Chapter I: Preface

The following list represents the works of the last century which I have consulted to write this _Life of Lord Clive_:

Orme's _History of Indostan_ (original edition); _The Siyaru-l Muta-akherin_ of Ghulam Husain Khan (Review of Modern Times), translated copy; Cambridge's _War in India_ (containing the Journal of Stringer Lawrence); _The Memoir of Dupleix_ (in French); Grose's _Voyage to the East Indies_; Ive's _Voyage and Historical Narrative_; _Transactions in India from the commencement of the French War in 1756_ (published in 1786); Caraccioli's _Life of Lord Clive_; Vansittart's _Narrative of the Transactions in Bengal_; Ironside's _Narrative of the Military Transactions in Bengal in 1760-1_; Verelst's _English Government in Bengal_; some numbers of the _Asiatic Annual Register_; Kindersley's _Letters_; and Scrafton's _Letters_; and, for the earlier period--that displaying the period immediately preceding and following the dawn of genius--the recently written extracts from the Madras records by Mr. G. W. Forrest.

Of works of scarcely less value published during the present century, I have consulted the admirable volumes by Colonel Mark Wilks, which bring the _History of Southern India_ down to the storming of Seringapatam in 1799; _The Journal of Captain Dalton_, {6}one of the heroes of Trichinopoli, written at the period of Clive's early victories, but only given to the world, with a memoir of his career, in 1886; Lord Stanhope's _History of England_; Malcolm's _Life of Clive_; and above all, that mine of wealth to a searcher into the details of Clive's services in Bengal, Colonel Broome's _History of the Bengal Army_. Colonel Broome was my intimate and valued friend. He knew more about the history of the rise of the English in India than any man I ever met. He had made the subject a life-study. He had read every tract, however old, every letter, however difficult to decipher, every record of the period up to and beyond the time of Job Charnock, and he was a past-master of his subject. He had collected an enormous mass of materials, the more bulky of which were dispersed at his untimely death. But I have seen and handled them, and I can state most positively, from my own knowledge, that every item of importance culled from them is contained in the admirable volume to which I have referred, and which was published in 1850. There is, alas, only that volume. Colonel Broome had set apart a vast mass of materials for his second, and had resolved to complete the work at Simla, to which place he was proceeding for the summer of, I think, 1870. But, in the course of transit, the box containing the materials was mysteriously spirited away, and I have not heard that it was ever found. From the nature of the documents collected I cannot but regard the loss as irreparable.

G. B. MALLESON.

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CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGES
I. EARLY YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-15

II. SOUTHERN INDIA IN 1744 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-22

III. HOW THE WAR IN THE KARNATIK AFFECTED THE FRENCH AND
ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-31

IV. HOW THE FORTUNES OF ROBERT CLIVE WERE AFFECTED BY THE
HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN SOUTHERN
INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-41

V. CLIVE DECIDES FOR THE CAREER OF A SOLDIER . . . . . . 42-50

VI. THE FIRST YEAR OF SOLDIERING AT TRICHINOPOLI AND ARCOT 51-59

VII. 'THE SWELL AND DASH OF A MIGHTY WAVE' . . . . . . . . 60-74

VIII. CLIVE IN ENGLAND; AND IN BENGAL . . . . . . . . . . . 75-89

IX. THE BATTLE OF PLASSEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90-106

X. HOW CLIVE DEALT WITH THE SPOILS OF PLASSEY: HIS
DEALINGS WITH MIR JAFAR; WITH THE PRINCES OF SOUTHERN
INDIA; WITH THE DUTCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107-137

XI. THE SECOND VISIT OF CLIVE TO ENGLAND . . . . . . . . . 138-148

XII. THE REIGN OF MISRULE IN BENGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . 149-158

XIII. THE PURIFYING OF BENGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159-170

XIV. THE POLITICAL AND FOREIGN POLICY OF LORD CLIVE: HIS
ARMY-ADMINISTRATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES . . . . . . . 171-191

XV. THE RETURN OF THE CONQUEROR-STATESMAN, AND THE
RECEPTION ACCORDED TO HIM BY HIS COUNTRYMEN: HIS
STRUGGLES; AND HIS DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192-212

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213-229

_NOTE_

The orthography of proper names follows the system adopted by the Indian Government for the _Imperial Gazetteer of India_. That system, while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as Punjab, Poona, Deccan, &c., employs in all other cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds:--

_a_, as in wom_a_n: _a_, as in f_a_ther: _i_, as in k_i_n: _i_, as in intr_i_gue: _o_, as in c_o_ld: _u_, as in b_u_ll: _u_, as in r_u_ral.

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LORD CLIVE