Chapter XV (10)

It is clear that these enactments were quite insufficient to remedy the evils complained of; and India was accordingly doomed for several years more to pay the penalty of this timid and inefficient legislation. The truth is, that the Ministry were conscious that their knowledge of Indian affairs was extremely imperfect; and that the task of legislation for a distant empire, if not beyond their powers, at least required more leisure than they were able or disposed to pay to it. The spirit of the times, too, was adverse to bold or extensive legislation, and delighted more in temporary expedients and palliatives. America could hardly have remained much longer united to Britain; but this temper, common to many successive administrations, had much influence on the time and manner of the separation.

The complimentary resolution, passed unanimously by the House, closed the Parliamentary proceedings in which Lord Clive was personally concerned. In a letter to Mr. Hastings, the new Governor-General, written some months afterwards, he alludes to them. "All the Reports of the Committees are published," says he[201], "and will of course be transmitted to you. A few envious and resentful individuals turned the whole attack upon me, and aimed at the ruin of my fortune and reputation. But the justice of the House of Commons defeated their intentions, and, by a great majority, passed a vote that I had rendered great and essential services to this country. The next session will show whether any other individuals are to be attacked; but I am of opinion the Parliament will rest satisfied with the late act, and leave the rest to the Governor and Council. I congratulate you on the distinction you are honoured with, in being the first Governor-General; and hope your colleagues will be unanimous in acting for the public good." But it is not surprising that the harassing persecution which he had sustained, and the ignoble charges brought and insinuated against him, should have made a deep and gloomy impression on his lofty mind. It has been remarked that, "Although, throughout this inquiry, Lord Clive displayed the greatest firmness and magnanimity, his mind never recovered its proper equilibrium. Wedded to glory, and pluming himself upon those actions which had elevated him to an unparalleled degree of fame, and unexampled grandeur of fortune, he could ill brook the necessity of defence, and felt as an ignominy the task of pleading for his character and property. He, upon whose pleasure had so often depended the fate of sovereigns and of states, who might with truth be styled 'the setter up and puller down of kings,' sickened at the recollection of that ingratitude which degraded him to the position of a culprit."[202]

Few men have ever endured so severe and piercing a scrutiny into all their words and actions; and his situation has, in one respect, been different from that of most other great men, who were only subjects. He had been in some measure placed in the situation of an absolute sovereign. He not only held the military command, but directed, with more power than is enjoyed by most sovereign princes, the civil, financial, and political measures that emanate from supreme authority. He not only executed, but planned, and was the source as well as the instrument of action. He had to answer for wars undertaken, treaties made and broken, and severities exercised. He was not so much in the situation of a Marlborough or a Wellington, receiving certain orders, and following his judgment in executing them, as of a sovereign prince--a Frederic, a Bonaparte, an Alexander, who could act with nearly despotic authority in the execution of their designs. They, privileged by their rank, could only be called upon to answer at the tribunal of posterity. But, from his situation, a private man, a subject, and the servant of a trading company, his accusers blended together his different characters. There is always something, in the slightest accusation of delinquency in pecuniary matters, which is revolting to a generous mind. This his enemies saw, and attempted to fix on the most liberal of men; trusting that, however complete the justification, some taint of the accusation would remain. It was not enough to him that he had been acquitted and applauded; he brooded over the indignity of having been accused. Nor was the public ingratitude, from which he suffered, the less grievous, that it was common to him with the great men of every age; although proudly conscious of his own integrity, and of the solid glory of his achievements and labours, he felt that he could trust his fame to distant countries and future times.

And distant countries had already begun to do justice to his great actions. A few days after the rising of Parliament, he received the following letter from Mr. Wedderburn, which the reader will not be displeased to see entire:--

"My dear Lord,

"Mr. Stuart informs me, that he has sent your Lordship a letter he received from the gentleman[203] who has the care of the Duke of Hamilton at Geneva, expressing the desire that Voltaire has to be informed of the affairs of the East Indies, and to celebrate the great actions that have been done there.

"I took the precaution of desiring Mr. Clive to load his trunk with the most important papers that are printed on that subject; but it has occurred to me, that he would deliver them with a better effect if they were introduced by a few lines from your Lordship, or, at least, a written message to the old gentleman. I don't know whether Mr. King is at Walcot: he would be delighted to have an occasion of addressing his favourite author on this subject. Lady Clive, I am afraid, will scruple at a correspondence with so free a writer; but, whatever mischief his works may do for a better state, in this world they are very entertaining: and that justice, which is everywhere your due to fame, will have a very good effect in England, coming from the pen of a Frenchman, writing at the foot of the Alps.

"I have seen no creature but lawyers for a fortnight past, and I know no news. Robert desires I would make his apology to your Lordship, for suffering himself to be seduced by me, to give me one day at Mitcham, which I am sure you will forgive. Mrs. W. joins me in compliments to Lady Clive and Miss Ducarrel; and I am,

"My dear Lord,
"Yours most sincerely,
"Al. Wedderburn.

"Lincoln's Inn Fields,
"9th July, 1773."

The result of this application from the most celebrated writer of the age does not appear. Several letters to Lord Clive, written from different parts of Europe, from foreigners, the posterity of the present age, some of them from persons quite unknown to him, show how widely his fame had spread over the Continent.

Immediately on the rising of Parliament in June, the state of his health carried him to Bath. After a short residence there and at Walcot, he was advised again to visit the Continent. While in London he was consulted by Ministers; and, though he believed that he had cause to complain of the conduct of Lord North in the late transactions, he was still willing, when called upon, to give him his opinion on Indian concerns. Indeed, during the whole course of his life, he was ever most ready and forward to communicate freely the full stores of his experience and reflection, not only to the Court of Directors, but to every administration that he imagined to be disposed to avail themselves of them. He had, in the preceding year, imparted to the Ministry his plan for improving the management of the Company's affairs, both in India and Europe; and by a letter of Lord North's to his Lordship, of the 9th of November this year, soliciting his interest in favour of Mr. Manship, in an India House election, it appears that Lord Clive had met him just before at Bushy Park, and given his sentiments in conversation on the important question of the instructions proper to be given to the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, who had been recently appointed by the Act of Parliament.

The fatigues of two anxious and exhausting sessions had not improved his health, so shattered before. How long he remained abroad does not appear. During the subsequent session, as all attempts to fix upon him any act of criminality during his first government of Bengal had totally failed, some feeble and malignant efforts were made, through the public papers, to throw suspicion on his conduct during his last administration there. But they were too miserable to be persisted in, or to produce any effect; and were only the last dregs of enmity, meant, perhaps, less to answer their apparent object than to vex and harass the sensitive feelings of a noble mind.[204]

During the remainder of 1773, and in the following year, which was the last of his life, he seems to have very much relaxed in the frequency of his epistolary correspondence. But it is a characteristic of his native warmth of attachment, and steady regard for his friends, that a great proportion of the letters written during that period consists of recommendatory letters. Some of them contain instances of very earnest and active exertions in behalf of those whom he befriended. He seems, in particular, to have used great exertions to procure the government of Bombay for General Carnac; and one letter, written only six weeks before his death, is addressed to Lord North, to forward the interest of his friend Mr. Strachey.

Though the ministers of the Company which he had so nobly served, had requited his services with persecution and ingratitude, the injury that most deeply wounds the most generous spirit, he had many sources of happiness around him. He was happy in his family; he had a numerous circle of friends warmly attached to him; he had a princely fortune and generosity to use it. He enjoyed a reputation of the highest class as a soldier and a statesman. His political influence was considerable; he was still little beyond the middle period of active life. But his residence in India, and the fatigues, mental and bodily, which he had undergone there, had long since ruined his constitution. He suffered from a derangement of the liver, the fatal disease of warm countries, which exposed him to frequent and violent attacks of bile. But above all, he had been subject to excruciating attacks of pain from gall-stones, attended with severe spasms, both before he left India and since his return. To moderate these, he had long called in the dangerous aid of opium; a remedy which, while it alleviates the present suffering, is generally followed by corresponding depression of spirits, and requires to be used in constantly increasing quantities. He had been driven to the use of this drug when first in India, and probably had never abandoned it, as a few days after his last return to Bengal, writing to Mr. Billers[207], the chief at Patna, he asks him to procure for him five or six pounds of the purest opium that could be got: "As this medicine," continues he, "is entirely for my own use, and I find great difficulty in procuring any other than what has been adulterated, I depend on your judgment in purchasing some that is perfectly good and genuine." When he first went to France, we have seen that he had been able in some measure to reduce the quantity which he had been in the habit of using during his previous illness. In November, 1774, when in Berkeley Square, he had a violent return of his complaint. On the 21st and 22d he endured extreme agony, and had recourse, for relief, to powerful doses of laudanum. Though he had perfect command of his faculties, he testified much impatience under his sufferings. It is probable that the excessive acuteness of the paroxysms of pain, arising from the gall-stones, combined with the effects of the medicine which he had used, acting on his feverish irritability, led to the melancholy event which ensued. The feelings of disappointed hope, and wounded dignity, which had long haunted his haughty soul, were but little calculated to soothe him at such a moment. He expired on the 22d of November, soon after he had completed his forty-ninth year, and was buried in his native parish of Moreton-Say.

Lord Clive was one of those extraordinary men who give a character to the period and country in which they live. His name cannot be erased from the history of India, nor from that of Britain. Born in the rank of a private gentleman, and launched out early in life into the wide sea of Indian adventure, he soon far outstript all his competitors in the race of fortune and fame. He was trained in the best of schools, a state of danger, of suffering, and activity. He could not be said to have any master in the art of war; he was, to adopt the language of the great Chatham, "a heaven-born general;" and it was by the boldness and novelty of his measures, the impetuosity of his onset, and the imperturbable obstinacy of his defence, that he confounded his enemies, and changed the hesitating troops under his command into a band of heroes. He left nothing to chance: he foresaw and provided for every thing. Victory seemed to attend him wherever he turned, and no enterprise was too arduous where he was the leader. The same success and the same renown which distinguished him in the Carnatic, attended him in Bengal. From the date of the battle of Plassey, his reputation in that country was established; and all his negotiations with the native princes were from that day forward concluded more by the influence of his great name, than by the energy of his determined character.

But impetuous and ardent as was the tone of his mind, it is a remarkable part of his praise that he never suffered it to forsake the control of moderation; that he was always able to check and restrain it, and with a keen and cool glance to draw the line between the romantic and the useful, between the dictates of an intoxicating success, and that grand but practicable scheme of conquest and policy, which could give security and permanence to what had been achieved. After he had subdued the rich provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and had become, in fact, the arbiter of India, a wide scope was opened for his ambition. He was strongly urged by the Emperor of Hindostan to march to Delhi to restore him to the capital and throne of his ancestors. No project could be more alluring to a bold and ambitious man like Clive; and he saw and acknowledged that it was perfectly within his power. But it was anticipating the events of forty years. His well regulated mind perceived that great and flattering as was the glory of such a transaction, and high as it would raise his name, it would be contrary to sound policy and hurtful to his country. In the very midst of his career of victory he took every occasion to inculcate moderation. He pointed out that Bengal and its dependent provinces, we were able to govern, and could defend by a small well disciplined army, leaving a surplus revenue such as hardly any other country on earth could yield; but that the moment we passed its frontiers and engaged in the contests of the native princes, our very success would be ruinous to our finances; and our armies and other establishments, which must be indefinitely enlarged, would more than swallow up all the produce both of our revenue and our trade. Succeeding events have strikingly confirmed the dictates of his foresight.

Those who would lessen his fame, by representing him as victorious only over Indian armies, forget, that he had the same success against the French and the Dutch, perhaps at that time the two most enlightened and bravest nations in Europe. But it was not at the head of armies alone that his talents were conspicuous. He was a remarkable man in all the circumstances of life. The truth is, that he always carried about with him the instrument of his success,--a fearless mind, acting on a sober and dispassionate view of human character, and directed to its object with undoubting confidence and unflinching resolution. Aided by his countrymen and by European discipline, he had performed much in the field against native armies. But his success was the same when he stood almost single against his countrymen, and against the soldiers whom he had led to victory. On his last return to Bengal, he found a whole settlement, from the chiefs and leading men, down to the last imported boy, combined to thwart and oppose him. The Governor, the Council, the heads of factories, the leading men in the civil service, were all hostile. Even of the few who had accompanied him as auxiliaries to the East, some tottered. The strongest of human motives, the love of power, the love of reputation, the love of money, were enlisted against him. But he had come determined to perform a great and arduous duty to his country, or to die in the exertion. So he often expresses himself. And though opposed by those who should have aided him, he commenced the odious and invidious work of reform, guided by perfect justice, but with undeviating firmness, and himself exhibiting the most conspicuous proofs of disinterestedness and devotion to his trust. In the course of eighteen months, by the use of unwilling and hostile instruments, supported by his own powerful genius, which spread a secret awe around him, he subdued the civil combination which had threatened to obstruct all the measures of Government, and to confirm and increase the evil effect of the vicious system that had previously prevailed, so destructive to the internal peace of the country, and to the beneficial management of its civil, its mercantile, and financial concerns.[208] The same commanding spirit was equally discernible in the bold front with which he met the demands of the army in mutiny. He did not seek to appease them by artful concessions, by holding out hopes, that at a future time their claims might be listened to. He came attended by a firm sense of right, an invincible mind, and by the lustre of his life of glory. He spoke to them only of duty and of submission, and he did not speak in vain. He punished the guilty; he pardoned those who had been misled. He may be said to have triumphed over the very engine of his own fame. Had a sceptic desired an irrefragable proof of the influence of individual superiority of mind, he could have devised none more decisive than those two instances in the life of this illustrious man.

It was an almost necessary consequence of the ardour of his temperament, that he was impatient of opposition. The measures of his government were in general all his own. He did not brook interference, and the ascendancy which he gained over all about him, seldom exposed him to it. In such cases he was often, not merely resolute, but stern. He had in a remarkable degree, what is an uniform attendant on successful talent, the faculty of distinguishing and employing men of merit. During his whole career, his friends were the most eminent men in the country, or within his reach; and what is an honourable distinction, and throws a strong light on his character, they will be found to be the most distinguished, not only for abilities, but for virtue.

So much has already been said of the charges brought against him, on the ground of the presents which he received, that it is hardly necessary to revert to the subject. The accusation is very abhorrent to the lofty and generous character of the man. It has been remarked, that one remarkable feature of his acquisitions is, that they were all of the same description, either his share of prize-money, or of what stood in lieu of it, or gifts bestowed by the prince as a reward for eminent services: for the service first, of raising him to the throne, and next, of securing him in it. All his acquisitions were directly from the state or the prince. These, it may be asserted, were only the natural result of the customs and notions of the time and country; and certainly not more than the Nabob would have bestowed, or been expected to bestow, on any one of his own subjects who had rendered him a similar service. And when we consider the rewards voted by the British Parliament to illustrious public servants, who, having received the pay, the emoluments, the rank, and honours of the service, had no claim on the public purse, but public gratitude, we shall probably be disposed to allow, that the gratifications bestowed on Lord Clive, in lieu of all these, as they were perfectly in unison with the usages of the country where they were granted, were neither immoderate nor ill-timed, but such as the situation fully justified.

"Lord Clive's second appointment to India," says Sir John Malcolm[209], "though called for by the Proprietors and the public, was warmly opposed by a considerable party in the Direction; and his enemies in that body, recruiting their strength from all whom he had disgraced or punished, subsequently obtained a majority. Neither their efforts, however, nor the combined talent which was arrayed against him in Parliament, could daunt his courage; and he defended his own character with a manliness and eloquence that gave him a complete triumph over all his opponents.

"The character of Lord Clive is associated with the rise of our power in India, and in that view merits much of our attention. Whether we consider his military or political career; the knowledge he displayed of the natives of India, their institutions and government; his efforts to introduce order and principle into what was shapeless and without system; the promptness and courage with which he quelled a mutinous and insubordinate spirit in the military and civil officers of government; his use of victory, the efforts he made and recommended to consolidate the strength, and to improve the administration of our empire in the East; we are equally astonished at the extraordinary extent of the powers of his mind. Nevertheless, no man was ever more violently assailed and calumniated by his cotemporaries. When events, over which he had no control, disappointed those hopes which his successes had raised, his opponents took advantage of the change in the public mind, to reproach him with results, which were chiefly to be attributed to their own factions and mismanagement. The prejudices excited by their efforts have been continued by orators and authors, who, treating Indian subjects without reference to those local circumstances and considerations which peculiarly embarrass them, have pleased and satisfied general and uninformed men, by reducing the most complex points of policy to an easy abstract question. The necessity under which those who exercise power in India act, the comparative dangers they have to encounter or avoid, the means they have of executing one plan, or the want of means for another, the feelings and character of princes, and of nations, which they may flatter or offend, are to such persons matters of little consequence. Their conclusions are drawn from simpler sources, and they reject, as prejudiced and polluted, that minute information and local experience, which, if admitted, might destroy their favourite theories, or cast a doubt upon the validity of those fixed rules and principles by which they consider that the wisdom of every measure ought to be tried and decided.

"With these persons the scene of Indian warfare and policy is degraded to a low level, and the actors reduced to insignificance when compared with those who appear upon the stage in the _western_ hemisphere. Nothing in India, if we refer to such authorities, is upon a great scale, except the errors and crimes of British rulers, to the actions of all of whom they apply a standard framed for a wholly different state of society and government. According to such self-constituted judges, the claim of Lord Clive to the admiration of posterity is very equivocal. But his fame will rise the more the particulars of his eventful life are made known. These will prove that his qualities as a statesman almost surpassed those he displayed as a military commander."

If the opinion of those whom he governed can have any weight in forming our judgment, it is certain that by the natives of India, no incurious observers of character, and who felt the influence of his virtues or defects, he was held in the highest respect and reverence. They admired his success in war, and during his government enjoyed all the ease and security, which it is the first object of government to bestow. Every attempt at oppression or injustice he checked with inexorable firmness. There were indeed complaints heard, but they were the complaints, not of natives who suffered, but of his countrymen, whom his vigour restrained within the limits of justice and right.

His habits in the field were those of a soldier, and simple. Fond of rapid marches and bold attacks, he was an enemy to those incumbrances of needless baggage which so often impede the operations of armies. He shared in the hardships of his soldiers, and was much among them. He trusted for respect, even among the natives of the East, who are supposed to worship pomp, not to parade, but to the splendour diffused around him by his exploits and his renown. The translator of the Seir Mutaqherin, himself a Frenchman, draws a lively contrast between his habits, and those of the justly celebrated Bussy, who, probably on system, adopted a different course. "M. de Bussy," says he, "always wore embroidered 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 Hindoostany manners and customs, a numerous set of tents, a pish-qhana; always on 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 palanquin; he 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, with his aid-de-camps, or was hunting at the right and left. He never wore silks but in town."[210]

It is to be regretted that, after his return to England, he was induced to enter into the disputes of the India House. They could hardly, in any case, have proved satisfactory; and they certainly, in their consequences, served to embitter his life. Yet it may be said that it was difficult for one who had acted so distinguished a part in the affairs of the Company, at once to renounce all active concern in them; and that he had a natural desire, both to assist in some degree in the management of affairs which he was so well qualified to direct, and to promote, by his influence, the interest of his friends. The parliamentary influence which he acquired must have been very considerable. It would seem that it extended, in different degrees, to Shropshire, Montgomery, Radnor, Monmouth, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Bishops-Castle, Ludlow, Pontefract, to Clare in Ireland, and probably to several other places.

In his politics, though a warm admirer of Lord Chatham, he was a steady adherent of his friend Mr. George Grenville, and of moderate Whig principles. He seldom spoke in the House, except on Indian affairs, and especially in justification of his own conduct. From the few specimens of his speeches that have been preserved, it would appear that they were full of matter, closely argumentative, bold, manly, and energetic. He seems to have acquired more ease in the management and expression of his ideas than could have been expected from one whose previous pursuits had been so different: his power lay in strong facts and decided principles, plainly but vigorously expressed. Mr. Beaufoy informs us, that "when the attack upon his conduct had called into action the powers of his mind, his eloquence was such as has not been often surpassed."[211] One who knew him, speaking of the same period, says, "Not long after this event I was fortunate enough to meet the great Lord Chatham at the chase, near Bonnet, and to hear him declare that Lord Clive's speech on that subject was one of the most finished pieces of eloquence he had ever heard in the House of Commons." It was the natural eloquence of a powerful mind thrown into motion by unworthy accusations, of a man who was master of his subject, eager to persuade, and who used the simplest words to express the strongest ideas.

In private life he was much beloved, and possessed the warm affection of a wide circle of friends, many of whom had been deeply indebted to his generosity; for no man ever employed a princely fortune with more liberality. He was steady in his attachments, and seldom lost a friend; Mr. Vansittart, who was sore harassed between his friendship for Clive and his connection with Mr. Sulivan, is perhaps the only instance of consequence. As he was a steady friend, he was a resolute enemy, but without vindictiveness. His gift of 70,000_l._ for the support of officers and men invalided in the Company's service in India, must rank among the noblest of living benefactions.

"His person," we are told, "was of the largest of the middle size; his countenance inclined to sadness, and the heaviness of his brow imparted an unpleasing expression to his features. It was a heaviness that arose, not from the prevalence of the unsocial passions (for of these few men had a smaller share), but from a natural fulness in the flesh above the eyelid. His words were few, and his manner among strangers was reserved. Yet it won the confidence of men, and gained admission to the heart. Among his intimate friends he had great pleasantry and jocoseness, and on some occasions was too open."[212]

By his wife, Margaret Maskelyne, he left Edward, the present Earl of Powis, born March 7. 1754; Rebecca, born September 15. 1760; Charlotte, born January 15. 1762; Margaret, born August 15. 1763, and Robert, born August 31. 1769.

At the time of his death he was Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the counties of Salop and of Montgomery, Major-General in the East Indies, and representative in Parliament for the town of Shrewsbury. He was a member of the Royal Society, and had been honoured with the degree of Doctor of Laws.

India has produced many illustrious men both in his time and since; but none of them has yet obscured or equalled the fame of Clive.

Before concluding, it may be proper to say a few words as to his views of Indian policy; and it is not to be forgotten, that whatever he undertook during his residence in India, he effected. It is much to be regretted, that his health drove him out of the country, when he had nearly made up his mind to remain there another year; a period, short as it was, in which he might have done much to consolidate and give effect to the system which he had established. The state of the European population, eager to be rich, and fretting under every restraint placed on their cupidity, required a hand as firm and steady as his to keep it in check. It has, indeed, been affirmed, that he had no capacity for a comprehensive scheme, including any moderate anticipation of the future. This assertion seems to have been hazarded on very inadequate grounds. He made many communications at various times to the Ministry and to the Court of Directors. These, though chiefly confined to the local and temporary objects for which they were asked, to plans for remedying defects in the civil or military establishments, as they were felt, show no deficiency in comprehensive views, but are full of the deepest observation. It may be safely affirmed, that the views of no statesman of the times (if we except Burke, who is an exception to every thing,) contain more political and practical foresight directed to Indian affairs. And a proof of this is, that many of the plans which he at that early period proposed, have since been gradually adopted. He did not conceal his opinion either from his friends or in Parliament, that he saw no public body either in England or India duly competent to the administration of our concerns in the East. He early came to a conclusion that "the charters granted for the guidance of a limited company of merchants, could not be adequate to the government of an extensive empire."[213] At the same time, he justly regarded the British Ministry, the Court of Directors, and the Court of Proprietors, as all of them profoundly ignorant of Indian concerns, and as being, from their composition, devised for totally different objects, very unfit to direct them. These elements, however, could not be got rid of, and it was evident that any plan proposed must include them as a portion of it. He always contended, that the first step towards an improved management of our concerns in India must be a reform at home, in the constitution of the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors. He proposed some changes, not because they were sufficient, but because they were practicable, and suggested that the Directors, instead of being changed annually, should remain in office for several years; and that the business, instead of coming on in the first instance before all, should be arranged in small Committees. He suggested, that two of the Directors should be appointed by the Crown, an idea in which we see the germ of the Board of Control. In India, he saw that Councils of sixteen equals, were hot-beds of dissension, rendered the satisfactory transaction of business impossible, and responsibility null, by diffusing it. He conceived, that a Council of not more than five persons was infinitely preferable; that the Government of Bengal should, in cases of exigency, have the power of issuing orders to the Governments of the other Presidencies; and that in certain cases the President should have the power, on his own responsibility, of acting contrary to the opinion of his Council: the higher classes of English, those concerned in the government, and at the head of departments, he wished to restrain from trade altogether, and to pay them ample allowances; to this purpose he would have devoted the proceeds of the Salt-tax, for such in reality, under another name, were the gains of the Society of Trade: if their large salaries did not make them honest, they at least left no pretence for dishonesty, and turned more strongly against them the moral feelings of their judges: the Company's civil servants he did not wish to employ in the lower details of the financial or judicial establishments: he was earnestly bent on changing as little of the native institutions as possible; to do at least no harm; to govern India by Indians; to leave things as they were till we saw our way, reserving for the English only the reins of government, the general superintendence, a controlling and directing power, and the command of the military force. The system which he found, and under which, as all Europeans then on the spot agreed, the country had reached a degree of prosperity hardly to be equalled elsewhere in the East, he wished to retain. In regard to the revenue, a matter of so much practical consequence to the happiness of every country, he held that the taxes were not to be extended beyond the state in which we found them, without the greatest caution; he suggested that Government should grant leases of land, to prevent the exactions to which the ryots were exposed in the laying on of the annual impost. To the natives he wished to leave the internal trade, confining the English to the foreign import and export trade, as formerly: he was anxious that the natives should have the entire management of their own concerns, undisturbed as far as possible by the intrusion of Europeans, whose misconduct, which in many instances had been carried to a grievous excess, there was at that time no judicial or political machinery for keeping in order. He did not, however, adopt the wild idea of introducing English laws into a country for which they had never been framed. With more wisdom than has even yet been shown by the Legislature, he recommended that the Company should be authorised to send out an Attorney-General with some able lawyers, (not certainly, however, the most proper persons, especially if a majority,) to new model and regulate the Courts of Justice, and that, with the assistance of the Governor-General and Council, they should form a system of regulations proper for our settlements, pointing out the defects that existed, as well as the proper remedies. He concluded with perfect truth, "that the attempt to introduce the English laws throughout our possessions in India would be absurd and impracticable." He foresaw, from the spirit of the times, that expense was the rock on which the Government was likely to split, and used every means in his power to raise barriers against it. It was partly this which made him recommend that we should confine ourselves to a rich but limited territory, a small army, and few but well-paid English servants, and not plunge into the wide sea of Indian politics. He foretold, that if every thing was to be done directly by Company's servants, and if the expenses of fortifications and cantonments continued on the extravagant scale then in operation, the revenues of India, far from affording a surplus to be conveyed to England, would not long suffice even to support our various establishments on the spot. His predictions were soon verified; though there was but an inconsiderable change in the amount of the actual revenue, yet the expenses of the army, of buildings, fortifications, commissariat of every department, joined to the ill-conducted wars at Madras, had, in the course of a few years, increased so much, that the large free produce which he had left was totally absorbed. Indeed, such is the natural course of human affairs; and the only question is, whether even an energy like his, could have rendered possessions so distant permanently productive. He saw the means of defending our possessions against the native powers, by well-timed attention to their operations; but the French, a more formidable enemy, had only recently lost their Indian possessions, and he looked forward to more imminent danger from their designs, especially if by their means the resistance, then only threatened in America, became successful: for that America, he observes, will sooner or latter become independent, there can be no question[214]: an observation which, in 1772, when both the Government and the nation looked upon any resistance to be made by the Americans as futile, evinced no common sagacity.

To examine the various plans which he furnished, both in India and Europe, for the improvement of the Company's affairs and establishments, as well as for the conduct of their external relations, though to one who traced the progress of Indian policy it might be no unimportant employment, would occupy more time than could be afforded in a Memoir like this. The materials are sufficiently ample. Lord Clive, even when on the worst terms with the managing servants of the Company, uniformly felt a strong attachment and warm gratitude to the body itself, to which his early feelings had bound him; and he was always ready to pour out his knowledge for its benefit. It was a subject in which he was at home, and he felt a laudable pleasure in the hopes of benefiting his early patrons, and the nations he had conquered and ruled, by the matured fruits of his observation and experience.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 168: Dated 9th May, 1771.]

[Footnote 169: This was on the illumination in consequence of the release from the Tower of the Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver, who had been committed to custody for imprisoning a Serjeant-at-arms of the House of Commons.]

[Footnote 170: Then Secretary of State.]

[Footnote 171: 12th May.]

[Footnote 172: This was when a rupture was expected between the Courts of St. James's and Versailles.]

[Footnote 173: Dated 7th January, 1772.]

[Footnote 174: 21st January, 1772.]

[Footnote 175: Almon's Debates, for 1772, p. 360.; Annual Register, 1772.]

[Footnote 176: A native trader, and agent.]

[Footnote 177: Lord Clive's speech is given in Almon's Debates, and was published separately.]

[Footnote 178: Almon's Debates.]

[Footnote 179: 13th April.]

[Footnote 180: 10th June.]

[Footnote 181: 15th June.]

[Footnote 182: Walcot, 20th September, 1772.]

[Footnote 183: Letter to Mr. Strachey, dated Walcot, 7th November, 1772.]

[Footnote 184: The Parliament had been summoned to meet before the Christmas holidays, for the despatch of business.]

[Footnote 185: An abstract of it may be found in the Historical View of Plans for the Government of British India, Lond. 1793, 4to., pp. 55-70.]

[Footnote 186: Seventh Report of the Committee of Secresy, 1773, pp. 51, 52. The historical articles of the Annual Register for 1772 and 1773 are ably written, and show a great acquaintance with Indian affairs and the feelings of parties. Mill's History gives a good abstract of these proceedings.]

[Footnote 187: Lieutenant-General the Hon. ---- Monckton; George Cuming, Wm. Devaynes, Peter Lascelles, Daniel Wier, and Edward Wheler, Esquires.]

[Footnote 188: 2d February, 1773.]

[Footnote 189: Mr. Strachey's paper.]

[Footnote 190: Almon's Debates, 1773.]

[Footnote 191: Third Report of the Select Committee, p. 19.]

[Footnote 192: Mr. Sulivan.]

[Footnote 193: A gentleman who was present, on the 3d of May, at the debate already mentioned, in writing to a friend, observes: "Lord Clive's speech was certainly a very able one, but it was not calculated to conciliate matters. He laid about him on all sides: he reprehended the Court of Directors, past and present: the Court of Proprietors, the citizens of London, the country gentlemen of England, the servants of the Company abroad, the Secret and Select Committees, the Opposition, the Minister and Ministry. He paid a compliment to the King. He declared he would support Government, where he could do it honourably. He offended the Opposition, without gaining the Minister. I suspected so then,--I am now convinced of it." Of the debate of the 10th he says, "I was in the House all this day, and had the mortification to hear the transactions in India, for these last sixteen years, treated, without distinction, as a disgrace to this nation; but without the smallest idea of restoring to the injured natives of India the territories and revenues said to have been so unjustly acquired."]

[Footnote 194: The letter of 30th of September, 1765, from the Select Committee to the Court of Directors, in which par. 5-13. contain the details of the delinquency of Mr. Johnstone, the Governor, and Council.]

[Footnote 195: The question relating to Meer Jaffier's legacy, the subject of the Fifth Report of the Select Committee.]

[Footnote 196: This report of Colonel Burgoyne's speech is from the notes in pencil of a member who was present.]

[Footnote 197: It is to be regretted that no correct report of Lord Clive's speech has been preserved. The notes now given, chiefly from Almon's Debates, have the air of being made up of fragments of speeches delivered at different times at this crisis. Some assistance has been derived from a letter of Archibald Sarton, Esq., who was present.]

[Footnote 198: Mr. Samuel Wilks.]

[Footnote 199: "On this point," says a well-informed writer in the Annual Register (1773, p. 107.), "the grand struggle was made. Those who speculate, observed an extraordinary division of those who, on all other occasions, acted together. The Minister declared in favour of the words of censure on Lord Clive, and divided in the minority. The Attorney-General was a principal in the attack; the Solicitor-General managed the defence. The courtiers went different ways. The most considerable part of the opposition supported Lord Clive, though he had joined administration and supported them in their proceedings against the Company."]

[Footnote 200: There is a very great confusion in the Parliamentary Reports regarding the proceedings connected with the attack on Lord Clive. Reports were then published only surreptitiously, and were often incorrect. The dates of the different debates are given differently in different publications; and speeches are referred to wrong occasions, or several mixed up together. This is the case even with Almon's Debates, in which what is given as Lord Clive's speech of 3d May, 1773, contains portions, evidently inaccurate, of his speeches on that and future days.]

[Footnote 201: 14th October, 1773.]

[Footnote 202: Adolphus's History of England, vol. ii. p. 25. _note._]

[Footnote 203: Dr. John Moore.]

[Footnote 204: These attempts had the effect of making known some instances of Lord Clive's disinterested conduct. The following is an extract of a letter from Mr. Sage to Captain Archibald Swinton (March, 1774), who had written to inquire into the truth of some of these allegations:--"In contradiction of the imputation on Lord Clive, of having accepted of presents when he was last in India, I declare that I never heard of his receiving any, beyond the congratulatory khilats or dresses[205]; and I remember, when I was Chief at Benares, that Bulwaut Sing, when he went to meet Lord Clive at Chupprah, carried with him two very fine diamonds, in order to present them to his Lordship, which I know he brought back again, and declared that Lord Clive had refused to accept them." Letter in _Swinton MSS._

The testimony of another gentleman, who believed that he had some reason to complain of Lord Clive, and who acknowledges that he was, at the time, prejudiced against him, directly contradicts a similar report. "It will be easily believed," says he, in a letter written after Lord Clive's death, "that Lord Clive, who had been sent to India to reform abuses, had left many enemies in Bengal, who sedulously circulated reports unfavourable to him; among the rest, that he had amassed immense wealth, when he was occupied in making the political arrangements with the Mogul and his ministers. Although mortified and disappointed at what I considered his Lordship's neglect of me, in justice to him and to myself, I must be allowed to say, that after the most diligent inquiries into Lord Clive's negotiations at that time, both with the Mogul and Sujah-u-Dowlah, so far from having made any addition to his fortune at that period, he had refused to accept the present even of a diamond ring. In consequence of some dispute between the Vizier and his deputy, Sir Robert Barker was directed, by the government of Calcutta, to pay Sujah-u-Dowlah a visit at Fiezabad, in which I, of course, accompanied him.[206] It may be supposed that I availed myself of such an opportunity of endeavouring to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the above-mentioned reports. And I do not hesitate to declare, most solemnly, that Sujah-u-Dowlah himself personally assured me, that it was true he had offered him a large sum of money, together with a casket of valuable jewels; but with great politeness, yet without a moment's hesitation, the offer had been peremptorily refused."--"Few men, under similar circumstances," continues the narrator, "would have refused to have added at least half a million to his fortune. At the instant this information was received, it is possible some little puerile resentment was still lurking in my mind against his Lordship; but, from that time, I have always strenuously contradicted all such groundless reports, and, to the best of my feeble abilities, have done justice to his character." These extracts are not given to do honour to Lord Clive's character; but, when an accusation is made, an answer is looked for, and it is enough if it wipes off a stain. Lord Clive, during his last residence in India, was under a covenant to receive no presents, and that engagement he faithfully fulfilled. In doing so, he merely acted as an honest man. But his upright discharge of his duty, in enforcing the same rule against others, converted into enemies numbers who, by his honour and vigilance, were prevented from benefiting by a custom, that from a change of circumstances had become an intolerable abuse.]

[Footnote 205: These were all allowed for in his accounts as Governor, which he had presented to the Company.]

[Footnote 206: As Persian Interpreter.]

[Footnote 207: 15th May, 1765.]

[Footnote 208: It is painful to perceive that a writer so intelligent, so industrious, and so anxious to be impartial, as Mr. Mill, should have conceived what, in several instances, seem to be unjust prejudices against Lord Clive. Thus, he blames him for superseding the Council by the Select Committee. But it is clear that if Lord Clive had allowed his acts to be controlled by the Council, as it was constituted, "the sixteen Governors," he could have effected nothing. All that he did was in spite of them. The majority seem to have been thoroughly corrupt. It was only by means of the Select Committee, which he animated with his own spirit, that any redress of grievances was possible. Lord Clive always saw and wrote that these unwieldy Councils were totally unfit for the government of the country; and every successive legislature has sanctioned his opinion, by reducing their numbers more and more. A large executive council and a large representative body, nobody knows better than Mr. M., are totally different things. If the one is a blessing, the other is a nuisance.]

[Footnote 209: Political India, vol. ii. p. 29-32.]

[Footnote 210: Seir Mutaqherin, vol. iii. p. 150. _Note._]

[Footnote 211: Biog. Britannica, 2d edit., _art._ Clive.]

[Footnote 212: Biog. Brit., ut supra.]

[Footnote 213: Historical Views, &c. p. 57.]

[Footnote 214: Historical View of Plans, &c. p. 62.]