by the failure of the Gingi expedition Avas 
 thus removed, and the Mahrattas, whose attitude had 
 become doubtful, rejoined Lawrence, and helped him to 
 reduce the country round Pondicherry.
 
 iv HE DEFEATS THE FRENCH AGAIN 55 
 
 The north-east monsoon was now at hand, and 
 before it broke Governor Saunders wished to turn the 
 French out of Covilam and Chingleput, two forts of great 
 strength some twenty and forty miles respectively to 
 the south of Madras. The only troops available for 
 the attack were two hundred European recruits, the 
 sweepings of the London jails, who had recently 
 arrived, and five hundred untrained sepoys. Few 
 officers would have ventured to risk their reputation 
 by leading such men, but Clive, with that supreme 
 self-confidence which enabled him to triumph over 
 apparently unsurmountable obstacles, at once volun- 
 teered for the command. He left Madras with four 
 twenty -four -pounders and a detachment so little dis- 
 ciplined that it fled in terror when, on taking up a posi- 
 tion in front of Covilam, an officer was killed. He had 
 the greatest difficulty in stopping the flight of his men, 
 and in leading them back to the fort ; and it was only 
 by constantly exposing himself wherever the fire was 
 hottest that he succeeded in winning their confidence 
 and shaming them into steadiness. There is no more 
 striking instance of the magic influence of Clive's brilliant 
 courage and contempt for danger. The fort soon fell, 
 and the morning it capitulated a detachment advancing 
 to its relief was defeated. Clive followed up his success 
 by pushing on to Chingleput, which surrendered as soon 
 as its walls had been breached. He then returned to 
 Madras. 
 
 The operations in the field during 1752 had on 
 the whole been unfavourable to the French. The 
 intrigues with the native princes, which Dupleix set on 
 foot after the Seringham disaster, and conducted with
 
 56 LORD CLIVE 
 
 consummate skill, were more successful. Before the 
 close of the year the Mahrattas had openly joined the 
 French, and the Mysore general, to whom Seringham 
 had been entrusted, had followed their example. On 
 January 17th, 1753, Lawrence again took the field, but 
 dive's health was so completely broken that he was 
 compelled to return to England. He embarked in 
 February 1753, shortly after his marriage with Miss 
 Margaret Maskelyne, sister of Dr. Nevil Maskelyne, 
 afterwards Astronomer-Royal, and of Edmund Maske- 
 lyne, with whom he had escaped from Madras when the 
 terms of the capitulation were ignored by Dupleix. 
 
 In this, the first period of his career, Clive had shown 
 that he possessed, in its fullest extent, that most striking 
 of all human qualities true valour. He had rendered 
 himself conspicuous by volunteering for all services of 
 danger, and by exhibiting in them a rare combination of 
 daring courage, sound judgment, quickness of apprehen- 
 sion, and readiness of resource. To personal danger 
 he was absolutely indifferent ; for death he had a lofty 
 contempt ; in sudden emergencies his presence of mind 
 was remarkable ; his heroic spirit rose superior to the 
 depressing influences of disease; when hostilities were 
 imminent the gloom that overshadowed his life disap- 
 peared ; the din of battle, the smell of powder, steadied 
 his nerves and cleared his head, and the excitement of 
 action served but to increase the activity of his mind. 
 Born with an undoubted genius for war, he never re- 
 ceived that training which would have made him a great 
 general. He was no consummate master of the art of 
 war like Maryborough, Napoleon, or Wellington. There 
 is little trace of skilful combination in his plans.
 
 iv HIS INFLUENCE OVER THE NATIVES 57 
 
 and on some occasions he appears to have neglected 
 the most obvious military precautions. To seek the 
 enemy and, on finding him, to attack with headlong 
 valour seems to have been his guiding principle, and his 
 successes were due rather to his personal intrepidity, and 
 to his power of inspiring large masses of men with con- 
 fidence, than to studied plans or dexterous manoeuvres. 
 His influence over natives was unbounded ; and he pos- 
 sessed in an eminent degree the qualities requisite in 
 a successful leader of native troops. No man more fully 
 understood their character, or more completely won their 
 confidence. His insensibility to danger and his reckless 
 courage exerted such magic influence over their minds 
 that they were ready to follow him in the most desperate 
 enterprises. His men believed that wherever he went 
 glory and victory followed ; throughout India he was 
 known as Sabat Jung (Daring in War) ; and it may be 
 said of him, as it was of Napoleon, that his presence on 
 the field of battle was equivalent to forty thousand men. 
 Lord Chatham once paid Clive the compliment of call- 
 ing him a "heaven-born general"; and on another occasion 
 he described him more happily as a man "whose resolution 
 would charm the King of Prussia, and whose presence 
 of mind has astonished the Indies." Stringer Lawrence, 
 under whom Clive first distinguished himself, writes of 
 the Arcot expedition in the following terms : " This 
 expedition was attended with uncommon success, which 
 some people were pleased to term fortunate and lucky ; 
 but, in my opinion, from the knowledge I have of the 
 gentleman, he deserved, and might expect from his con- 
 duct, everything as it fell out. A man of an undaunted 
 resolution, of a cool temper, and a presence of mind
 
 58 LORD CUTE 
 
 which never left him in the greatest danger. Born a 
 soldier, for without a military education of any sort, or 
 much conversing with any of the profession, from his 
 judgment and good sense, he led an army like an ex- 
 perienced officer and a brave soldier, with a prudence 
 that certainly warranted success. This young man's 
 early genius surprised and engaged my attention as well 
 before as at the siege of Devicotta, where he behaved 
 in courage and judgment much beyond what could be 
 expected from his years, and his success afterwards con- 
 firmed Avhat I had said to many people concerning 
 him." 
 
 In considering this period of Olive's career it should 
 not be forgotten that Dupleix was the first to conceive 
 the brilliant idea of Indian Empire, and that the French 
 first made the three capital discoveries for the conquest 
 of India that native armies were unable to resist 
 the disciplined troops of Europe ; that European dis- 
 cipline could be readily imparted to natives ; and that, 
 in Asiatic warfare, the true way to victory is to attack 
 boldly and Avithout hesitation. To the young English 
 clerk belongs the glory of having made those discoveries 
 his own, and of having applied them with a cool self- 
 confidence that commanded success. His brilliant de- 
 fence of Arcot saved the Company's settlements on the 
 Coromandel coast from destruction, and taught the wild 
 Mahratta horsemen, no less than the native levies and 
 allies of Dupleix, that the English could fight. It 
 was the turning-point of the fortunes of the English in 
 India. His victory at Caveripak and his destruction of 
 Dupleix's trophies, broke the spell of French invincibility, 
 and showed the natives that the crisis had brought forth
 
 iv HIS RECEPTION IN ENGLAND 59 
 
 an Englishman who was not only able but ready to dis- 
 pute the extravagant claims of the French governor. 
 Unfortunately there is no correspondence to throw light 
 on the motives that guided Olive's conduct during this 
 period of his life. He was determined to advance by 
 merit and not by interest; and he was apparently 
 animated by a sincere determination to promote the 
 welfare of the Company and by an ardent desire for 
 distinction. In some sense he seems to have looked 
 upon himself as an instrument of the Divine Will. 
 Speaking long afterwards in the House of Commons 
 he is reported to have said : "In this critical situation 
 I was called forth, and it pleased God to make me the 
 instrument of their (the Company's) delivery." It was 
 indeed patent to every one that British interests in 
 India had been saved from destruction by the genius 
 and energy of one man, and the "hero of Arcot," 
 on reaching England, was received with those flatter- 
 ing marks of regard which are so freely offered to 
 the successful soldier. The fame of his exploits had 
 preceded him. His father, who, on first hearing of 
 his son's success, had remarked that " the booby 
 had some sense after all," had lost no opportunity 
 of sounding his praises. His brave conduct and his 
 success were the talk and wonder of the public ; and, 
 in the conversation of the day, he was compared to the 
 great generals of former times. The Court of Directors 
 had written to the Governor of Fort St. David of " the 
 
 
 
 great regard " they had " for the merit of Captain Clive, 
 to whose courage and conduct the late turn in our 
 affairs has been mainly owing; he may be assured of 
 our having a just sense of his services." They had
 
 60 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 toasted him at their banquets as " General " Clive ; and, 
 after his return to England they voted him a diamond- 
 hilted sword, worth 500, " as a token of their esteem, 
 and of his singular services to the Company on the 
 coast of Coromandel." With rare good taste and feeling 
 he declined this last distinction unless a similar honour 
 were conferred upon his master in the art of war 
 Stringer Lawrence. 
 
 Clive had brought home a fair fortune, and his first 
 use of it was to clear off the encumbrances on the family 
 estate and pay his father's debts. He was, however, 
 soon carried away by the attention paid to him in 
 society, and, partly from vanity, partly from ambition, 
 led a life of extravagance far beyond his means. His 
 dress, his liveries, his carriages and his horses were 
 brilliant and costly even for those times ; and his outlay 
 on these luxuries, combined Avith the expense of a con- 
 tested election followed by a petition, nearly involved 
 him in pecuniary difficulties. While dive's name was 
 in every mouth, Henry Pelham, who had been almost 
 uninterruptedly Prime Minister since the fall of Walpole, 
 died, and was succeeded in the Government by the 
 Duke of Newcastle. On April 8tb, 1754, Parliament 
 was dissolved, and in the elections that followed those 
 rendered memorable by the pictures of Hogarth Clive 
 stood for the borough of St. Michael's in Cornwall, 
 which then returned two members. Newcastle hoped 
 to secure the return of both, but he was opposed by 
 Lord Sandwich and Fox. Clive, who had attracted the 
 favourable notice of Fox, was brought forward in the 
 Sandwich interest, and, thanks to a large expenditure 
 of money, was returned. A petition Avas presented
 
 iv UNSEATED FOR PARLIAMENT 61 
 
 against his return, and the case was brought before a 
 Committee of the whole House. A fierce party contest 
 ensued, which was rather a trial of strength between 
 the parties of Newcastle and Fox in the new House of 
 Commons than an impartial examination into the merits 
 of the election. The Committee decided in favour of 
 Clive, but, when the resolution was reported, the Tories, 
 who hated Fox more than they despised Newcastle, 
 voted with the Government and Clive was unseated. 
 He was greatly disappointed ; he could no longer look 
 forward to a political career in England ; the fashionable 
 life he had been leading was impossible with straitened 
 means, and his thoughts naturally turned towards India, 
 where another fortune might be readily acquired. He 
 applied for employment, and the Company and the 
 Government eagerly availed themselves of his services.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WAR IN BENGAL 
 
 THE aspect of foreign affairs was threatening ; Europe 
 was arming for the gigantic struggle which was to be 
 known in history as the Seven Years' War; and an 
 early rupture was expected between England and 
 France. The colonists of the two countries had com- 
 menced fighting in America ; and it was manifest that, 
 if war broke out in Europe, it would soon extend to 
 India. The Directors of the East India Company, fore- 
 seeing the coming storm, determined to strengthen their 
 position in the Carnatic and to destroy French influence 
 in the Deccan. They appointed Clive to Fort St. 
 David, and, to avoid any disputes about rank, they 
 obtained for him a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in 
 the King's army. They intended that Clive, before 
 proceeding to his government, should assemble a force 
 at Bombay, and in conjunction with the Mahrattas 
 attack the French and their allies in the Deccan. When, 
 however, the expedition was planned, the Duke of 
 Cumberland insisted that Colonel Scott, who had gone 
 out to India in the previous year as chief engineer, 
 should have the command. Clive wished, in consequence, 
 to sail direct to Fort St. David; but the Directors, hoping
 
 CHAP, v HIS RETURN TO INDIA 63 
 
 that some fortunate accident might throw the command 
 into his hands, directed him, in the first instance, to 
 proceed to Bombay. He landed in November 1755, and 
 finding that Colonel Scott was dead, at once assumed 
 the command. But the Bombay Government, consider- 
 ing itself bound by the Provisional Treaty of Madras, 
 would not sanction the proposed expedition, and it was 
 abandoned. 
 
 Clive was again in India, where, meantime, great 
 changes had taken place. The year that followed his 
 departure from Madras is memorable for the Homeric 
 combats between the English and French beneath the 
 walls of Trichinopoly. The struggle was unequal, for 
 the English were always inferior in number ; and their 
 native allies, half tempted by the promises of Dupleix, 
 gave them but uncertain support. In the Trichinopoly 
 campaign of 1753-54 Lawrence and his grenadiers 
 covered themselves Avith glory. The English leader 
 triumphed over every obstacle ; in the darkest days he 
 never despaired of success ; and for more than a year 
 he maintained his hold upon the historic rock in the 
 face of an active and enterprising enemy. In January 
 1754 peace negotiations were opened between Madras 
 and Pondicherry, but the real question at issue between 
 the two Companies was never approached, and after 
 much fruitless discussion the conferences were aban- 
 doned. Hostilities recommenced, and were carried 
 on with varying success until August 1st, when the 
 supersession of Dupleix by M. Godeheu completely 
 altered the relations between the English and the French 
 in Southern India. The greatest Frenchman of his 
 generation, the virtual ruler of an Empire larger than
 
 64 LORD CL1VE 
 
 France herself, was recalled from the scene of his 
 triumphs, and treated by the nation to which he had 
 brought so much glory as if he had been the vilest of 
 mankind. Dupleix left Pondicherry on October 14th, 
 1754, and died ten years later in Paris in great distress, 
 after having lived to see England occupying the position 
 in India which he had hoped to secure for France. 
 
 M. Godeheu, who was ready to sacrifice everything 
 for peace, at once communicated with Mr. Saunders, 
 and the two governors agreed to a suspension of arms 
 pending negotiations. A three months' truce was con- 
 cluded, and this was followed by the signature of a 
 Provisional Treaty, under which the new French 
 governor surrendered everything for which Dupleix 
 had fought. By a separate convention, signed the same 
 day, the truce was extended until it was known whether 
 England and France would accept the treaty. The 
 truce was badly kept on both sides. The English, early 
 in February 1755, assisted Mahomed Ali to reduce 
 Madura and Tinivelly ; and the French sent a force to 
 collect rents for the Rajah of Mysore. Ten days after 
 M. Godeheu landed at Pondicherry Admiral Watson's 
 squadron, with Adlercron's regiment, reached Fort St. 
 David ; and the anxiety of the French governor to 
 conclude peace may have been due to the fact that the 
 English were now in superior force on the coast. In the 
 Deccan the French, under the celebrated De Bussy, had 
 become absolute masters of the situation. The Northern 
 Circars, which yielded an annual revenue of 400,000, 
 had been made over to them for the support of their 
 army : a French guard protected the person of the 
 Subadar; and De Bussy, through a native minister,
 
 v DISPUTE OVER PRIZE-MONEY 65 
 
 ruled the destinies of the State. The recall of Dupleix 
 had, it is true, weakened the French position at Aur- 
 tingabad; but at the end of 1755 there was little to 
 indicate the change that had taken place in the feeling 
 of the Moslem nobility. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when Clive reached 
 Bombay. Watson arrived a few days later from Madras ; 
 and it was then decided to attack Gheriah, the head- 
 quarters of Angria, a pirate chief whose armed cruisers 
 interrupted the commerce between Europe and India. 
 Before the expedition sailed, a council of war was held to 
 settle the distribution of the prize-money. The spirit 
 of plunder was strong in all ranks, and the ill-defined 
 relations between the King's and the Company's troops 
 rendered such councils necessary to prevent quarrels over 
 the spoil. On the present occasion, after it had been un- 
 animously agreed that the Mahrattas, who were to take 
 part in the expedition, should receive nothing, a serious 
 dispute arose with regard to Olive's share. The officers 
 of the army urged that he should at least rank with 
 Admiral Pocock, Watson's second in command ; the 
 naval officers insisted that he should only receive the 
 share of a post-captain. Watson refused to admit the 
 claim of the army officers, but satisfied them by promis- 
 ing to make Olive's share equal to Pocock's by a con- 
 tribution from his own. When the fort was captured 
 he sent Clive about 1000, which the latter returned 
 with a message to the effect that, though obliged to 
 maintain his rights as Commander of the Land Forces, he 
 would "never enrich himself with money taken from 
 Mr. Watson's personal share of the capture." On 
 February 12th the English fleet sailed into the harbour, 
 F
 
 66 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and, after a sharp action, set fire to and completely 
 destroyed the pirate fleet. Clive and the troops were 
 then landed; and next day, after the ships had re- 
 opened fire, the fort surrendered. After this expedition 
 the squadron conveyed Clive to Fort St. David, and 
 then went on to Madras, where Mr. Pigot, who had 
 succeeded Mr. Saunders as governor, was preparing to 
 take advantage of the check which the French had 
 experienced in the Deccan. 
 
 In 1633, the year after Shah Jahan had destroyed 
 the Portuguese settlement at Hooghly, the English ob- 
 tained permission to trade in Bengal. Some years later 
 the palace at Agra was in commotion ; the clothes of the 
 Padishah's favourite daughter had caught fire, and the 
 injuries were so serious that messengers were sent to 
 Surat to secure the services of a Frank physician. Dr. 
 Boughton, the physician selected, succeeded in curing 
 the princess, and received as his fee a firman granting 
 the Company permission to trade free of duty in 
 Bengal. His good fortune followed him to that province, 
 where he won the lasting gratitude of the Subadar by 
 attending one of the ladies of the zenana,. The prince, 
 at his request, allowed the Company to build a factory 
 at Hooghly, and to establish agencies at Patna, Kasim- 
 bazar, Dacca, and Balasor. Such was the origin of the 
 first British settlement in Bengal. Early in 1689 
 Mr. Job Charnock, then Governor of "the Bay," was 
 obliged to withdraw to Madras ; but in the following 
 year he returned and established an English factory at 
 Chatanati, whence was to spring Calcutta, " the City 
 of Palaces." During the Hindu rebellion against 
 Aurungzebe in 1696 the European settlers obtained
 
 v CALCUTTA 67 
 
 permission to defend themselves ; and the English, 
 French, and Dutch surrounded their factories with 
 massive walls flanked by bastions. A little later the 
 English purchased the zamindari of Chatanati, Govind- 
 pore, and Calicota ; and acquired a position in Bengal 
 similar to that which they already occupied in Madras. 
 
 In 1742 Ali Vardi Khan, Governor of Behar, taking 
 advantage of the loosening of all authority after the 
 sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah, made himself master of 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and secured himself in his 
 position by a suitable present to the Padishah. He 
 had scarcely seated himself on the musnud when the 
 Mahrattas raided the province. From 1742 to 1750 there 
 was an annual invasion ; the markets were deserted, 
 the lands untilled, the peasants escaped to the jungle, 
 and the wealthier classes sought safety behind the 
 walls of the European settlements, Calcutta, where 
 the memory of these raids was long preserved by the 
 Mahratta ditch, was never attacked ; and in spite of its 
 unhealthy situation it throve during the time of trouble. 
 It had a population of over two hundred thousand, the 
 factory with its warehouses and offices covered one 
 hundred acres of ground, and the native villages were 
 gradually widening into a city. A governor and council 
 reigned supreme within the Company's bounds ; and an 
 English zamindar, with the aid of whip, prison, and 
 fine, administered justice to and collected taxes from 
 the natives. The Company's servants made large profits 
 by their private trade. They engaged in ventures into 
 the eastern seas, and accepted commissions and presents 
 from the native merchants. The acquisition of wealth 
 was the all-absorbing object of life, and there was
 
 68 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 much extravagance and some excess. The natives 
 lived apart in their villages ; their rites and ceremonies 
 had not yet been modified by contact with European 
 civilisation, and all the horrors and follies of Hinduism 
 might be witnessed within musket-shot of Fort William. 
 The great plain of Bengal, at whose eastern extremity 
 the English had settled, is one of the most fertile 
 regions of the earth. Watered by the sacred Ganges 
 and by numberless rivers and canals, and tilled by a 
 teeming population, it yields every variety of produce 
 in abundance ; its cities are wealthy, and light craft are 
 counted by the thousand in its ports and on its streams. 
 The western district was once thickly studded with 
 industrial cities : trade and industry had been attracted 
 by a succession of imperial capitals; and the most 
 cunning craftsmen of Asia toiled to gratify the whims 
 or supply the wants of a long line of despotic sovereigns. 
 The eastern region was essentially agricultural. The 
 peasants lived in villages half concealed by a wealth of 
 tropical foliage, while the merchants and the governing 
 classes drew together in large towns. It was extremely 
 productive ; the imperial share of the revenue of Bengal 
 was 550,000 after all charges had been defrayed, and 
 every one, from the Subadar downwards, had enriched 
 himself. In the middle of the eighteenth century Patna 
 produced raw silk, saltpetre, and sufficient opium to supply 
 the whole of India. Moorshedabad had a population of 
 two hundred thousand, possessed a mint, and was thirty 
 miles in circumference. Dacca, long the military capital 
 of Lower Bengal, was famous for its cotton and silk, for 
 the quantity and cheapness of its provisions, and for the 
 galleys and boats that were built on the banks of the
 
 v SURAJAH D OWL AH 69 
 
 sacred river. Hooghly, the sole port of entry, loaded 
 each year fifty or sixty ships for Europe, and conducted 
 a large local and coasting trade. In the unhealthy 
 eastern delta, where earth and water seem ever striving 
 for mastery, the scattered villages provided cotton 
 cloths, silk handkerchiefs, rice and sugar. The picture 
 had, however, its darker side. Nowhere in the world 
 are atmospheric disturbances attended with more dis- 
 astrous results. A failure or deficiency in the annual 
 rains imperils the lives of millions. The track of an 
 Indian cyclone is marked by ruined houses and buried 
 communities. At night a cyclonic wave sweeps over 
 the smiling plain, and in the morning nothing is to be 
 seen but festering corpses and a wasted country. 
 
 After the cessation of the Mahratta incursions in 
 1750, the English lived a life of ease and security; but, 
 on April 9th, 1756, the firm rule of Ali Vardi came 
 to an end, and his grand-nephew, Surajah Dowlah, ruled 
 in his stead. The prince, who was twenty-five years 
 old, had been brought up from his cradle as a spoiled 
 child, and as he grew in years he had given way to 
 all kinds of debauchery. His understanding was feeble, 
 his temper uncertain, his habits effeminate ; he had no 
 experience in administration, and his companions were 
 chosen from the lowest class. Shortly after his acces- 
 sion the English irritated him by refusing to surrender 
 one of his subjects, and by strengthening the fortifica- 
 tions of Calcutta, and in a paroxysm of rage he 
 vowed that he would drive them into the sea. On 
 June 4th he seized and plundered the factory at Kasim- 
 bazar, where young Warren Hastings was serving as a 
 writer in the Company's service; and on the 15th he
 
 70 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 appeared before Calcutta with a large army. The works 
 of Fort William were weak, the garrison had little 
 training in the use of arms, the supply of ammunition 
 was insufficient, and no succour could be expected from 
 far-distant Madras and Bombay. The governor applied 
 to the Dutch and the French for assistance. From the 
 former he received an unqualified refusal, from the latter 
 an offer of shelter behind the ramparts of Chanderuagore. 
 Within the walls of Fort William disorder and confusion 
 reigned supreme ; the leaders thought of nothing but 
 their own safety, and all authority was at an end. On 
 the 18th the women and children were removed to 
 vessels lying in the river. In the evening of the same 
 day Mr. Drake, the governor, and Captain Minchin, the 
 commandant, lost to all sense of shame, fled to the 
 ships, and, dropping down the river, abandoned their com- 
 rades to their fate. Mr. Holwell, a member of Council, 
 assumed the command and defended the fort with 
 courage and spirit, but on the 20th the gates were forced 
 and the place was lost. From daylight on Sunday till 
 late in the afternoon of Monday the deserted garrison 
 signalled to the ships for assistance. A few boats might 
 have rescued all who remained, yet the governor and the 
 commandant made no effort to save their countrymen. 
 There is no more disgraceful incident in the history of 
 the British Empire. At 6 P.M. the fort was in the 
 hands of the Nawab, and two hours later one hun- 
 dred and forty-six prisoners were marched into the 
 "Black Hole" of Calcutta, a long, low, oven -like 
 chamber, in which military prisoners were confined. 
 A night of unspeakable horror followed, and early 
 next morning twenty -three survivors were led or
 
 V THE TRAGEDY OF THE BLACK HOLE 71 
 
 carried forth by the guard. The bodies of the dead 
 were thrown into the ditch of the ravelin. Surajah 
 Dowlah does not appear to have been directly responsible 
 for the death of the prisoners that was due to the 
 brutality or thoughtlessness of his soldiers. But he never 
 expressed any regret, and his conduct towards the sur- 
 vivors showed that he was indifferent to their sufferings. 
 The tragedy enacted at Calcutta Avas known at Mad- 
 ras on August 16th; and on the 18th the Governor 
 sent for Clive, who, on hearing of the capture of Kasim- 
 bazar, had volunteered for service in Bengal. The 
 Council had been in communication with Colonel Adler- 
 cron, who as senior officer claimed the command if a 
 force were sent, but he would neither promise to obey 
 orders from Madras nor to repay the Company's losses 
 out of the expected loot. They therefore resolved, at 
 the suggestion of Orme and Lawrence, to entrust the 
 expedition to Clive. Adlercron hereupon refused to 
 allow any of the King's troops to proceed to Bengal, 
 and ordered all men, guns, and stores to be dis- 
 embarked, with the exception of two hundred and 
 fifty men under Captain, afterwards Sir, Eyre 
 Coote, who were permitted to serve as marines on 
 the admiral's flagship. A discussion next arose be- 
 tween the Council and Watson with regard to the 
 future government of the Bengal settlements in case of 
 success. The Council proposed that they should assume 
 the government until instructions arrived from England. 
 Watson positively refused to undertake the expedition 
 if the settlement were not restored to the survivors of 
 the governing body appointed by the Company, and the 
 Council were obliged to give Avay.
 
 72 LORD CLIVE 
 
 Olive and Watson were instructed to recover Calcutta, 
 to attack the Nawab in his capital, if they deemed it 
 necessary ; and in the event of war between England 
 and France to capture Chandernagore. It was also 
 arranged that they should seize Dacca, and divide the 
 plunder amongst the Calcutta sufferers. The Govern- 
 ment of Madras appointed Clive Commander-in-Chief 
 in Bengal, with complete military and political control 
 over the expedition, and supplied him with such funds 
 as he required. He was only to acknowledge Mr. 
 Drake as governor in civil and commercial affairs. At 
 the time the expedition sailed news had reached Madras 
 that war with France was imminent, and that the 
 French were going to send a large fleet with three 
 thousand soldiers to Pondicherry. Clive was in con- 
 sequence ordered to return with all the troops in April. 
 The firmness and decision with which Clive met the 
 difficulties inherent to the conduct of an expedition 
 organised and undertaken in the circumstances de- 
 scribed above will appear in the sequel; his letters, 
 written a few days before he left Madras, are full of 
 confidence. "I flatter myself," he writes to the Directors, 
 " that this expedition will not end with the taking of 
 Calcutta only, and that the Company's estate in those 
 parts will be settled in a better and more lasting con- 
 dition than ever. There is less reason to apprehend a 
 check from the Nawab's forces than from the nature of 
 the climate and country. The news of a war may like- 
 wise interfere with the success of this expedition ; how- 
 ever, should that happen, and hostilities be committed in 
 India, I hope we shall be able to dispossess the French of 
 Chandernagore, and leave Calcutta in a state of defence."
 
 v CLIVE TAKES COMMAND 73 
 
 After two months had been wasted in disputes about 
 the command, the squadron sailed on October 16th with 
 nine hundred Europeans, including those serving as 
 marines, and twelve hundred sepoys. A few days 
 later a council of war was held to settle the distribution 
 of the expected prize-money. The naval officers wished 
 to follow the Gheriah precedent, but Clive insisted 
 upon an equal distribution between the army and navy, 
 and carried his point. The ships had to contend 
 against the full force of the monsoon, and the voyage 
 was unusually long and difficult. The rice for the 
 sepoys failed, and many of them preferred death by 
 famine to pollution by eating pork and beef. The fire- 
 ship was driven to Ceylon ; the Marlborough, with most 
 of the artillery, parted company ; and the Cumberland, 
 Avith Admiral Pocock and two hundred and fifty Euro- 
 pean soldiers, fell to leeward and sailed for Vizagapatam. 
 At Falta, near the mouth of the Hooghly, Watson and 
 Clive found Major Kilpatrick, who had arrived from 
 Madras in the previous August, and the refugees from 
 Calcutta. For five months they had been crowded to- 
 gether, some in wretched hovels on shore, others on the 
 ships. Want of proper food and clothing, and exposure 
 to the fierce rays of the sun in a deadly climate, had ren- 
 dered the condition of men and women alike deplorable. 
 The mortality was appalling. Kilpatrick had landed 
 with two hundred and forty men ; all had succumbed 
 but thirty, and of these only ten were fit for duty. 
 
 On December 17th Watson and Clive wrote in peremp- 
 tory terms to Sura j ah Dowlah to demand redress for the 
 losses sustained by the Company, and after vainly wait- 
 ing for an answer declared war. Operations were com-
 
 74 LORD CLIVE 
 
 menced by an attack on Baj Baj, a small strong fort on 
 the left bank of the Hooghly, about ten miles below 
 Calcutta. Clive wished to convey the troops to the 
 point of attack by water, but Watson insisted upon land- 
 ing them at Moidapore. The force marched all night, 
 through a low swampy country covered with jungle, and 
 reached the vicinity of Baj Baj in the morning in an ex- 
 hausted condition. Two hours after its arrival it was 
 attacked by Manik Chund, the Governor of Calcutta. 
 The attack was a surprise; the men were lying down 
 after their sixteen hours' march, no sentries were 
 posted, and disaster was only averted by dive's pres- 
 ence of mind and determined courage. The English, 
 fighting at a disadvantage, suffered heavy loss, and the 
 action was not decided until a lucky shot went through 
 Manik Chund's turban and prompted a retreat. Clive 
 has been justly blamed for not taking the most ordinary 
 precautions to guard against surprise. Watson must 
 equally be blamed for risking the success of the enter- 
 prise by landing Clive and the Company's troops at 
 Moidapore. In the evening one of those incidents 
 which sometimes occur in wars of this nature gave Clive 
 the fort without firing another shot. A drunken sailor 
 crossed the ditch, and, scrambling over the parapet, 
 shouted that he had taken the place. He was quickly 
 joined by the advanced guard, and it was then dis- 
 covered that the enemy had evacuated the fort and 
 gone off towards Calcutta. 
 
 You must know (Clive writes to Pigot) our march from 
 Moidapore to the northward of Baj Baj was much against 
 my inclinations. I applied to the Admiral for boats to land 
 us at the place we arrived at after sixteen hours' march by
 
 V RECAPTURE OF CALCUTTA 75 
 
 land. The men suffered hardships not to be described : it 
 was four in the afternoon when we decamped from Moidapore, 
 and we did not arrive off Baj Baj till past eight next morn- 
 ing ; at nine the grenadier company and all the sepoys were 
 despatched to the fort, where I heard Captain Coote was 
 landed with the King's troops. At ten Manik Chund, the 
 Governor of Calcutta, attacked us with between two and 
 three thousand horse and foot, and was worsted. . . . Our 
 two field-pieces were of little or no service to us, having 
 neither tubes nor portfires, and wrong carriages sent with 
 them from Fort St. David. ... It seems the enemy were 
 encamped within two miles of us, and we ignorant of the 
 matter ; so much for the intelligence of the country. 
 
 On January 2nd, 1757, Calcutta surrendered to 
 Watson, who sent Captain King, E.N., to take posses- 
 sion for the Crown, and appointed Eyre Coote governor. 
 Clive entered the fort soon afterwards with the Com- 
 pany's troops. When shown Coote's commission he 
 refused to recognise the admiral's authority to appoint 
 a junior officer governor, claimed the right to command 
 on shore by virtue of his royal commission as lieutenant- 
 colonel, and declared that he would place Coote under 
 arrest if his orders were disobeyed. Watson threatened 
 to fire upon the fort if Clive did not abandon it. 
 Clive replied that he would not surrender his command 
 to a subordinate, and that, if the fleet opened fire, he 
 would not answer for the consequences. In the end 
 Clive surrendered the fort to Watson in person, and the 
 admiral immediately handed it over to the same Mr. Drake 
 who had behaved so disgracefully when the town was 
 besieged. Clive's firmness was never exerted to better 
 purpose. It was absolutely necessary to success that he 
 should have supreme command on shore, and that the 
 pretensions of Watson to interfere with the land opera-
 
 76 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 tions and take possession of all conquests for the King 
 should be resisted. "Watson was a thorough sailor 
 brave, generous, humane, and incapable of acting from 
 unworthy motives. But he had a high sense of the 
 dignity of his position as senior officer of the King's 
 service, and a warm temper which the climate had not 
 improved. On two occasions he had carried his point, 
 and on both his judgment was wrong. He had restored 
 Calcutta to an incompetent governor, and had obliged 
 Clive to make the harassing march which so nearly ended 
 in disaster at Baj Baj. Clive, who kept his temper 
 throughout, gave vent to his indignation in his letters. 
 
 I cannot help regretting (he again writes to Pigot) that 
 ever I undertook this expedition. The mortifications I have 
 received from Mr. Watson and the gentlemen of the squad- 
 ron, in point of prerogative, are such that nothing but the 
 good of the Service could induce me to submit to them. 
 The morning the enemy quitted Calcutta a party of our 
 sepoys entered the fort at the same time with a detachment 
 from the ships and were ignominiously thrust out. Upon 
 coming near the fort myself I was informed that there were 
 orders that none of the Company's officers or troops should 
 have entrance. This, I own, enraged me to such a degree 
 that I was resolved to enter if possible ; which I did, though 
 not in the manner maliciously reported, by forcing the 
 sentries, for they suffered us to pass very patiently upon 
 being informed who I was. At my entrance Captain Coote 
 presented me with a commission from Admiral Watson, 
 .appointing him Governor of Fort William, which I knew not 
 a syllable of before ; and it seems this dirty underhand con- 
 trivance was carried on in the most secret manner, under a 
 pretence that I intended the same thing, which, I declare, 
 never entered my thoughts. 
 
 The two commanders, who had received no answer 
 to their letters from the Nawab, now decided to press
 
 v JEALOUSY AGAINST CLIVE 77 
 
 the war vigorously. Hooghly, the first point selected 
 for attack, was captured with slight loss, and the troops, 
 after destroying large stores of rice and grain collected 
 for the use of the Nawab's army, returned to Calcutta. 
 An expedition against Dacca was next planned, and 
 the necessary preparations were in progress when news 
 arrived that Surajah Dowlah was marching down with 
 a large army. During the expedition to Hooghly 
 Clive heard that England and France were at war, and 
 shortly afterwards he received letters from the Madras 
 Government suggesting an attack on Chandernagore, and 
 directing him to return as soon as possible with all 
 available troops. His position was one of great difficulty. 
 Presidential jealousies and the antagonism between the 
 troops of the Crown and those of the Company were then, 
 as at a later period, a fertile source of friction. The 
 Governor and Council at Calcutta cared little for the Com- 
 pany and much for their own losses. Clive was a Madras 
 man an unpardonable offence in their eyes. They 
 called upon him to surrender the independent powers 
 Avith which he had been invested, and did all they could 
 to prejudice Watson against him. For such men Clive 
 could feel nothing but contempt, and he freely expresses 
 his opinion of them in a letter to Mr. Pigot. "I am 
 sorry to say the loss of private property, and the means 
 of recovering it, seem to be the only objects which take 
 up the attention of the Bengal gentlemen. . . . Believe 
 me, they are bad subjects and rotten at heart, a,nd will 
 stick at nothing to prejudice you and the gentlemen of 
 the committee ; indeed, how should they do otherwise, 
 when they have not spared one another 1 I shall only 
 add, their conduct at Calcutta finds no excuse, even
 
 78 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 among themselves, and that the riches of Peru and 
 Mexico should not induce me to dwell among them." 
 
 When the advance of the Nawab was known it was 
 fully expected that the French at Chandernagore would 
 join him in an attack upon Calcutta. Clive, who was 
 then entrenched in a strong position to the north of the 
 town, realised that the safety of the British settlements 
 in Bengal depended upon his action ; and he used the 
 great powers entrusted to him with a prudence 
 and caution little expected by those who knew his 
 daring spirit. He endeavoured to open negotiations 
 with Surajah Dowlah, and when that prince, on reaching 
 Hooghly, expressed his readiness to restore the Company's 
 property and give compensation, he strongly advised the 
 Bengal Government to accept the conditions. Whilst 
 Clive was attempting to negotiate with the Nawab in the 
 name of the Company, Watson was threatening him with 
 fire and sword in the name of the King. What Surajah 
 Dowlah thought of this dual correspondence we are 
 not told ; it must have led to grave complications if the 
 English commanders had not placed the good of the 
 public service above every private consideration. The 
 estrangement between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais was 
 fatal to their schemes ; the service jealousies and rival 
 ries of Clive and Watson disappeared in the face of a 
 common foe. 
 
 On February 3rd, while Watson was dining in 
 camp with Clive, the advanced guard of the Nawab's 
 army was descried marching in the direction of Calcutta. 
 Clive opened fire with two field-pieces, but darkness soon 
 put an end to the cannonade. Next morning the 
 Nawab requested that deputies might be sent to him to
 
 79 
 
 negotiate a peace, and his army, continuing its march, 
 encamped between the English army and Calcutta. The 
 deputies, Messrs. Walsh and Scrafton, found on reaching 
 the appointed place of meeting that the Nawab had 
 followed his army and established his headquarters in 
 Omichund's garden within the Mahratta ditch. Surajah 
 Dowlah received them in full durbar at 7 P.M., treated 
 them with haughtiness and disrespect, and directed 
 them to discuss details with his ministers. As they were 
 leaving the durbar they received a hint to take care of 
 themselves; and, knowing the treacherous character of 
 the Nawab, they put out their lights and made their 
 way to the English camp. The wholesale desertion of 
 the workmen, coolies, and servants, and the breaking-up 
 of the bazaar on the approach of the Nawab had left 
 the English army dependent upon the fort for its 
 supplies ; and the failure of the peace negotiations now 
 rendered a battle necessary. The deputies reached the 
 camp at 11 P.M., and Clive, after hearing their report, 
 determined to attack before daylight. By midnight he 
 was on board the flagship demanding assistance from 
 Watson, which was readily granted ; and at 3 A.M. the 
 troops were ready to march. The English force con- 
 sisted of five hundred and seventy sailors, seven hundred 
 and eighty Europeans, eight hundred sepoys, and seven 
 field-pieces ; the Nawab's of forty thousand men, including 
 eighteen thousand cavalry, forty guns, and fifty elephants. 
 Olive's plan was to attack the artillery park ; and after 
 spiking the guns to push on to the headquarters of the 
 Nawab. The head of the column entered the enemy's 
 camp under cover of a dense fog, about 6 A.M., and at first 
 carried all before it. When opposite Omichund's garden
 
 8o LORD CLIVE 
 
 the English heard the sound of cavalry in motion, and a 
 momentary lift in the fog disclosed a long line of horse- 
 men charging down upon their flank. The men halted 
 mechanically and delivered their fire with crushing effect. 
 The horsemen melted away, and, had the fog then dis- 
 persed, as it usually did at that hour, the action would 
 have been decisive. Unfortunately the fog settled down 
 thicker than ever, and the column getting into confusion, 
 missed its way and came under the fire of its own guns 
 and those of the fort. When it lifted the English were 
 attacked in front and rear, and their position became 
 critical. The emergency was one in which Olive's genius 
 shone brightest; he rallied his men, dragged his guns 
 through the mire of the rice-fields, and entered Calcutta 
 about noon. His aide-de-camp and secretary were killed 
 by his side, and his losses were heavy; but the men, 
 though exhausted, were not dispirited. By 5 P.M. the 
 column had returned to camp, and was hanging, like a 
 heavy thunder-cloud, ready to burst, on the skirts of the 
 Nawab's army. 
 
 The attack, though it failed in its main object, 
 terrified the Nawab, who next day moved out into 
 the open plain and expressed his readiness to nego- 
 tiate. Watson doubted his sincerity, and urged Clive 
 to renew the attack. But the latter was afraid of 
 driving him into the arms of the French, and believed 
 that he was so alarmed that he really wished for peace. 
 The negotiations resulted in a treaty, signed on the 9th, 
 under which Surajah Dowlah engaged to confirm the 
 ancient privileges of the Company, to restore their 
 factories, make good their losses by the war, allow them 
 to fortify Calcutta and establish a mint there, and to
 
 Si 
 
 permit goods with their chtstuck 1 to pass free of duty. 
 Three days later Clive and Watson entered into an 
 offensive and defensive alliance with the Nawab, and Mr. 
 AVatts was appointed to reside with him as political agent. 
 But Surajah Dowlah had no sooner attached his seal to 
 the treaty than he commenced corresponding with the 
 French, and devising plans for the expulsion of his new 
 friends. The treaty, which appears to have been con- 
 cluded with undue haste, simply placed both sides in the 
 position they occupied before the war. It made no pro- 
 vision against a renewal of hostilities by the Nawab, or 
 against an attack by the French, and it left the outrage 
 of the Black Hole unpunished. Clive himself, in a 
 letter to Mr. Payne, remarks : 
 
 If I had only consulted the interest and reputation of a 
 soldier, the conclusion of this peace might easily have been 
 suspended. I know, at the same time, there are many who 
 think I have been too precipitate in the conclusion, of it ; 
 but surely those who are of this opinion never knew that 
 the delay of a day or two might have ruined the Company's 
 affairs by the junction of the French with the Nawab, which 
 was on the point of being carried into execution. They 
 never considered the situation of affairs on the coast, and 
 tbe positive orders sent me by tbe gentlemen there to return 
 with the major part of the forces at all events ; they never con- 
 sidered that, with a war upon tbe coast and in tbe province 
 of Bengal at the same time, a trading company could not 
 subsist without a great assistance from tbe Government. 
 
 The native difficulty having been brought to a 
 successful conclusion, the question of attacking the 
 French settlement at Chandernagore was next con- 
 sidered. Olive's position was one of great difficulty. 
 England and France were at war, and it was known 
 
 1 A pass or permit granted by the Company's servants. 
 G
 
 82 LORD CLIVE 
 
 that the latter was determined to make a vigorous 
 effort to regain the position she had lost in the Car- 
 natic. Clive had received repeated orders to return to 
 Madras, and he was sincerely desirous to do so, but he 
 knew that if he left the government of Chandernagore 
 unfettered behind him, the English settlements would 
 soon be wrested from the feeble hands of Mr. Drake. 
 All the advantages gained by the expedition would 
 then be lost. The capture of Chandernagore would, 
 on the other hand, secure the English in Bengal from 
 the attack of any European enemy; and there was 
 ample time to take the place and leave Calcutta 
 before the monsoon broke. Clive, however, had reason 
 to fear that the French would join the Nawab in 
 an attempt to crush the English ; and he Avas unwilling 
 to risk the chances of a fight with their combined forces. 
 From the first he frankly stated his opinion that the 
 choice lay between an immediate attack on Chandernagore 
 and an armistice with the French, and he warned the 
 government of Fort William that if they adopted the 
 former alternative, war with Surajah Dowlah would 
 follow. "If," he wrote, "you attack Chandernagore, you 
 cannot stop there, you must go farther. Having estab- 
 lished yourselves by force, and not by the consent of the 
 Na\vab, he by force will endeavour to drive you out 
 again." These considerations, and a personal dislike to 
 service in Bengal, induced Clive to favour the conclusion 
 of a treaty of neutrality with the French. 
 
 After the recapture of Calcutta, the Governor of 
 Chandernagore proposed that the neutrality which had 
 always existed between the two countries in Bengal 
 should be formally confirmed. But the English insisted
 
 v RENEWAL OF WAR WITH FRANCE 83 
 
 that the French should make common cause with them 
 against Surajah Dowlah, and the negotiations were 
 broken off. They were resumed after Clive had 
 made peace with the Nawab, and terms satisfac- 
 tory to both parties, which were to be guaranteed 
 by Surajah Dowlah, were drawn out for signature. 
 When, however, the treaty was submitted to Admiral 
 Watson, he refused to sign on the plea that it had 
 not received the sanction of the Governor of Pondi- 
 cherry. He argued rightly that as the Governor of 
 Chandernagore had no independent powers, any treaty 
 signed by him would leave De Bussy and other French 
 commanders complete freedom of action. He also ex- 
 pressed distrust of the Nawab, who had not carried 
 out one article of his treaty with Clive, and urged that 
 instead of asking him to guarantee a treaty they should 
 treat him as an enemy if he did not fulfil his engage- 
 ments in ten days' time. Clive was indignant at the 
 little regard shown by Watson for the promises made 
 by himself and his colleagues to the French and 
 the Nawab. He pointed out that before an answer 
 could be received from Pondicherry the monsoon 
 would break and render the departure of the English 
 troops for Madras impossible ; and he insisted that, if 
 the treaty were not signed, an immediate attack should 
 be made on Chandernagore. At this juncture Watson 
 opportunely heard of the arrival of Admiral Pocock 
 with the Cumberland at the mouth of the Hooghly, 
 and received official intelligence of the war with France. 
 He now wrote that he looked upon the declaration of 
 Avar as an order for all officers to distress the enemy, 
 and that he only wanted an assurance that hostilities
 
 84 LORD CLIVE 
 
 would not be prejudicial to the Company's interests. 
 The action taken by the Secret Committee on receipt of 
 Watson's letter was afterwards described by Clive in the 
 following terms : " Mr. Becher gave his opinion for a 
 neutrality, Major Kilpatrick for a neutrality, Clive him- 
 self gave his opinion for the attack of the place, Mr. Drake 
 gave an opinion that nobody could make anything of. 
 Major Kilpatrick then asked him whether he thought 
 the forces and squadron could attack Chandernagore and 
 the Nawab's army at the same time 1 ? He said he thought 
 they could; upon which Major Kilpatrick desired to 
 withdraw his opinion and to be of his. They voted Mr. 
 Drake's no opinion at all, and Major Kilpatrick and he 
 being the majority, a letter was written to Admiral 
 Watson desiring him to co-operate in an attack on 
 Chandernagore." 
 
 Clive and Watson did not wish to commence opera- 
 tions without the consent of the Nawab. When Mr. 
 Watts was sent to Moorshedabad, he was instructed to 
 obtain permission to attack Chandernagore, and negotia- 
 tions ensued, not unlike those between the French and 
 Anwar-ud-din which preceded the capture of Madras in 
 1746. He was at first unsuccessful. Surajah Dowlah 
 was sending money and troops to the governor, and 
 urging De Bussy to come to his assistance ; and he met 
 the English request to attack by a distinct refusal. " It 
 has never been known," he wrote, "since the days of 
 Timour, that the Europeans made war upon one another 
 Avithin the King's dominions. If you are determined to 
 besiege the French factories, I shall be necessitated in 
 honour and duty to my King to assist them with my 
 troops." Early in March, however, he heard that
 
 v CAPTURE OF CHANDERNAGORE 85 
 
 Ahmed Shah Durani, who had captured Delhi, was 
 marching on Bengal, and he asked Clive to assist him 
 Avith troops. On the 10th of the same month, being 
 still under the influence of his fears, Sura j ah Dowlah told 
 Mr. Watts that if the English' attacked Chandernagore 
 he would not interfere, and wrote to Watson, " You have 
 understanding and generosity; if your enemy with an 
 upright heart claims your protection, you will give him 
 his life, but then you must be well satisfied of the 
 innocence of his intentions ; if not, whatever you think 
 right, that do." This letter, obtained, it is said, by 
 bribing the Nawab's secretary, was received on the 1 3th, 
 and the same day Clive, who had moved up from 
 Calcutta, summoned the French to surrender. Chander- 
 nagore was defended by a square bastioned fort mount- 
 ing over eighty guns, well supplied with military stores, 
 and protected, on the land side, by a dry ditch and glacis. 
 Batteries had been thrown up to command all approaches 
 by land and water, and ships had been sunk to obstruct 
 the navigation of the Hooghly. The garrison consisted 
 of "more than five hundred Europeans and seven 
 hundred blacks, all carrying arms." On March 14th 
 Clive drove the French out of their advanced batteries, 
 and on the 23rd the garrison surrendered to Watson, 
 who had brought his ships up through an opening in the 
 closed channel that had been disclosed to him by a 
 French deserter. The English ships were anchored so 
 close to the fort that the musket-balls fired from their 
 tops were flattened against the walls of the governor's 
 palace, and the loss on both sides was heavy. The 
 Admiral's flagship was hulled more than a hundred 
 times, and every officer but one was killed or wounded.
 
 86 LORD CLIVE 
 
 After the fall of Chandernagore "Watson returned 
 with the squadron to Calcutta, while Clive remained 
 to watch a large force which the Nawab had assembled 
 in an entrenched camp at Plassey. Clive, though he 
 considered Madras safe in the hands of Pigot and 
 Lawrence, and looked upon the capture of Chandernagore 
 as of more consequence than that of Pondicherry, was 
 anxious to return to the coast. He was, however, the 
 only man in Bengal capable of maintaining the position 
 that had been won, and he was compelled to remain by 
 circumstances beyond his control. To have withdrawn 
 at this moment would have been to sacrifice all the 
 advantages gained. The sincerity of Surajah Dowlah's 
 professions of friendship was doubtful ; his power was 
 unbroken, and a junction between his forces and those 
 of De Bussy, who was reported to be marching on 
 Bengal, would have been fatal to British interests. The 
 danger of such a combination was no imaginary one. 
 During the critical months following the receipt of news 
 that England and France were at war, De Bussy had it in 
 his power, had he so willed, to play a far more important 
 part than he had hitherto done in Indian affairs. He 
 was at the head of a well-tried force of Europeans and 
 sepoys. His military reputation and the prestige of 
 French arms had been greatly increased by his heroic 
 defence of the Char Mahal, and he occupied a command- 
 ing position. De Bussy might with equal ease have 
 joined Surajah Dowlah and crushed Clive in Bengal, or 
 have moved into the Carnatic and compelled the at- 
 tenuated garrisons of Fort St. David and Madras to sue 
 for terms. It is clear that Clive and Pigot expected 
 him to take an active part in the campaign, and his
 
 v INTRIGUES OF THE NAWAB 87 
 
 movements were no less a source of anxiety at Fort St. 
 George than at Calcutta. 
 
 If De Bussy was inactive, Clive was the reverse. 
 He had not forgotten the ambitious schemes of Dupleix, 
 and the struggle for mastery in the Carnatic; and he 
 had grasped the fact that England and France could 
 not co-exist as political powers in India. He had at 
 first been unwilling to commit himself to hostilities 
 against the French; but, the sword having once been 
 drawn, he was determined not to stay his hand until 
 every Frenchman had been driven from Bengal. The 
 Nawab, who, during the siege of Chandernagore had 
 alternately threatened and courted the President, Mr. 
 Watts, disguised his chagrin at its fall by outward de- 
 monstrations of joy, and congratulated Clive and Watson 
 on their victory. At the same time he secretly took 
 M. Law and the French soldiers who had escaped from 
 Chandernagore into his service, and renewed his applic- 
 ation to De Bussy for assistance. "When the English 
 commanders protested, he supplied Law with money, 
 ammunition, and transport, and sent him to Patna. 
 This action drew an angry threat from the Admiral, 
 that " while a Frenchman remained in the country he 
 would never cease pursuing him." It was his last letter 
 to the Nawab, for a dual correspondence would have 
 been fatal to the policy about to be pursued. 
 
 When Mr. Watts was appointed agent at the 
 Nawab's court he was instructed to counteract French 
 influence by forming an English party. Well versed 
 in the language, politics, and customs of the country, 
 he soon made friends ; and, by a free use of money, he 
 had been able to persuade the Governor of Hooghly to
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 withdraw his troops from Chandernagore. After the 
 fall of that fortress the native princes and chiefs began 
 to regard the English as the rising power in India, 
 and Moorshedabad became a centre of political intrigue. 
 The chief personages at the court of Surajah Dowlah 
 were Roydullub, the finance minister, and Meer Jaffier, 
 the commander of the army. Roydullub, a shrewd 
 Hindu, possessed great influence through his intimate 
 relations with Jugget Seit, the head of the wealthiest 
 banking firm in India. Meer Jaffier, a Moslem soldier 
 of fortune, had married the sister of Ali Vardi Khan. 
 The civil administration of the province was almost 
 entirely in the hands of Hindus, for it had been 
 the policy of the victors to leave the management of 
 the finance, the revenue, and the local affairs of the 
 country in the hands of the vanquished. The Hindu 
 was thrifty, the Moslem the reverse. The Moslem 
 "was like a sieve much of what was poured in went 
 through ; while a Hindu was like a sponge, which 
 retained all, but on pressure gave back, as required, 
 what it had absorbed." Hindus were also employed at 
 court and in the army ; and some of them, like Earn 
 Narain, the Governor of Patna, held important posi- 
 tions. The Moslem nobles kept in their own hands 
 the power of life and death, the principal posts at court, 
 ,and the higher commands in the army. They main- 
 tained bands of armed men on jagirs granted by the 
 Crown, and collisions were frequent between those who 
 aspired to power and those who possessed it. There 
 was no real patriotism. The tie which held the several 
 bands together was personal attachment to the sovereign, 
 and when that failed the sovereign fell. Ali Vardi,
 
 HIS WEAKNESS 
 
 a tried warrior of great determination, had enforced 
 obedience to his will. Surajah Dowlah, a weak, 
 capricious prince, was unable to control the discordant 
 elements of Avhich his government was composed. His 
 insolence and cruelty disgusted those around him, and 
 directly he suffered his first reverse the chief men took 
 up an attitude of doubtful allegiance.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PLASSEY 
 
 OLIVE, after the fall of Chandernagore, expected to be 
 attacked, but Surajah Dowlah was no Anwar-ud-din. 
 At one time his fears prevailed, and he dammed up the 
 Cosimbazar river to prevent the approach of the ships ; 
 at another he ordered Meer Jaffier to Plassey, and pro- 
 mised him ten lacs if he would destroy the English. He 
 pitted the English against the French, and hinted that 
 when Clive and Watson left he would drive the former 
 out of Bengal. Clive, whose experience in the Carnatic 
 had led him to foresee the inevitable collision, felt that 
 he must either attack Surajah Dowlah openly or remove 
 him from the throne by supporting the discontented 
 nobles at his court. Unfortunately, perhaps, for his 
 fair fame, he chose the latter alternative. 
 On April 30th he wrote to Mr. Pigot : 
 
 One day he (the Xawab) tears my letters, and turns out 
 our vakil, and orders his army to march ; he next counter- 
 mands it, sends for the vakil and begs his pardon for what he 
 has done. Twice a week he threatens to impale Mr. Watts ; 
 in short, he is a compound of everything that is bad, keeps 
 company with none but his menial servants, and is univer- 
 sally hated and despised by the great men. This induces me 
 to acquaint you there is a conspiracy going on against him
 
 CHAP, vi MEER JAFFIER 91 
 
 by several of the great men, at the head of whom is Jugget 
 Seit himself. ... I have been applied to for assistance, and 
 every advantage promised the Company can wish. The 
 Committee are of opinion it should be given. . . . For my 
 own part, I am persuaded there can be neither peace nor 
 security while such a monster reigns. . . . You may very 
 shortly expect to hear of a revolution which will put an end 
 to all French expectations of ever settling in this country 
 again. 
 
 Jugget Seit, whom the Nawab had struck on the face 
 and threatened to circumcise, appears to have first 
 suggested that the disaffected chiefs should apply to the 
 English for assistance. The first to act upon this advice 
 was Khuda Yar Khan Latti, but, while his request was 
 under consideration, Meer Jaffier, who had come to an 
 understanding with Roydullub and Jugget Seit, made 
 overtures to Mr. "Watts. The proposals were submitted 
 by Clive to the Committee on May 1st, and, after due con- 
 sideration, they agreed to support Meer Jaffier provided 
 he accepted their terms. Their reasons for promoting 
 the revolution are fully set forth in their Report of 
 July 17th, 1757. After detailing their many grievances 
 against Surajah Dowlah, and stating that he was privately 
 endeavouring to bring the French into Bengal, and 
 would certainly attack them when he found a favourable 
 opportunity, they go on to say that he was so universally 
 hated that a revolution would in any case be attempted. 
 If it took place without their assistance they would 
 derive no profit from the change ; if, on the other hand, 
 they supported it, they would obtain many advantages, 
 and keep the French out of Bengal. The removal of 
 the Nawab was, in their opinion, a common act of prud- 
 ence to prevent their own ruin.
 
 92 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 The successful conduct of the intrigue upon which 
 the English now entered demanded great skill and 
 secrecy, and the arrangements with Meer Jaffier were 
 therefore confided to Clive and Watts. The first aim 
 of the conspirators was to persuade Sura j ah Dowlah 
 to disperse the army he had collected at Plassey ; and, 
 to lull all suspicion, Clive ordered his troops into 
 quarters, and, in a " soothing letter," asked the prince 
 to follow his example. On May 2nd Clive wrote to 
 Watts : " To-morrow morning we decamp ; part of our 
 forces go to Calcutta, the others will go into garrison here ; 
 and to take away all suspicion, I have ordered all the 
 artillery and tumbrils to be embarked in boats and sent 
 to Calcutta. . . . Enter into business with Meer Jaffier as 
 soon as you please. I am ready, and will engage to be 
 at Nusary in twelve hours after I receive your letter, 
 which place is to be the rendezvous of the whole army. 
 . . . Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing, that I Avill join 
 him with five thousand men who never turned their 
 backs. . . . Assure him I will march night and day to 
 his assistance, and stand by him as long as I have a man 
 left." 
 
 Surajah Dowlah was glad enough to be freed from the 
 near presence of the English army, but, though profuse 
 in promises, he kept his troops together until he was 
 completely thrown off his guard by an unexpected inci- 
 dent. Baji Rao, the Mahratta chief, considering the 
 moment favourable for an attempt on Bengal, offered to 
 form an alliance with the English, and promised, if they 
 agreed, to pay them double the amount of their losses, to 
 grant them the whole trade of the province, and to expel 
 the French. Clive forwarded the letter in which this pro-
 
 OMICHUND 93 
 
 posal was made to the Nawab, hoping that such a proof 
 of friendship and sincerity would induce him to withdraw 
 his troops from Plassey. The plan succeeded ; the troops 
 were ordered back to Moorshedabad, and the field was 
 now free for action. 
 
 In the delicate negotiations between Mr. Watts and 
 Meer Jaffier it had been necessary to employ a native who 
 could move freely between the parties without attract- 
 ing suspicion. The agent selected was Omichund, one of 
 the wealthiest Hindus of Calcutta, who had been suspected 
 of encouraging Surajah Dowlah to attack the British 
 settlements, and had been imprisoned by Mr. Drake. 
 When Calcutta fell Omichund accompanied the Nawab 
 to his capital, and the manner in which he was received 
 gave colour to the suspicion that he had betrayed the 
 interests of the Company. He made himself so useful, 
 however, to Clive during the peace negotiations that fol- 
 lowed the Nawab's discomfiture before Calcutta that he 
 was restored to favour ; and Mr. Watts, with whom he 
 returned to Moorshedabad, was authorised to consult and 
 employ him on all occasions. He Avas known to be 
 shrewd, subtle, and false, to be grasping and avaricious 
 beyond measure, and to be of an unforgiving disposition. 
 But his personal interest in the success of the revolution 
 was so great that no hesitation was felt in trusting him 
 with the details of the plot. Clive wished to reward 
 him liberally, and was ready not only to compensate 
 him for his losses at Calcutta but to allow him five per 
 cent on all sums received under the treaty. This, how- 
 ever, did not satisfy Omichund, who, having ample proof 
 of the plot in his hands, is said to have threatened dis- 
 closure if his share of the plunder were not increased.
 
 94 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 On May 1 4th Watts wrote to Clive : " I showed the articles 
 you sent up to Omichund, Avho did not approve of them, 
 but insisted upon my demanding for him five per cent 
 on all the Nawab's treasure, which would amount to two 
 crore of rupees (2,000,000), besides a quarter of all 
 his wealth (jewels)." This letter and the draft treaty, 
 which contained an article securing 300,000 to Omi- 
 chund, were laid before the Committee on May 17th. 
 They decided to strike out the article in favour of 
 Omiohund, as his behaviour " rather merited disgrace 
 and punishment than such a stipulation ; " and they then 
 considered how they might deceive him, and prevent a 
 disclosure of the plot. The plan they adopted was to 
 prepare two treaties one on white paper from which 
 Omichund's name was omitted, the other on red paper 
 containing the article in his favour. Both treaties were 
 to be signed by the contracting parties ; and Meer Jaffier 
 was to be informed that the one on white paper alone 
 was binding. On the 19th the treaties were signed by 
 the Committee, but Watson refused to sign the sham 
 treaty, for, according to his surgeon, Dr. Ives, "a strict 
 principle of delicacy" would not "permit him to join 
 even in a necessary deception of this nature." Upon 
 this Clive directed his secretary, Mr. Lushington, to 
 affix the Admiral's signature, and the same day sent Mr. 
 Scrafton to Moorshedabad with the treaties. Obscure 
 intrigues delayed the completion of the arrangements, 
 but at last the crisis came. Surajah Dowlah, whose 
 suspicions had been thoroughly aroused, determined to 
 crush Meer Jaffier, and surrounded his house with troops. 
 Meer Jaffier prepared for resistance, and after executing 
 the treaty sent it with an urgent message to Clive to
 
 vr TREATY WITH MEER JAFFIER 95 
 
 march Avithout delay. The messenger reached Calcutta 
 on June llth; and, as there was no longer any 
 reason for delay, the Committee resolved upon an im- 
 mediate advance. The substance of the treaty was as 
 follows : 
 
 1. Confirmation of the treaty with Surajali Dowlah. 
 
 2. An offensive and defensive alliance against all enemies. 
 
 3. The French to be forbidden to re-settle in Bengal, and 
 
 their factories to be transferred to the English. 
 
 4. Compensation to be granted for losses at Calcutta 
 
 To the Company, 1,000,000. 
 
 5. To the European inhabitants, 500,000. 
 
 6. To the native inhabitants, 200,000. 
 
 7. To the Armenians, 70,000. 
 
 8. All lands within the Mahratta ditch, and 600 yards 
 
 beyond, to be ceded. 
 
 9. The Company to have the zamindari of the country 
 
 to the south of Calcutta, as far as Kalpi, subject to 
 the payment of the customary rent. 
 
 10. The Nawab to pay the expenses of all English troops 
 
 sent to his assistance. 
 
 1 1 . Xo new forts to be erected on the river below Hooghly. 
 
 1 2. The above terms to be carried out as soon as Meer Jaffier 
 
 becomes Subadar. 
 
 13. The Company to aid Meer Jaffier in obtaining the 
 
 government, and to assist him 'to the utmost against 
 all enemies. 
 
 A supplementary treaty was also signed, under which 
 Meer Jaffier engaged to pay 500,000 to the army and 
 navy, and 120,000 to the members of the Committee. 
 
 Clive had been the first to suggest the idea of a 
 revolution, and throughout its progress he was the life 
 and soul of the movement. Watson, though ready 
 enough to help by lending men, declined to assume any 
 responsibility for an enterprise over which he could
 
 96 LORD CLIVE 
 
 exercise no control, and of the success of which he was 
 doubtful. The Committee, with feeble, timid Mr. Drake 
 at its head, was a source of embarrassment rather than 
 of strength. Clive, unaided and alone, had not only to 
 carry on the details of an intricate intrigue, but to make 
 the arrangements for an advance, and quiet the fears of 
 the Governor and Council. He was, however, supported 
 by the firm conviction that the policy he was pursuing 
 was the most advantageous to the Company and to 
 England, and with rare tenacity of purpose he never lost 
 sight of the object he had in view. After the signature 
 of the treaties on May 19th his anxiety must have 
 been great. Every hour's delay increased the chance of 
 discovery, or of the appearance of De Bussy on the 
 scene ; and the rainy season, when it would be impossible 
 to take the field, was fast approaching. The arrival of 
 Meer Jaffier's messenger was the signal that the moment 
 for action had arrived, and Clive at once threw off the 
 mask. 
 
 On June 1 2th the troops at Calcutta, reinforced by one 
 hundred and fifty sailors from the fleet, reached Chander- 
 nagore. Next morning Clive, after despatching a letter to 
 the Nawab, which was virtually a declaration of war, moved 
 forward with his whole force. Fifteen miles north of 
 Hooghly he was joined by Mr. Watts and his staff, who 
 had succeeded in making their escape on the previous 
 day; and on the 18th he took the fort of Katwa, in 
 which large supplies of grain were stored. Here, ac- 
 cording to agreement, Clive should have been joined by 
 Meer Jaffier, but in place of a friendly native force he 
 found a letter in which Meer Jaffier promised to join the 
 English on the field of battle, and explained his failure
 
 vi CLIVE HESITATES 97 
 
 to carry out the original programme. At the same time 
 Omichund, who had accompanied Clive from Calcutta, 
 received intelligence that the Nawab and Meer Jaffier 
 were reconciled, and that the plot was discovered. 
 
 The following day, the 19th, the monsoon set in with 
 unusual severity ; the camp was flooded, and the men 
 were obliged to seek shelter from the fury of the storm 
 in the fort and town. The situation was embarrassing, 
 and Clive, a prey to anxiety and doubt, was uncertain 
 how to act. The ground, which was still in fair order 
 for marching, would soon be rendered impassable by the 
 rains ; the men were in excellent spirits, and a rapid 
 advance would anticipate M. Law, who was hastening 
 down from Patna. On the other hand, to cross the 
 Bhagirathi was to provoke an engagement of doubtful 
 issue under conditions in which defeat would be fatal 
 to British interests in India. To retreat to Calcutta 
 would be to abandon all ambitious projects, and to pro- 
 claim to the expectant people of Bengal that the Eng- 
 lish had failed to overthrow their ruler. There remained 
 a middle course, which Clive appears at first to have 
 favoured. The position occupied by the English was a 
 strong one, provisions were plentiful, and there was 
 good communication by water with Calcutta. It would 
 be easy to form an entrenched camp, and, while harassing 
 the Nawab, to form an alliance with the Mahrattas and 
 the disaffected native princes. Whether it was that Clive 
 had suddenly awakened to the enormous responsibility 
 resting upon his shoulders, and distrusted his power to 
 bear it alone, or that he was under the influence of one 
 of those fits of depression from which he occasionally 
 suffered, is uncertain. All we know is that he hesitated. 
 
 H
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Strange as it may appear, the hero of Arcot sought 
 advice from Mr. Drake and his council at Calcutta, and 
 the man who had seen the disastrous effects of Gingen's 
 council at Volcondah assembled a council of war. The 
 answer of the Committee reached Clive after Plassey 
 had been fought and won, and its tenor may be gathered 
 from his reply : " I have received your letter of the 23rd 
 inst., the contents of which are so indefinite and contradic- 
 tory that I can put no other construction upon it than an 
 intent to clear yourself at my expense had the expedition 
 miscarried. It puts me in mind of the famous answer of 
 the Delphic oracle to Pyrrhus, ' Aio te, ^Eacide, Romanes 
 vincere posse.' " 
 
 On the 21st Clive summoned a council of war to decide 
 whether the English should attack at once or entrench 
 themselves at Katwa. The question having been put, 
 Clive, contrary to the usual practice, gave his own vote 
 first He voted for delay, and was supported by Kil- 
 patrick and eleven others. A minority of seven, Avith 
 Eyre Coote at their head, voted for an immediate attack. 
 The result might have been expected, for a council of 
 war never fights, and if the opinion of the majority had 
 been followed on this occasion the Company would have 
 been ruined. When the council broke up Clive with- 
 drew to a clump of trees, and, seating himself in the 
 shade, remained for an hour in deep thought. He was 
 not satisfied with the decision of the council. A brave, 
 determined soldier himself, his sympathy must have 
 been with the bold policy so ably advocated by Eyre 
 Coote ; and, when passing the arguments under review, 
 he must have felt that in giving his own opinion first he 
 had unduly influenced the votes of his juniors. Perhaps
 
 VI HE RESOLVES TO ATTACK 99 
 
 in that hour of solitude his thoughts went back to those 
 stirring days in the Carnatic when Paradis and De 
 Bussy were overthrowing native armies with a handful 
 of disciplined men, and Dupleix was so nearly realising 
 his ambitious dreams. The prize of Indian Empire for 
 which they had striven was surely one for which all 
 might be dared, all risked. So he may have thought, 
 for when he rose all doubt and hesitation had passed 
 away. He had decided to push forward, and during the 
 day his resolution was strengthened by the arrival of re- 
 assuring letters from Meer Jaffier. As he was returning 
 to camp he met Eyre Coote, and simply telling him that 
 notwithstanding the decision of the council of war he 
 intended to march next morning, he passed on to make 
 the necessary arrangements for the advance. 
 
 While the English were marching up from Calcutta, 
 Moorshedabad was the scene of important events. 
 On the 14th June Surajah Dowlah received Olive's 
 imperious letter, and in a moment the scales fell from 
 his eyes. He saw that Meer Jaffier was in league 
 with the English, and realised to the full his perilous 
 position. But he was so overwhelmed with terror that 
 instead of instantly seizing and punishing the traitor, 
 he tried to deceive him. A Koran having been pro- 
 duced, the Nawab swore that he would never attempt 
 the life of his powerful subject, and Meer Jaffier that 
 he would fight to the death for his chief. They parted 
 with smiles on their faces and treachery in their hearts, 
 the first to order an immediate advance on Plassey, Meer 
 Jaffier to send a secret messenger to Olive. When the 
 army was ordered to move the troops mutinied, and re- 
 fused to march until all arrears had been paid. For
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 three days the streets of Moorshedalaad were filled with 
 mutinous soldiers, and order was only restored by a 
 liberal distribution of money. On the day the army 
 marched Surajah Dowlah heard of the fall of Katwa, and 
 thinking that Clive would forestall him in the occupation 
 of Plassey, halted at Mankarah. Here he proposed to 
 entrench and await the attack of the English ; but find- 
 ing that they did not cross the Bhagirathi, he continued 
 his march, and on the evening of the 21st occupied the 
 lines north of Plassey, which had been thrown up during 
 the siege of Chandernagore. 
 
 On the 22nd Clive crossed the river, and that evening 
 received a letter from Meer Jaffier suggesting that he 
 should make a long detour, and surprise Surajah Dowlah 
 in his camp at Mankarah. He briefly replied that he 
 intended to march at once to Plassey and to proceed 
 next day to Daudpore, and that if Meer Jaffier did not 
 join him there he would make peace with the Nawab. 
 The advance then commenced. The country was flooded, 
 the rain continued to pour in torrents, and the men, 
 marching through mud and at times up to their waists 
 in water, could with difficulty keep their ammunition 
 dry. After a most fatiguing march of fifteen miles they 
 reached Plassey, and passing through the village oc- 
 cupied an extensive mango grove about one in the 
 morning. As they were taking up their position the 
 sound of martial music warned them that the enemy, 
 who were supposed to be at Mankarah, were close 
 at hand. The unlooked-for rencontre was enough to 
 shake Olive's faith in the sincerity of Meer Jaffier, 
 but in the presence of danger he was always the cool, 
 thoughtful leader of men. Sentries were posted, and
 
 THE TWO ARMIES 
 
 the men lay down to take such rest as they might on 
 the sodden ground, whilst their chief passed the remain- 
 der of the night in making arrangements for the coming 
 battle. The grove in which the English bivouacked was 
 surrounded by a mud bank and ditch, and about fifty yards 
 in front of these, on the left bank of the Bhagirathi, there 
 was a hunting-lodge in which Clive fixed his headquarters. 
 A little more than a mile to the north of the grove were 
 the lines of the enemy, with their right resting on the 
 river and their left stretching far out into the open 
 plain. Nearly midway between the two positions, and 
 close to the river, were two tanks, surrounded by large 
 banks of earth, which played an important part in the 
 battle. Olive's small army was composed of one thousand 
 one hundred Europeans and two thousand one hundred 
 sepoys, with ten light field-pieces. It included detach- 
 ments from Adlercron's regiment, now the Thirty -ninth, 
 the Dorsetshire Regiment, which bears on its colours 
 the word Plassey and the proud motto, Primus in 
 Indis, and from the Bengal and Madras battalions, 1 
 whose ranks were filled with Dutch, Germans, and 
 French prisoners who had taken service with the Eng- 
 lish. Surajah Dowlah had thirty-five thousand infantry, 
 fifteen thousand cavalry, and fifty-three heavy guns ; 
 and with him were M. St. Frais and about fifty French 
 soldiers. His army was strong in numbers, but those 
 numbers inspired their leader with no feeling of confi- 
 dence. He was entangled in the meshes of an intrigue 
 from which there could be no issue except by the sword, 
 and that sword was in the hands of men who had sworn 
 to betray him. He had alienated those who would have 
 1 Now the Royal Minister and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
 
 102 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 supported him, and now in his hour of need he mis- 
 trusted his own army almost as much as he dreaded the 
 enemy. 
 
 As the heavy rain-clouds rolled away on the morn- 
 ing of the memorable day (June 23rd) which was to 
 decide the fate of India, Clive climbed to the roof of 
 the hunting -lodge to watch the enemy take up their 
 position. His own troops were drawn up in line 
 in front of the mangoes, with their left resting on 
 the river the Europeans in the centre, the guns and 
 sepoys on the flanks. The army of Surajah Dowlah 
 moved out with all the pomp and panoply of war the 
 infantry with their banners flying, the cavalry with their 
 drawn swords flashing back the rays of the rising sun, 
 the elephants with their scarlet trappings, and the heavy 
 guns with their unwieldy platforms and struggling teams 
 of oxen. St. Frais and his men, supported by Meer 
 Mudan, the Nawab's only faithful general, occupied the 
 tanks. To the left of Meer Mudan was the division of 
 Roydullub, and the line was continued, in the direction 
 of Plassey, by the divisions of Yar Lutf Khan and Meer 
 Jaffier, so as completely to overlap the English. As the 
 movement developed Clive saw that its object was to 
 drive him into the Bhagirathi. He was unable to attack 
 the key of the position, held by St. Frais, without exposing 
 his right flank ; and the guns were so skilfully dispersed 
 between the masses of men that an attack upon them 
 would lead to no decisive result. He therefore deter- 
 mined to act upon the defensive, and drew his boats 
 together beneath the river bank in a spot convenient 
 for embarkation, should a retreat become necessary. 
 
 At 8 A.M. the French guns on the tank opened fire,
 
 vi BATTLE OF PLASSEY 103 
 
 and the cannonade soon became so hot that Clive was 
 compelled to take shelter in the grove. Here his men 
 were completely protected from the fire of the heavy 
 guns, whilst his field-pieces, firing through hastily cut 
 embrasures, did great execution amongst the enemy. 
 After the cannonade had lasted three hours, Clive, seeing 
 no sign of Meer Jaffier's promised co-operation, decided 
 to maintain his position till evening, and attack at mid- 
 night, when the enemy would be stupefied with sleep and 
 opium. At noon there was a heavy shower of rain, 
 and the enemy's cavalry, expecting the English fire to 
 slacken, advanced towards the grove. They were met 
 by a heavy fire of grape, and driven back, with the loss 
 of their leader, Meer Mudan. About 3 P.M. the enemy 
 drew off to their camp, and at this moment the corps on 
 the left was seen to detach itself from the main body, 
 and move towards the English right. It proved after- 
 wards to be that of Meer Jaffier, but this was not known 
 at the time, and it was kept at a distance by the field- 
 pieces. Shortly afterwards Kilpatrick noticed that the 
 French were withdrawing from the tanks, and, sending 
 an officer to tell Clive of what he had done, moved 
 rapidly forward to seize the position. 
 
 Clive, who, worn out with fatigue, was asleep when 
 the officer arrived, started up, and running forward 
 severely reprimanded Kilpatrick for deranging his plans. 
 On reaching the ground, however, he saw that as the 
 tanks were already occupied by his troops, and the 
 enemy were again streaming out of their entrenchments, 
 a renewal of the action was inevitable, and, with his 
 usual promptness, he decided to attack. Concluding 
 that the corps on his right was that of Meer Jaffier,
 
 104 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and being thus relieved from anxiety for his exposed 
 flank, he occupied a bank nearer the lines and kept up 
 a steady fire on the gun-teams of the enemy. In vain 
 the gunners tried to bring their guns into action; 
 the draught oxen and drivers fell rapidly, and presently 
 Olive, seeing that the decisive moment had come, 
 ordered a general advance. After a brief struggle the 
 lines were carried and Plassey was won. 
 
 Plassey was not a great battle, but few victories 
 have been followed by more far-reaching or more per- 
 manent results. It opened that extraordinary career 
 of conquest which has established the Empire of Eng- 
 land in the East, and has made a small island in the 
 western seas the greatest Mahomedan power in the 
 world. The loss of the victors was but seventy men, 
 that of the vanquished between five and six hundred. 
 The rout was complete, and the pursuit was continued 
 to Daudpore, where the British force halted for the night. 
 Next morning Olive was visited by Meer Jaffier, who, 
 doubtful of his reception, started when the guards turned 
 out in his honour. He was only reassured when Olive 
 saluted him as Subadar of the three provinces, and urged 
 him to push on to Moorshedabad, and save it from 
 plunder. The same day Olive marched to Boptah, and 
 on the 25th halted at Mandipore, within six miles of 
 the capital. 
 
 The crisis of the battle of Plassey was the death of 
 Meer Mudan. When he fell Surajah Dowlah sent for 
 Meer Jaffier, and, casting his turban at his feet, implored 
 him to defend the throne. He might have spared him- 
 self the humiliation, for the traitor rode off, with lying 
 promises on his lips, to send a messenger, who never
 
 vi DEATH OF THE NAWAB 105 
 
 reached his destination, to bid Clive push on as the 
 battle was more than half won. The unfortunate prince 
 then consulted Koydullub, who advised him to return 
 to Moorshedabad, and leave everything in the hands 
 of his generals. In an evil moment he accepted the 
 treacherous advice, and, mounting a swift camel, reached _ 
 his capital the same night. His first step was to shut 
 himself up in his palace and take counsel of his friends. 
 Some advised him to throw himself on Olive's gener- 
 osity; others to bribe his soldiers to fight again. He 
 seemed for a moment to favour another trial of strength 
 in the field, but no sooner had his friends left him than 
 his courage failed. When night fell, and he heard that 
 Meer Jaffier had entered the city, he abandoned himself 
 to his fears. Disguising himself in mean apparel and 
 taking with him his favourite wife and one faithful 
 eunuch, he set out in a boat for Patna. His intention 
 was to join M. Law, who was hastening to his assistance, 
 but at Eajmahal the rowers grew weary, and he was 
 obliged to land and conceal himself in a garden. Here 
 he Avas discovered by a fakir whose nose and ears he 
 had cut off, and betrayed to the governor. Unknown 
 to Clive he was brought back to Moorshedabad, treated 
 with indignity, and put to death in his prison. M. 
 Law heard of Plassey at Tacriagully and halted for 
 instructions. Had he gone twenty miles farther he 
 would have met and saved Surajah Dowlah, and per- 
 haps altered the course of events in Bengal. After the 
 Nawab's capture he retired by forced marches to the 
 frontier, followed by Eyre Coote, whose pursuit was 
 one of the most remarkable episodes of the campaign. 
 When Meer Jaffier reached Moorshedabad the city
 
 106 LORD CLIVE 
 
 was in a state of anarchy and confusion; the terrified 
 people expected the usual massacre and plunder to follow 
 the advance of the victorious army, and they were aston- 
 ished beyond measure when a proclamation informed them 
 that the English commander had appointed Meer Jaffier 
 . Subadar, and halted at some distance from the city. On 
 the 29th Clive made his entry, and passed, with a small 
 guard, through densely crowded streets to his quarters 
 near the palace. Directly his arrival was known the 
 chief men hastened to make their submission, and offer 
 the customary presents ; l but he declared that he would 
 receive nothing except at the hands of Meer Jaffier, and 
 assured his visitors that all he wanted from them was 
 their assistance in carrying on the government. In the 
 evening he seated Meer Jaffier on the musnud in the pres- 
 ence of the Rajahs and chief men, and acknowledged his 
 authority by presenting a few gold coins. 
 
 Next morning Clive and Meer Jaffier went to the 
 house of Jugget Seit to settle money matters, and the 
 three men entered into mutual engagements upon oath to 
 support each other's "interests." The treasures of Surajah 
 Dowlah had been greatly over-estimated. Mr. Watts 
 had informed Clive that they amounted to forty millions 
 sterling, and the disappointment was great when they 
 proved to be only one million and a half. As this sum 
 was far too small to meet the English demands and leave 
 Meer Jaffier money for current expenses, it was decided 
 that the English should receive at once one half of their 
 
 1 Referring to this Clive afterwards said, " Had I accepted 
 these offers I might have been possessed of millions which the 
 present Court of Directors could not have dispossessed me of." 
 Report of Commission.
 
 vi THE FALSE TREATY 107 
 
 demand, "two thirds in money and one third in gold 
 and silver plate, jewels, and goods ; and that the other 
 half should be discharged in three years at three equal 
 and annual payments." Besides the sums stipulated 
 in the original and supplementary treaties Meer Jaffier 
 after his accession gave the Council 60,000, Clive 
 160,000, Mr. Watts 80,000, and others smaller 
 amounts. Altogether the revolution cost him nearly 
 three millions in cash alone. After the conference at 
 Jugget Seit's house Omichund was informed of the trick 
 that had been played upon him. When told that the 
 red treaty was a sham and that he was to have nothing, 
 he fainted and his mind gave way. He subsequently 
 went on a pilgrimage to one of the Hindu shrines, and 
 in August Clive wrote of him as a person capable of 
 rendering great services to the Company, but he never 
 completely recovered, and died eighteen months later in 
 a state of imbecility. 
 
 The English had little reason to regard Omichund 
 as their friend, and there is not much in his character 
 to awaken sympathy with his fate. Though loaded 
 with benefits by Surajah Dowlah he had been one of 
 the first to join the conspiracy, and for a few lacs of 
 rupees had been equally ready to betray the plot. 
 Still they might have remembered that his services had 
 been such as to entitle him to consideration, and that 
 he had risked life and fortune in forwarding their pro- 
 ject. The sham treaty was a blunder no less than a 
 crime, for it was unnecessary. The difficulties that con- 
 fronted Clive were less serious that those which De Bussy 
 had more than once successfully encountered ; and the 
 risks of an advance early in May were apparently no
 
 io8 LORD CLIVE 
 
 greater than they were in June. It is hardly possible to 
 avoid the conclusion that Mr. Watts was unduly alarmed 
 at the threats of Omichund ; and that the intrigues which 
 preceded the revolution were partly due to the desire 
 of Clive and the Committee to drive a hard bargain 
 with Meer Jaffier. The day after it was known that 
 the latter had bound himself to comply with their ex- 
 orbitant demands the English troops marched. Clive 
 defended his action many years afterwards with his ac- 
 customed boldness. Speaking in the House of Commons 
 he said that he looked upon Omichund as " a public 
 enemy" and considered "every artifice that could 
 deceive him to be not only defensible but just and 
 proper." When questioned by the Select Committee 
 as to the attachment of Admiral Watson's signature 
 to the fictitious treaty, he declared that, to the best of 
 his belief, the admiral gave Mr. Lushington leave to sign 
 his name, but that he would have ordered his name to be 
 attached whether he had consented or not. He thought 
 it warrantable in such a case, and would do it again a 
 hundred times. It is difficult to believe that Watson, 
 after refusing to sign, gave any one permission to attach 
 his name. But he certainly expressed no resentment or 
 surprise, and Dr. Ives, his surgeon, states that every one 
 applauded the artifice by which Omichund was so deserv- 
 edly outwitted. If it be true that Watson took no part 
 in the intrigue, it is equally true that when it succeeded 
 and the plunder was divided, he claimed, in addition to 
 his large share as senior naval officer, an equal share with 
 those members of the Committee who had signed the 
 sham treaty. In so doing he placed himself in the posi- 
 tion of an accomplice after the fact. The trick by
 
 SPOILS OF WAR 109 
 
 which Olive deceived Omichund has done infinite harm 
 to his reputation. No explanation can remove the fact 
 that it was simply and purely dishonourable, or efface 
 the stain that it has left upon his character. All that 
 can be said is that except in this one instance he 
 appears to have been singularly straightforward in his 
 dealings with the natives, and that, before he left Bengal, 
 he had succeeded in winning their implicit confidence. 
 
 Clive was now a wealthy man, but the time came 
 when, as already said, he expressed his astonishment 
 that he had not taken more. When taunted before 
 the Select Committee in 1773 with having received 
 upwards of 100,000, he replied, "When I recollect 
 entering the Nawab's treasury at Moorshedabad, with 
 heaps of gold and silver to the right and left, and these 
 crowned with jewels, by God ! at this moment, do I 
 stand astonished at my own moderation." And alluding 
 to his entry into the capital, he said, "On that day, 
 being under no kind of restraint, but that of my own 
 conscience, I might have become too rich for a subject ; 
 but I had fixed upon that period to accomplish all my 
 views whatever, and from that period to this hour, 
 which is a space of fifteen years, I have not benefited 
 myself directly or indirectly the value of one shilling, 
 the jagir excepted." He accepted about 200,000, a sum 
 which a mere word to Meer Jaffier would have doubled ; 
 and he refused all private presents. His acceptance 
 of the money was open and avowed ; it was contrary 
 to no existing rule of the Company whose servant he 
 was, and it was in accordance with the general custom 
 of the period in India. No one at the time thought 
 of accusing him ; and the Directors, with a full know-
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 ledge that large presents had been made, wrote (March 
 8th, 1758) that they did not intend "to break in upon 
 any sums of money which have been given by the 
 Nawab to particular persons, by way of free gift or 
 gratuity, for their services." Olive's action, however, 
 was none the less impolitic, for it set an evil example, 
 which was afterwards to bear bitter fruit ; and it gave 
 men who would not have exercised the same self-control 
 in similar circumstances an opportunity to declaim 
 against his rapacity.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FIRST GOVERNORSHIP OF BENGAL 
 
 ON July 3rd, whilst the mangled remains of Surajah 
 Dowlah were being paraded on the back of an ele- 
 phant through the streets of Moorshedabad, the English 
 were loading their boats with three-quarters of a million 
 sterling which had been paid to them by his successor. 
 The boats passed down the river with drums beating 
 and colours flying, and their arrival at Calcutta was the 
 signal for general rejoicing. The whole settlement was 
 intoxicated with joy at the sight of so much wealth, 
 and at the sudden transition from poverty to opulence. 
 The influx of bullion was followed by a revival of trade, 
 the erection of better houses, general extravagance, 
 reckless speculation, and eventually by an abuse of the 
 trade privileges granted under the treaty. 
 
 Clive remained at Moorshedabad until Eyre Coote re- 
 turned from his pursuit of M. Law. He then set out for 
 Calcutta, where his first duty was to attend the funeral 
 of Admiral Watson, who died, universally regretted, on 
 August 16th. For several weeks afterwards Clive was 
 actively engaged in reforming abuses and adapting the 
 government machinery to new conditions. The money 
 allotted as compensation to the people of Calcutta had
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 to be distributed ; acrimonious disputes with regard to 
 the army and navy prize-money to be adjusted ; the 
 military force to be increased, and a civil service to be 
 organised. The Company's servants in Bengal were 
 immeasurably inferior to their contemporaries in Madras, 
 who had been trained in the rough school of Avar. 
 They were still mere traders; and the sudden acquisi- 
 tion of wealth soon loosed the bonds of discipline, and 
 lowered the moral tone of both the civil and military 
 services. The necessity for a better staff had been fore- 
 seen by Clive as early as July 26th, and he then sug- 
 gested to the Directors that they should send out good 
 officers for the army, and "capable young gentlemen" 
 for the civil service. 
 
 Clive would now have been glad to go home with 
 his fortune ; but he felt that he could not leave whilst 
 England and France were at war, and that his proper 
 place was in the Carnatic. "I make no doubt," he 
 writes, "of being there soon after the breaking up of 
 the monsoon, which will be as early as the two con- 
 tending parties can take the field." Circumstances 
 were, however, too strong for him. He had set up 
 an incapable Nawab, and, to save Bengal from anarchy, 
 he was obliged to support him. Meer Jaffier was 
 a soldier of fortune, and no statesman. His son, 
 Meerun, was a weak edition of Surajah Dowlah. His 
 relations were eager to share in the spoils of office ; and 
 his troops were clamouring for pay. The English had 
 emptied his treasury ; and, in his extremity, he decided 
 to plunder the Hindu grandees. They at once took 
 alarm ; Roydullub surrounded himself with his followers ; 
 and Ram Narain, the Governor of Patna, and the Rajahs
 
 vii CLIVE' S POLICY 113 
 
 of Midnapore and Purniah, were driven to rebellion. 
 At the same time Shujah Dowlah, the Nawab of Oude, 
 threatened to invade Behar. The territory of this 
 prince stretched from the Jumna to the mountains of 
 Nepal, and from the borders of Behar to the neighbour- 
 hood of Delhi. His resources were great : the French 
 with M. Law were in his pay ; and he was supposed to 
 have made Ram Narain his friend. Meer Jaffier, unable 
 to crush the rebellion or resist the invasion, appealed 
 to Clive for assistance, and his appeal was not made in 
 vain. Clive marched on November 1 9th, and on December 
 3rd reached Rajmahal. The general debauchery that 
 followed the distribution of the Plassey prize-money had 
 reduced his force to five hundred and fifty Europeans and 
 fifteen hundred sepoys ; but his insight into the cause of 
 the disorders was so clear and statesmanlike that he had 
 no misgivings as to the result. His policy was to uphold 
 Meer Jaffier, and, at the same time, prevent him from 
 crushing the Hindu grandees. It was completely suc- 
 cessful. He suppressed the rebellion by guaranteeing 
 the safety of the Hindus, and reconciling them to Meer 
 Jaffier ; and the threat of invasion came to nothing. 
 Whilst helping Meer Jaffier in his difficulties, Clive was 
 not unmindful of the interests of the Company. He 
 obtained money for the expenses of the army, and a 
 monopoly of the salt trade; and he insisted that the 
 revenue of certain districts near Calcutta should be 
 assigned to the English in payment of their claims. 
 
 Meer Jaffier, when he plotted with Clive to supplant 
 his master, had not calculated upon being a mere cypher 
 in the hands of the English. He had hoped to direct 
 and command, and his mortification was great when he 
 
 T
 
 ii4 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 realised that the sovereign power had passed from his 
 hands to those of Clive. He could only obtain English 
 support by granting new trade privileges, new conces- 
 sions, or new lands ; and soon the wealth of Bengal, 
 instead of filling the pockets of himself and his nobles, 
 began to flow in a steady stream towards Calcutta. 
 The crafty Hindus were paying open court to the 
 English commander; and the English merchants Avho 
 a few months previously had been glad to purchase 
 protection for themselves and their trade, were daily 
 encroaching upon his authority. He felt deeply the 
 humiliating position in which he was placed, and would 
 willingly have thrown off the yoke. But he was caught 
 in the toils which Clive with consummate skill had 
 thrown round him, and was powerless. Clive had by 
 this time realised that the English could not retreat 
 without ruin from the position into which they had 
 been forced by their success, and that he had no 
 alternative but to exercise paramount power. He knew 
 that Meer Jaffier and the Moslem chiefs were jealous of 
 his great influence, and fully appreciated the delicacy of 
 the relations that existed between them and his country- 
 men. His aim was to maintain the prestige of the English 
 without wounding the feelings of the natives, and he 
 carried out this difficult policy with astonishing success. 
 His authority over the minds of the natives was com- 
 plete. He had been created an Omrah of the Empire, 1 
 and, in the remotest villages of Bengal, the name of 
 Sabut Jung, the Daring in War, was on every one's 
 
 1 Clive was appointed Mansabdar, or commander of six thou- 
 sand foot and four thousand horse ; and his native title was 
 Zabdit-ul-mulk, Nasir-ud-Dowlah, Sabut Jung Bahadur.
 
 lips. He was regarded with mingled feelings of 
 respect and awe ; and men's minds were filled with 
 admiration of his valour, his skill in the conduct of 
 intricate affairs, his steady support of those whose cause 
 he espoused, his inviolable observance of his word, his 
 moderation, and his unbroken success. 
 
 Shortly after Olive's return to Calcutta in 1758 a 
 vessel arrived with two despatches from the Directors. 
 One, dated August 3rd, 1757, appointed a commission 
 of five, with Clive at their head, to carry on the govern- 
 ment ; the other, dated early in November, nominated a 
 council of ten, over which the four senior members were 
 to preside in rotation, each for three months. In the 
 later instructions Olive's name was omitted, without 
 explanation, and he was naturally indignant at having 
 been passed over. The extraordinary device of a 
 rotation government had its origin in ignorance of 
 India, in the difficulty of governing a country so far 
 from England, 1 and in personal quarrels and jealousies 
 amongst the Directors. Fortunately for British interests 
 in India the members of the new council were patriotic 
 enough to recognise the impossibility of carrying out 
 the orders, and they entrusted the conduct of affairs to 
 the only man who could carry them to a successful issue. 
 They offered the presidency to Clive, in a letter which 
 does them the greatest honour, and he accepted their 
 offer in the spirit in which it was made. A few days 
 after the anniversary of Plassey Clive took his seat as 
 
 1 It took at least a year to receive an answer to a letter from 
 India ; and, as the aspect of affairs was constantly changing, the 
 orders of the Directors were often quite inapplicable to the new 
 conditions that had arisen.
 
 ii6 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 President of the Council ; and a few months later he 
 received a commission, as Governor of Bengal, which 
 the Directors had sent out as soon as they heard of his 
 victory. The responsibility of governing without a 
 commission was great, and Clive would probably not 
 have undertaken it if he had not received a letter 
 from Mr. Payne, chairman of Directors, which satisfied 
 him that his great services were appreciated. He was 
 informed, in terms that must have been highly gratify- 
 ing, that he and Lawrence were to command the troops 
 in India ; that Pitt and Lord Barrington had expressed 
 a wish to send him a colonel's commission ; and that it 
 was proposed to confer upon him a distinguished mark 
 of the royal favour. 
 
 One of the first questions to engage his attention was 
 that of rendering assistance to the Governor of Madras. 
 Soon after the declaration of war, May 17th, 1756, 
 the French Ministry determined to drive the English 
 out of India. An expedition was organised, and the 
 command given to Count Lally, the son of an Irish 
 exile, who had won his spurs at Fontenoy. He was a 
 keen, daring soldier, but he was completely ignorant 
 of oriental life and warfare, and was ill fitted by 
 a hot temper to receive advice. The French Ministry 
 gave him extensive powers as commander - in - chief 
 and commissary -general. Pitt with greater wisdom 
 placed the British troops under men of tried Indian 
 experience like Lawrence and Clive. On April 29th, 
 1758, after a voyage of unusual length, Lally landed at 
 Pondicherry, and on June 2nd Fort St. David, which had 
 defied Dupleix in the plenitude of his power, capitulated. 
 The defence was weak, and Clive was furiously indignant
 
 vn FAILURE OF THE FRENCH AT MADRAS 117 
 
 at "the infamous surrender." " May the worst of punish- 
 ment," he writes to Pocock, " attend those who so shame- 
 fully gave up St. David's to the French ! I cannot think 
 of that transaction with common patience ; every reflec- 
 tion about it pains me to the very soul." 
 
 Lally next planned an attack upon Madras, but, having 
 no money for the equipment of his army, he first 
 marched against the Eajah of Tan j ore, upon whom, he 
 was told, the French had certain claims. "While pre- 
 paring to storm Tanjore he heard that the French 
 fleet under D'Ach6 had been defeated by Pocock, and 
 hastily breaking up his camp, re-entered Pondicherry on 
 August 28th. Soon afterwards the English and French 
 fleets left the coast. The position of the combatants 
 on the departure of the fleets was favourable to the 
 English. Madras was well supplied with provisions and 
 money; the Governor, Pigot, and the Commandant, 
 Stringer Lawrence, were men of tried ability ; the 
 garrison was one thousand seven hundred and fifty- 
 eight Europeans and two thousand two hundred and 
 twenty sepoys ; reinforcements were expected early in 
 the spring, and Pocock had promised to return when the 
 season permitted. Lally was able to take the field with 
 two thousand European infantry, three hundred Euro- 
 pean cavalry, and five thousand sepoys. But he had no 
 money : he had exhausted the districts from which he 
 might have drawn supplies; and his native soldiers, 
 unpaid and harshly treated, wandered off in marauding ' 
 bands to plunder the country. The siege lasted from 
 December 13th, 1758, to February 16th, 1759, when, 
 on the return of Pocock, the French retired in disorder. 
 There was never any doubt as to the result. From
 
 ii8 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 beginning to end the garrison was full of confidence, 
 and even before the arrival of the fleet the French must 
 have given up all hope of success. For twenty days 
 Lally's troops had received no pay ; his native soldiers 
 had disappeared ; his supply of shells was exhausted ; he 
 had only twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder left; 
 and there was no practicable breach. The great enter- 
 prise had failed and the sequel is soon told. September 
 10th, 1759, D'Ache was again worsted by Pocock, 
 and a few days later left the coast never to return. 
 On January 21st, 1760, Eyre Coote defeated the French 
 at Wandiwash, and on January 16th, 1761, Pondicherry 
 surrendered. Five years later Lally, charged with 
 treason and condemned to death, perished miserably 
 on the scaffold. 
 
 Clive took the liveliest interest in the war, and 
 seized every opportunity of sending advice to his 
 friends at Madras. He was in favour of vigorous 
 measures, and urged Pocock to attack the French fleet 
 under the guns of Pondicherry, and Pigot to lay Avaste 
 the French territories. " Can't," he writes to Pigot, " a 
 body of Mahratta or other horse be taken into pay to 
 burn, ravage, and destroy the whole country in such a 
 manner as that no revenue can be drawn from thence 1 
 Bengal is in itself an inexhaustible fund of riches, and 
 you may depend upon being supplied with money and 
 provisions in abundance. In the meantime, what must 
 become of the French if they cannot raise money 
 sufficient to pay their forces ? They must disband their 
 blacks, and their white ones will disband themselves." 
 When Clive heard that the siege had commenced 
 he at once predicted its failure. He thought Lally
 
 vii FRENCH INTRIG UES 1 1 9 
 
 must be mad, or his situation desperate, to attempt 
 it ; and he wrote to Pitt : " I have so high an opinion 
 of the gentlemen within (Madras), that I dare answer 
 they will make such a defence as will do honour to our 
 nation and end in M. Lally's disgrace." The result of 
 the siege was some compensation for the loss of Fort St. 
 David, and he warmly congratulated his friends on the 
 honour they had gained. 
 
 The first successes of the French were soon known in 
 Bengal; and the news, greatly magnified by rumour, 
 produced a marked change in the attitude of the natives. 
 An intercepted letter disclosed the fact that several of 
 Meer Jaffier's generals had offered to join the French 
 against the English ; and, whilst these intrigues were 
 going on, Roydullub, who was under British protection, 
 was dismissed and disgraced. To remove any unfavour- 
 able impression, Clive invited Meer Jaffier to Calcutta, 
 and the latter, to whom an appearance of cordiality was 
 equally necessary, accepted the invitation. He was 
 received with every mark of honour and respect, and 
 after having been magnificently entertained and loaded 
 with presents, returned well pleased to his capital. 
 With him went young Warren Hastings, whom Clive 
 had selected to succeed Mr. Scrafton as Eesident. 
 
 Clive, while dealing with the native difficulty in 
 Bengal, did not neglect the appeal for aid from 
 Madras. His effective force did not exceed seven 
 hundred Europeans, and there was a decided feeling at 
 Calcutta against any reduction. He believed, however, 
 that his personal influence over the natives would enable 
 him to preserve order in the Residency, and he was 
 determined to help his friends. Two courses were open
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 to him to send troops to Madras, or to create a diver- 
 sion in the Deccan whence the French drew a large 
 proportion of their supplies. He was convinced that 
 Madras could not be taken so long as it was well 
 supplied with provisions and money ; and he boldly 
 resolved against the unanimous opinion of his council 
 to send a force under Colonel Forde into the Deccan. 
 His action at this critical period in the history of India 
 appears to have been dictated by a sound view of the 
 general political situation, and it was crowned with the 
 most complete success. A pretext for an expedition 
 was soon found. Clive had received overtures from 
 Nizam Ali, the brother of Salabut Jung, and from 
 Ananda Razu, a native chief in the Northern Circars, 
 whilst De Bussy was still a power in the Deccan. To 
 both he had sent conciliatory letters ; and when, after 
 the recall of De Bussy, Ananda Razu seized Vizagapatam 
 and hoisted the English flag, he decided to support him. 
 The opposition of the Council and difficulties with 
 regard to equipment delayed the departure of the force ; 
 and it was October 20th, 1758, before Forde was able to 
 land at Vizagapatam. 
 
 After having overcome financial and transport diffi- 
 culties that would have daunted most men, Forde 
 signally defeated the French army under Conflans at 
 Kondur and invested Masulipatam. The place was 
 protected by a strong bastioned enceinte ; it was situated 
 on an inlet of the sea ; and, on the land side, was com- 
 pletely surrounded by a morass from three to eighteen 
 feet deep. It was capable of a prolonged defence ; yet 
 Forde, with a force inferior to the garrison, carried it 
 by storm (April 7th, 1759), while a French corps of
 
 vir CAPTURE OF MASULIPATAM 121 
 
 observation was within striking distance, and Salabut 
 Jung with forty thousand men was within fifteen miles 
 of his camp. Conflans surrendered with five hundred 
 Europeans, two thousand five hundred and thirty-seven 
 sepoys, and a hundred and twenty guns; and Forde 
 had much difficulty in disposing of the prisoners, who 
 far outnumbered his own men. The results of the 
 expedition equalled Olive's most sanguine expectations. 
 It distracted the attention of the French while they 
 were preparing for the siege of Madras ; it kept in the 
 Deccan one thousand Europeans and three thousand 
 native troops, who would otherwise have joined Lally ; 
 it led to the cession of Masulipatam and the Northern 
 Circars to England, and replaced French by British 
 influence at the court of the Nizam. The storming of 
 Masulipatam is one of the most daring feats of arms on 
 record ; and it is related that the gallantry displayed by 
 the sepoys during the assault was equal to that of their 
 European comrades. And yet, strange to say, the 
 Englishman who had rivalled the best exploits of 
 Charles the Twelfth, though strongly recommended 
 by Clive, received no mark of distinction from the 
 Company or from the country he had served so well. 
 
 Forde's expedition emptied Fort William of stores and 
 ammunition ; and, when it sailed, only two hundred and 
 eighty Europeans, and those "the very scum of the 
 men," remained for the defence of the settlement. With 
 such scant resources, and the magic of his name, Clive 
 prepared to govern Bengal. The small force was made 
 up of detachments from the three settlements, and Clive's 
 decision to form them into one corps led to the resigna- 
 tion of some of the Bengal officers. Yet, in these
 
 122 LORD CLIVE 
 
 circumstances, he sent on all reinforcements reaching 
 Calcutta to Madras, and even authorised Forde to pro- 
 ceed, if necessary, to the Carnatic. "Not a man shall 
 be kept," he wrote to Pigot ; " you may depend upon 
 every assistance in our power. . . . You may draw upon 
 us for what money you choose ; we have twenty lacs 
 in the treasury." Olive's native policy at this time 
 is well summed up in a sentence of his instructions 
 to Warren Hastings : "I would have you act upon 
 all occasions so as to avoid coming to extremities, 
 and at the same time show as much spirit and re- 
 solution as will convince the durbar that we always 
 have it in our power to make ourselves respected." In 
 the same letter he wrote that the withdrawal of British 
 protection from natives to whom it had once been pro- 
 mised, " would entail disgrace and infamy on the Eng- 
 lish nation " ; and when Meer Jaffier, on the departure of 
 Forde's expedition, sought to gratify his hatred of Roy- 
 dullub and his friends, he directed Hastings to protect 
 them. Meer Jaffier keenly resented the interference, and 
 was beginning to throw out hints that he expected the 
 mortgaged districts to be restored to him, when, early in 
 1759, a "storm from the north" completely altered the 
 position of affairs. 
 
 The Padishah, Alumgeer the Second, had become a 
 mere cypher in the hands of his Vizier ; he had lost all 
 semblance of authority; and he and his family were 
 virtually prisoners in the palace at Delhi. His eldest son, 
 Shah Alum, known as the Shahzada, escaped ; and after 
 " fishing in troubled waters amongst the Rohillas, Jats, 
 Mahrattas, and Pathans," fled for protection to the Nawab 
 of Oude. He gave out that he had been appointed Subadar
 
 vil KISE OF THE SHAHZADA 123 
 
 of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa ; and being joined by many 
 of the military adventurers who swarmed over India at 
 that time, prepared to invade Behar. At Moorshedabad 
 it was reported that he Avas supported by Shujah Dowlah 
 and had been joined by the French under M. Law. Meer 
 Jaffier was seriously alarmed ; he doubted the fidelity of 
 Earn Narain ; his troops refused to march unless their 
 arrears were paid ; and the Sets, from whom he hoped 
 to obtain money, were absent on a pilgrimage. In his 
 extremity he appealed to Clive, on whom all eyes were 
 now turned. The situation was critical ; the siege of 
 Madras was in progress ; the success of Forde's expedi- 
 tion was not assured ; and Bengal was denuded of troops. 
 Clive did not hesitate a moment, and wrote to Meer 
 Jaffier: "Rest assured that the English are your staunch 
 and firm friends, and that they never desert a cause in 
 which they have once taken a part" He was really more 
 concerned at the dissensions between the Nawab and his 
 people than at the prospect of meeting the Shahzada ; 
 and his first step was to reconcile their conflicting in- 
 terests. To Ram Narain, whom Meer Jaffier was still plot- 
 ting to remove and plunder, he sent renewed assurances 
 of protection, and instructions to defend Patna to the 
 last. To the native princes, who had expressed their 
 unwillingness to follow Meer Jaffier against the heir to the 
 throne, he promised redress. And to the Nawab, who 
 had thought of purchasing the retreat of the Shahzada, 
 he wrote : " I have just heard . . . that your Excellency 
 is going to offer a sum of money to the King's son. If you 
 do this you will have Shujah Dowlah, the Mahrattas, 
 and many more come from all parts to the confines of 
 your country, who will bully you out of money till you
 
 124 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 have none left in your treasury. ... I beg your Ex- 
 cellency will rely on the fidelity of the English, and of 
 those troops which are attached to you." 
 
 On February 25th, 1759, Clive marched, and, 
 after remaining a few days at Moorshedabad, proceeded 
 towards Patna. He had with him only four hundred 
 Europeans, of whom one hundred and forty were 
 recruits, and two thousand five hundred sepoys, in 
 addition to the Nawab's troops, on whom little 
 dependence could be placed. But his letters show 
 that he had the utmost confidence in himself and his 
 men ; and he expresses his belief that with them alone he 
 would be able to give a good account of the Shahzada. 
 Before he left Calcutta the prince's agents had offered 
 him "provinces upon provinces, with whatever his heart 
 could desire," as the price of his support. He returned 
 a firm yet respectful reply. He was bound, he said, by 
 the strictest engagements to assist Meer Jaffier at all 
 times, and it was " not the custom of the English nation 
 to be guilty of insincerity." 
 
 When the Shahzada crossed the Caramassa, men 
 flocked to his standard in the hope of plunder, and by 
 the time he reached Patna he was at the head of forty 
 thousand men. Earn Narain delayed the threatened 
 attack by presents and negotiations, and when it came 
 defended himself with spirit. After several attacks 
 had been repulsed, the English advanced guard, which 
 had marched four hundred miles in twenty-three days, 
 appeared on the scene, and the siege was raised. 
 So great was the terror inspired by the approach 
 of Clive that the Shahzada decamped in haste and 
 recrossed the Caramassa. His force soon broke up,
 
 HIS DEFEAT 125 
 
 and the unhappy prince, deserted by the Nawab of 
 Oude and abandoned by all except three hundred faith- 
 ful followers, threw himself upon the generosity of the 
 English. Clive, feeling that the presence of a man of 
 such high rank in the province would expose it to con- 
 tinual disturbance, sent him a present of 1000, and 
 wrote : " I have received repeated orders from the Vizier, 
 and even from the King, not only to oppose your High- 
 ness, but even to lay hold of your person. I am sorry to 
 acquaint your Highness with these disagreeable things, 
 but I cannot help it. Were I to assist your Highness 
 in any respect, it would be attended with the ruin of 
 this country. It is better that one should suffer, how- 
 ever great, than that so many thousands should be 
 rendered unhappy. I have only to recommend your 
 Highness to the Almighty's protection. I wish to God 
 it were in my power to assist you, but it is not. I am 
 now on my march to the Caramassa, and earnestly re- 
 commend it to you to withdraw before I arrive there." 
 
 After reducing the Rajput and hill chiefs who had 
 supported the Shahzada, Clive returned to Moorshe- 
 dabad. When he left Patna the storm had cleared 
 away. Wherever he went he established a reputation 
 for valour and moderation, and his remarkable success 
 was due as much to the personal reliance which all 
 classes of natives placed upon him as to the prestige 
 of the British arms. At Delhi his policy produced the 
 most favourable impression. The Padishah sent his 
 congratulations with an elephant, a dress of honour, 
 and a tiara such as was usually given to persons of the 
 highest rank ; and the Vizier invited him to establish a 
 factory at the capital. To Meer Jaffier the dispersion of
 
 126 LORD CLIVE 
 
 the storm was as the gift of life to a drowning man, and 
 he hastened to show his gratitude. Clive had been 
 created an Omrah of the Empire in the previous year, but 
 nojacfir had been assigned to him for the support of the 
 dignity. The omission was now supplied by the Nawab, 
 who granted him the quit-rent, amounting to 30,000 
 a year, paid by the Company for the lands ceded to 
 them near Calcutta. The grant afterwards gave rise to 
 much discussion, but of all the sums received by Clive 
 it seems the least open to objection. There was no 
 bargain, no extortion, and no concealment : the gift was 
 in accordance with native custom, and not forbidden 
 by the rules of the Company ; and, though Meer Jaffier 
 may have felt that a peace -offering was necessary after 
 his vacillating conduct during the autumn of 1758, it 
 was ostensibly given for great and undoubted services. 
 Clive would never have consented to an arrangement 
 under which the Company was to pay his jagir if he 
 had suspected that any moral or legal objection could 
 be raised to his acceptance of the gift. His conduct was 
 straightforward throughout; whether it was politic is 
 another question. If he sinned it must be remembered 
 to his credit that his bitterest foe never accused him of 
 receiving money from corrupt sources ; and that during 
 his second administration of Bengal he fully atoned for 
 any faults he may have committed in his first. 
 
 Shortly after Clive's return from Patna a new and un- 
 expected danger arose. In November 1758 Meer Jaffier, 
 irritated by Clive's protection of Eoydullub, made secret 
 overtures to the Dutch to bring such a force into Bengal 
 as would counterbalance the power of the English. The 
 Dutch, whose trade had been seriously injured by the
 
 YII PROCEEDINGS OF THE DUTCH 127 
 
 ascendency of the English, soon came to terms, and 
 quietly collected ships and troops at Batavia. After Olive's 
 campaign against the Shahzada, Meer Jaffier appears to 
 have felt some scruples at the part he was playing, for 
 he told Warren Hastings in July 1759 that the Dutch 
 were in league with the Nawab of Oude, and that the 
 expedition they were fitting out was destined for Chin- 
 surah. Early in October seven Dutch ships, filled with 
 European and Malay soldiers, anchored at the mouth of 
 the Hooghly, and Meer Jaffier's behaviour immediately 
 afterwards convinced Clive that he had given the Dutch 
 permission to bring the troops up to Chinsurah if 
 they could. He at once prepared to resist any attempt 
 to force a passage by land or water, and a little later 
 his suspicions of the Nawab's treachery were confirmed 
 by letters from Warren Hastings. When the Dutch 
 were ready they sent a memorandum to Fort William, 
 in which, after recapitulating their grievances, they 
 threatened reprisals if their boats were searched and 
 the passage of their troops up the river obstructed. Clive 
 referred them to the Nawab, under whose orders he 
 said he was acting, and offered his friendly offices on 
 their behalf. On receipt of this reply they threw off 
 the mask, seized seven English vessels, tore down the 
 British colours at Falta and Biapur, and burned the 
 houses of the Company's agents. Clive had doubted how 
 far he would be justified in opposing the troops of a 
 Power at peace with England ; his difficulty was now 
 removed. Believing that the Dutch had heard of a 
 rupture between England and Holland, or that the 
 Nawab had promised to join them, he at once took 
 action. He divided his small force of three hundred
 
 128 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and twenty Europeans and twelve hundred sepoys 
 into two detachments, and placed Forde and Knox, who 
 had lately returned from the Deccan, in command. 
 Forde was ordered to threaten Chinsurah; Knox was 
 stationed in the batteries below Calcutta, to stop and 
 search boats and vessels passing up the river. Fort 
 William was garrisoned by two hundred and fifty 
 European volunteers under Mr. Holwell ; and Captain 
 Wilson, who commanded three East Indiamen in the 
 river, was ordered to anchor them above the batteries. 
 The Nawab was told that the Dutch had commenced 
 hostilities, and that he must not interfere in the quarrel. 
 On November 19th Forde occupied the Dutch factory 
 at Barnagore, and crossing to the right bank of the 
 Hooghly, moved on Chinsurah. On the 22nd the Dutch 
 commodore landed seven hundred Europeans and eight 
 hundred Malay soldiers, and dropped down the river to 
 Melancholy Point. The Dutch troops were thus separ- 
 ated from their old base, the ships, and had to reach their 
 new one, Chinsurah. Clive decided to destroy the two 
 bases, and then crush the field force. On the 23rd he 
 ordered Knox to join Forde; and Wilson "to demand 
 immediate restitution of our ships, subjects, and pro- 
 perty; or to fight, sink, burn and destroy the Dutch ships 
 on their refusal." On the 24th Wilson made his demand 
 and was refused. He had only three ships, mounting 
 ninety guns, whilst the Dutch had seven, mounting two 
 hundred and twelve. But he had caught something of 
 Clive's indomitable spirit, and attacked without a 
 moment's hesitation. After a sharp action of two hours 
 six of the Dutch ships struck, and the seventh, whilst 
 trying to escape, fell into the hands of two English ships
 
 vii THEIR DEFEAT BY FORDE 129 
 
 at the mouth of the Hooghly. The day this brilliant 
 naval action was fought Forde defeated the garrison 
 of Chinsurah, which had laid an ambush for him in 
 the ruins of Chandernagore, and heard that the force 
 landed from the ships was approaching. He hesitated 
 to attack the troops of a friendly state without ex- 
 plicit instructions, and wrote to Clive that, if he had an 
 order in Council, he could attack the Dutch with a fair 
 chance of success. Clive was playing whist when the 
 note arrived, and, without rising from the table, replied 
 in pencil, "Dear Forde Fight them immediately. I 
 will send you the order of Council to-morrow." The 
 action which followed on the plains of Biderra was short, 
 bloody, and decisive. In less than half an hour the 
 Dutch were completely defeated, and of their whole force 
 only sixteen Europeans reached Chinsurah. The danger 
 which threatened to be so serious was over ; the Dutch 
 sued for peace, and three clays later Clive was obliged to 
 protect them from Prince Meerun, who, seeing the turn 
 affairs had taken, had come down with six or seven 
 thousand horse. An amicable settlement was effected, 
 under which the Nawab promised to protect Dutch 
 trade, and the Dutch engaged never to maintain more than 
 one hundred and twenty-five European soldiers in Bengal. 
 In a separate treaty the Dutch " disavowed the proceed- 
 ings of their ships beloAv, acknowledged themselves the 
 aggressors, and agreed to pay costs and damages ; " and 
 the English promised to restore the ships they had 
 taken. 
 
 Clive's conduct throughout the critical period that 
 followed the arrival of the Dutch fleet was marked 
 by the greatest boldness and devotion to the interests 
 
 K
 
 1 3 LORD CLIVE 
 
 of his country. He wrote every order and instruction 
 with his OAvn hand, and Avhen his friends pointed out the 
 grave responsibility that he was incurring, he replied 
 that " a public man may occasionally be called upon to 
 act with a halter round his neck." Long afterwards he 
 stated before the Select Committee that "he was sen- 
 sible how very critical his situation was at that time ; 
 that he risked his life and fortune in taking upon him- 
 self to commence hostilities against a nation with whom 
 we were at peace ; but that he knew the fate of Bengal 
 and of the Company depended upon it, and therefore he 
 ran that risk." When he so acted, 180,000 of his 
 private fortune was in the hands of the Dutch Company. 
 In the hour of victory he was prudent, moderate, and 
 generous. Special Commissioners of the two nations, 
 appointed to investigate the whole matter in Europe, 
 could find no fault with his conduct ; and he received, 
 as he well deserved, the unqualified approval of the 
 Company and the Government. 
 
 Clive had long wished to retire and enjoy the fortune 
 he had made ; and he believed that he could serve 
 British interests in India more effectually by returning 
 to England than by remaining in Bengal. The rapid 
 succession of events, and the belief that he alone could 
 control them, had led him to postpone his departure ; 
 but he now felt that he could leave Calcutta without 
 endangering the safety of his offspring. Major Caillaud's 
 arrival with reinforcements had " put Bengal out of all 
 danger but that of venality and corruption," and the 
 only visible cloud on the horizon was the attitude of 
 the Shahzada who had again invaded Behar. Clive 
 did not attach much importance to the movement, and
 
 vii MEER J APPIER'S TROUBLES 131 
 
 ordered Caillaud to crush it before it gained strength. 
 The real subject for anxiety was the internal state of 
 Bengal. Meer Jaffier, though his treasury was drained 
 by payments to the English, insisted upon maintaining 
 a large army and leading a life of extravagance. The 
 assessments he had imposed to pay for his elevation had 
 alienated the hearts of the people and distressed the 
 country. His son Meerun was ambitious, and suspected 
 of wishing to upset his father and seat himself on the 
 musmid. " What you write me about the young Nawab," 
 Clive replies to "\Varren Hastings, "does not at all surprise 
 me ; it was what I always expected. Meer Jaffier's days 
 of folly are without number, and he had, long before 
 this, slept with his ancestors, if the dread of our power 
 and resentment had not been his only security. Sooner 
 or later, I am persuaded, that worthless young dog will 
 attempt his father's overthrow. How often have I 
 advised the old fool against putting too much power into 
 the hands of his nearest relations." The native chiefs 
 were inclined to resent the air of contemptuous superi- 
 ority with which they were treated by the English ; 
 and the pretentious and fraudulent practices of the 
 gomashtas, or native agents, of the Company's servants 
 were already becoming a fertile source of disturbance. 
 Europeans and natives were alike alarmed at the pros- 
 pect of Olive's departure; and when he left "it appeared 
 as if the soul was departing from the body of the 
 government of Bengal." One of his last acts was to 
 draft a letter to the Directors, in which he and four of 
 his colleagues criticised, in the most outspoken manner, 
 a despatch which they had recently received. Probably 
 no governing body ever received from its subordin-
 
 132 LORD CLIVE 
 
 ates a letter couched in such insubordinate terms ; 
 and its receipt was followed by the dismissal of the 
 four gentlemen who had signed it. This just and 
 very natural action of the Directors was attended by 
 unfortunate results, for it removed experienced civil 
 servants at a critical moment, and left the control of 
 affairs in the hands of younger and less moderate men. 
 
 On February 25th, 1760, Clive sailed for England. 
 In December 1756, when he landed at Falta, the British 
 were represented by a few fever-stricken fugitives ; they 
 were now courted by the Padishah, and regarded as the 
 arbiters of the fate of India. The Company, which had 
 been driven out of the country, was carrying on a 
 flourishing trade; it had received 1,200,000 in hard 
 cash, and a tract of land yielding an annual revenue of 
 .100,000; rupees were coined at its mint in Calcutta; 
 its merchants were revelling in wealth ; its ruined 
 settlement was fast becoming a City of Palaces ; its 
 Dutch rivals had been humbled ; and its French rivals 
 had lost everything they possessed in Bengal. This was 
 the work of Clive. At the early age of thirty-four he 
 had given an Empire to England ; he was in the zenith 
 of his fame, and was one of the wealthiest subjects of 
 the British Crown. 
 
 Clive's action during his first tour of service in 
 Bengal has been the subject of much hostile criticism. 
 He appears to have been forced into it by circumstances 
 which no one could have foreseen, and over which he 
 had no control. After the recapture of Calcutta he 
 would have been content with a fair amount of com- 
 pensation, and the infliction of such a punishment on 
 the Nawab as would have deterred him from asrain
 
 vii CLIVE' S RULE IN BENGAL 133 
 
 attacking the British settlements. But he was kept in 
 Bengal by the decision to attack Chandernagore, and 
 the subsequent collision with the Nawab. The capture 
 of Chandernagore, which proved to be the turning- 
 point of British affairs in Bengal, was a necessary act of 
 self-defence. England and France were at war; and 
 Clive and Watson acted rightly in crushing the French. 
 If Dupleix or De Bussy had been at Chandernagore, 
 he would have joined the Nawab and driven the 
 English out of the country. After the capture of 
 Chandernagore the peace and safety of the English 
 settlements demanded the removal of Surajah Dowlah 
 from his throne ; and dive's action in seating Meer 
 Jaffier in his place Avas fully approved by the Directors. 
 But the means which he employed were unworthy of 
 him. " Such expedients as fictitious treaties and counter- 
 feited signatures are not," as Lord Stanhope justly 
 remarks, "to be cleared by any refinements of ingenuity, 
 or any consideration of State advantage, and they must 
 for ever remain a blot on the brilliant laurels of Clive." 
 After Plassey Clive's clearness of vision and boldness are 
 alike remarkable. During the second expedition to 
 Patna his high qualities as a soldier -statesman were 
 conspicuous, and, when the Dutch attempted to in- 
 troduce troops into Bengal, his prompt daring baffled 
 all calculations. He saw more clearly than any one 
 the future importance of Bengal, and, in all the 
 changing circumstances of the time, he displayed a 
 genius in dealing with political and administrative 
 questions that was no less remarkable than his skill in 
 the conduct of military affairs. Unfortunately he did 
 not remain long enough in India to give consistency
 
 134 LORD CLIVE 
 
 to the settlement that he made. Having carried the 
 revolution to a successful conclusion, he should have 
 rendered others difficult, or impossible, by giving 
 stability to the new government that he had called into 
 existence. This he failed to do. The large sums with- 
 drawn from Meer Jaffier's treasury rendered a stable 
 native government impossible ; and the disgraceful 
 money transactions that accompanied his elevation to 
 the musnud acted as an incentive to further revolutions 
 when Olive's strong hand was removed. Nothing could 
 have been more immoral than the private agreement 
 with Meer Jaffier, or more impolitic than the exaction of 
 a sum which he could with difficxilty pay. The truth, 
 perhaps, is that Clive was ambitious. He had been 
 long enough in Parliament to acquire a knowledge of 
 the manner in which votes and seats in the House of 
 Commons were bought and sold ; and he had returned 
 to India with the firm determination to obtain such a 
 fortune as would enable him to take a prominent part 
 in home politics. In one of his earliest letters after 
 Plassey, he writes, "I intend getting into Parliament, 
 and have hopes of being taken some notice of by His 
 Majesty"; and in another, " I will have no more struggles 
 against Ministry; I choose to be with them." Clive 
 was one of the coolest and most calculating men of 
 his time, and knew exactly what he wanted. He was 
 badly paid : l his commercial speculations were unsuc- 
 cessful; and the Europeans round him, including the 
 members of Council, were fervent preachers of the 
 
 1 In later times a man in Olive's position would have received 
 30,000 a year, and a grant from the Company as large as that 
 which Clive received from the Nawab.
 
 ITS CHARACTER 135 
 
 gospel of plunder. After Plassey he was virtual master 
 of Bengal, yet he only took the sum he had fixed upon 
 as being sufficient to establish his political position in 
 England. No native thought the amount too great : no 
 one at the time thought of accusing him ; and although 
 his receipt of the money cannot be justified, he can 
 scarcely be blamed for acting in the spirit of his age, or 
 for following the example of De Bussy and Dupleix. 
 Every one must regret that he allowed a sordid impulse 
 to obscure the grandeur of his conquest, but it must not 
 be forgotten that he never sacrificed the interests of his 
 country to his own, and that he resolutely refused to 
 accept all money that came from a corrupt source. 
 
 Clive, an apt pupil, had been trained in the school of 
 the Carnatic war ; and there is a striking resemblance 
 between his action in Bengal and that of Dupleix in the 
 south of India. The negotiations with the French and 
 Surajah Dowlah, prior to the attack on Chandernagore, 
 are very similar to those carried on by Dupleix with the 
 English and Anwar-ud-din before the capture of Madras. 
 The formation of an English party at Moorshedabad, 
 followed by the agreement with Meer Jaffier, might almost 
 have been copied from the policy adopted by Dupleix 
 at the court of Nasir Jung. Clive was, however, entirely 
 free from the insincerity and love of artifice that 
 distinguished Dupleix, and he had no trace of that 
 effeminacy which led the great Frenchman to delight in 
 the splendour of oriental dress and ceremonial. There 
 are some men, even at the present day, who are ready 
 to maintain that in dealing with orientals it is justifiable 
 to use the methods of the oriental ; men who, in the 
 eager pursuit of their object, would not hesitate to place
 
 136 LORD CLIVE CHAP, vn 
 
 themselves on a level with the savage. But such views 
 were never held by Clive. Although he once stooped 
 to treachery and falsehood, he disdained evasion. In 
 all his dealings with Europeans and natives he was 
 open and straightforward, and he would have scorned 
 to deal treacherously with an open foe. His ideal may 
 not have been the highest, but, such as it was, he acted 
 up to it, and it was infinitely higher than that of the 
 men by whom he was surrounded. When his own 
 interests and those of the Company came into conflict, 
 he never hesitated to sacrifice his own ; and we may 
 rest assured that the man who wrote that "the English 
 never desert a cause in which they have taken part," 
 and translated his words into action, was not insensible 
 to the honour of his country.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LIFE IN ENGLAND 
 
 CLIVE, on reaching England, was received with dis- 
 tinction by the King and the Ministry ; and, notwith- 
 standing the offence given by his last despatch, he was 
 welcomed in a most flattering manner by Mr. Sulivan 
 and the Directors. The estimation in which he was 
 held by the authorities was shared by the country. 
 Intelligence of his successes had arrived when the nation 
 was smarting under recent disaster. The capture of 
 Gheriah was spoken of as a brilliant feat of arms ; and 
 the greatest interest was excited by the rapid succession 
 of victories in Bengal. The name of the man who, in 
 a time of gloom and almost of despondency had re- 
 deemed the national reputation, was on every one's lips. 
 The King, when asked, "whether the young Lord 
 Dunmore might go as a volunteer to the army of the 
 King of Prussia ?" had replied, " Pshaw ! what can he 
 learn there 1 If he wants to learn the art of war let him 
 go to Clive." Pitt, in his speech on the Mutiny Bill, 
 had said "we had lost our glory, honour, and reputation 
 everywhere but in India. There the country had a 
 heaven-born general, who had never learned the art of 
 war, nor was his name enrolled among the great officers
 
 138 LORD CLITE 
 
 who had for many years received their country's pay. 
 Yet was he not afraid to attack a numerous army with a 
 handful of men." 
 
 Clive unfortunately was unable to take advantage 
 of the first impression in his favour. Soon after his 
 arrival a dangerous illness incapacitated him for busi- 
 ness, and for twelve months it was a question whether 
 he would live or die. To this cause must be attributed 
 the smallness of his reward. He had expected an English 
 peerage and the Order of the Bath ; he received an Irish 
 peerage and a promise of the red ribbon. When his 
 health was restored he displayed the same vigour in 
 prosecuting his plans that he had shown in India. 
 Parliamentary interest being necessary, he bought 
 boroughs, helped his friends in their elections, and 
 took every means to obtain influence in the House of 
 Commons. In eighteen months he had secured several 
 followers who always voted with him, and had spent 
 60,000. His principal object in returning to England 
 had been to procure the adoption of the measures which 
 he considered necessary for the prosperity and security 
 of India. He wished to obtain royal commissions as 
 major-generals for the Governors of the three Presi- 
 dencies, so as to put an end to the pretensions and 
 independent powers of the King's officers. He had 
 been much annoyed at the manner in which Forde had 
 been superseded by Coote, and wanted to get the former 
 appointed Commander-in-Chief in India. He had no 
 hope of continued tranquillity, and was of opinion that a 
 strong military force should be maintained. "Peace," 
 he had written, " is the most valuable of all blessings ; 
 but it must be made sword in hand in this country if
 
 vin COMPANY OR CROWN 139 
 
 we mean to preserve our possessions." He considered 
 that the views of the Directors with regard to the 'Civil 
 Service were not sufficiently enlarged ; and was desirous 
 that " servants of ability, and many of them," should be 
 sent out. He was also most anxious that, when peace 
 was made with France, the terms should be such as 
 could be kept in India. He believed that the best 
 means of securing the British position in Bengal was 
 to obtain possession of the three provinces, and hold 
 them under the Padishah for the Company, or, failing 
 the Company, the Crown. In a letter to a friend 
 (December 29th, 1758) he hinted at "great designs 
 in view for the advantage of the Company." A little 
 later he seems to have come to the conclusion that 
 government by a Court of Directors in England was 
 inexpedient, and that the Crown should assume the 
 sovereignty and extend its authority as opportunity 
 offered. His views are fully stated in a striking letter 
 to Mr. Pitt (January 7th, 1759). After remarking on 
 the advantages which the Company had obtained from 
 the revolution, he observes : 
 
 I have represented to them in the strongest terms the 
 expediency of sending out and keeping up constantly such a 
 force as will enable them to embrace the first opportunity of 
 further aggrandising themselves j and I dare pronounce, from 
 a thorough knowledge of this country government, and of 
 the genius of the people, acquired by two years' application 
 and experience, that such an opportunity will soon offer. 
 The reigning Subah [Subadar], whom the victory at Plassey 
 invested with the sovereignty of these provinces, still, it is 
 true, retains his attachment to us, and probably, while he 
 has no other support, will continue to do so ; but Mussulmans 
 are so little influenced by gratitude that should he ever 
 think it his interest to break with us, the obligations he
 
 140 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 owes us would prove no restraint. . . . Moreover, he is 
 advanced in years, and his son is so cruel worthless a young 
 fellow, and so apparently an enemy to the English, that 
 it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the succession. 
 So small a body as two thousand Europeans will secure us 
 against any apprehension from either the one or the other ; 
 and, in case of their daring to .be troublesome, enable the 
 Company to take the sovereignty upon themselves. 
 
 He further tells Pitt that he had been offered by the 
 Court at Delhi the post of Diwan, or collector of the 
 revenue, of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, a position next 
 in dignity and power to the Subadar. " But," he says 
 
 This high office I have been obliged to decline for the 
 present, as I am unwilling to occasion any jealousy on the 
 part of the Subah, especially as I see no likelihood of the 
 Company's providing us with a sufficient force to support 
 properly so considerable an employ, and which would open 
 a way for securing the subahship to ourselves. . . . But so 
 large a sovereignty may possibly be an object too extensive 
 for a mercantile company ; and it is to be feared they are 
 not of themselves able, without the nation's assistance, to 
 maintain so wide a dominion. I have therefore presumed, 
 sir, to represent this matter to you, and submit it to your 
 consideration, whether the execution of a design that may 
 hereafter be still carried to greater lengths be worthy of the 
 Government's taking it into hand. 
 
 He adds that there would be little or no difficulty 
 in obtaining possession of the three provinces, and sug- 
 gests that the surplus revenue might be applied to the 
 reduction of the national debt. In concluding this re- 
 markable letter he predicts the failure of the French in 
 the Carnatic : 
 
 Notwithstanding the extraordinary effort made by the 
 French in sending out M. Lally with a considerable force
 
 vin CLIVE' S ADVICE REJECTED 141 
 
 the last year, I ain confident before the end of this they will 
 be near their last gasp in the Carnatic unless some very un- 
 foreseen event interpose in their favour. The superiority of 
 our squadron, and the plenty of money and supplies of all 
 kinds which our friends on the coast will be furnished with 
 from this province, while the enemy are in total want of every- 
 thing, without any visible means of redress, are such advantages 
 as, if properly attended to, cannot fail of wholly effecting their 
 ruin in that as well as in every other part of India. 
 
 Pitt considered Olive's plan practicable but " of a very 
 nice nature " and difficult to carry out. The Company's 
 charter would not expire for twenty years, and the 
 judges on being consulted had decided that all conquests 
 and acquisitions belonged to the Company and not to 
 the Crown. A century was to elapse before Clive's view 
 that the Crown should assume the responsibilities of 
 government was adopted. 
 
 Clive had the greatest admiration of Pitt and his 
 policy, and entered Parliament as one of his supporters. 
 The favourable reception which the great minister had 
 accorded to his views on India led him to hope that they 
 would be adopted ; but, soon after he became capable of 
 attending to business, Pitt resigned (October 5th, 1761). 
 He rejected all overtures from the government of Lord 
 Bute ; and, after voting for a time with the Opposition, 
 attached himself in the closest manner to George Gren- 
 ville. Clive never took a prominent part in English 
 politics; his attention was almost wholly devoted to 
 India. He appears at first to have had no intention of 
 interfering personally in the affairs of the East India 
 Company. His aim was to impose his views on the 
 Directors by enlisting the sympathies of Pitt and culti- 
 vating Parliamentary interest. His illness and the acces-
 
 I 4 2 LORD CLIVE 
 
 sion of Lord Bute to office having rendered this scheme 
 impossible, he determined to try to secure the election 
 of Directors who would carry out his Indian policy. He 
 was, however, obliged to be cautious ; the Directors 
 were jealous of any interference in the affairs of the 
 Company, and he was afraid of provoking an attack on his 
 title to his jagir. It was only when he found that secret 
 attempts were being made to ruin his name and fortune 
 that he threw himself heart and soul into the quarrels of 
 the India House. 
 
 The affairs of the East India Company were adminis- 
 tered by twenty-four Directors annually elected by the 
 Proprietors assembled in General Court. Every holder of 
 500 of the Company's stock was entitled to vote in the 
 Court of Proprietors, and every person holding 2000 
 stock was qualified to serve as a Director. The Court 
 of Proprietors met once each quarter, and could be 
 assembled at any time by a call of the Directors or by a 
 requisition signed by nine of its members. Thirteen 
 Directors formed a quorum, and when assembled became 
 a Court at which the chairman or deputy chairman pre- 
 sided. The supreme power was vested in the Court of 
 Proprietors, who made all laws and regulations, all 
 determinations of dividend, and all grants of money. 
 The Directors regulated political and commercial trans- 
 actions, and controlled the government of India. The 
 Court of Proprietors rarely interfered, and all power thus 
 became centred in the chairman and the Directors. The 
 Proprietors were at first men engaged in the Indian 
 trade or wealthy city merchants ; but when the Com- 
 pany became prosperous, and it was known that fortunes 
 could be rapidly made in India, men of all ranks
 
 viii AFFAIRS IN THE INDIA HOUSE 143 
 
 endeavoured to obtain votes and acquire interest for 
 themselves and their friends. The Government had no 
 direct control over the affairs of the Company, but the 
 power of granting or withholding naval and military 
 assistance, and the disposal of the patronage of the 
 Crown, gave ministers great weight both in the Court of 
 Proprietors and the Court of Directors. This power was 
 more frequently exerted to serve friends and acquire 
 Parliamentary influence than to promote the interests of 
 the Company and the country. 
 
 The constitution of the Company, framed with a view 
 to trade, was little suited to the government of a great 
 empire. When the line between commercial and politi- 
 cal operations was first overstepped in India, the innova- 
 tion was viewed with alarm. It was only gradually, as 
 the victories of Clive opened wider prospects, that a 
 change took place in the feelings of the Proprietors. 
 One party gloried in the results of the military opera- 
 tions, another dreaded the wrath of the Great Mogul, 
 a third was opposed to a policy of aggrandisement, and 
 a fourth was eager to plunder those of their agents who 
 had made large fortunes. The struggles of these parties 
 for power led to the issue of contradictory orders, which 
 rendered the task of administration in India well-nigh 
 impossible. The Directors were supposed to be governed 
 by personal motives rather than by considerations of 
 duty. Public opinion was hostile to them, and Lord 
 Anson bluntly told them that " in place of labouring for 
 the interest of the Company and the nation, their sole 
 aim seemed to be gratifying their private resentments, 
 distressing His Majesty's service, and embroiling their 
 constituents' affairs."
 
 144 LORD CL/l'E 
 
 In 1757 the Directors, acting upon the advice of Mr. 
 Hoi well, approved of a government by rotation for Cal- 
 cutta. The measure was strenuously opposed by Mr. 
 Sulivan and others, who obtained its withdrawal by ap- 
 pealing to the Court of Proprietors, and afterwards at the 
 general election in 1758 carried their own list of Directors 
 in opposition to that officially submitted to the Proprietors. 
 Mr. Sulivan forthwith became chairman, and obtained 
 a commanding power and influence in the India House 
 which he long retained. He was a man of considerable 
 talent, clear but narrow views, and general rectitude of 
 purpose ; but he was dictatorial, full of prejudices, and 
 jealous of any interference with the exercise of his power. 
 His personal knowledge of India and its requirements 
 gave him a great advantage over his colleagues, who had 
 no experience except such as they had picked up in 
 England, and he was determined to maintain his position 
 by excluding from the Direction every one who had more 
 knowledge than himself. Clive hoped that Mr. Sulivan 
 would adopt his views, and requested his friends 
 amongst the Proprietors to support their new chairman. 
 Mr. Sulivan warmly congratulated Clive on his successes, 
 and so long as the two men were at a distance from each 
 other they carried on a most friendly correspondence. 
 When, however, Clive, with his strong opinions, returned 
 to England, a collision became only a question of time. 
 Mr. Sulivan could not forgive the offensive tone of 
 Clive's last despatch. He was jealous of the superior 
 brilliancy of his position, of his welcome at Court, of his 
 cordial relations with Pitt and the Ministry, and he was 
 afraid of losing the ascendency which he had acquired 
 in the administration of the Company. A struggle for
 
 vin OLIVE'S QUARREL WITH IT 145 
 
 the control of Indian affairs commenced ; and to restrain 
 Olive's ambition Mr. Sulivan gave him to understand 
 that the question of the title to his jagir was under con- 
 sideration by the Select Committee. The hint was suffi- 
 cient to keep Clive quiet, for, as he wrote, " my future 
 power, my future grandeur, all depend upon the receipt 
 of the jagir money. I should be a madman to set at 
 defiance those who at present show no inclination to 
 hurt me." 
 
 Olive's illness, and the fact that in 1762 Mr. Sulivan 
 was out of the Direction by rotation, prevented a rupture 
 for some time, but there was little cordiality between 
 the two men. The first points of difference were the 
 claims of the military officers who had served under 
 Clive in India, and the rival merits of Coote and Forde. 
 Before leaving India Clive had written to Forde : " If I 
 do not get you a colonel's or lieutenant-colonel's com- 
 mission, and an appointment of commander-in-chief of 
 all the forces in India, I will from that instant decline 
 all transactions with Directors and East Indian affairs ; " 
 and on reaching England he pressed Forde's claims, not 
 always in temperate terms, on the Directors. Mr. Suli- 
 van neglected the recommendation, and exalted Coote's 
 fame in disparagement of that of Clive. The officers 
 Clive disliked were promoted, whilst those he recom- 
 mended were passed over. The mutual distrust was 
 increased by political animosity. Mr. Sulivan was a 
 follower of Lord Bute ; Clive had declined the minister's 
 overtures, and was consequently treated with coldness 
 by the Government. So bitter was party feeling that 
 Clive, whose knowledge of Indian affairs was greater 
 than that of any man in England, was not con- 
 
 L
 
 146 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 suited during the negotiations for peace with France. 
 He was, however, too patriotic and too much interested 
 in India to withhold information that would be useful, 
 and he transmitted a memorandum to Lord Bute, in 
 which great stress was laid upon the necessity for limit- 
 ing the number of men the French should be allowed to 
 maintain on the Coromandel coast, and for prohibiting 
 their readmission to Bengal except as merchants. His 
 suggestions were adopted, and his conduct in coming 
 forward in such circumstances to assist in improving 
 the treaty greatly increased his popularity amongst the 
 Proprietors. 
 
 Clive strongly disapproved of the peace, and voted in 
 the minority against it in the House of Commons. Lord 
 Bute was greatly annoyed, and attempted to lessen 
 Olive's influence by encouraging Mr. Sulivan to attack 
 his wealth and reputation. Clive was obliged to retali- 
 ate, and being determined to destroy his rival's power, 
 he took steps to support the party of Mr. Eous in the 
 Court of Directors, and came forward himself as a 
 candidate for the Direction. It was customary at that 
 time to increase the number of voters in the Court of 
 Proprietors by "splitting votes," that is, by making 
 fictitious transfers of stock in lots of <500 each. For 
 the election in 1763 Clive purchased 100,000 of stock 
 and divided it in this manner; and he advised his 
 friends to do the same to the extent of their ability. 
 He was supported by many noblemen and gentlemen, and 
 by nearly all those who had served in India and their 
 friends. Mr. Sulivan had in his favour the staff of the 
 Company in England, the city merchants, and the ship- 
 owners connected with the Indian trade. Lord Bute
 
 vi ii A TTA CK ON HIS JA GIR 147 
 
 and ministers, wishing to punish Clive for his votes in 
 Parliament, threw their whole weight into the scale 
 against him. The contest, in which Clive should never 
 have engaged, was carried on with the utmost bitter- 
 ness. After the General Court in March, he was so 
 certain of victory that he wrote to Vansittart : "I have 
 no thought of ever accepting the chair ; I have neither 
 application, knowledge, nor time to undertake so labori- 
 ous an employ. I shall confine myself to the political 
 and military operations; and I think I may promise 
 you shall have a very large military force in India, such 
 a force as will leave little to apprehend from our enemies 
 in those parts." At the election in April, however, the 
 Ministers exerted their influence and he was defeated, 
 much to his mortification, by a crushing majority. 
 
 Mr. Sulivan lost no time in taking his revenge. One 
 of the first acts of the new Directors was to order 
 the Bengal Government to discontinue the payment of 
 Clive's jagir, and to carry the amount to the credit of 
 the Company. The jagir, it will be remembered, was 
 the quit-rent due to Meer Jaffier for the lands granted to 
 the Company after Plassey. The rent was punctually 
 paid by the Company till 1759, when Meer Jaffier assigned 
 it to Clive, who thus became grantee of the rent under 
 the same authority as the Company became grantee of 
 the lands. If the Directors had then disapproved of 
 the grant and ordered it to be restored to Meer Jaffier, 
 they would perhaps have been within their right ; but 
 to confiscate and appropriate it after signifying their 
 approval by acquiescing in the payments for four years, 
 was neither right nor legal. Clive was not disposed to 
 surrender without a struggle ; and the Directors having
 
 148 LORD CLIVE 
 
 refused to give him a copy of the instructions they had 
 sent to Calcutta, or supply him with information, he 
 filed a bill in Chancery against them. He also warned 
 the Government at Fort William that, in the event of 
 their retaining the money, his agents had instructions to 
 prosecute the Company in the Mayor's Court at Cal- 
 cutta ; and asked Major Carnac to obtain the confirma- 
 tion of his right to the jagir from Meer Jaffier and the 
 new Nawab. The Directors claimed no title to the jagir ; 
 they did not pretend that there was another claimant, 
 and they assigned no valid reason for withholding pay- 
 ment. The most eminent lawyers of the day, includ- 
 ing the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General, were 
 of opinion that the Directors had no case; and the 
 Government of Bengal decided that if Clive's right to 
 the jagir were extinguished, it should revert to Meer 
 Jaffier, who had again been seated on the musnud. Clive 
 would no doubt have made good his claims, but before 
 the trial came to an issue the state of affairs in India 
 altered his relations to the Court of Directors. 
 
 The complete disorganisation of the administrative 
 service in Bengal, the anarchy and misery that prevailed 
 in the province, the war with Meer Cossim, and the 
 massacre at Patna had alarmed every one connected 
 \vith India. The Proprietors, trembling for their divi- 
 dends, and for the very safety of their eastern possessions, 
 turned to Clive as the only man who could save them 
 from ruin. At a very full General Court, held in March 
 1764, it was unanimously resolved that he should be 
 requested to return to India ; and a proposal was made 
 that his jagir should be restored. Clive, who was pre- 
 sent, rose, and after declining to take advantage of the
 
 HIS VICTORY 1 49 
 
 generous enthusiasm of the Court, stated that he would 
 make certain proposals to the Directors with regard to 
 his jagir, which he trusted would lead to an amicable 
 arrangement. He concluded by remarking that he 
 could not undertake the government of Bengal if Mr. 
 Sulivan, who was known to be his personal enemy and 
 whose views on Indian affairs differed completely from 
 his own, continued to occupy the chair. Mr. Sulivan, 
 on rising to reply, could scarcely obtain a hearing, and 
 when he attempted to try the result of a ballot he 
 could not find nine Proprietors willing to sign the 
 necessary requisition. Olive was forthwith nominated 
 Governor and Commander-in-Chief in Bengal ; but he 
 refused to embark until the result of the election, on 
 April 25th, 1764, was known. When the day arrived 
 the contest was warm, but Clive triumphed. The elec- 
 tion of Mr. Sulivan was only carried by one vote ; and 
 the chairman and his deputy were friends of the new 
 governor. Olive's right to his jagir was confirmed 
 for ten years, and in the following year his friends 
 succeeded in so strengthening their position on the 
 Direction that they were able to give him steady sup- 
 port whilst reforming the administrative service of 
 Bengal. To understand the nature of Olive's reforms, 
 and the important services which he rendered to his 
 country during his last visit to India, it is necessary 
 to review the events which had occurred during his 
 absence. 
 
 When Clive left Calcutta Mr. Vansittart, his suc- 
 cessor, had not arrived, and the Government was carried 
 on by Mr. Holwell, the senior member of Council. Mr. 
 Holwell could never forget his sufferings in the Black
 
 ISO LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Hole ; he was prejudiced against all Nawabs, and looked 
 upon Meer Jaffier as the author of every evil that 
 afflicted Bengal He had no influence over Meer Jaffier, 
 who with oriental quickness discovered his character 
 and regarded him with distrust. The friction that 
 naturally arose was increased by the financial necessities 
 of the Government. The idea of providing for the 
 future had never occurred to any one. As long as the 
 Plassey treasure lasted all went well ; directly it failed 
 the Government found itself surrounded by difficulties. 
 It was obliged to suspend its trade, and was unable to pay 
 its troops. The Nawab's treasury was exhausted, and 
 his revenues were wasted by frauds and swallowed up by 
 the demands of a rabble army. The subsistence allow- 
 ance to the Company's troops in his service was two or 
 three months in arrear, and his own unpaid soldiers were 
 in a chronic state of mutiny. The only remedy for these 
 evils which suggested itself to Mr. Holwell was a change 
 of Nawabs ; but before he could take action the new gover- 
 nor arrived. Mr. Vansittart had been appointed on the 
 recommendation of Clive. He was honest, well-meaning, 
 and disposed to carry out his predecessor's policy, but 
 he was wanting in self-reliance and firmness, and having 
 openly adopted Mr. Holwell's views, became little more 
 than the mouthpiece of his Council. He was soon 
 called upon to act. Circumstances had given to the 
 Shahzada's invasion of Behar an importance which 
 Clive had not foreseen. The Emperor was murdered 
 at Delhi, and the Shahzada, having proclaimed himself 
 Padishah under the name of Shah Alum, appointed the 
 Nawab of Oude his Vizier. He continued his advance, 
 and after obtaining a first success over Ram Narain,
 
 vi ir BENGAL DURING HIS ABSENCE 151 
 
 was defeated by Caillaud and Knox. In the midst of 
 these events Prince Meerun, Meer Jaffier's heir, was 
 killed by lightning, July 2nd, 1760, and his death 
 brought on a crisis in the affairs of Bengal. 
 
 On September 27th Mr. Vansittart concluded a secret 
 treaty with Meer Cossim, son-in-law of Meer Jaffier, 
 under which it was agreed that the Government of 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa should be transferred to the 
 former, and that he was to be supported by the Com- 
 pany's troops. Meer Jaffier received no hint of the pro- 
 posed transfer until the middle of October, when Van- 
 sittart and Caillaud went to Moorshedabad to persuade 
 him to resign. On his refusal to accept an arrangement 
 which Avould have proved his death warrant, he was 
 deposed and Meer Cossim was seated on the mitsnud. 
 As a mark of his gratitude Meer Cossim presented the 
 Select Committee Avith 200,000, and of this sum Mr. 
 Vansittart, who was drawing a salary of 18,000, and 
 was carrying on private trade, received 28,000. The 
 revolution effected with so much ease was unnecessary 
 and unjustifiable. The Bengal Government broke their 
 solemn treaty with Meer Jaffier without any previous 
 negotiation, and without an attempt to remedy the evils 
 of which they complained. 
 
 The English and Meer Cossim at once took the field 
 against the Padishah and his Vizier. The latter were 
 defeated, and on February 6th, 1761, Shah Alum sur- 
 rendered himself to the English, who allowed him, after 
 a short detention at Patna, to proceed to Oude. Before 
 leaving he offered the dhcani of the three provinces to 
 the Government, and proposed that they should conduct 
 him to Delhi and seat him upon the imperial throne.
 
 152 LORD CLIVE 
 
 The offer of the diwani was declined, but the proposed 
 march to Delhi found many advocates ; and the scheme 
 was only abandoned from want of means and the disin- 
 clination of the Nawab to assist During the Padishah's 
 stay at Patna MeerCossim was formally appointed Na\vab. 
 He was a strong-willed, energetic man of much ability, 
 who, from the moment of his elevation, determined to free 
 himself from English control. Mr. Vansittart's attitude 
 towards him was the reverse of that of Clive towards 
 Meer Jaffier. He did not realise the change that had 
 taken place in the relations between the English and the 
 native princes ; and adopted the policy of an independent 
 Nawab, and non-interference with his affairs. 1 He ad- 
 vised Meer Cossim to regulate his finances, to organise 
 and drill his army, and to pay his soldiers well and 
 regularly. He allowed him to withdraw to Monghir, 
 beyond the reach of English influence, and abandoned 
 to him the rich Hindus who had been friendly to the 
 British. Worst of all, in spite of the protests of Carnac 
 and Coote, he withdrew the protection which Clive had 
 guaranteed to Earn Narain, and gave him up to the 
 Nawab, by whom he was afterwards murdered. Meer 
 Cossim was quick to take the advice offered to him. He 
 reformed his finances ; paid the arrears due to the Com- 
 pany's troops ; and, in the quietude of Monghir, raised 
 and trained an army which afterwards fought against 
 the English with determined bravery. Mr. Vansittart's 
 policy must eventually have led to hostilities ; but it is 
 probable that Meer Cossim would have long hesitated to 
 draw the sword if the English had not provoked him by 
 
 1 A similar policy in the Madras Presidency led to the defection 
 of the celebrated commander of sepoys, Mahomed Essuf.
 
 vui THE CIVIL SERVICE 153 
 
 acts that would have driven the mildest of mortals to 
 resistance. 
 
 The appointment of Mr. Vansittart, a Madras man, 
 was ill received by the Bengal civil service. A party 
 hostile to the new governor was formed, and he was 
 soon left with a single supporter, Warren Hastings, in 
 the Council. Amongst the many changes at this period, 
 Mr. Ellis, a man of violent temper and no tact, became 
 head of the factory at Patna, and by his treatment of 
 the native authorities and open hostility to the Nawab, 
 soon brought on a crisis. One of the principal causes of 
 quarrel was the abuse of the right of private trade. The 
 civil servants of the Company, who received almost 
 nominal salaries, were permitted to engage in private 
 trade, and to adopt the native customs of receiving 
 presents from inferiors and accepting fees and per- 
 quisites. They consequently became tainted with the 
 oriental predilection for illegal gain, and a general at- 
 mosphere of pecuniary immorality pervaded the service. 
 The evils of the practice had been pointed out as early 
 as the reign of James the First by Sir Thomas Roe ; 
 but the Directors adhered to the vicious system of low 
 salaries and unlimited licence to trade. 
 
 The internal trade of India was obstructed by the 
 manner in which the tolls and duties were levied. On 
 all roads and rivers there were toll and custom-houses, 
 at each of which goods in transit were stopped until the 
 duties had been paid and the collectors satisfied. The 
 imports and exports of the Company, when protected 
 by the English flag and the Company's dustuck, or 
 permit, were allowed to pass free of duty but this con- 
 cession did not benefit the civil servants who, so long as
 
 154 LORD CIJVE 
 
 the Nawabs were powerful, were not permitted to engage 
 in the inland trade of the interior. After Plassey, how- 
 ever, when the English became all-powerful, they tried 
 to break through every restraint. During dive's first 
 administration such attempts were rare, but, directly his 
 strong hand was removed, there was a general rush of 
 all classes to take part in the internal trade of the 
 country. Every one traded, from the Governor to the 
 junior clerk ; and the duties of governing were neglected 
 in the pursuit of wealth. They openly traded in salt, 
 betel-nut, tobacco and other native commodities ; and 
 used the Company's dusluck to cover their private 
 adventures. If a collector questioned the power of the 
 dustuck, and stopped their goods, he was seized by 
 sepoys, flogged, and thrown into prison. The civil 
 servants soon acquired a monopoly of the internal 
 trade and amassed large fortunes, while the Directors 
 were obliged to reduce their dividends, and the Nawab's 
 revenue rapidly diminished. 
 
 The trade monopoly was bad, but the conduct of 
 the gomashtas, or native agents employed by the 
 Company's servants, was worse. They assumed the 
 dress of English sepoys, and imprisoned ryois and 
 merchants who would not sell to them at less than 
 the market price, or buy their goods at five times 
 their value. Every gomashta thought himself " no less 
 than the Company." Native merchants "found it ex- 
 pedient to purchase the name of any young writer in 
 the Company's service by loans of money, and under 
 this sanction harassed and oppressed the natives. So 
 plentiful a supply was received from this source that 
 many young writers were enabled to spend 1500 and
 
 ITS RAPACITY 155 
 
 2000 per annum, were clothed in fine linen, and fared 
 sumptuously every day." It was robbery rather than 
 trade, no Tartar horde could have wasted the country 
 more completely ; and, so great was the terror of the 
 English and their agents that, at the mere rumour of 
 their approach the people deserted their villages and 
 fled to the jungle. Well might the historian of the day 
 exclaim, " God ! come to the assistance of Thy afflicted 
 servants, and deliver them from the oppressions which 
 they suffer." And it was not without reason that the 
 Directors regarded " the inland trade as the foundation 
 of all the bloodshed, massacres, and confusion which 
 have happened of late years in Bengal." 
 
 The Governor, with only one supporter in the Council, 
 was powerless. He attempted to remedy the evils by 
 a treaty with the Nawab, but the Council passed a vote 
 of censure upon his action, and forbade compliance with 
 the arrangements he had made. They also compelled 
 him to explain to the Nawab that he was only their 
 organ, and issued orders that any obstruction to their 
 trade should be repelled by force. Meantime Meer 
 Cossim, having put the treaty in force, resisted the ex- 
 travagant demands of the traders, and collisions occurred 
 in all parts of the country. He appealed to the Gover- 
 nor, and, obtaining no redress, broke up the iniquitous 
 trade-monopoly by abolishing all duties for two years. 
 The majority of the Council were furious at his action, 
 and pronounced it to be a violation of the Company's 
 rights and equivalent to a declaration of war. So lost 
 Avere they to all sense of justice and decency that they 
 insisted on the Nawab's revoking his order, and impos- 
 ing duties upon all goods but their own. This selfish
 
 156 LORD CLIVE 
 
 policy was approved by every member of Council with 
 the honourable exceptions of Vansittart and Warren 
 Hastings. An unprovoked attack on the city of Patna 
 by Mr. Ellis (June 24th, 1763) brought on the long 
 threatened crisis. 
 
 Meer Cossim had for some time been convinced that 
 the Council were determined to depose him, and had 
 prepared for war. When he heard of the capture of 
 Patna his anger knew no bounds, and his subsequent 
 conduct was influenced by a blind fanatical hatred of 
 Englishmen. Patna was retaken by his troops, and a 
 few days later Mr. Ellis and the garrison were defeated 
 and made prisoner. The Council, on hearing of Meer 
 Cossim's success, declared war against him, and pro- 
 claimed Meer Jaffier Nawab. Meer Jaffier paid dearly for 
 the honour, for he was bound by treaty to levy duties 
 upon all goods except those of the Company's servants, 
 and to pay the Company 300,000 on account of their 
 losses, to give a donation of 250,000 to the army and 
 navy, and to reimburse the personal losses of individuals. 
 The last item, originally fixed at 100,000, was eventu- 
 ally raised to 530,000 ; and we are told by Mr. Scraf- 
 ton " that all delicacy was laid aside in the manner 
 in which payment was obtained for this sum, of which 
 seven -eighths was for losses sustained in an illicit 
 monopoly of the necessaries of life, carried on against 
 the orders of the Company and to the utter ruin of 
 many thousands of the India merchants ; that of the 
 whole one half was soon extorted from him, though part 
 of the payments to the Company was still undischarged, 
 and though the Company was sinking under the burden 
 of the war, and obliged to borrow great sums of money
 
 VIH DEATH OF MEER JAFFIER 157 
 
 of their servants at eight per cent interest." Clive 
 declared in one of his speeches that the Company had 
 become possessed of one half of the Nawab's revenue ; and 
 that though Meer Jaffier was allowed to collect the other 
 half for himself, he was " no more than a banker for the 
 Company's servants, who could draw upon him as often 
 and to as great an amount as they pleased." It is im 
 possible to conceive a more disgraceful transaction than 
 the enforced payment by Meer Jaffier of compensa- 
 tion for losses sustained through the action of Meer 
 Cossim, who had been placed in power by the English 
 and then driven to resistance. Meer Cossim was 
 defeated by Major Adams in three hard-fought battles, 
 and obliged to take refuge with Shujah Dowlah, the 
 Nawab- Vizier of Oude. His last act of despairing 
 revenge Avas to order the massacre of Mr. Ellis and all 
 his prisoners. After a long campaign Shujah Dowlah 
 was signally defeated by Major Monro at Baxar ; and 
 (May 27th, 1765) on receiving intelligence of dive's 
 return, he threw himself u*pon the clemency of the 
 British. 
 
 Meer Jaffier did not long survive his restoration. He 
 died early in February 1765, a few months before the 
 arrival of Clive, to whom he left a legacy of 50,000. 
 On his death there were two claimants to the throne 
 his natural son, Nujum-ud-Dowlah, aged twenty, and his 
 grandson, a lad of six. Mr. Spencer, who had succeeded 
 Mr. Vansittart, and the Council were eager to make 
 fortunes by installing a new Nawab before Clive arrived ; 
 and having decided in favour of Nujum-ud-Dowlah they 
 sent a deputation under Mr. Johnston to arrange terms. 
 The result was a treaty which completely changed the
 
 158 LORD CLIVE 
 
 relations between the English and the native govern- 
 ment. The Nawab agreed to appoint a Deputy-Nawab, 
 to conduct the civil administration of the country, and 
 to select for the post Mahomed Reza Khan, a Moslem 
 noble of great talent. He also engaged to pay 50,000 
 a month towards the cost of the army ; and to maintain 
 only such troops as were necessary for purposes of State. 
 Although positive orders from the Directors against re- 
 ceiving presents had reached Calcutta before the death 
 of Meer Jaffier, 200,000 was divided amongst the 
 Governor and Council. 
 
 Clive, in consenting to return to India, appears to 
 have been animated by a sincere desire to promote the 
 interests of his country. He was reluctant to leave his 
 family and his friends ; he still suffered from nervous 
 attacks and fits of depression; and personally he had little 
 to gain by undertaking the mission. " Do you think," 
 he writes after reaching Calcutta, " history can furnish 
 an instance of a man with 40,000 per annum, a wife and 
 family, a father and mother, brother and sisters, cousins 
 and relations in abundance, abandoning his native country 
 and all the blessings of life to take charge of a govern- 
 ment so corrupt, so headstrong, so lost to all principle 
 and sense of honour as this is 1 " He was well aware 
 of the difficulties he would have to encounter, but he 
 felt that he alone could restore order, and he cheerfully 
 gave up the comforts and pleasures of home life at the 
 call of duty. He strongly disapproved of the revolution 
 which placed Meer Cossim on the throne ; but considered 
 that, after it had become an accomplished fact, every one 
 should have given it hearty support, and he blamed his 
 friends for opposing Vansittart. Before leaving England
 
 vin CLITE'S THEORY OF GOVERNMENT 159 
 
 he submitted his views on the general policy to be 
 adopted to the Directors. The principal object, he 
 writes, should be to restore the confidence of the natives 
 in the English, which had been lost by the deposition of 
 Meer Jaffier, the withdrawal of the guarantees from the 
 Hindu nobles, and the war with Meer Cossim. The 
 policy towards the Nawab should be one of moderation. 
 He should not be allowed to be independent, for " the 
 princes of the country must in great measure be depend- 
 ent on us or we totally so on them." But he should be 
 " treated with respect, and with that honour which 
 ought to be characteristic of Englishmen in Asia as well 
 as in Europe." Clive was opposed to any extension of 
 territory except under the pressure of necessity ; for, he 
 remarks, " if ideas of conquest were to be the rule of 
 our conduct, I foresee that we should by necessity be 
 led from acquisition to acquisition until we had the 
 whole Empire against us." The trade in salt, betel-nut, 
 and tobacco ought, in his opinion, to be restored to the 
 Xawab ; and the Governor, Council, and civil servants to 
 be absolutely forbidden to take part in it. And to remove 
 the dissatisfaction that such restrictions to private trade 
 would cause, he proposed to give up to the Council " the 
 Governor's portion of commercial advantages ; " and he 
 pledged himself "not to enrich himself one farthing by 
 any pay or emoluments he might receive." He attached 
 special importance to a reorganisation of the army as 
 the only means of reducing the military expenditure 
 that was swallowing up the revenues of the Company. 
 His view was that a force of not less than three thousand 
 Europeans should always be maintained in Bengal, and 
 that it should consist of three battalions of infantry,
 
 160 LORD CLIVE 
 
 four companies of artillery, and a regiment of light 
 horse. The force was to be organised, with the sepoy 
 regiments, in three brigades, and for recruiting purposes 
 there were to be two depot battalions in England. He 
 saw the evil of three independent Presidencies, and 
 wished to revert to the earlier system under which 
 captains -general had been appointed with supreme 
 control over all the Company's possessions in India. 
 The Governor-General, when appointed, " ought to be 
 established in Bengal, as the greatest weight of your 
 civil, commercial, political, and military affairs will 
 always be in that province." 
 
 Clive had been appointed President and Governor of 
 Bengal and Commander of the Forces. He wished also 
 to have the power, a very necessary one while com- 
 munication between England and India was in its 
 infancy, of acting when requisite on his own responsi- 
 bility. The Directors considered this power, afterwards 
 vested in Indian governors, too great for one man, so, by 
 way of compromise, they appointed a Select Committee, 
 composed of Clive and four members nominated by him, 
 and authorised it to assume all the powers of Govern- 
 ment and act without consulting the Council. They also 
 made some preparation for the reforms which were to be 
 carried out by issuing orders 1 that all their servants, 
 civil and military, should at once execute covenants, bind- 
 ing themselves, on pain of dismissal, to pay to the Com- 
 pany all presents which they might receive above four 
 thousand rupees, and not to accept any present under 
 that amount without the permission of the President and 
 
 1 The orders reached Calcutta 011 January 24th, 1765, before the 
 death of Meer Jaffier.
 
 ORDERS OF 7W DIRECTORS 161 
 
 Council. In a letter, dated February 8th, 1764, they 
 ordered the grievances of the Nawab to be redressed, 
 and all inland trade to cease ; but, in consequence of a 
 resolution of the Court of Proprietors on May 18th, 
 they subsequently instructed Clive (June 1st), "after 
 consulting the Nawab, to form a proper and equitable 
 plan for carrying on the inland trade."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL 
 
 OLIVE left England on June 4th, 1764, with the views 
 and powers described above. On April 10th, 1765, 
 he reached Madras, and there heard of the death 
 of Meer Jaffier, an event which completely altered the 
 position in Bengal. In a private letter to Mr. Rous, the 
 Chairman of Directors, he writes : " We have at last 
 arrived at that critical period which I have long foreseen, 
 I mean that period which renders it necessary for us to 
 determine whether we can or shall take the whole to 
 ourselves. Jaffier Ali Khan is dead, and his natural son 
 is a minor, but I know not whether he is yet declared 
 successor. Shoojah Dowlah is beat from his dominion ; 
 we are in possession of it, and it is scarcely hyperbole to 
 say, to-morrow the whole Mogul Empire is in our power. 
 . . . We must indeed become Nawabs ourselves, in fact, 
 if not in name, perhaps totally so without disguise, but 
 upon this subject I cannot be certain until my arrival in 
 Bengal " (April 17th, 1765). Clive now decided to place 
 Meer Jaffier's grandson, a child of six, on the throne, and 
 to rule in his name under the authority of the Padishah. 
 At the same time he wrote secretly to his London agent 
 to invest in East India stock " whatever money I have
 
 CHAP, ix THE AUGEAN STABLE 163 
 
 in the public funds or anywhere else, and as much as can 
 be borrowed in my name." The transaction, taken in con- 
 nection with the letter to Mr. Kous, has the appearance 
 of an abuse of official intelligence ; but he declared, when 
 examined on the subject by the Committee of the House 
 of Commons, " that he had not, whilst at Madras, formed 
 the resolution to seize the diivani" ; and his object may 
 have been to strengthen his position in the Court of Pro- 
 prietors, and ensure that support from home which was 
 so necessary to success. 
 
 Clive, with two members of the Committee, who had 
 accompanied him from England, reached Calcutta on 
 May 3rd, 1765. He was furious when he heard that Meer 
 Jaffier's son had already been seated on the musnud, and 
 openly expressed his opinion of the motives that had in- 
 fluenced those who had taken part in the transaction. 
 He found the whole fabric of government in a state of 
 dissolution. Anarchy, confusion, and corruption reigned 
 supreme. The Governor had abdicated his functions, and 
 his office had been "in a manner hunted down, stripped 
 of its dignity, and then divided into sixteen shares." 
 "Would you believe," he remarks of Mr. Spencer, "that 
 in his letters to the Nawab and others he has sub- 
 mitted to write, ' I and the Council ' 1 " All the Council 
 had been guilty of " barefaced corruption," and had been 
 influenced by personal interests rather than by those of 
 the Company or the State. The vacancies caused by re- 
 tirements, dismissals, and the Patna massacre had raised to 
 the higher ranks young men whose one thought was to 
 enrich themselves. The Secretariat was in charge of a 
 youngster of three years' service. The barrier between 
 seniors and juniors was broken down, the latter resented
 
 164 LORD CLIVE 
 
 any censure of or interference in their pursuits, and 
 young and old vied with each other in reckless extrava- 
 gance. No man would undertake work which did not 
 add to his fortune. Enormous sums were squandered 
 on fortifications that were never completed. Men 
 were charged for as being in hospital months after they 
 were dead, and the prevailing corruption was greater 
 than it had ever been under the direct rule of the 
 native princes. The orders of the Directors in regard to 
 private trade were ignored, and the whole country was 
 plundered by gomashtas, who committed actions that 
 made " the name of the English stink in the nostrils of 
 a Hindu or a Mussulman." The army, European and 
 native, had become mutinous and insubordinate. Ever 
 since Olive's departure in 1760 the commanding officers 
 had encroached more and more upon the civil power, 
 and endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the 
 native princes that supreme power was vested in the 
 Commander-in-Chief, and not in the Governor and 
 Council. So far had they gone in this direction that a 
 few more months of Mr. Spencer's government would 
 have made them " Lords Paramount." The dissensions 
 in the Council and the attitude of the commanding 
 officers had produced a relaxation of discipline amongst 
 the officers which was reflected in the conduct of the 
 men. A mutinous spirit had shown itself, and on more 
 than one occasion it had broken out into open violence. 
 Large numbers of European and native soldiers had 
 deserted to the native powers, and a serious mutiny 
 amongst the sepoys at Patna had only been quelled by 
 blowing the ringleaders from guns. 
 
 The condition of affairs is thus described by Clive
 
 ix OLIVE'S DESCRIPTION OF IT 165 
 
 in a letter to the Directors, dated September 20th, 
 1765: 
 
 Upon my arrival, I am sorry to say, I found your affairs 
 in a condition so nearly desperate as would have alarmed 
 any set of men whose sense of honour and duty to their 
 employers had not been estranged by the too-eager pursuit of 
 their own immediate advantages. The sudden, and among 
 many the unwarrantable, acquisition of riches, had introduced 
 luxury in every shape and in its most pernicious excess. 
 These two enormous evils went hand in hand together 
 through the whole presidency, infecting almost every member 
 of each department. Every inferior seems to have grasped 
 at wealth, that he might be enabled to assume that spirit of 
 profusion which was now the only distinction between him 
 and his superior. Thus all distinction ceased, and every 
 rank became, in a manner, upon an equality. Nor was this 
 the end of the mischief, for a contest of such a nature among 
 our servants necessarily destroyed all proportion between 
 their wants and the honest means of satisfying them. In a 
 country where money is plenty, where fear is the principle 
 of government, and where your arms are ever victorious, it 
 is no wonder that the lust of riches should readily embrace 
 the proffered means of its gratification, or that the instru- 
 ments of your power should avail themselves of their 
 authority, and proceed even to extortion, in those cases 
 where simple corruption could not keep pace with their 
 rapacity. Examples of this sort set by superiors could not 
 fail of being followed, in a proportional degree, by inferiors. 
 The evil was contagious, and spread among the civil and 
 military, down to the writer, the ensign, and the free 
 merchant. 
 
 The Select Committee also wrote of " transactions 
 which seem to demonstrate that every spring of this 
 Government was smeared with corruption, that principles 
 of rapacity and oppression universally prevailed, and that 
 every spark of sentiment and public spirit was lost and 
 extinguished in the unbounded lust of unmerited wealth."
 
 166 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 The spirit in which Clive entered upon his heavy task 
 may be gathered from a letter to Carnac : " Alas ! " he 
 says, " how is the English name stink ! I could not avoid 
 paying the tribute of a few tears to the departed and 
 lost fame of the British nation (irrecoverably so, I fear). 
 However, I do declare, by that Great Being who is the 
 searcher of all hearts, and to whom we must be account- 
 able, if there must be an hereafter, that I am come out 
 with a mind superior to all corruption, and that I am 
 determined to destroy those great and growing evils, or 
 perish in the attempt." 
 
 Clive on landing had, as he expressed it, when after- 
 wards defending himself, three paths before him : 
 
 1. One was strewed with abundance of fair advantages. 
 I might have put myself at the head of the Government as 
 I found it I might have encouraged the resolution which 
 the gentlemen had taken not to execute the new covenants 
 which prohibited the receipt of presents ; and, although I 
 had executed the covenants myself, I might have contrived 
 to return to England with an immense fortune, infamously 
 added to the one before honourably obtained. 2. Finding 
 my powers disputed, I might in despair have given up the 
 commonwealth, and have left Bengal without making an 
 effort to save it. Such a conduct would have been deemed 
 the effect of folly and cowardice. 3. The third path was 
 intricate. Dangers and difficulties were on every side. But 
 I resolved to pursue it. In short, I was determined to do 
 my duty to the public, although I should incur the odium 
 of the whole settlement. The welfare of the Company re- 
 quired a vigorous exertion, and I took the resolution of 
 cleansing the Augean stable. 
 
 Olive's first act on assuming the Government was to 
 bring forward his scheme for the organisation of the 
 army, and this was passed without criticism by the
 
 ix HIS OPINION OF THE COUNCIL 167 
 
 Council. His next was to establish the supremacy of 
 the Select Committee, whose powers were so loosely and 
 jesuitically worded that they were immediately contested. 
 The scene in the Council Chamber when the commission 
 appointing the Committee was produced must be de- 
 scribed in Clive's own words : 
 
 Mr. Leycester then seemed inclined to enter into a debate 
 about the meaning and extent of those powers, but I cut him 
 short by informing the Board that I would not suffer any one 
 to enter into the least discussion about the meaning of those 
 powers, but that the Committee alone were" absolutely deter- 
 mined to be the sole and only judges ; but that they were 
 at liberty to enter upon the face of the consultations any 
 hiinutes they thought proper, but nothing more. Mr. John- 
 ston desired that some other paragraphs of the letter might 
 be sent to the different subordinates, etc., as tending, I 
 believe, in his opinion, to invalidate those orders. Upon 
 which I asked him whether he would dare to dispute our 
 authority. Mr. Johnston replied that he never had the least 
 intention of doing such a thing ; upon which there was an 
 appearance of very long and pale countenances, and not one 
 of the Council uttered another syllable. 
 
 The first act of the Committee was to enforce the 
 execution of the covenants relating to the reception of 
 presents. Clive was indignant at the abuses which 
 had accompanied the elevation of the young Nawab, 
 and did not hesitate to express his opinion of the 
 Council. They were "children and fools as well as 
 knaves," and their behaviour had been "shameless, aban- 
 doned, and ungrateful." He was determined to show 
 them no mercy, and declared that there were " not five 
 men of principle in the whole settlement," and that 
 there had been " a combination between the blacks and 
 the whites to divide all the revenues of the Company
 
 i6S LORD CUTE 
 
 between them." His opponents justified themselves by 
 quoting his own action after Plassey, and refused to 
 admit that they had done wrong. They forgot that 
 Clive had rendered great services to the Nawab and the 
 Company ; that his first interference in native affairs 
 was not solely dictated by sordid motives, and that 
 there was at the time no order against the receipt of 
 presents. Olive's conduct was at any rate consistent. 
 He steadily supported those who had helped him, and 
 protected them not only from their native enemies but 
 from the rapacity of the Company's servants. The Coun- 
 cil were guided by personal motives and influenced by 
 the desire of gain. Although they had rendered no 
 services, they accepted presents after the receipt of 
 positive orders forbidding them to do so ; and they 
 delayed the execution of the covenants until the money 
 had been paid. All their measures failed. Every one 
 who had befriended the English was ruined, and the 
 word of an Englishman was no longer trusted. 
 
 At a later date Clive, when justifying his acceptance 
 of Meer Jaffier's presents before the Select Committee 
 of the House of Commons, stated that his idea of pre- 
 sents was as f ollows : When presents are received as the 
 price of services to the nation, to the Company, and to 
 that prince who bestowed these presents ; when they are 
 not exacted from him by compulsion ; when he is in a 
 state of independence, and can do with his money what 
 he pleases ; and when they are not received to the disad- 
 vantage of the Company, he holds presents so received 
 not dishonourable : but when they are received from a 
 dependent prince, when they are received for no services 
 whatever, and when they are received not voluntarily,
 
 REFORMS 169 
 
 he holds the receipt of such presents dishonourable. 
 He never made the least secret of the presents he had 
 received ; he acquainted the Court of Directors with it, 
 and they, who are his masters, and were the only 
 persons who had a right to object to his receiving those 
 presents, approved of it. Wedderburn, the Solicitor- 
 General, was of opinion that the presents received by 
 Clive were " justifiable both from the extraordinary cir- 
 cumstances of the case and from the known customs and 
 usages of the country." 
 
 The Directors had been most anxious to put an end 
 to the inland trade carried on by their servants and 
 the gomashtas. It was opposed to the interests of the 
 Company, and the vast fortunes acquired in it were 
 obtained by " the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct 
 that was ever known." Positive orders were issued 
 that the trade was to cease, but no arrangements were 
 made for compensating the civil servants by granting 
 them fixed salaries on a liberal scale. When the orders 
 reached Calcutta they were ignored, and Clive on his 
 arrival found that nothing had been done to check 
 the scandalous abuses. He at once proceeded to carry 
 out the orders of the Directors. The civil servants 
 were removed from the minor stations; all free mer- 
 chants, excepting those who carried special licenses, 
 were ordered down to Calcutta ; the system under 
 which the native agents traded free of duty was abol- 
 ished ; and the senior civil servants were compensated 
 for the loss of their trade by distributing amongst 
 them the profits of the salt monopoly. These measures 
 caused great discontent, and the discussions in Council 
 were heated ; but Clive was no Vansittart. Messrs.
 
 i;o LORD CLIVE 
 
 Gray and Johnston, members of Council, resigned to 
 avoid an inquiry into their actions ; Mr. Burdett was 
 suspended ; Mr. Leycester was dismissed ; and severe 
 measures were taken with the juniors, who are described 
 as "young gentlemen just broke loose from the hands 
 of their schoolmasters." The civil servants were thus 
 reduced to obedience ; but 'their slumbering animosity 
 was revived when it became known, some months later, 
 that an application had been made to Madras for assist- 
 ance. 
 
 The young gentlemen of the settlement (Olive says) had 
 set themselves up for judges of the propriety of our conduct, 
 and the degree of their own merit ; each would think him- 
 self qualified to transact your weighty affairs in Council at 
 an age when the laws of his country adjudge him unfit to 
 manage his own concerns to the extent of forty shillings. 
 They have not only set their hands to the memorial of com- 
 plaint, but entered into associations unbecoming at their 
 years, and destructive of that subordination without which 
 no Government can stand. All visits to the President are 
 forbidden. All invitations from him and the members of 
 the Select Committee are to be slighted. The gentlemen 
 called down by our authority from Madras are to be treated 
 with neglect and contempt. Every man who deviates from 
 this confederacy is to be stigmatised and avoided. In a 
 word, the members are totally to separate themselves from 
 the head ; decorum and union are to be set at defiance ; and 
 it becomes a fair struggle whether we or the young gentle- 
 men shall in future guide the helm of Government. Look 
 at their names, examine their standing, inquire into their 
 services, and reflect upon the age of four-fifths of the sub- 
 scribers to the bill of grievances, who now support the 
 association, and you will be equally surprised with us at the 
 presumptuous intemperance of youth, and convinced that a 
 stop of three or four years in the course of promotion is 
 indispensably necessary if you would have your Council 
 composed of men of experience and discretion.
 
 ix AFFAIRS OF OUDE 171 
 
 In the midst of his civil service reforms Clive found 
 time to make an important change in the form of the 
 Nawab's Government. He could not set aside Nujum- 
 ud-Dowlah, whose incapacity for business was evident, 
 without being guilty of a distinct breach of faith. But 
 he restricted the power of Mahomed Reza Khan by 
 associating with him two Hindu grandees, and by laying 
 down that they were to act entirely under the orders of 
 the Governor and Council. His attention was next turned 
 to the affairs of the Padishah and the Nawab- Vizier 
 of Oude, who had thrown themselves upon the mercy 
 of the English, and to the heavy military expenditure 
 that was threatening the Company with financial ruin. 
 " Three important questions demanded settlement : The 
 future status of Oude and the Nawab- Vizier ; the future 
 relations between the English and the Padishah; and 
 the future relations between the Nawab of Bengal and the 
 English on the one hand, and the Padishah on the other." 
 Clive was opposed to any extension of the Company's 
 possessions ; his plan was to form Oude into a friendly 
 "buffer" state between the three provinces and the 
 Afghans and the Mahrattas ; to firmly establish British 
 ascendency in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa under the 
 authority of the Padishah ; and to recognise the imperial 
 sovereignty by a fixed annual payment from the revenue 
 of Bengal. He left Calcutta on June 25th, 1765, and 
 on July llth he was able to report that he had obtained 
 the acquiescence of Nujum-ud-Dowlah and his ministers 
 to an arrangement under which all the revenues of 
 Bengal were to be appropriated to the payment of the 
 sums due to the Company, the expenses of the army, 
 and the tribute to the Padishah, with the exception of
 
 172 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 500,000, afterwards increased to 530,000, which was 
 to be retained for the expenses of the Nawab. Nujum- 
 ud-Dowlah's only remark on the arrangement was, "Thank 
 God ! I shall now have as many dancing girls as I 
 please." 
 
 On August 2nd Olive met the Nawab -Vizier at 
 Benares, and entered into an engagement with him 
 which proved to be of an exceptionally durable char- 
 acter. Shujah Dowlah, on promising to pay 500,000 
 to the Company, was restored to all his possessions 
 with the exception of the districts of Kora and Alla- 
 habad, which were reserved for the Padishah; and a 
 defensive alliance was concluded between him and the 
 English. Clive next proceeded to Allahabad and came 
 to an agreement with the Padishah which may be 
 regarded as the constitutional entrance of the Company 
 into the affairs of India. Shah Alum appointed Nujum- 
 ud-Dowlah Subadar, or Nazim, of Bengal, Behar, and 
 Orissa; and granted the perpetual diivani of the same 
 provinces to the Company on their engaging to pay 
 him an annual rent of 260,000. 1 Under this arrange- 
 ment the Company came into possession of the three pro- 
 vinces, which yielded an estimated revenue of more than 
 three millions. They paid 260,000 to the Padishah 
 and 530,000 to the Nawab; and provided for the 
 defence of the country out of the surplus. The Nawab 
 was thus reduced to the position of a pensioner and 
 dependant of the Company. Shah Alum also acknow- 
 ledged the title of the Company to their possessions in 
 the Carnatic, made them a free gift of the northern 
 
 1 At the durbar held on this occasion the Padishali used an 
 English dining-table, covered over, as his throne.
 
 ix MUTINY IN THE ARMY 173 
 
 Circars, and confirmed the grant of dive's jagir. He 
 tried at the same time to induce Clive to march to 
 Delhi and replace him on the throne. This policy had 
 been recommended in March 1762 by Eyre Coote and 
 others, who considered that the English army was equal 
 to the enterprise, and that " so glorious an opportunity 
 of aggrandising the Company in Hindostan " should not 
 be lost. Clive, however, believed that Shah Alum was 
 not the man to rule in troublous times, and would 
 not listen to the project. He advised the Padishah to 
 live quietly in the Company's territory, and when he 
 would not accept the advice, told him plainly that the 
 Company would not assist him in any enterprise beyond 
 their possessions. 
 
 Clive had next to contend with a formidable mutiny 
 among the officers of the army. After Plassey, 
 Meer Jaffier granted double batta to the English force, 
 at the request of Clive, who warned the officers at 
 the time that the indulgence could not be continued. 
 The Directors repeatedly sent most positive orders that 
 it should cease, but the weak governments of Vansittart 
 and Spencer were so completely overawed by the army, 
 and so eager to share in any possible plunder, that the 
 orders were never enforced. The officers thus came to 
 look upon the indulgence almost as a matter of right. 
 When the Company accepted the diwani, and the 
 revenues of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa came into their 
 hands, they determined to discontinue the double batta, 
 and the Select Committee issued an order that it was to 
 cease on January 1st, 1766. 
 
 The officers, though seeming to acquiesce, were de- 
 termined to resist the order, and formed a secret league
 
 174 LORD CLIVE 
 
 to resign their commissions on June 1st. The plot was 
 matured in the first, Sir R Fletcher's, brigade, at 
 Monghir, and afterwards communicated to the second 
 and third brigades. The officers " bound themselves by 
 an oath to secrecy, and to preserve, at the hazard of their 
 own lives, the life of any one of their body who might 
 be condemned by court-martial to death. In order to 
 avoid the charge of mutiny, they determined to refuse 
 the usual advance of pay for the month of June. Each 
 officer bound himself separately by a bond of 500 not 
 to accept his commission again if double batta were not 
 restored." Subscriptions were raised for those who 
 might be cashiered, and to this fund several of the civil 
 servants and free merchants contributed. War with the 
 Mahrattas was imminent, and the officers thought that 
 their joint action at such a critical moment would 
 enable them to force Olive's hand, and carry their point. 
 They never made a greater mistake. 
 
 Clive first heard of the conspiracy on April 28th, 
 and saw that, if it were not immediately suppressed, 
 the government of the three provinces would pass 
 into the hands of the army. " The ringleaders," he 
 observed, " of this affair must suffer the severest punish- 
 ment that martial law can inflict, else there is an end of 
 discipline in the army, and of authority in the East 
 India Company over all their servants ! !" He was 
 determined to restore order at all hazards: "I must 
 see the soldiers' bayonets levelled at my throat," he 
 writes, "before I can be induced to give way;" and he 
 acted with rare energy and decision. He accepted all 
 resignations, and ordered those who resigned to be 
 immediately sent down to Calcutta ; he placed the more
 
 ix HOW CLIVE QUELLED IT 175 
 
 prominent offenders under arrest, and shipped them to 
 England; called up officers from Madras, and gave 
 commissions to deserving non-commissioned officers and 
 soldiers. To Mr. Verelst, who was at Calcutta, he 
 wrote, "Remember again to act with the greatest spirit; 
 and if the civilians entertain the officers, dismiss them 
 the service ; and if the latter behave with insolence, or 
 are refractory, make them all prisoners, and confine 
 them in the new fort." The investigations having 
 shown that Sir R. Fletcher was mixed up in the trans- 
 action, he was brought before a court-martial; and, 
 being found guilty of wilfully concealing the plot for 
 four months, was dismissed the service. 
 
 When order had been restored and authority vin- 
 dicated, Clive acted with great leniency and indulgence, 
 and showed no resentment. He reinstated those officers 
 who regretted their hasty resignation, and petitioned to 
 be restored to the service ; and when told that two of 
 the officers had declared their intention of assassinating 
 him, he replied that the officers were Englishmen, and 
 not assassins. In dealing with the mutiny Clive dis- 
 played his wonted firmness and decision. He never once 
 swerved from his resolution to restore order ; and in the 
 height of the crisis his warm temper never betrayed him 
 into a single act unworthy of his public or private char- 
 acter. No victory was ever more complete than that 
 which he gained ; and he always ranked it higher than 
 any of his achievements in the field. 
 
 It has been mentioned that Clive placed the salaries 
 of the senior civil servants on a proper footing, by 
 appropriating the profits arising from a monopoly of 
 the salt trade. Ample allowances for the senior army
 
 176 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 officers, who had been permitted to increase their 
 meagre pay by trade, were provided from the same 
 source. Olive was of opinion that men in high 
 position could not be expected to decline presents and 
 forego the profits of private trade unless they were 
 well paid; and he repeatedly, but fruitlessly, pressed 
 his views upon the Directors. As the Court of Directors 
 would not sanction the payment of adequate salaries 
 from their territorial revenues, or from the profits of 
 their trade, Clive adopted the mode of remuneration 
 which, at the moment, seemed least open to objection. 
 He very justly remarked afterwards that 
 
 It was not expedient that the Company's servants should 
 pass from affluence to beggary. It was necessary that some 
 emoluments should accrue to the servants in general, and 
 more especially to those in superior stations, who were to 
 assist in carrying on the measures of Government. The 
 salary of a councillor is, I think, scarcely 300 per annum ; 
 and it is well known that he cannot live in the country for 
 less than 3000. The same proportion holds among the 
 other servants. It was requisite, therefore, that an establish- 
 ment should take place ; and the Select Committee, after the 
 most mature deliberation, judged that the trade in salt, 
 betel -nut, and tobacco, under proper regulations, might 
 effectually answer the purpose (Speech in the House of 
 Commons, March 30th, 1772). 
 
 The question which Clive had to decide was, whether 
 the evils arising from a monopoly were more to be 
 dreaded than those which were known to accompany a 
 badly paid civil and military service. The scheme that 
 he devised may not have been the best possible ; but it 
 was fair to Europeans and natives, and had it been 
 allowed to proceed, the renunciation of private trade
 
 ix FOLLY OF THE DIRECTORS 177 
 
 would have become compulsory. Unfortunately it did 
 not meet with the approval of the Directors, and they 
 refused to sanction it. This decision deprived the 
 servants of the Company of their principal means of 
 subsistence without substituting regular salaries in its 
 place ; and so prevented the complete success of Olive's 
 second administration. It also led to a revival of abuses 
 connected with private trade which did not disappear 
 until many years later. There was a general increase of 
 salaries. The letter in which the Directors communi- 
 cated their disapproval to Clive only reached him in 
 December, a month before he left for England. He 
 had then been confined to his room for weeks by the 
 severe illness which so nearly proved fatal; but he 
 acted with his usual prompt decision, and confirmed the 
 arrangement for a year, so as to give time for an appeal 
 to the Directors. The two charges afterwards brought 
 against Clive in connection with the salt trade that 
 he had disobeyed the orders of the Company in not 
 abolishing the monopoly ; and that, by taking a share of 
 the profits as Governor, he had broken his promise not to 
 trade, were fully answered in his speech in the House of 
 Commons on March 30th, 1772. His accounts, which 
 were laid before Parliament, showed that, so far from 
 having added to his private fortune, he had expended 
 .5816 : 16 : 9 more than his pay and emoluments. 
 
 Before leaving India Clive filled up the vacancies on 
 the Select Committee, and laid before it an able State 
 Paper, in which he explained the policy which in his 
 opinion ought to be pursued. The Nawab, though 
 nothing had been left to him but the name and shadow 
 of authority, was to be treated with every mark of 
 
 N
 
 178 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 distinction and respect. He was to be retained to 
 satisfy foreign powers, and the distinction between him 
 and the Company was to be carefully maintained. The 
 Committee were not to be anxious to increase the 
 revenue, especially when it could only be effected by 
 oppressing the landholders and tenants. The export of 
 silver from Bengal, which might produce consequences 
 fatal to the Company, was to be vigilantly watched and 
 regulated. All free traders were to be recalled from the 
 interior, and the orders for the abolition of the salt 
 trade were to be obeyed. "But," he adds, "as I am of 
 opinion that the trade upon its present footing is rather 
 beneficial than injurious to the inhabitants of this 
 country, and that a continuation of this indulgence, or 
 some equivalent, is become absolutely necessary, and 
 would be an honourable incitement to diligence and zeal 
 in the Company's service, I flatter myself the Court of 
 Directors will be induced to settle some plan that will 
 prove agreeable to your wishes." The Governor should 
 assert his position as head of the Government, and make 
 tours of inspection each season. " The people of this 
 country," Clive says, "have little or no idea of a divided 
 power; they imagine all authority is vested in one 
 man. The Governor of Bengal should always be looked 
 upon by them in this light, as far as is consistent with 
 the honour of the Committee and Council. In every 
 vacant season, therefore, I think it expedient that he 
 take a tour up the country, in the quality of a supervisor- 
 general. Frauds and oppressions of every sort being by 
 this means laid open to his view, will, in a great measure, 
 be prevented, and the natives preserve a just opinion of 
 the importance and dignity of our president, upon whose
 
 ix OLIVE'S FOREIGN POLICY 179 
 
 character and conduct much of the prosperity of the 
 Company's affairs in Bengal must ever depend." 
 
 No wars Avere to be undertaken except in defence 
 of our own, the King's, or the Nawab- Vizier's dominions, 
 as stipulated by treaty; and a march to Delhi was 
 especially deprecated. If the Nawab- Vizier of Oude 
 proposed an expedition to Delhi and asked for English 
 assistance, he was to be refused. " Should he, however, 
 be prevailed upon by the King to escort his Majesty to 
 that capital without our assistance, it will then be our 
 interest to approve the project, as it is the only means by 
 which we can honourably get rid of our troublesome 
 royal guest." Terms of friendship were to be estab- 
 lished with the Mahrattas of Berar ; and, with a view of 
 establishing free communication by land with Madras, 
 chout was to be paid to their Rajah, Januji, on the con- 
 dition that he appointed the Company Zamindar of 
 Balasore and Cuttack. The Mahrattas of the Western 
 Deccan were to be overawed by an alliance with Nizam 
 Ali, the Subadar at Hyderabad. The Directors did not 
 approve of Clive's foreign policy ; they were of opinion 
 that no security could be obtained by alliances with 
 native princes, and entirely disapproved the idea of sup- 
 porting the Subadar of the Deccan as a balance of power 
 against the Mahrattas. Clive's parting advice to his 
 colleagues is couched in words not unworthy of the man 
 who in twenty months had raised the Bengal Provinces 
 from the depth of degradation to the wealth and im- 
 portance of an Empire. 
 
 It has been too much the custom in this Government to 
 make orders and regulations, and thence to suppose the 
 business done. To what end and purpose are they made, if
 
 180 LORD CUTE 
 
 they be not promulgated and enforced? No regulation can 
 be carried into execution, no order obeyed, if you do not 
 make rigorous examples of the disobedient. Upon this 
 point I rest the welfare of the Company in Bengal. The 
 servants are now brought to a proper sense of their duty. 
 If you slacken the reins of Government affairs will soon 
 revert to their former channel ; anarchy and corruption will 
 again prevail, and, elate with a new victory, be too head- 
 strong for any future efforts of Government. Recall to your 
 memories the many attempts that have been made in the 
 civil and military departments to overcome our authority, 
 and to set up a kind of independency against the Court of 
 Directors. Reflect also on the resolute measures we have 
 pursued, and their wholesome effects. Disobedience to legal 
 power is the first step of sedition ; and palliative measures 
 effect no cure. Every tender compliance, every condescen- 
 sion on your parts, will only encourage more flagrant attacks, 
 which will daily increase in strength, and be at last in vain 
 resisted. Much of our time has been employed in correcting 
 abuses. The important work has been prosecuted with zeal, 
 diligence, and disinterestedness ; and we have had the hap- 
 piness to see our labours crowned with success. I leave the 
 country in peace. I leave the civil and military departments 
 under discipline and subordination ; it is incumbent on you 
 to keep them so. You have power, you have abilities, you 
 have integrity ; let it not be said that you are deficient in 
 resolution. I repeat that you must not fail to exact the 
 most implicit obedience to your orders. Dismiss or suspend 
 from the service any man who shall dare to dispute your 
 authority. If you deviate from the principles upon which 
 you have hitherto acted, and upon which you are conscious 
 you ought to proceed ; or if you do not make a proper use 
 of that power with which you are invested, I shall hold my- 
 self acquitted, as I do now protest against the consequences. 
 
 The mental and bodily fatigue which Olive under- 
 went while suppressing the military mutiny seriously 
 affected his health. He had travelled much and rapidly 
 during the monsoon and in the hottest season of the
 
 ix HE LEAVES INDIA 181 
 
 year ; " How should the daks, or the devil himself, over- 
 take you travelling at such a rate ? " writes Mr. Campbell 
 to his secretary ; and he had contented himself with no 
 more than three hours' sleep a day. Towards the end 
 of October he was attacked by a serious bilious disorder 
 which, for more than a month, incapacitated him for 
 business, and left permanent injuries to his constitution 
 which seem to have finally hastened his end. The 
 Directors pressed him to remain for another year, in a 
 manner most nattering to his vanity and ambition ; but 
 he felt, as he wrote to Mr. Palk on December 20th, 
 " that he could not survive and be of use to the Com- 
 pany in India another year." On January 16th, 1767, 
 he attended a meeting of the Select Committee for the 
 last time, and at the end of the month he embarked for 
 England. He had intended travelling home overland 
 with General Carnac, but the state of his health com- 
 pelled him to return by sea. 
 
 The five years that followed Clive's departure from 
 Calcutta in 1760 are the most shameful in the history of 
 British India. Strong measures were necessary to put 
 an end to abuses that his successors had more than 
 tolerated, and he did not flinch from these in his effort 
 to cleanse what he called the Augean stable. The 
 services which Clive rendered to his country during his 
 second administration have rarely been equalled, they 
 have never been surpassed. During the brief space of 
 twenty months he reformed the civil service and in- 
 creased its efficiency, after having suppressed a com- 
 bination amongst the civil servants hostile to his policy. 
 He reorganised the army and quelled a serious mutiny 
 amongst the officers ; concluded an advantageous peace
 
 1 82 LORD CLIVE 
 
 with the Nawab- Vizier of Oude; and acquired the 
 diwani of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa for the Company, 
 whereby they obtained a revenue of two millions, while 
 the whole political power came into the hands of the 
 English. He reduced expenses; paid off most of the 
 Company's debts in India ; checked misrule ; set bounds 
 to the cupidity of the ruling caste ; and brought trade 
 and commerce back into their wonted channels. 
 
 When Clive reached India the strongest human 
 motives love of power, love of reputation, love of 
 money were enlisted against him. He stood alone. 
 Every one, from the senior member of Council to the last- 
 joined clerk, was against him. He was often weary, 
 often depressed, often sorely tried, but his iron will was 
 never diverted from its object. "Let me," he writes, 
 "but have health sufficient to go through with the 
 reformation we intend, and I shall die with satisfaction 
 and in peace." He shrank from nothing when he be- 
 lieved he was acting for the public good ; and the strong 
 measures he adopted created a host of powerful enemies. 
 His reforms in the civil and military services, though 
 they left them, after all reductions, the most liberally 
 paid in the world, were the real cause of the virulent 
 attacks made upon him after his return to England, and 
 of the Parliamentary inquiry into his conduct. Had 
 some of his schemes been adopted instead of being 
 opposed by the Directors, the history of British India 
 during the next few years would have been very 
 different. 
 
 Clive's organisation and administration of the Indian 
 army are remarkable proofs of his inborn military 
 talent. His army reforms, especially those connected
 
 ix REVIEW OF HIS ADMINISTRATION 183 
 
 with the amalgamation of the troops of the three 
 presidencies in Bengal, increased the number of his 
 enemies ; and the stern measures which he was com- 
 pelled to take in crushing the mutiny roused deep feel- 
 ings of animosity, which found expression after his death 
 in one of the most scandalous attempts to defame the 
 memory of a brave man that have ever been published. 
 The native policy which Clive carried out was essen- 
 tially one of expediency. The English knew nothing of 
 the government of the country, and their attempt to 
 rule Bardwan had shown how little fitted they were to 
 undertake the responsibility of direct administration. 
 When they espoused the cause of Meer Jaffier they com- 
 mitted an act of open rebellion against the Padishah ; 
 when they accepted the diwani the Company became 
 an integral part of his tottering Empire. The outward 
 form of the government remained the same as it had 
 been under Aurungzebe. There was a Nawab Nazim 
 who was responsible for the government and defence of 
 the three provinces, and a Diwan who received and dis- 
 bursed the annual revenue. There was none the less a 
 real transference of power. Clive reduced the Nawab to 
 a cypher by taking away his military power ; and the 
 Company, as Diwan, took possession of the surplus 
 revenue, after paying Shah Alum 300,000 in place 
 of the million pounds sterling that was sent to Delhi 
 in the days of Auruugzebe. Clive attached special 
 importance to the acceptance of diwani as the only 
 means of putting an end to the flagrant corruption in 
 the civil and military service, and to the constant 
 collisions between the agents of the Company and the 
 officials of the Xawab. The Select Committee very
 
 184 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 pertinently remark in their letter of September 30th, 
 1765, to the Directors: "The experience of years has 
 convinced us that a division of power is impossible 
 without generating discontent and hazarding the whole 
 all must belong to the Company or to the Nawab. 
 We leave you to judge which alternative is the most 
 desirable and the most expedient in the present circum- 
 stances of affairs. . . . The more we reflect on the situa- 
 tion of your affairs the stronger appear the reasons for 
 accepting the diivani of these provinces, by which alone 
 we could establish a power sufficient to perpetuate the pos- 
 sessions we hold and the influence we enjoy." Another 
 consideration which doubtless had its weight with Olive 
 was the political state of Europe and India at the time. 
 A premature assumption of power would have alarmed 
 the native princes and led to complications with European 
 Powers, and would have been contrary to the wish of 
 the Directors and of the Government in England. On 
 the other hand, no one could object to an arrangement 
 under which the Company took over the annual revenue 
 and left the people to the tender mercies of the Nawab. 
 The policy of non-interference with the native administra- 
 tion was, however, an impossible one, and it was modified 
 before Clive left India by the appointment of English 
 supervisors to check the native collectors of revenue. This 
 step was one in the right direction, though unfortunately 
 several of the early supervisors became as bad as the 
 natives they were sent to control. 
 
 Clive's efforts to reduce expenses were successful ; 
 but his attempt to regulate the rate of exchange between 
 the gold and silver coinage of Bengal was unfortunate. 
 After the Company took over the diwani they em-
 
 J7S GENERAL SUCCESS 185 
 
 ployed the large surplus revenue in purchasing goods in 
 India and China, and the result was that the three pro- 
 vinces were soon drained of rupees. Olive tried to meet 
 the difficulty by establishing a gold currency, and by 
 fixing a premium upon gold. The remedy only in- 
 creased the evil by causing more silver to be withdrawn 
 from circulation. Merchants and retail traders were 
 greatly inconvenienced, but the full effect of the measure 
 was only felt after Olive left India, when the export of 
 bullion from Bengal exceeded five millions sterling, and 
 the exchange value of the rupee went up to two shillings 
 and sixpence. The failure is scarcely surprising, when 
 it is remembered that Olive had had no experience 
 of finance, and that the science of exchange was, as he 
 acknowledged, " a subject very much out of his sphere." 
 Olive's foreign policy was successful. His moderation 
 in the hour of victory, and his strict observance of 
 treaties, won the confidence of the native princes. 
 Oude long remained a barrier between Bengal and the 
 Mahrattas, and his generosity in restoring it to the 
 Nawab- Vizier removed the general anxiety that was 
 at first felt at the English successes. The attempt to 
 hold aloof from the affairs of the neighbouring states 
 was doomed to failure, and before Olive left he had pro- 
 posed that the English should enter into an alliance with 
 the Nizam of Hyderabad against the Mahrattas of the 
 Western Deccan, and that they should reconcile the 
 Mahrattas of Berar by the payment of cliout.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY AND LAST YEARS 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 OLIVE landed at Portsmouth on July Hth, 1767, and 
 the following day reached London. He was warmly 
 received by his numerous personal friends and by the 
 Court of Directors. But the causes that embittered 
 the remainder of his days were already at work, and 
 the acclamations of his countrymen, which had greeted 
 him on previous occasions, were wanting. Mr. Sulivan 
 and his enemies at the India Office were still actively 
 hostile, and they had been joined by all who had 
 suffered even indirectly by his reforms, or had been 
 disappointed in their expectations of Avealth. News- 
 papers were hired or set up to abuse him, and an ex- 
 traordinary impression was produced upon the public 
 mind by scurrilous pamphlets which circulated incredible 
 stories of his cruelty and rapacity. He had to bear the 
 odium of all the abuses which he had put down, and 
 was popularly believed to possess the worst vices of 
 the men whose conduct of affairs in India had roused 
 the honest indignation of every Englishman. Mr. John- 
 ston and others, who had been dismissed or had re- 
 signed the Company's service in consequence of his
 
 CHAP, x AFFAIRS AT HOME 187 
 
 reforms, purchased India stock with the sole object of 
 revenging themselves upon the man who had put an end 
 to their peculations. They soon formed a strong party 
 in the Court of Proprietors, and, at a General Court 
 held on May 6th, 1767, forced the Directors to raise the 
 dividend to twelve and a half per cent, and carried against 
 them a motion of indemnity to those members of the 
 Bengal Council who had received presents in violation 
 of the orders from home. The latter decision was a 
 severe blow to the authority of the Court of Directors 
 and to the good government of India. It was an in- 
 timation to the Company's servants that if they had 
 influential friends at home they might set all orders 
 and regulations at defiance; and the lesson was not 
 lost. 
 
 Before Clive left England the attention of the country 
 had been forcibly directed to Indian affairs, and when 
 news arrived of the advantages obtained for the Com- 
 pany by his successful negotiations, the question arose 
 whether the nation should not be admitted to share 
 in them. Clive had always been in favour of State 
 control, and Pitt, to whom he had communicated his 
 opinion, was disposed to take the same view, though 
 he was very sensible of the many legal and political 
 difficulties involved in the question. Soon after the 
 formation of Lord Chatham's administration in July 
 1766 the Directors were informed that the affairs of the 
 Company would probably be brought before Parliament, 
 and a motion for an inquiry into them was brought for- 
 ward by Alderman Beckford on November 25th, 1766. 
 Committees were appointed, evidence was taken, and 
 numerous debates followed. But the Government,
 
 i88 LORD CLIVE 
 
 though apparently of opinion that the right to the 
 territorial acquisitions of the Company belonged to 
 the Crown, were silent. Lord Chatham was unable to 
 attend to business ; his opinions on Indian affairs were 
 shrouded in impenetrable mystery, and his colleagues 
 did not venture to propose any important measure in 
 his absence. Lacking the courage to transfer the terri- 
 torial sovereignty to the Crown, Government passed an 
 Act, June 12th, which compelled the Company to pur- 
 chase a continuance of their rights by paying 400,000 
 a year into the Exchequer. They also by a separate 
 Act fixed the dividend at ten per cent. 
 
 During the debates both sides had concurred in prais- 
 ing Clive's conduct and services, and about two months 
 after his return the Court of Proprietors, by a unan- 
 imous vote, granted the jagir to him and his repre- 
 sentatives for an additional term of ten years. The 
 proposal to extend the term of the jagir had been 
 brought forward at a previous meeting before Clive 
 reached England, and through some misunderstanding 
 the motion had then been carried by the small majority of 
 twenty-nine. Clive appears to have considered his friends 
 lukewarm, and to have been greatly annoyed at the action 
 of the Court of Directors in the matter. He therefore 
 exerted himself to secure an ascendency in the Court of 
 Proprietors, and, unfortunately for his future peace and 
 comfort, allowed himself to be drawn once more into 
 the turbid stream of Leadenhall Street politics. Far 
 better would it have been had he followed the sound 
 advice of his friend George Grenville to keep himself 
 " in the honourable state of a public man; only contribut- 
 ing his advice and assistance when asked to preserve to
 
 x C LITE'S HEALTH 189 
 
 this country that great Empire which he had so great a 
 share in acquiring." 
 
 He had returned with ruined health and a broken 
 constitution, and he was irritated beyond measure by 
 the petty annoyances to which he was exposed. At 
 Birmingham, and again at Styche, he had serious ill- 
 nesses, accompanied by excruciating pain which he 
 sought to relieve by large doses of opium. His doctors 
 sent him to Bath, and ordered him to abstain from all 
 business; and when he derived no benefit from the 
 waters they recommended him to travel in the south of 
 France. The change appears to have had the desired 
 effect, for he returned at the end of August 1768 with 
 much improved health to take part in the debates on 
 Indian affairs in Parliament. 
 
 The Government were urging the Company to renew 
 the existing agreement under which 400,000 a year 
 was paid to the Exchequer, and after some negotiation 
 it was confirmed in a modified form for five years. 
 Clive disapproved of the arrangement : he thought it an 
 act of weakness on the part of the Company and of 
 extortion on that of the Government ; and he opposed 
 it in the House of Commons, with the Directors, and in 
 the Court of Proprietors. He was bitterly disappointed 
 when, in spite of his efforts, it was approved by a major- 
 ity of forty in the Court of Proprietors ; and he with- 
 drew in disgust to Bath. His health and temper were 
 ill suited to the heated discussions that had been carried 
 on, and he appears to have become despondent and to 
 have seriously thought of retirement. To one friend he 
 writes: "We are drawing very fast towards a danger- 
 ous crisis, from which we can only be extricated by some
 
 1 9 o LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 first-rate genius, and where to find that genius does not 
 appear at present." And to another : " I find myself 
 very much disposed to withdraw myself from all public 
 concerns whatever. My own happiness and that of my 
 family is the only object I have in view, and that can 
 only be obtained by retirement from the bustle and 
 noise of a busy, debauched, and half-ruined nation." 
 
 In April 1769 Mr. Sulivan and his friends, who were 
 strongly supported by Government, were brought into 
 the Direction, and an important change of system 
 followed. Mr. Vansittart, who had openly quarrelled 
 with Olive and attached himself to Mr. Sulivan's party 
 at the India House, was anxious to return to India as 
 Govern or- General. The appointment was opposed by 
 Olive's friends, and as neither party was strong enough 
 to carry its point, a compromise was effected, under 
 which Mr. Vansittart, Colonel Forde, and Mr. Scrafton 
 were sent out as supervisors to reorganise the Govern- 
 ment of India. These gentlemen were lost at sea in the 
 ill-fated Aurora, and, when their loss was known in 
 England, Olive recommended that "\Varren Hastings, 
 then a member of Council at Madras, should be 
 appointed Governor of Bengal. The letter in which 
 he congratulated the new governor is characteristic. 
 After describing a plan for appointing several eminent 
 men to the Council of Bengal, he says : 
 
 The situation of affairs requires that you should be very 
 circumspect and active. ... Be impartial and just to the 
 public, regardless of the interest of individuals, where the 
 honour of the nation and the real advantage of the Company 
 are at stake, and resolute in carrying into execution your 
 determination, which I hope will at all times be rather 
 founded upon your own opinion than that of others. With
 
 x 7/7.9 ADVICE TO WARREN HASTINGS 191 
 
 regard to political measures, they are to be taken according 
 to the occasion. When danger arises every precaution must 
 be made use of, but at the same time you must be prepared 
 to meet and encounter it. This you must do with cheer- 
 fulness and confidence, never entertaining a thought of mis- 
 carrying till the misfortune actually happens, and even then 
 you are not to despair, but be constantly contriving and 
 carrying into execution schemes for retrieving affairs, always 
 flattering yourself with an opinion that time and perseverance 
 will get the better of everything. From the little knowledge 
 I have of you, I am convinced that you have not only 
 abilities and personal resolution but integrity and moderation 
 with regard to riches ; but I thought I discovered in you a 
 diffidence in your own judgment and too great an easiness 
 of disposition, which may subject you insensibly to be led 
 where you ought to guide. Another evil which may arise 
 from it is, that you may pay too great an attention to the 
 reports of the natives, and be inclined to look upon things 
 in the worst instead of the best light. A proper confidence 
 in yourself and never-failing hope of success will be a bar to 
 this and every other ill that your situation is liable too ; 
 and, as I am sure that you are not wanting in abilities for 
 the great office of governor, I must add that an opportunity 
 is now given you of making yourself one of the most dis- 
 tinguished characters of this country. 
 
 In the elections of 1770 and 1771 Mr. Sulivan and 
 his party maintained their position, and this seems to 
 have strengthened Olive's resolve to retire. "I am 
 come," he writes, April 8th, 1771, "to the resolution of 
 withdrawing myself entirely from India affairs, and 
 spending the rest of my days in ease and retirement." 
 He was, however, never to enjoy the repose to which 
 he looked forward. Affairs in India had taken a most 
 unfavourable turn ; the available revenue had decreased, 
 whilst the expenses had enormously increased, partly 
 from an unfounded dread of the desisrns of the Nawab-
 
 192 LORD CUTE CHAP. 
 
 Vizier of Oude, and partly from an ill-conducted war 
 with Hyder Ali in the Carnatic. Mr. Verelst retired 
 from the Government in January 1770, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Mr. Cartier, whose feeble reign was marked 
 by one of the most severe famines that have ever 
 afflicted Bengal. It was computed that one-third of the 
 inhabitants perished, and the revenues and trade were 
 completely disorganised by the calamity. The extent 
 of the bills drawn upon England was immensely in- 
 creased, and it became doubtful whether the Company, 
 far from being in a position to carry out its agreement 
 with Government and pay a dividend of ten per cent, 
 would be able to discharge its ordinary debts. The 
 newspapers were filled with harrowing details of the 
 sufferings of the Bengalis, and allusions to the man who 
 had enriched himself at their expense. Clive was held 
 responsible, not only for the blunders of men who 
 violated all the rules of government he had laid down, 
 but also for the failure of the heavens to give fortli 
 their rain. 
 
 On returning to England in 1767 his great wish had 
 been to assist the Government to complete the work he 
 had commenced. His serious illness prevented him 
 from carrying out his design, and when he recovered 
 it was abandoned. "I soon perceived," he wrote to 
 Wedderburn, " that unless a settled administration, 
 possessed of both resolution and power adequate to the 
 object, undertook thoroughly to engage Parliament in 
 the business, no material advantage could be gained for 
 the nation by any light I could give." He continued, 
 however, to take great interest in Indian affairs ; wrote 
 frequently to Verelst and his other friends in India;
 
 x HIS PARLIAMENTAR Y POSITION 193 
 
 and even when on the worst terms with Ministers and 
 Directors he was always ready to give them the benefit of 
 his experience. On November 13th, 1770, Clive suffered 
 an irreparable loss in the death of George Grenville, 
 who had always been his firm friend. Grenville was 
 the only man to whose advice he listened, and it was he 
 who, by his personal intervention, had terminated the 
 disputes relating to the jagir. Clive was now cast 
 adrift on the sea of politics. His Parliamentary in- 
 fluence was considerable, and if he had attached himself 
 to either of the great political parties in the House all 
 would have been well. But he could not identify him- 
 self with men whose policy he disapproved, or accom- 
 modate himself to the exigencies of party government ; 
 and he deliberately took up an isolated position at the 
 head of a small party of his own. He thus incurred 
 the hostility of Whigs and Tories, and left himself 
 exposed without support to the attacks of his enemies. 
 It was an unfortunate decision, and almost seems to in- 
 dicate that his clearness of vision and wonted elasticity of 
 mind were beginning to fail. He looked upon Chatham 
 and Grenville as the only men who were capable of 
 entertaining great ideas; and, in his despondency at 
 their removal from the stage by illness and death, he 
 could see no remedy for the anarchy and confusion that 
 pervaded every part of the British Empire. 
 
 Parliament had hitherto paid little attention to the 
 manner in which the East India Company governed its 
 possessions in India. The weak administrations that had 
 followed each other in rapid succession since the death of 
 George the Second were too much occupied with their 
 own quarrels, the riots in the country and the insurrec- 
 
 o
 
 194 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 tionary movements in America, to study the politics of 
 India. When they did interfere in matters of which 
 they were profoundly ignorant, it was in an irresolute 
 half-hearted manner. The financial difficulties of the 
 Company brought on a crisis. The Ministry could no 
 longer neglect Indian affairs, and arrangements were 
 made for submitting a scheme for their future manage- 
 ment to Parliament. In May, and again in October 
 1771, Government sought information and advice from 
 Clive throiigh his friend Wedderburn, who had become 
 Solicitor-General. These proceedings could not be con- 
 cealed from Olive's enemies in the India House, who, 
 knowing they could not justify their own conduct, 
 determined to attack him in his place in Parliament. 
 On January 7th, 1772, a fortnight before Parliament 
 met, Clive received an intimation from the Company's 
 secretary that charges had been made against him in 
 connection with his government of Bengal ; and shortly 
 afterwards the storm which had so long been gathering 
 over his head broke. 
 
 On March 30th Mr. Sulivan brought in a Bill " for 
 the better regulation of the affairs of the East India 
 Company, and of their servants in India, and for the 
 due administration of justice in Bengal." The speeches 
 in support of the Bill were directly aimed at Clive, and 
 he rose at once to reply. Whilst defending himself he 
 carried the attack into the enemy's camp ; and his 
 speech was declared by Lord Chatham, who was present 
 during the debate, to have been " one of the most 
 finished pieces of eloquence he had ever heard in the 
 House of Commons." It so effectually disposed of the 
 charges made against his second government of Bengal
 
 x HIS SPIRITED BEHAVIOUR 195 
 
 that the attacks of his enemies were afterwards confined 
 to the earlier periods of his life. The speech, which 
 was afterwards printed under Olive's direction, is one of 
 singular power. Referring to his reforms in Bengal, he 
 
 said : 
 
 The welfare of the Company required a vigorous exertion, 
 and I took the resolution of cleansing the Augean stable. 
 1 1 was that conduct which has occasioned the public papers 
 to teem with scurrility and abuse against me ever since my 
 return to England. It was that conduct which occasioned 
 those charges. It was that conduct which enables me now 
 to lay my hand upon my heart, and most solemnly declare 
 to this House, to the gallery, and to the whole world at 
 large, that I never, in a single instance, lost sight of what I 
 thought the honour and true interest of my country and the 
 Company ; that I was never guilty of any acts of violence 
 or oppression, unless the bringing offenders to justice can be 
 deemed so ; that as to extortion, such an idea never entered 
 into my mind ; that I did not suffer those under me to 
 commit acts of violence, oppression, or extortion ; that my 
 influence was never employed for the advantage of any man 
 contrary to the strictest principles of honour and justice ; 
 and that, so far from reaping any benefit myself from the 
 expedition, I returned to England many thousand pounds 
 out of pocket. 
 
 To the charge that he had created a monopoly of 
 cotton he replied : " Trade was not my profession. My 
 line has heen military and political. I owe all I have in 
 the world to my having been at the head of an army ; 
 and as to cotton, I know no more about it than the Pope 
 of Rome." To another charge that his establishment of 
 a monopoly of salt, betel-nut, and tobaccd had caused the 
 late famine, he replied : " How a monopoly of salt, betel- 
 nut, and tobacco, in the years of 1765 and 1766, could 
 occasion a want of rain and scarcity of rice in the year
 
 196 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 1770 is past my comprehension. I confess I cannot 
 answer that part of this article; and as to the other 
 commodities, as they have not been specified, I cannot 
 say anything to them." He proved, by official returns, 
 that, since the acceptance of the diwani, the revenue 
 had but slightly decreased, while the expenses had in- 
 creased each year, until they promised to leave a deficit 
 instead of a surplus. He attributed the disorganised 
 state of the Company's affairs to "a relaxation of 
 government in his successors; great neglect on the 
 part of His Majesty's administration ; notorious mis- 
 conduct on the part of the Directors ; and the violent 
 and outrageous proceedings of General Courts, in- 
 cluding contested elections." The Ministry, instead 
 of turning their attention to the acquisition by the 
 country of a kingdom with a revenue of four millions, 
 thought of nothing but the present time, regard- 
 less of the future ; they said, " Let us get what we 
 can to-day ; let to-morrow take care of itself." They 
 thought of nothing but the immediate division of the 
 loaves and fishes ; nay, so anxious were they to lay 
 their hands upon some immediate advantage, that they 
 actually went so far as to influence a parcel of temporary 
 proprietors to bully the Directors into their terms. It 
 was their duty to have called upon the Directors for 
 a plan ; and if a plan in consequence had not been 
 laid before them, it would then have become their duty, 
 with the aid and assistance of Parliament, to have 
 formed one themselves. He censured in the strongest 
 and most unguarded terms the Directors, and every 
 individual and party connected with the management of 
 Indian affairs. He declared that the Court of Pro-
 
 197 
 
 prietors, in passing a motion of indemnity to the accused 
 members of Council, had led their servants abroad to 
 look upon all covenants as so many sheets of blank 
 paper; and that the Directors had restored nearly 
 every civil and military transgressor who had been 
 dismissed. "And now," he continued, "as a con- 
 demnation of their own conduct, and a tacit confession 
 of their own weakness, they come to Parliament with a 
 Bill of regulations, in which is inserted a clause to put 
 such practices as much as possible out of their power for 
 the future." 
 
 Clive was followed by Governor Johnston, brother of 
 the Mr. Johnston who had accepted money from Meer 
 Jaffier's successor, who, in a speech of great violence, 
 declared that all the evils that had arisen were the 
 natural result of Olive's action when governor. Leave 
 having been given to introduce the Bill, it was brought 
 in by Mr. Sulivan, on April 13th, and on this occasion 
 Colonel Burgoyne moved that " a Select Committee be 
 appointed to inquire into the nature, state, and condition 
 of the East India Company, and of the British affairs in 
 the East Indies." The motion was carried without a 
 division, and a Committee was appointed with Burgoyne 
 as chairman. When the Committee met, Burgoyne had 
 no plan ; but this was supplied by Governor Johnston, 
 and it soon became evident that the inquiry would be 
 pointedly directed against Clive. It was not concluded 
 when the House rose, and was continued in the following 
 session. 
 
 During the recess Clive was installed as a Knight of 
 the Bath, and was appointed Lord -Lieutenant of the 
 county of Shropshire ; and, in the following December,
 
 LORD CUTE CHAP. 
 
 Lord-Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire. He was irritated 
 with the Ministry, who had shown no inclination to take 
 Indian affairs into their own hands ; and who, if they 
 had not actually encouraged, had shown no disapproba- 
 tion of the personal manner in which the proceedings 
 of the Committee had been conducted. This, however, 
 did not prevent him from submitting an able paper on 
 the whole system of Indian Government at home and 
 abroad to Lord North. " I will not patiently stand by," 
 he wrote to Mr. Strachey, "and see a great Empire, 
 acquired by great abilities, perseverance, and resolution, 
 lost by ignorance and indolence. If administration should 
 think proper to see our affairs abroad in the same light as 
 I do, 'tis well. If not, I shall have done my duty. . . . 
 Private letters from India give a most dreadful account 
 of the luxury, dissipation, and extravagance of Bengal." 
 Meanwhile the Company were obliged to borrow money 
 from the Bank, and to apply to Government for a loan. 
 They were referred to Parliament, and when it reas- 
 sembled, in November 1772, Lord North, seeing that the 
 Select Committee had directed its inquiries to charges of 
 a personal nature, " moved that a Committee of Secrecy 
 be appointed to inquire into the state of the East India 
 Company." The two Committees sat at the same time ; 
 and the returns and documents laid before them were 
 compiled in the India Office under influences hostile to 
 Clive and his interests. Grave errors of fact, such as the 
 statement that Clive received his jagir at the time of 
 the revolution in favour of Meer Jaffier, were published ; 
 and false charges of suppressing important documents 
 were made. An unfavourable impression was thus pro- 
 duced which it was difficult to counteract and destroy.
 
 x MOTION OF CENSURE 199 
 
 On May 10th, 1773, the charges against Clive came 
 before the House in a definite form. Burgoyne, as Chair- 
 man of Committee, moved " 1. That all acquisitions made 
 under the influence of a military force, or by treaty 
 with foreign princes, do of right belong to the State. 
 2. That to appropriate acquisitions so made to the 
 private emolument of persons entrusted with any civil 
 or military power of the State is illegal. 3. That very 
 great sums of money and other valuable property have 
 been acquired in Bengal, from princes and others of 
 that country, by persons entrusted with the military 
 and civil powers of the State, by means of such powers, 
 which sums of money and valuable property have been 
 appropriated to the private use of such persons." In 
 moving his resolutions Burgoyne intimated that if 
 they were carried he would follow them up with vigour. 
 Clive, who was attacked by Thurlow the Attorney, 
 General, and defended by Wedderburn the Solicitor- 
 General, made a speech full of force and dignity. The 
 resolutions were carried ; and, on May 1 7th, Burgoyne 
 gave effect to them by moving "That .it appears to 
 this House, that the Right Honourable Lord Clive, 
 Baron of Plassey in the Kingdom of Ireland, about the 
 time of the deposition of Surajah Dowlah and the estab- 
 lishment of Meer Jaffier on the musnud, through the 
 influence of the powers with which he was entrusted as 
 a member of the Select Committee and Commander-in- 
 Chief of the British forces, did obtain and possess him- 
 self of two lacs of rupees as Commander-in -Chief, a 
 further sum of two lacs and eighty thousand rupees as 
 member of the Select Committee, and a further sum of 
 sixteen lacs or more under the denomination of private
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 donation ; which sums, amounting together to twenty 
 lacs and eighty thousand rupees, were of the value in 
 English money of 234,000 ; and that, in so doing, the 
 said Robert Lord Clive abused the power with which 
 he was entrusted, to the evil example of the servants of 
 the public, and to the dishonour and detriment of the 
 State." 
 
 Clive made a long defence of his conduct, in the 
 course of which he attacked the Directors, the Ministry, 
 and Lord North, and complained of the malignity of 
 his enemies. 
 
 I have (he said) served my country and the Company 
 faithfully ; and had it been my fortune to be employed by 
 the Crown, I should not have been in the situation I am in 
 at present. . . . Sir, not a stone has been left unturned 
 where the least probability could arise of discovering some- 
 thing of a criminal nature against me. The two Committees, 
 sir, seem to have bent the whole of their inquiries to the 
 conduct of their humble servant, tbe Baron of Plassey, and I 
 have been examined by the Select Committee more like a 
 sheep-stealer than a member of this House. I am sure, sir, 
 if I had any sore places about me, they would have been 
 found ; they have probed to the bottom : no lenient plasters 
 have been applied to heal. No, sir, they were all of the 
 blister kind, prepared with Spanish flies and other provoca- 
 tions. The public records have been ransacked for proofs 
 against me. ... As for punishments, which have been 
 spoken of as necessary, I have a plan to propose which I 
 think may be of great use. The three Jacobite heads which 
 were lately upon Temple Bar have tumbled down, but the 
 poles remain ; and as there is no probability of the heads 
 being replaced, for Jacobitism seems at an end (at least some 
 people have strangely altered their opinions of late years), 
 there can be no further occasion for them on that score. 
 Now I would propose that heads of the three East Indians 
 be stuck up in their stead, in terrorem, and that my head,
 
 x CLIVE TRIUMPHANTLY ACQUITTED 201 
 
 by way of pre-eminence, be put in the middle ; and as 
 His Majesty has given me a title to supporters, I cannot 
 pitch on more proper ones than the heads of the late Chair- 
 man and Deputy to be placed one on each side, on the other 
 two poles. (In concluding, he observed), My enemies may 
 take from me what I have ; they may, as they think, make 
 me poor, but I will be happy ! I mean not this as my 
 defence, though I have done for the present. My defence 
 will be heard at that bar ; but, before I sit down, I have one 
 request to make to the House, that, when they come to 
 decide upon my honour, they will not forget their own. 
 
 During the long and heated debate that followed 
 Lord North spoke in favour of the words of censure 
 on Clive. The Attorney-General attacked, the Solicitor- 
 General defended. The courtiers went different ways. 
 A majority of the Opposition supported Clive. Event- 
 ually the House resolved that Clive, as Commander- 
 in-Chief, had received large sums of money from Meer 
 Jaffier, but, when it was asked to affirm "That Lord 
 Clive did, in so doing, abuse the powers with which 
 he was entrusted, to the evil example of the servants 
 of the public," the motion was rejected without a 
 division. At last, about five in the morning, Wedder- 
 burn moved "That Robert Lord Clive did at the 
 same time render great and meritorious services to his 
 country," and his motion was carried unanimously. 
 
 Clive was now secure in the enjoyment of his wealth 
 and honours. He was happy in his family and sur- 
 rounded by warm friends. His reputation as a soldier 
 and statesman was high. His political influence was 
 considerable, and he was still in the prime of life. 
 While the inquiry and debates were proceeding he had 
 displayed the greatest firmness, challenging the most
 
 202 LORD CLITE 
 
 minute investigation of his conduct, concealing nothing, 
 avowing everything, and even boasting of what he had 
 done. Neither the efforts of his enemies nor the com- 
 bined attack upon him in Parliament could daunt his 
 courage. But the strain had been too great for his 
 shattered constitution. When the excitement of combat 
 was over the fits of depression from which he had 
 suffered through life returned with increasing frequency. 
 He could not forget the manner in Avhich he had been 
 treated while under examination by the Committee. 
 It was not sufficient to have been acquitted and ap- 
 plauded ; he brooded over the indignity of having been 
 accused. There were moments when his friends hoped 
 that his gloom might be dispersed, and'Ministers appear 
 to have wished to avail themselves of his services in 
 America. But it was not to be. On November 22ml, 
 1774, in a moment of feverish irritability induced by 
 intense physical suffering, he died by his own hand. 
 He had just completed his forty-ninth year.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 CLIVE'S POLICY AND CHARACTER 
 
 Ix considering Clive's Indian career it is very necessary 
 to remember the condition of India and the political 
 state of Europe and England at the time ; and also to 
 draw a broad distinction between his views on the 
 government of India and the policy which, from motives 
 of necessity or expediency, he actually carried out. 
 
 The rise of British power in India was due to unfore- 
 seen occurrences rather than to adherence to any fixed 
 line of policy; and it is the story of a decade from 
 Plassey in 1757 to Clive's final departure from India in 
 1767. Before Plassey the English in Bengal were 
 merchants influenced by purely commercial principles, 
 and taking no interest iir the native government of the 
 country, except as it affected trade. The credit of a good 
 bargain was the utmost scope of their ambition. After 
 Plassey the changes were so rapid and so bewildering 
 that neither the English in India nor the Directors at 
 home realised the position into which they had been 
 forced by success. While still merchants they had be- 
 come masters of a country as large as a European State, 
 and they ruled it as if immediate gain were the first 
 principle of government. The civil servants of the
 
 204 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Company, intoxicated by their sudden rise to wealth 
 and power, displayed a domineering, grasping spirit in 
 their dealings with the natives, which produced the worst 
 results. The Directors, unable to rise above the level 
 of merchants, refused to pay their servants adequate 
 salaries, and left them to derive their incomes from 
 commerce carried on through native agents and their 
 greedy army of retainers. In a short time India teemed 
 "with iniquities so rank as to smell to earth and 
 heaven; "and years elapsed before the principle was 
 acknowledged that a Government which receives a large 
 revenue is bound, in common justice and humanity, to 
 protect the people who pay it. 
 
 The condition of India at the time enabled the English 
 to establish themselves in Bengal with ease. Persian 
 and Afghan invasions and Mahratta raids had given a 
 death-blow to the Mogul Empire and exhausted the 
 country. The native princes who had risen to power 
 during the decline of the monarchy were too much 
 engaged in asserting their rights to the territories they 
 had seized to think of combination; their treasuries 
 were empty, and the raw, ill-paid levies which constituted 
 their armies were of little use when opposed to dis- 
 ciplined troops. At one time it seemed doubtful whether 
 the English or the Mahrattas were to inherit the 
 Empire of the Moguls, but the question was settled in 
 favour of the former in 1761, when the Mahrattas were 
 defeated by the Afghans on the field of Paniput. 
 
 Clive was one of the few men who grasped the situa- 
 tion and looked beyond the present. His views on Indian 
 affairs, examined by the light of present experience, 
 may not seem perfect, but they contain more political and
 
 xi CLIVE'S THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT 205 
 
 practical foresight than those of any of his contemporaries, 
 and many of them were afterwards adopted. During 
 his second administration he displayed great powers of 
 organisation; and, in the words of Burke, "the plan 
 which he laid down, and the course which he pursued, 
 were in general great and well imagined. He settled 
 great foundations if they had been adhered to." 
 
 At an early period Clive had formed a comprehensive 
 scheme for assuming the sovereignty of Bengal, and 
 gradually extending British rule as opportunity afforded ; 
 and it was only when he was brought into contact with 
 the flagrant corruption in the civil and military services, 
 during his second administration, that he abandoned the 
 project as impracticable. He had a very low opinion of 
 the administrative capacity of the Directors, and con- 
 sidered the charters granted to a company of merchants 
 quite unsuited to the government of an Empire. He 
 also believed that if the rights of the Company to terri- 
 torial possessions were closely examined they would be 
 disputed, and the Crown become the possessor. When 
 Chatham was Secretary of State Clive was most anxious 
 that the Crown should take the government of India 
 under its direct control. But on Lord Bute's accession to 
 office he modified his views, and during the administra- 
 tive anarchy that followed the illness of Chatham he 
 seems to have come to the conclusion that a Ministry 
 which could not govern the colonies was little fitted to 
 rule India, He still considered that the interests of the 
 Company and of the nation were inseparable ; and, to 
 secure those of the latter, he proposed that the constitu- 
 tion of the Company should be altered so as to admit of 
 the appointment of two Directors by the Crown. He
 
 206 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 also suggested that the Directors should be appointed for 
 a term of years, and not changed annually; and that 
 business should be dealt with in Committees instead of 
 being brought before the whole Court. 
 
 Clive was strongly in favour of placing the British 
 possessions in India under one head, and of making Cal- 
 cutta the principal seat of Government. His view was, 
 that the Governor-General should be assisted by a Coun- 
 cil of five with adequate salaries, instead of by a Council 
 of sixteen equals with none ; and that he should be author- 
 ised to issue orders to Bombay and Madras, and act in 
 emergencies against the opinion of his Council. All the 
 members of the civil service should be well paid and 
 forbidden to trade, and their salaries should be defrayed 
 out of the revenue. The army was to be large enough 
 to defend the Bengal provinces, and any unnecessary in- 
 crease of it was to be avoided on account of the heavy 
 expense. The European troops were to be formed into 
 regiments and divided into brigades, and depot battalions 
 in England were to provide a steady supply of recruits. 
 Suitable provision was to be made for invalids and widows, 
 and Clive's noble gift of 70,000 enabled the Company 
 to constitute a fund for this purpose which was always 
 known by the name of its founder. 1 The native army 
 may almost be looked upon as the creation of Clive, and 
 his opinion with regard to the treatment of sepoys and 
 the supposed danger of employing them are of great in- 
 terest. " There is one step," he writes to Colonel Smith, 
 " to be taken with regard to the sepoys, which, I think, 
 
 1 On the transfer of British India to the Crown in 1S;">8, Meer 
 Jaffier's legacy was claimed by the heirs of Lord Clive and passed 
 into their hands.
 
 xr HIS OPINION OF THE SEPOYS 207 
 
 will bring them to the greatest perfection sepoys can be 
 brought to, viz. the officers commanding the sepoys to 
 run in that corps only, by which means all the officers 
 will understand the language, without which it is im- 
 possible to bring the sepoys to that pitch of discipline 
 which will make them truly formidable." In another 
 letter he says : " I am of opinion that so long as they are 
 regularly paid, treated with humanity, and not flattered 
 with promises never meant to be performed, no danger 
 is to be apprehended. . . . Their attachment is strong, 
 but they know no other than to those who feed and 
 clothe them." He states that, to avoid the danger of a 
 general revolution, he had divided the sepoys into three 
 brigades ; and adds that the best additional security he 
 could think of was to have an equal number of Hindus 
 and Moslems in each battalion, and "to encourage a 
 rivalry of discipline between them." 
 
 dive's native policy was to govern India by the 
 natives of India, to do no harm, and to leave things as 
 they were until the English gained experience and saw 
 their way clearly. He wished to retain the system he 
 found, to change native institutions as little as possible, 
 and to allow the natives to have the entire management 
 of their own concerns. The English were to hold the 
 reins of government, to keep in their own hands the 
 controlling and directing power and the command of the 
 military forces, and to exercise a general supervision. 
 They were not to be employed as minor officials in the 
 courts of justice or other branches of the administra- 
 tion. All such posts were to be filled by natives. He con- 
 tended that " the attempt to introduce the English laws 
 throughout our possessions in India would be absurd
 
 208 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 and impracticable;" and suggested that an attorney- 
 general and several good lawyers should be sent out to 
 remodel the courts of justice, and frame laws for the 
 settlements. Taxes were only to be increased with the 
 greatest caution : all those which were burdensome to 
 the cultivator were to be avoided, however productive 
 they might be ; and no duties were to be levied on the 
 necessaries of life. The internal trade was to be left to 
 the natives : the upper classes of natives were to be 
 maintained in easy opulence ; and leases of land were 
 to be granted for the protection of the ryot. 
 
 Clive wished, as we have seen, gradually to extend 
 British rule in India ; but, on reaching Calcutta in 1765, 
 he came to the conclusion that it would be better to stop 
 the career of conquest and put an end to the ruinous 
 cost of the army in the field. His immediate programme 
 was to hold the three provinces, which, under good 
 government, would yield a large surplus revenue ; to 
 erect Oude into a " buffer " state ; to undertake no 
 offensive wars; to avoid all complications with neigh- 
 bouring native princes; and to delay the inevitable 
 advance until the British power was consolidated. He 
 believed that the Bengal provinces could be defended by 
 a small army, and that, by carefully watching the move- 
 ments of the native princes, the English could hold the 
 balance of power in India and nip any combination in 
 the bud. The only enemy he feared was the French, 
 for with singular prescience he looked forward to the 
 time when, after assisting the American colonies to 
 establish their independence, they would renew their 
 designs on India. Two years after Plassey, and again 
 in 1765, Clive was strongly urged by Shah Alum to
 
 xr HIS PRESCIENCE 209 
 
 restore him to the throne of his ancestors. The scheme 
 was a tempting one to an ambitious man, and Clive 
 knew that it was practicable. But he saw that the time 
 had not arrived for the establishment of an Anglo-Indian 
 Empire, and that a premature advance would be contrary 
 to sound policy and the interests of England. He had 
 the greatness of mind to resist the temptation and to 
 content himself with the less brilliant but more solid 
 achievement of rendering the British hold on the Bengal 
 provinces secure. Xo one who reads the history of the 
 period can avoid the conclusion that Clive was right. 
 Success would have been followed by evil rather than 
 good. All the horrors that flowed from government on 
 commercial principles in Bengal would have been multi- 
 plied tenfold, and the fate of India would have been 
 that of Mexico or Peru. The Parliamentary inquiry 
 into Olive's conduct and the impeachment of Warren 
 Hastings had to take place before the Indian civil service 
 could be purified, and the English be fitted to rule an 
 Indian Empire. 
 
 Olive's action as a public man in England appears to 
 have been largely influenced by two motives : a desire 
 to enforce his views with regard to the government of 
 India, and the necessity for protecting his fortune. When 
 he returned in 1760 he proposed to ignore the India 
 House and to carry his views over the heads of the 
 Directors through his influence with the Ministry and 
 at Court. His illness and the resignation of Pitt inter- 
 fered Avith this scheme ; and, after he had rejected Lord 
 Bute's overtures, he was almost obliged, in self-defence, 
 to embark on the stormy sea of Leadenhall Street 
 politics. It was neither a wise nor a dignified course 
 
 p
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 to pursue, and Clive was gradually sinking into the 
 position of leader of a party at the India House when 
 the course of events in India restored him to his proper 
 sphere. If it had not been for his unfortunate illness, the 
 transfer of India to the Crown might possibly have taken 
 place while Chatham was in power ; and if, after Chat- 
 ham's fall, he had supported Lord Bute, he would probably 
 have been able to control the destinies of India. It was 
 not, however, in the nature of the man to be inconsistent, 
 and he sacrificed the object he had most at heart sooner 
 than abandon his political friends. 
 
 During the first ten years of George the Third's 
 reign the " Nabob " had become a prominent and very 
 unpopular figure in Parliament and the country. The 
 strength of the prejudice against the Nabobs may be 
 gathered from one of Lord Chatham's speeches. "For 
 some years past," he says, " there has been an influx of 
 wealth into this country which has been attended by 
 many fatal consequences, because it has not been the 
 regular natural produce of labour and industry. The 
 riches of Asia have been poured in upon us, and have 
 brought with them not only Asiatic luxury, but, I fear, 
 Asiatic principles of government. Without connections, 
 without any natural interest in the soil, the importers 
 of foreign gold have forced their way into Parliament 
 by such a torrent of private corruption as no private 
 hereditary fortune could resist." Clive, as the most 
 distinguished and most wealthy of the class, was re- 
 garded -as the personification of their vices ; and, when 
 the Parliamentary inquiry disclosed the misgovernment 
 of Bengal, he was singled out as the political scapegoat 
 to bear the sins of every one who had oppressed or
 
 xi HIS CONDUCT VINDICATED BY MILL 211 
 
 defrauded a native in India. He defended himself in 
 his place in Parliament and before the committees of 
 inquiry with marked ability and courage; and Burke 
 always maintained that the purity of his second ad- 
 ministration atoned for the faults and crimes he had 
 committed at an earlier period of his career. One of 
 the most complete vindications of Clive's conduct comes 
 from the pen of a historian who has taken an unfavour- 
 able view of his character. In summing up the Parlia- 
 mentary proceedings, Mill says : 
 
 The considerations which fairly recommended the rejection, 
 or at least a very great modification of the penal proceed- 
 ing, were not so much as mentioned ; that the punishment 
 threatened was more grievous than the offence : that it was 
 punishment by an ex-post-facto law, becaiise, however contrary 
 to the principles of right government the presents received 
 from Meer Jaffier, and however odious to the moral sense 
 the deception practised upon Omichund, there was no law 
 at the time which forbade them ; that the presents, how 
 contrary soever to European morals and ideas, were perfectly 
 correspondent to those of the country in which they were 
 received, and to the expectations of the parties by whom 
 they were bestowed ; that the treachery to Omichund was 
 countenanced and palliated by some of the principles and 
 many of the admired incidents of European diplomacy ; that 
 Clive, though never inattentive to Ms own interests, was 
 actuated by a sincere desire to promote the prosperity of the 
 Company, and appears not in any instance to have sacrificed 
 what he regarded as their interests to his own ; and that it 
 would have required an extraordinary man, which no one 
 ought to be punished for not being, to have acted, in that 
 most trying situation in which he was placed, with greater 
 disinterestedness than he displayed. (Hist, of Brit. India, 
 iii. 511.) 
 
 In politics Clive was a moderate Whig, and a steady 
 adherent of George Grenville. Accustomed to the exer-
 
 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 else of absolute authority, he was little fitted to take 
 part in the intrigues of party ; and, except when Indian 
 affairs were under discussion, he rarely addressed the 
 House. When he did rise, his speeches were full of 
 matter, closely argumentative, manly, and energetic. 
 
 The extent and variety of Olive's work in India are 
 remarkable. Few men, with the notable exception of 
 Napoleon, have accomplished so much in such a brief 
 space of time, or have displayed greater capacity for 
 civil and military administration. All the measures 
 of his government were his own; and in enforcing 
 their adoption he was not only resolute but stern. 
 All opposition was contemptuously swept aside : no 
 allowance was made for the weakness or indecision of 
 subordinates ; and every one who did not act up to his 
 high sense of duty was openly censured in the severest 
 terms. In selecting men for important duties he showed 
 great discrimination. He possessed the happy faculty 
 of distinguishing men of merit, and had the good sense 
 to employ them even when, as in the case of Colonel 
 Richard Smith, he personally disliked them. Rennell, 
 a young subaltern of engineers, was made Surveyor- 
 General, and encouraged to carry out a survey of the 
 Bengal provinces ; Gladwin was introduced into the 
 service to become the first on a long roll of oriental 
 scholars; Warren Hastings, who was to preserve and 
 extend the Indian Empire, was selected for political 
 work ; and men who had acquired a knowledge of the 
 language, habits, and customs of the people received 
 rapid advancement. One of the few instances in which 
 his judgment seems to have been at fault is that of the 
 distinguished soldier Sir Eyre Coote, whom he believed to
 
 xi HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER 213 
 
 be mercenary, given to intrigue, and unfit for high com- 
 mand. When a man had once won dive's confidence 
 it was rarely withdrawn ; and he advocated the claims 
 to advancement of those who assisted him in his onerous 
 duties with the greatest boldness and pertinacity. He 
 was entirely free from petty jealousy and meanness; 
 and was not one of those men who, when their plans 
 fail, seek to excuse themselves at the expense of a sub- 
 ordinate. All that he did or said, whether in praise or 
 blame, was open and straightforward. He was ever 
 ready to take upon himself the whole responsibility in 
 military and civil affairs, and always acted in the spirit 
 in which he wrote to Carnac, "If there be anything 
 which can occasion you the least uneasiness, for God's 
 sake let the whole weight fall upon my shoulders." 
 
 All Olive's minutes and official letters are written 
 with great force and clearness. They are sometimes 
 egotistical, sometimes boastful, and there is a tendency 
 to exaggerate when an object has to be gained ; but 
 they are manly in tone, go straight to the point, and 
 never leave the reader in the least doubt as to their 
 meaning. Praise is given ungrudgingly where praise is 
 due, and censures are conveyed in the strongest lan- 
 guage. His private letters to his friends are written in 
 the formal style of the period. They are always kind, 
 always thoughtful, but there is occasionally an unpleas- 
 ant tone of superiority and a marked deficiency of 
 feeling. His home letters, though wanting in warmth, 
 are written in affectionate terms, and contain many 
 references to the scenes of his early boyhood and to his 
 numerous relations, which show that he was strongly 
 attached to his home and family.
 
 214 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 Clive lived on the best of terms with the Governors 
 of the European settlements; and his countrymen in 
 Bengal placed implicit confidence in his honour and 
 judgment. He won the respect and affection of the 
 natives by his uniform consideration for their feelings, 
 and so long as he ruled Bengal they lived in ease and 
 security. Complaints there certainly were, but they 
 came from Englishmen whose tyranny had been re- 
 strained, and not from natives who had been oppressed. 
 He had an intimate knowledge of the character of the 
 natives, 1 and, to increase his consequence in their eyes, 
 he accepted patents of nobility from the Padishah, and 
 had his native title, Sabut Jung, engraved on his Persian 
 seal. The awe with whicli he was regarded is amusingly 
 illustrated by a story told by a native historian. Meer 
 Jaffier, on a certain occasion, blamed one of his nobles, 
 whose followers had engaged in a brawl with some of 
 the Company's sepoys. " Are you yet to learn," he said, 
 " who that Colonel Clive is, and in what station God 
 has placed him 1 " " I," replied the chief, " I quarrel 
 with the Colonel ! I who never get up in the morning 
 without making three profound bows to his jackass ! 
 How could I be bold enough after that to fall out with 
 his rider?" 
 
 Clive never allowed his private interests to influence 
 his conduct of public affairs. Although he felt no 
 scruples about enriching himself when the public did not 
 ostensibly suffer, his policy was never dictated by the 
 hope of personal gain. After Plassey he had ample 
 opportunities of adding to his wealth, but, excepting the 
 
 1 He is said to have had a very slight acquaintance with the 
 languages of the country.
 
 xi IN PEACE AND WAR 215 
 
 jagir, he accepted nothing. His expenditure in India 
 was on a lavish scale, his hospitality was unbounded, 
 he betted freely at cards and in the cockpit, his horses 
 and equipages were of the very best, and amongst his 
 orders for dress is one for "two hundred shirts, the 
 wristbands worked, some of the ruffles worked with 
 a border either in squares or points, and the rest plain ; 
 stocks, neckcloths, and handkerchiefs in proportion ; 
 three corse (sixty pairs) of stockings; several pieces 
 of plain and spotted muslin, etc. ..." Directly he 
 took the field he adopted the simple habits of a 
 soldier; he was constantly on horseback, carried little 
 baggage, lived on the plainest fare, was always in 
 uniform, and shared in all the hardships of his soldiers. 
 The contrast between his habits and those of De Bussy 
 was striking. 
 
 M. de Bussy (writes the native historian) always wore em- 
 broidered clothes, or brocade, with an embroidered hat ; and, 
 in days of ceremony, embroidered shoes of black velvet. He 
 was seen in an immense tent, full sufficient for six hundred 
 men, of about thirty feet in elevation ; at one end of this 
 tent he sat on an arm-chair embroidered with the King's 
 arms, placed upon an elevation, which last was covered by a 
 crimson carpet of embroidered velvet ; at his right, but upon 
 back chairs only, sat a dozen of his officers. Over against 
 him his French guard on horseback, and behind these his 
 Turkish guards ; his table, always in plate, was served with 
 three, often with four services. To this French magnificence 
 he added all the parade and pageant of Hindustani manners 
 and customs, a numerous set of tents, a pishkhana ; always oil 
 an elephant himself as were all his officers. He was preceded 
 by chopdars on horseback, and by a set of musicians, singing 
 his feats of chivalry, with always two head-chopdars reciting 
 his eulogium. Colonel Clive always wore his regimentals in 
 the field, was always on horseback, and never rode in a
 
 216 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 palanquin ; lie had a plentiful table, but no ways delicate, 
 and never more than two services. He used to march mostly 
 at the head of the column, Avith his aides-de-camp, or was 
 hunting at the right and left. He never wore silks but in 
 town. 
 
 In England Clive lived in a style of great splendour. 
 He was enormously rich, and purchased estates in differ- 
 ent parts of the country to increase his Parliamentary 
 interest. At Walcot Sir Thomas Chambers built him 
 a noble mansion ; and extensive improvements were 
 carried out at Claremont, and at the old family seat at 
 Styche. At Bath he bought the lease of Lord Chat- 
 ham's house, and his town residence in Berkeley Square 
 was fitted up in a style of oriental magnificence. His 
 carriages, horses, and footmen eclipsed those of the 
 nobility ; his dress was extravagantly rich ; his hospi- 
 tality was ostentatious ; and in everything he sought to 
 indulge his passion for display. He was at one time in 
 great favour at Court. The Queen was godmother to 
 one of his children, and the King was pleased to accept 
 from him an elephant and other animals Avhich he had 
 procured from India, At a later period George the 
 Third seems to have listened to the popular clamour 
 against him, and the honour of an English peerage, 
 which he had always coveted, was never granted. Of 
 other honours he had his full share ; his statue was placed 
 in the India Office with those of Lawrence and Pocock ; 
 a special medal, to commemorate Plassey and its results, 
 was struck in his honour by the Society for Promoting 
 Arts and Sciences. He was Lord -Lieutenant of two 
 counties, a Major-General in India, M.P. for Shrews- 
 bury, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Doctor of
 
 xi HIS LIBERALITY 217 
 
 Laws. Voltaire at one time thought of writing a history 
 of his career in India, and asked for the necessary docu- 
 ments, but for some reason the idea was abandoned. 
 And his friend Orme made him the central figure in his 
 history of the struggle between the English and French 
 for supremacy in India. 
 
 In his domestic and family relations Clive was singu- 
 larly happy. He was married to a lady of great beauty 
 and accomplishments, to whom he was sincerely attached, 
 and to her constant care much of the comfort and happi- 
 ness of his life was due. His sincere love and regard for 
 his parents and family is one of the most pleasing traits 
 in his character. He delighted in sharing his wealth 
 with them, and during the busiest periods of his life he 
 was constantly giving them fresh proofs of his love and 
 attachment. His father and mother were given suffi- 
 cient to enable them to live in comfort and independence, 
 and he was equally liberal in his gifts to his wife's rela- 
 tions. His elevation to high rank made no difference in 
 his relations with friends and family, and he never forgot 
 those who had assisted him in his career. 
 
 Clive was one of the most liberal and generous of 
 men, and his gifts were made in such a manner as to en- 
 hance their value. He marked his gratitude to Stringer 
 Lawrence by settling 500 a year upon him for life ; he 
 promised to leave 500 a year to his friend General 
 Carnac if he retired ; and he presented Mr. Wedderburn, 
 afterwards Lord Loughborough, with a house and grounds 
 in Surrey, that he might have a pleasant neighbour when 
 living at Claremont. Always kind and considerate to 
 those in distress, he gave large sums of money to the 
 French officers who were prisoners in India, and in 1766
 
 218 LORD CLIVE 
 
 he assisted several of the mutinous officers, who were in 
 pecuniary difficulties, to return to England after their 
 dismissal. He considered that every one connected 
 with him was entitled to share in his good fortune, and 
 it is computed that he gave away one -sixth of his 
 wealth to his relations and friends. His noble gift of 
 Meer Jaffier's legacy to the hospital at Poplar enabled 
 provision to be .made for the worn-out soldiers of the 
 Company. 
 
 Clive, whose character was rapidly developed in the 
 rude school of war, soon gained an ascendency over all 
 around him, and raised himself early in life, by sheer 
 force of talent, to a foremost place in the nation. He 
 gives the impression of a man who had set before him- 
 self a high ideal, and who acted up to it according to 
 his lights; a man of indomitable courage, iron deter- 
 mination, and extraordinary energy, who pursued the 
 immediate object in view with undoubting confidence 
 and unflinching resolution. He possessed a well-balanced 
 mind, which was never led astray by the promptings of 
 ambition or the intoxication of success; and a warm 
 temper, apt to provoke hostility and quick to take 
 offence, which was always kept under the most perfect 
 control. He may have committed errors, he may some- 
 times have been mistaken in his policy, but he was 
 animated by a high sense of honour and duty, and by 
 a passionate love of England. In all that he did he 
 was honest, sincere, and straightforward, and because 
 he was so, he was hated and misunderstood. Even 
 in the most questionable action of his life, the fabric- 
 ation of the fictitious treaty to deceive Omichund, 
 he attempted no concealment. The fact was recorded
 
 xi HIS STATESMANSHIP 219 
 
 in the minutes of the Select Committee, and he openly 
 justified himself afterwards on the plea of necessity. 
 
 As a statesman Clive showed sound judgment in 
 attempting only what was practicable. His reforms 
 \vere temporary expedients, calculated to give peace and 
 security to the Empire he had won. Beyond this he did 
 not go, although his views as to the importance of India, 
 and the policy that should be pursued, were clear. Cool 
 in deliberation, vehement in action, he was able, by his 
 great powers of work and close application to business, 
 to rule Bengal almost single-handed, and to achieve 
 what most men would have deemed the impossible. As 
 a soldier he was beloved by his men, a " spoiled child of 
 victory " in the field, an able administrator in peace. 
 Although he was never opposed to a European com- 
 mander of the calibre of De Bussy, his successes are 
 astonishing when the means and material which he had 
 at his disposal are taken into consideration. He was 
 equally successful when opposed to the French and their 
 native allies and when face to face with a mutiny 
 amongst the men he had led to victory. 
 
 There was little refinement in dive's manner. At 
 times stern and imperious, at times stubborn and dogged, 
 he was blunt and outspoken even to rudeness ; and he 
 frequently gave great offence by his impatience of 
 opposition, and his openly expressed contempt for 
 mediocrity. He loved praise, and was very susceptible 
 to flattery ; while detraction at once roused all his com- 
 bative faculties. Those who agreed with him were 
 lauded to the skies ; while those who differed from him 
 were roundly abused, even when they happened to be 
 old friends like Mr. Sumner and Mr. Vansittart. " His
 
 220 LORD CLIVE CHAP. 
 
 person," we are told, "was of the largest of the middle 
 size, his countenance inclined to sadness, and the heavi- 
 ness of his brow imparted an unpleasing expression to his 
 features." Although silent and reserved in society, when 
 the conversation turned upon a subject in which he was 
 interested, he would rouse himself and take part in it 
 with the greatest animation ; while among his intimates 
 he could be pleasant and merry enough. The prejudice 
 created against him by the incredible stories of the 
 atrocities and crimes he was said to have committed in 
 India was undoubtedly increased by the peculiarity of 
 his manner. Afflicted with a painful disease, which 
 was aggravated by the opium taken to alleviate it, 
 and subject to periods of nervous depression, he would 
 sit for hours in moody silence, as if there were some 
 heavy load on his mind which he could not shake off. 
 Yet he has never been accused of a single act of 
 cruelty. Few men have had every action of their lives 
 submitted to such close and hostile scrutiny, and none 
 has passed more triumphantly through the trying 
 ordeal. If, on the one hand, we have reason to 
 regret that, on one occasion, a man so great should 
 have stooped so low, we have, on the other, abundant 
 cause to be thankful that Clive was not a Cortez or a 
 Pizarro, and that he was not sufficiently modernised 
 to pledge English honour and break it without the 
 slightest compunction. 
 
 dive's career in India is divided into three periods. 
 During the first, in the full freshness of his youth, his 
 honour and good faith are beyond question. Filled 
 .with a noble ardour for the glory of his country, the 
 welfare of the Company, and the humiliation of the
 
 A GREA T ENGLISHMAN 
 
 French, he dared everything, and, chaining victory to his 
 standards, saved the British settlements from destruc- 
 tion. In the second period he studied the interests of 
 the Company without neglecting his own; and, while 
 giving an Empire to England, sullied his fair fame by an 
 act of treachery which is without excuse. During the 
 third, in his mature manhood, he manifested a sincere 
 desire to reform abuses, and rendered services of trans- 
 cendent value to his country by consolidating the 
 Empire he had won. In England, during his lifetime, 
 the hero of Arcot was welcomed with applause : the 
 victor of Plassey was an object of envy and jealousy ; 
 and the reformer of the civil and military services in 
 Bengal was held up to public execration. Among the 
 many illustrious men India has produced none is greater 
 than the first of her soldier-statesmen, whose successful 
 career marks an era in the history of England and of 
 the world. Great in council, great in war, great in his 
 exploits, which were many, and great in his faults, 
 which were few, Clive will ever be remembered as the 
 man who laid deeply the foundations of our Indian 
 Empire, and who in a time of national despondency 
 restored the tarnished honour of the British arms. 
 
 THE END 
 
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 have so far appeared." 
 
 GENERAL GORDON. By Sir WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
 SPECTA TOR : " This is beyond all question the best of the narratives of the 
 career of General Gordon that have yet been published." 
 
 HAVELOCK, SIR HENRY. By ARCHIBALD FORBES. 
 HENRY V. By A. J. CHURCH. 
 LIVINGSTONE. By THOMAS HUGHES. 
 
 SPECTA TOR : " An excellent instance of miniature biography. " 
 
 LORD LAWRENCE. By Sir RICHARD TEMPLE. 
 
 LEEDS MERCURY: "Lucid, temperate, and impressive." 
 
 MONK. By JULIAN CORBETT. 
 
 MONTROSE. By MOWBRAY MORRIS. 
 
 NAPIER, SIR CHARLES. By Sir WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
 PETERBOROUGH. By W. STEBBING. 
 
 SA TURD A Y REVIEW:' 1 An excellent piece of work." 
 
 RODNEY. By DAVID HANNAY. 
 STRAFFORD. By H. D. TRAILL. 
 
 A THENCE UM:" Clear and accurate." 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS. By Sir ALFRED LYALL. 
 
 DAILY NEWS: "The final and decisive verdict of history on the conduct 
 and career of Hastings." 
 
 WARWICK, THE KING-MAKER. By C. W. C. OMAN. 
 
 ANTI-JACOBIN: 1 ' It is beyond question the best book which has yet 
 appeared on the Wars of the Roses." 
 
 WELLINGTON. By GEORGE HOOPER. 
 
 And tlie undermentioned are in the Press or in Preparation: 
 
 MARLBOROUGH. By Sir WILLIAM BUTLER. [In Preparation. 
 SIR JOHN MOORE. By Colonel MAURICE. [In the Press. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
 
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