Chapter XV: {george III. 1786–1787} (1)

Meeting of Parliament..... Bill for the Fortification of
the Dock-yards it Portsmouth and Plymouth..... Pitt’s
Financial Measures..... Debates on India, etc...... A
retrospective View of Indian Affairs..... Attempt on the
King’s Life..... Treaties with France and Spain.....
Affairs of the Prince of Wales.

{A.D. 1786}

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

Parliament reassembled on the 24th of January. In his speech, the king expressed great satisfaction at the prosperous condition of the country, in the extension of trade, the improvement of revenue, and the increase of public credit, and said that he relied on their continued zeal and industry for the further advancement of these important interests. His majesty also informed the houses that the disputes which had threatened the peace of Europe, had been brought to an amicable conclusion, and that he continued to receive friendly assurances from foreign powers; but at the same time, he recommended particular attention to our naval strength. He added,—“But above all let me recommend to your attention the reduction of the national debt.”

In the debate which followed upon the address, Fox condemned the whole of our recent foreign policy. Ministers were reproached by him for not cultivating continental alliances, and for their negligence in all their foreign negociations. It was owing, he said, to their criminal misconduct, that the House of Bourbon had been enabled to conclude their advantageous compact with Holland, and he maintained that great danger was to be apprehended from the union of three such maritime powers as France, Spain, and Holland, in a confederacy against England. Fox also attempted to prove that the accession of his majesty to the Germanic confederation, as Elector of Hanover, would give mortal offence to the Emperor Joseph, and would indispose him to an alliance with Great Britain in the event of a future war. He argued, that it was our interest to conciliate and captivate Austria, as the only power in Europe able to keep France in awe. Fox next adverted to a favourable opportunity for an alliance with Russia, which had been lost, and then condemned a commercial treaty, which government had begun to negociate with France. The experience of past ages, he said, proved that England always prospered in proportion as she had relinquished her commercial connexions with that country. He concluded his speech with making some strictures on the Irish propositions and the India Bill. Pitt replied in a cold sarcastic tone, and the address was carried without a division.

BILL FOR THE FORTIFICATION OF THE DOCK-YARDS AT PORTSMOUTH AND PLYMOUTH.

On the 27th of February, Pitt called the attention of the house to a plan, which originated with the Duke of Richmond, for the fortification of the dock-yards at Portsmouth and Plymouth. In the preceding session, the commons had expressed their unwillingness to vote any money for these objects, until they were made acquainted with the merits of the plan by some competent persons; and in consequence of this intimation, his majesty had appointed a committee of military and naval officers, with the Duke of Richmond at then head, to investigate the plan, and to send in a report upon it, with an estimate of the cost. Pitt had laid this estimate, which amounted to £760,000 before the house on the 10th of February, with the ordinary ordnance estimates, thinking that the house would be disposed to consider it as a mere collateral question. The report was kept out of sight, but General Burgoyne, who had been one of the board of officers to investigate the plan, called for it; alleging that it did not wholly sanction the measure. On a subsequent day, Sheridan, in addition to the demand made by Burgoyne, moved “for a copy of the appointment of the board of naval officers, and of such parts of their instructions, and of their report, as his majesty’s discretion might deem proper to be made public with perfect consistency to the safety of the state.” In consequence of these demands, Pitt found himself compelled to produce the papers, and in laying them upon the table, he introduced the Duke of Richmond’s measure in the form of a general resolution. He moved, that “it appeared to the house, that to provide for securing the dock-yards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, by a system of fortification, founded on the most economical principles, was an essential object for the safety of the state; intimately connected with the general defence of the kingdom; and necessary for enabling the fleet to act with full vigour and effect for the protection of commerce, the support of our distant possessions, and the prosecution of offensive operations in any future war.” In his speech Pitt attempted to prove that the fortification of Portsmouth and Plymouth was a measure of absolute necessity; that the duke’s plan was the best that could be devised; and that these fortifications would give a greater scope to the operations of our fleets, and have a direct tendency to diminish the standing army. The arguments were powerfully controverted by members in opposition, among the most distinguished of which was Sheridan, who argued, that the plan was, in itself and its consequences, both dangerous and unconstitutional, and that the report itself did not authorise or favour the plan. Sheridan remarked:—“These strongholds maintained by numerous and disciplined garrisons, will afford tenfold means of curbing and subduing the country more than would arise from doubling the present army establishment. Can any one imagine that the system now recommended will end with Portsmouth and Plymouth? May we not figure to ourselves the same board of officers, acting under the same instructions, and deliberating with the same data, while they take a circuit round the coasts. The reasons which justify this measure in the present instance, will apply to every port in the kingdom, which is sufficiently important to require defence. But the whole plan proceeds on two suppositions extremely improbable; first, that we shall be so inferior on our own seas, as to permit an enemy to land; secondly, that if they do land, they will choose to attack the only places which we have fortified. If such be our defence, there must be a circle of fortresses round our shores; but the safety of England rests on the courage and enterprise of its people, not on ramparts and fortifications. And after all the plan is unauthorised by the report of the board; the opinion of naval officers has been withheld; and the opinion of military officers is founded on hypothetical or conditional suggestions, and on such data as were proposed to them, for the truth or probability of which they refuse to make themselves responsible.” In the debates, both Sheridan and all the orators on his side, treated the Duke of Richmond as a renegade, and made the whole matter a mere party question, and from this cause Pitt was doomed to suffer a defeat. Upon a division there was an equal number of ayes and noes, and when the speaker was called upon to give his vote, he gave it on the side of opposition; the project therefore fell to the ground.

PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES.

On the 7th of March, Pitt moved for the appointment of a select committee of nine persons, for the purpose of reporting on the state of the public revenue and expenditure. The report of this committee was highly satisfactory. The amount of the revenue for the current year was estimated at £15,397,000, while the permanent expenditure and the expences of the peace establishment would only require £14,478,000, thereby leaving a surplus of more than £900,000. In consequence of this, Pitt, on the 29th of March, brought under consideration the national debt and his new sinking-fund. He thought that the surplus might be increased to one million, without burthening the people, and he moved that such a sum should be annually granted to commissioners, to be by them applied to the purchase of stock towards discharging the public debt of the country. The new taxes which he proposed, in order to raise the surplus to one million, were an additional duty on ardent spirits, and new duties on certain kinds of timber and perfumery. In making this proposition Pitt showed that he was full of hope for the future. He calculated that the accumulated compound interest of the one million so appropriated, added to the annuities which would fall into the fund, would, in the course of twenty-eight years, leave a surplus of four millions per annum, to be applied, if necessary, to the exigencies of the state. His entire conviction was, indeed, that this new sinking-fund would rapidly reduce and eventually discharge the whole of our enormous national debt! The commissioners he proposed under this act, were the speaker of the house of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the master of the rolls, the governor and deputy-governor of the bank of England, and the accountant-general in chancery. The speech which Pitt uttered upon this occasion was so convincing to the house, that all but a few members ventured to enter the fairy car with him, and those who dissented from his views were looked upon as little better than madmen. Among those who dissented were Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and Sir Grey Cooper, who endeavoured to show that the premier’s hopes were visionary. Sheridan, indeed, asserted that there neither was nor could be any surplus, and he said, that the only means which suggested themselves to him were a loan of a million every year. “The right honourable gentleman,” he wittily remarked, “might say with the person in the comedy, ‘If you wont lend me the money, how can I pay you?’” In conclusion, Sheridan moved a long string of objections, which were all negatived without a division; but on the day for reconsidering the report of the committee on the bill, an amendment, as moved by Fox, was adopted, to the effect, “that whenever a new loan should hereafter be made, the commissioners should be empowered to accept the loan, or such proportion of it as should be equal to the cash in their hands; the interest and douceur annexed to which should be applied to the purposes of the sinking-fund.” Pitt declared this amendment to be an auspicious omen of the ultimate success of the plan; and that its propriety and necessity were so obvious as to overcome the spirit, and prejudice of party, and to create an unanimity in persons, who, more from accident than inclination, were so frequently of different-opinions. With Fox’s amendment the bill passed both houses without a dissentient voice, and on the 26th of May his majesty gave his assent to it in person.

In pursuit of his great plan of financial reform, Pitt next turned his attention to the frauds committed on the revenue, in the article of wine. At this time large quantities of wine were smuggled into the country, and a spurious liquor was made and sold at home under that name. To prevent these evils, on the 22nd of May, Pitt presented a bill for transferring certain duties on wines from the customs to the excise. This transfer was made, after several divisions, despite the exertions of Fox to render the measure unpopular, and the obstruction given to it by those in the trade, as well as by others, who urged the difficulty of applying the excise laws to wine, and the impolicy of extending those laws beyond their existing limits. It is probable that there were some who conceived that this measure would tend to render the minister very unpopular; and it must be confessed that the step was a very hazardous one for him to take. Englishmen had never looked with complacency upon the intrusions and interference of excisemen, and there was still a strong national feeling against any extension of the excise laws. When Sir Robert Walpole, indeed, brought in a bill which had a tendency to extend these laws, although he was at the time he introduced it at the very height of his power, it nearly cost him his place. But the principles of commerce and taxation were now better understood, than they were in the days of Walpole, and the well-disposed among the people felt convinced that the state of the revenue required the adoption of every measure tending to its improvement, whence Pitt triumphed. The bill was followed by another, which had reference to frauds committed on the customs, by false accounts of imported goods, and the re-landing clandestinely such as had received drawbacks at their exportation. To prevent such practices, Pitt brought in, and carried through parliament, M’hat was called “The Manifest Act,” which enacted that no article should be imported into Great Britain before the master of the vessel had delivered to the custom-house officer a manifest, or declaration, stating the place where they were laden, with a full description of them, verified on oath; that no vessel should sail from any British port, till the owner of the vessel had given a bond for two hundred pounds, that he would not re-land any part of its cargo illegally; and that no goods, entitled to drawback, should be put on board for exportation, except by duly licensed persons.

At a subsequent date Pitt endeavoured to ascertain whether the crown-lands could not be rendered more productive. To this end, and in consequence of a message from the king, he moved, in the house of commons, for the appointment of commissioners to inquire into the state of woods, forests, and land revenues belonging to the crown, as well as to sell or alienate fee-farm and other unimprovable rents. This bill passed the commons, _netn. con._, after the adoption of certain amendments, moved by Mr. Jollife, to protect title-deeds, and to bind the commissioners to report their proceedings in parliament. In the house of lords, however, it met with the stern opposition of Lord Loughborough, who objected to the bill because it did not agree with the king’s message; because it repealed two old acts, and created a new power for the sale of those lands, without any exception of the rents reserved in the former acts, for divers persons, and for other purposes mentioned in those acts; and because the powers granted to the commissioners were dangerous to the people and derogatory to the honour of the crown. Notwithstanding this opposition, the bill was ultimately carried and received the royal assent.

In the midst of his exertions for financial reform, and before the Sinking-fund Bill passed into a law, a message was delivered to the house from the king, by the minister, stating, that it gave him great concern to inform the commons that it had not been possible to confine the expenses of the civil list within the annual sum of £850,000, now applicable to that purpose. This message was the more remarkable as, in 1782, when Pitt was chancellor of the exchequer, the king, in his speech from the throne, had stated that he had so regulated his establishments, that his expenses should not in future exceed his income. The sum now required to free his majesty from debt, contracted partly before and partly since that period, was £210,000; which sum, after considerable opposition, in the course of which the necessity of economy was strongly enforced, was ultimately voted.

DEBATES ON INDIA, ETC.

In consequence of the commutation tax, and the preventive measures taken against smuggling, the sale of tea at the East India-house had by this time increased nearly threefold. This enlarged trade, connected with other circumstances, induced the company to apply to parliament for an act, empowering them to make an addition to their funds. A petition to this effect was presented on the 25th of May, and Pitt proposed and carried a bill, which enabled the company to add £800,000 to their stock, and also to sell a surplus of £36,000 a year, received from the exchequer, over and above the annuities which they paid to their creditors, which would produce a sum equal to that which they were empowered to add to their stock. Previous to this, in consequence of intelligence from India, Pitt felt called upon to adopt some plan for amending the act of 1784. A bill was brought in for this purpose by Mr. Dundas, which bill conferred on the governor-general a privilege of acting in cases of importance, without the consent of the other members of the council; enabled the directors to unite the offices of commander-in-chief and governor-general in the same person; rendered not only the present, but the farmer servants of the company, whether resident in India or not, capable of being appointed to seats in the respective councils; empowered the governors of presidencies to nominate temporary successors to members of council who might die or vacate their office; altered a clause in the former bill, which compelled the company’s servants to rise by gradation; repealed another, which required from them a disclosure of their property, on oath; and made several changes in the court of judicature and mode of trial for crimes and misdemeanors in India. This bill was strongly opposed by Fox and Burke, with other members of opposition; but, after several debates and divisions, it passed both houses, and received the royal assent.

The only other business of importance brought under notice during this session, was the impeachment of Warren Hastings. This will be noticed in the following section, where we propose to take a retrospective view of the progress of the English arms, and our policy in that part of the world. After much discussion on this subject which was left undecided, on the 11th of July parliament was prorogued.

{GEORGE III. 1786–1787}

A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Hitherto, to avoid embarrassing the narrative of the American war, no notice has been taken in this “Continuation” of the progress of the British arms in India. The last event recorded in the history, was the capture of Pondicherry by Colonel Coote, by which event the French power in India was destroyed. An attempt, however, was made to revive this power in the province of Bengal, About the middle of the year 1760, the year in which Pondicherry was captured, an adventurer, named Law, nephew of the celebrated projector, at the head of some French fugitives, persuaded the Mogul, Shah Zada, who had lately sealed himself on his father’s throne, to invade this province. Law had previously rendered some important services to the mogul against some native princes who had opposed his elevation; and it was thought that nothing could resist the progress of his arms. With his French fugitives and 80,000 natives, Law made incursions into the province of Bahar, which province suffered so severely that Major Carnac was sent by the council of the East India Company to assist the rajah Ramnarrain in restraining his ravages. It was in January, 1761, when Carnac advanced with 20,000 Asiatic allies on this service, and in three days he arrived at Gyah Maunpore, where the enemy was encamped. An engagement took place soon after his arrival, and both the mogul and his rash adviser, Law, were taken prisoners. Law was treated by his captors in a manner which his bravery on the field of battle demanded, and which greatly exalted them in the estimation of the Asiatics.

The fate of Count Lally, who had bravely defended Pondicherry against Colonel Coote, was very different from that of Law. Though he had been the most active partisan that ever attached himself to the French cause in India, yet he was doomed, on his arrival in France, to suffer both indignities and death. His sufferings are thus described by Mr. Mill:— “By the feeble measures of a weak and defective government, a series of disasters, during some preceding years, had fallen on France; and a strong sentiment of disapprobation prevailed in the nation against the hands by which the machine of government was conducted. When the loss of the boasted acquisitions of the nation in India was reported, the public discontent was fanned into a flame, and the ministry were far from easy with regard to the shock which it might give to the structure of their power. Anything, therefore, was to be done which might have the effect of averting their danger; and, fortunately for them, many persons arrived from India, boiling with resentment against Lally, and pouring out the most bitter accusations. Fortunately for them, likewise, the public, swayed as usual by first appearances, and attaching the blame to the man who had the more immediate guidance of the affairs on which ruin had come, appeared abundantly disposed to overlook the ministry in their condemnation of Lally. The popular indignation was carefully cultivated; and by one of those acts of imposture and villany, of which the history of ministers in all the countries of Europe affords no lack of examples, it was resolved to raise a screen between the ministry and popular hatred by the cruel and disgraceful destruction of Lally. On his arrival in France he was thrown into the Bastille, and this place being deemed too honourable for him, he was subsequently thrown into a common prison. An accusation, consisting of vague or frivolous imputations, was preferred against him; and nothing whatever was proved, except that his conduct did not come up to the very perfection of prudence and wisdom, and that he had displayed the greatest ardour in the service, the greatest disinterestedness, fidelity, and perseverance, with no common share of military talent and of mental resources. The grand tribunal of the nation, the parliament of Paris, found no difficulty in seconding the wishes of the ministry, and the artificial cry of the day, by condemning him to an ignominious death. Lally, confident in his innocence, had never once anticipated the possibility of any other sentence than that of an honourable acquittal; and when it was read to him in his dungeon, he was thrown into an agony of surprise and indignation, and taking up a pair of compasses with which he had been sketching a chart of the Coromandel coast, he struck at his proud, indignant heart; but his arm was held by one of the functionaries in attendance. With indecent precipitation he was executed on that very day. He was dragged through the streets of Paris in a dung-cart, and, lest he should address the people, a gag was stuffed into his mouth, so large as to project beyond his lips. Voltaire, who had already signalized his pen by some memorable interpositions in favour of justice and the oppressed, exerted himself to expose, in a clear light, the real circumstances of this fearful transaction, which Mr. Orme scruples not to call ‘a murder committed by the sword of justice.’”

In the meantime Colonel Clive, who had deposed the Surajah Dowla, Nabob of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and had raised Meer Jaffier Ali Khan to that dignity, as recorded in a previous page in Smollet’s division of this history, and who had rendered other important services to the British cause in India, had arrived in England, where he was received with all honour. He was raised to the Irish peerage by the title of Baron Clive of Plaissey—the name of the place where he had defeated the nabob—and was flattered by the prospect of a speedy elevation to the English peerage, which would give him a seat in the British house of peers. While in England he was involved in a dispute with the company on the Jaghire rents, which had been conferred on him by Meer Jaffier, whom he had raised to the throne of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. His most active opponent was Mr. Sulivan, but Clive eventually gained his point; and not only were the Jaghire rents confirmed to him for ten years, if he should live that period, but he was nominated governor and commander-in-chief of the British possessions in Bengal, with the express understanding that no other officer, of whatever rank, should have the power of interfering with his command.

Clive returned to India, where he arrived in May, 1705. On his return he found everything in a complete state of confusion and disorganization. Before his departure for Calcutta, the seat of his government, it was rumoured that the Shah Zada had collected an army, and was advancing against Patna, which was under the jurisdiction of the Hindu governor, Itamnarrain. The Shah Zada pretended to take up arms against Ghazee-u-Deen, the vizier and master at Delhi, and Ghazee-u-Deen, enraged thereat, in a fit of desperation murdered the Great Mogul. After this tragical event the Shah Zada took the state and title of emperor, and conferred the office of vizier upon Soujah-Dowla, the powerful ruler of Oude. The new emperor assumed the name of Shah-Alum, or “King of the World,” and he had no sooner ascended the throne than he advanced against Patna. Ramnarrain was defeated, but Colonel Calliaud soon after arrived on the scene of action, with about three hundred English and one thousand sepoys, and Shah-Alum was routed, and compelled to take refuge in flight. The young emperor, however, being joined by Mr. Law, with his small body of French, and by the sub-governor of Purneah, soon returned to Patna; and the town being almost wholly destitute of troops, he would have captured it, had not Captain Knox appeared to its relief. The besiegers were driven, by the gallantry of Knox, from their works, and a few days after he completely defeated the sub-governor of Purneah, who fled northwards for his life. He was followed by Colonel Calliaud, with his English soldiers and sepoys; the latter of whom were commanded by Meeran Calliaud, under the belief that he was carrying all the treasures of Purneah with him, pursued the sub-governor hotly; but on the fourth day of the pursuit a tremendous storm occurred, in which Meeran was struck dead with lightning, and the sepoys, from this cause, becoming unmanageable, he was obliged to return to Patna. Meeran’s people hastened to Moorshedabad, where, in order to obtain payment of their arrears, they surrounded the palace, and threatened the life of the nabob Meer Jaffier. Other bodies of men, also, about the same time, took up arms against Meer Jaffier: and to complete his misfortunes, as Mr. Vansittart, the new governor at Calcutta, found the treasury empty, and the English troops and sepoys almost mutinous for want of pay, he concluded a treaty with Meer Cassim Ali, son-in-law to Meer Jaffier and general of his army, engaging that he should be invested with full power as Nabob of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, on condition that he made over the fruitful provinces of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong to the company. Meer Jaffier was compelled to resign, with permission to retire to Calcutta, and Meer Cossim Ali was forthwith proclaimed nabob. Meer Cossim procured six or seven lacs of rupees, which he sent to Calcutta, and made professions of dependence on the council; but he soon exhibited signs of a refractory spirit; and Mr. Vansittart, with the other members of the council, found that they had made a mistake, when they imagined that he would suit their purpose better than Meer Jaffier.

It has been seen, that in the month of January, 1761, Major Carnac, who had succeeded Colonel Calliaud in the command of the company’s troops in Bahar, defeated the emperor Shah Alum, and took Law, on whom he placed his chief hopes, prisoner. The young emperor retreated towards Delhi, whence he sent Meer Cossim Ali his investiture as Nabob of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; and likewise offers to the English of the dewannee, or receivership of these provinces, if they would send an army into central India to secure him in possession of Delhi, and of a throne that had been tottering for generations. Want of money prevented the council from accepting these offers, and Meer Cossim had no more to give them. Meer Cossim had, indeed, become as poor as Meer Jaffier had been when he was deposed, and he cast his eyes on the wealth of Ramnarrain, the celebrated Governor of Patna, At first, Mr. Vansittart instructed Major Carnac to protect Ramnarrain, but he soon after listened to the suggestions and promises of Meer Cossim; and in order to aid his rapacious designs, Colonel Coote, the conqueror of Pondicherry, was sent to supersede Major Carnac, at Patna; he being averse to the desertion of a governor who had received so many pledges from, and had rendered many services to, the English. Colonel Coote, however, had as high a sense of honour as Major Carnac, and Mr. Vansittart, discovering this, recalled him, and thus left Ramnarrain to the mercy of Meer Cossim. Ramnarrain was in consequence thrown into prison, and his house was broken open and plundered, while his servants were put to the torture, in order to make them confess where his treasures, which chiefly existed in the imagination of his enemies, were deposited. This base act on the part of the council of the company met with its reward. All friendly correspondence between the English and native nobility now ceased, and Meer Cossim had offers of services and money made him on every hand, if he would consent to resist the foreigners. Encouraged by this circumstance, and conceiving that he would soon be able to defy the English authority, Meer Cossim complained of the abuses of the dustucks, or permits, by which he had been recently impoverished; and when no notice was taken of his complaints, he ventured to stop and search the company’s boats, as they sailed up the Ganges. Nothing was done to prevent his conduct; and growing more bold by impunity, Meer Cossim at length seized two boats that were proceeding to Patna with arms, and made preparation for getting that place into his own hands. Apprised of this, the council gave directions to Mr. Ellis, the chief at Patna, to anticipate Meer Cossim’s designs by seizing upon the citadel. This was done, and Meer Cossim, enraged thereat, murdered Mr. Amyatt, who had formerly been chief at Patna, with two Hindu bankers attached to the English interests, and then marched upon the town with a great army, of which he took possession. The English troops at Patna fled by boats up the Ganges to Chuprah, where they were surrounded, and taken prisoners. About the same time, also, the troops of Meer Cossim attacked and plundered the factory of Cossimbuzar, where likewise he captured many English.

While these events were transpiring, the council at Calcutta entered into new arrangements with Meer Jaffier, in order to restore him to the musuud or throne of Bengal. Meer Jaffier not only confirmed the grants of territory made by Meer Cossim, but also granted an exemption to the company’s servants from all search, and from all duties, except upon salt, and engaged to pay to the company thirty lacs of rupees for the expenses of the war, and to maintain an army of 24,000 men at his own charge. Having done this Meer Jaffier issued his mandates to the chiefs, and to the cities of the three provinces, and then joined the English, who were advancing upon Moorshedabad. In their route they were met by three of Meer Cossim’s generals, whom they defeated, and arriving at Moorshedabad they took possession of it without opposition. Another battle was soon after fought with the troops of Meer Cossim, on the plain of Geriah, when Meer Jaffier and his English allies were again victorious. Those of Meer Cossim’s troops, who escaped the slaughter, fled to an intrenched camp at Odowa, which, after three weeks, was carried, and then the whole army of the nabob was scattered. Meer Cossim fled with a few troops towards Patna, and the English laid siege to and captured Monghir, recently made his capital in preference to Moorshedabad, the old residence of the nabobs of Bengal. On hearing of the capture of Monghir, Meer Cossim ordered the execution of all the English who had been taken at Patna, and one hundred and fifty, with Mr. Ellis their chief, were massacred in cold blood. Patna was soon after taken by the English, and in the meantime Meer Cossim had taken refuge at Allahabad, with Soujah Dowla, the powerful ruler of Oude. On his arrival at Allahabad, Shah Alum was with his vizier, and the three Indian rulers marched with a large army to Benares, and encamped not many miles from the English. Major Carnac, who had by this time arrived to take the command, thought it prudent to retreat to Patna; the more so, because a mutiny had broken out in his own camp. The major was attacked under the walls of Patna by the confederated Indians; but after a severe contest, he defeated his assailants with great loss. Soujah Dowla now opened a correspondence with Meer Jaffier, and offered to support him in Bengal and Orissa, if he would cede the country of Bahar to Oude; and about the same time Shah Alum offered to abandon both Soujah Dowla and Meer Cossim, for English protection and alliance. These negociations, however, were broken off; and in the month of October, 1764, Major Munro, who had recently assumed the command of the army at Patna, led his forces against the enemy, which entirely broke the power of Soujah Dowla, the only Indian ruler that the English had to fear. Major Munro was now empowered to treat with Shah Alum; and a treaty was concluded with him, by which it was agreed that the English should be put into the possession of the country of Gazzipore, with all the rest of the territory of Bui want Sing, and that Shah Alum should be put into possession of the city of Allahabad, and the whole of the dominions of Soujah Dowla. Thus deserted by the emperor, Soujah Dowla applied to Ghazee-u-Deen, vizier and murderer of Shah Alum’s father, and this chief descended into Oude with a great army of Mahratta horse. A battle was fought in the month of May, 1765, near Corah, when Major, now General Carnac, who again commanded the English forces, gained a great victory over the confederate army, and chased them across the river Jumna.

On the very day that General Carnac gained this victory, Clive arrived at Calcutta, with full powers to settle all disputes. Meer Jaffier had recently died, and one difficulty in the way was thereby removed. Clive set about his work in right good earnest. A few days after Soujah Dowla’s defeat at Corah, that nabob having announced his intention of throwing himself upon the mercy of the English, repaired to the camp of General Carnac, by whom he was received with much distinction. On hearing of these events, Clive set off for Allahabad, to settle all disputes; and when he arrived, he decided that Shah Alum should rest satisfied with the possession of Allahabad and Corah, and that all the rest of Oude should be restored to Soujah Dowla, on conditions that he should oppose the Mahrattas and defend the frontiers of Bengal. On his part, Shah Alum, for the possession of Allahabad and Corah, granted the collection of the revenues in Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa to the English, in return for which he was to receive twenty-six lacs of rupees per annum, in addition to the revenues of Allahabad and Corah. The young emperor, moreover, confirmed the right of the company to all the territory which they possessed in any other part of India.

On the death of Meer Jaffier, the supreme council at Calcutta conferred the sovereignty on his youthful son, Nujeem-ul-Dowlah; at the same time appointing Mohammed Reza Khan, a naib subah, or sub-nabob, to manage the revenues and all other matters of government. On his arrival, however, Clive decided that Nujeem was not fit to rule, and he was soon compelled to retire on a pension of thirty-two lacs of rupees per annum. Having restored peace, Clive turned his attention to the correction of abuses; and for which he had full powers given him by the court of directors before he left England. But this was no easy task. Most of the members of the council at Calcutta had been partakers in the spoils and profits of the nefarious system which had been adopted in India; many of those servants who had been most oppressive and rapacious, were strong in their patronage in Leadenhall-street; and nearly every European in the country looked to India as prey, which they were to make the most of for themselves, without regarding the interests of those who should come after them, or of the company by whom they were employed. On commencing his reforms, many of the company’s agents threatened and protested; and several, confident in their patronage at home, refused to act with or under him. But none of these things daunted Clive. He declared that if he could not find support at Calcutta, he would procure it elsewhere; and he actually sent for some civil servants from Madras, and turned the refractory out of their offices. Seeing his resolution, recourse was next had to flattery, entreaty, persuasion, and arguments, but all this failed to turn him aside from his purpose. By one fell stroke he put down the private trade and dangerous privileges of the company’s servants, and he prohibited the extorting or receiving presents from the natives. At the same time Clive adopted measures, which might give the servants of the company a proper maintenance, and also an opportunity of acquiring fortunes by application and perseverance. The pay of the company’s servants being miserably low, and altogether insufficient for their proper maintenance—a circumstance which doubtless had the effect of increasing their rapacity—as the monopoly of salt was now, by the pensioning off the young nabob, in the hands of the company, he appropriated it to the proper pay and support of the servants of all kinds, carefully dividing the proceeds according to a scale; and thus gave every British functionary employed in the East the means of slowly but surely acquiring a competence. Having disposed of the affairs of the civil servants, Clive turned his attention to those of the military, his old companions in arms. And here he had greater difficulties than ever to contend with, for they were men who held the power of the sword in their hands.

Notwithstanding, the reduction of military expenses, which were rapidly absorbing the whole revenue of the country, required his attention, and he gave it without fear of the consequences. As long as the troops were employed by Meer Jaffier and Meer Cossim, these potentates, in order to cherish the goodwill of the officers, allowed them “double batta,” or double pay. The court of directors had long ago issued that “double batta” should be abolished, but Vansittart and his council had listened to the remonstrances of the army, and the order was left unregarded. But Clive was a bolder man than Vansittart, and he resolved that “double batta” should cease forthwith, except at Allahabad, where the troops were considered as being actually in the field. An order was issued to this effect, and the troops in Bengal were put upon the same footing as the troops on the Coromandel Coast, by whom no batta was drawn, except when actually marching or serving on the field of battle. The officers remonstrated, but it was to no purpose: the order was given, and it must be obeyed. On the appointed day the reduction took place, and, enraged thereby, two hundred English officers engaged in a conspiracy, binding themselves by an oath to secrecy, and to preserve, at the hazard of their lives, the life of any comrade that might be condemned by a court-martial. These officers, indeed, each bound themselves in a bond of £500 to throw up their commissions, unless “double batta” were restored; and finding that Clive was inexorable, they resigned. To increase the danger this conspiracy was formed at a time when the country was threatened with a new invasion by a Mahratta army. The officers, doubtless, supposed that Clive would be frightened out of his resolution, but they soon found that they had mistaken the force of his character. On hearing of the conspiracy, he exclaimed, “Such a spirit must, at all hazards, be suppressed at the birth,” and he wrote to the council, desiring them to write to Madras, in order that every officer and cadet that could be spared from that presidency should be held in readiness to embark for Bengal; and directing them to acquaint the presidency of Fort St. George with the mutiny, and with the approach of the Mahrattas. In his letter to the council he stated that the committee at Calcutta must adopt a resolution, that no officer now resigning should ever again hold a commission in the company’s service. At the same time, Clive sent directions to the commanding officers of all the divisions to find, if possible, the leaders; to arrest those who appeared most dangerous; and above all to secure the obedience of the sepoys and native commanders. He also gave commissions to several young men in the mercantile service; and when informed that a large sum of money was subscribed for the mutinous officers by gentlemen at Calcutta, in the civil service, he requested the council to take immediate steps for discovering and punishing those gentlemen. Having taken these preliminary steps, Clive quitted Moorshedabad, where he had been arranging matters of trade and finance, and fearlessly advanced with a small escort to Monghir, the scene of the mutiny. Before his arrival, the council had resolved that all resignations tendered should be accepted, and the officers tendering them immediately sent down to Calcutta. Clive was the more incensed against them because he had recently given up £70,000 to form a fund for their invalids and widows; a gift which showed him to be their friend. He arrived at Monghir full of wrath against them, and having secured the attachment of the sepoys, by ordering them double pay for two months, in a short time the ringleaders were all arrested, tried, and cashiered. In the first heat of his passion he had threatened to have them all shot, but as legal doubts were entertained as to the powers granted by the Mutiny Act for the company’s service, not one was sentenced to death. After they had been cashiered, nearly all who had joined in the conspiracy, begged with tears in their eyes, to be permitted to re-enter the service, and some were restored on condition of signing a contract to serve the company on its own terms for three years, and to give a year’s notice of any intention to quit the service. The young officers were treated with great lenity, and when his indignation was cooled and the danger over, he scorned to take any revenge for personal wrongs and insults. The main cause of the mutiny was the gambling and dissipation which prevailed among the English officers, and Clive adopted several wise regulations to check these evils, and to restore the strictest discipline and subordination.

Lord Clive having completed his work of reformation, and restored peace to India, in January, 1767, left Calcutta for England. On accepting his commission he had declared that he wanted no more money, and that all he wished for was a thorough reform; which in the end would prove equally beneficial to the oppressed and the oppressor. And, notwithstanding the temptations to enrich himself, by which he was surrounded, Clive adhered to this resolution of self-abnegation. The servants of the company would have enabled him to treble his wealth, if he would have consented to connive at their misdoings; and the princes of India offered him money, and jewels, and diamonds in abundance, as the price of his assistance on their behalf; but, steady to his purpose, he refused the tempting offers. He returned a poorer man than when he went to India. And yet, notwithstanding his integrity of purpose, and although on his arrival he was hailed with acclamations by the court of directors, and was received with unusual regard by George III. and his consort Queen Charlotte, at a subsequent date, he was charged in the house of commons with mal-administration; and when this failed, his enemies brought him to trial before that tribunal for the events and deeds of his early life. So persecuted was he, and so maligned, that, though finally acquitted by the commons, his spirits sunk under it, and he died by his own hand in the forty-ninth year of his age.

The court of directors had left the abolition or confirmation of the select committee to Lord Clive’s discretion, and before he returned to England he declared for its continuance; naming as members, Mr. Verelst, Mr. Cartier, Colonel Smyth, Mr. Sykes, and Mr. Beecher. Shortly after his return the court of directors resolved to send out to Calcutta three supervisors, to complete the work of reformation, and to put the revenues of Bengal under better management. These supervisors were Messrs. Vansittart, and Scrafton, and Colonel Forde, who took their departure in the Aurora, which is supposed to have foundered at sea with every soul on board, for it was never heard of after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. Subsequently the government of Bengal was left in the hands of Mr. Cartier; but in less than two years it was notified, by the court of directors, to Mr. Warren Hastings, who had long been rising in their estimation, that he was nominated to the second council at Calcutta, and that as soon as Mr. Cartier retired, it was their wish that he should take upon himself the charge of the government of that presidency.

In the meantime the flames of war had been rekindled in the Carnatic by Hyder Ali, who became one of the most formidable opponents of the English in all India. Since his expedition to the neighbourhood of Pondicherry, as the ally of Mr. Lally, Hyder Ali had greatly increased his army. He had, in fact, deposed his benefactor and nominal master, the Rajah of Mysore, and had established himself on his throne. Moreover, Hyder Ali had conquered the rajahs and polygars of Sera, Balapoor, Gooty, Harponelly, Chitteldroog, Bednore, and Soonda, with other districts, and had extended his dominion almost to the banks of Kistna. At this point of his conquests Hyder Ali was checked by Madhoo Row, the Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who crossed the Kistna with an immense body of cavalry, and not only deprived him of some of his recent acquisitions, but compelled him to pay thirty two lacs of rupees. But Ilyder Ali, though checked, was not destroyed. At a subsequent date he undertook and achieved the conquest of Malabar; and he kept that country quiet by cutting off all the Hindoo chiefs. His conquests induced the English, the Mahrattas, and Nizam Ali, the ruler of Deccan, to form a league against him. The Peishwa of the Mahrattas was the first to take the field against him; and he was subsequently followed by Colonel Smith at the head of a small English corps, and a large army of the Nabob of the Carnatic, and by another large army under the Nizam of the Deccan. Before Colonel Smith and the nizam, however, could join their forces to those of the peishwa, he had consented, on the payment of thirty-five lacs of rupees, to retire from the confederacy, and to quit Mysore. The nizam himself was soon after discovered to be negociating a treaty with Hyder Ali, the chief end of which was to expel the company from the Carnatic; and Colonel Smith separated from him, and hastened to take possession of the passes which led into that country. He was joined by some reinforcements from Mohammed Ali, the Nabob of the Carnatic; but he was soon compelled to retreat for Changama, a town about sixty miles from Madras. In his route he was attacked by the three armies of Hyder Ali, the peishwa, and the nizam, whom he bravely repulsed; but want of provisions compelled him to continue his retreat till he reached Trinomalee. He was still followed by the enemy, who plundered, burned, and destroyed all the open country through which they passed. While at Trinomalee, Colonel Smith made an unsuccessful attempt to stop the ravages of the enemy; an attempt which chiefly failed from want of cavalry. In the meantime, Hyder Ali sent his son Tippoo, with five thousand horse, to Madras; and the fortress only escaped his ravages. Grown bold by success, the allies resolved upon a pitched battle with Colonel Smith; and a conflict took place near Trinomalee, in which they were routed. The nizam now again changed sides, and came over to the English; and in the month of December, Colonel Smith once more defeated Hyder Ali and the Peishwa, who fled to Caverypatum, on the river Panaur. On hearing of his successes, the presidency at Madras resolved to carry the war into the very heart of Hyder Ali’s dominions; and Colonel Smith received orders to march upon Bangalore, while Colonel Wood, who was detached from Smith’s force, was directed to operate on the frontiers. As the territory around Bangalore was barren, Colonel Smith represented to the presidency that his army could not subsist in that country; but his representation was unheeded, and he was compelled to set forward on his march. This proved a fatal step. Colonel Smith arrived in the neighbourhood of Bangalore, and Colonel Wood overran the fruitful country on the frontiers; but Hyder Ali, flushed with a recent victory which he had gained over some English troops, which the presidency of Bombay had sent into Malabar and Canara, returned to Mysore, and by the end of the year 1768 recovered every inch of territory he had lost. Early in the year following Hyder Ali again poured down into the Carnatic; and so irresistible were his movements that the presidency of Madras proposed terms of peace. Hyder Ali could not hope to conquer the English, and he readily listened to the proposal; and a treaty was concluded, by which it was agreed that a mutual restitution of territory should take place, and that there should be a mutual co-operation against all enemies. But this treaty was not kept in good faith by the English; for soon after, when Hyder Ali applied to the presidency of Madras for assistance against the Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who again invaded Mysore, and swept everything before him, it was refused, on the plea that Hyder had brought the war upon himself, by leaguing with some Mahratta chiefs.

In the year 1770 the English ministry sent out Sir John Lindsay, with some frigates, to protect the company’s settlements and affairs. Soon after his arrival., the Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who had long boldly defied the English, courted a new alliance with them, and intimated to the Nabob of the Carnatic, that his country should be swept by his cavalry from end to end if a treaty was not agreed upon. The nabob and Sir John Lindsay were of opinion that the peishwa’s wishes should be gratified; but the presidency of Madras refused the alliance, and left the Mahrattas and the Mysoreans to fight their own battles. Hyder Ali was defeated in several encounters, and Seringapatam, his capital, was besieged. Such was his situation when Sir Robert Hariand arrived to supersede Sir John Lindsay in the command; he being removed on the complaints of the presidency of Madras and the directors in Leadenhall-street. Sir Robert followed the plans and notions of his predecessor, strongly insisting that the presidency ought to conclude the alliance which the peishwa demanded. The presidency of Madras, however, supported by the other presidencies, refused to take part in the war, either for or against Hyder Ali; and at the same time sent some forces to protect the Carnatic from the Mahrattas. The peishwa at length became fearful that if he entered the Carnatic he should bring the English upon him; and being distressed for want of provisions in the country of the Mysore, which he had overrun, he listened to the voice of Mohammed Ali, accepted some money from him, and agreed to make peace with Ilyder Ali. A treaty was concluded in 1772, by which the Mahratta chief obtained a large portion of the more northern and inland provinces of Mysore, together with thirty lacs of rupees.