Chapter XV (5)

He also directed an accurate survey to be made of every mouth of the Ganges, every channel, and every creek, ascertaining at the same time the soundings of each; a survey which, in his instructions, he justly remarks, was likely to afford many new and advantageous directions for our navigation.[125] Till then, our acquaintance with the mouths of the Ganges was very imperfect.

Among those who were introduced into the service by his interest, may be mentioned Mr. Gladwin, one of the first of the English in Bengal, who communicated to the public his acquirements in the eastern languages. He had gone out as a volunteer, in which situation he attracted the notice of Clive, who procured for him admission into the civil service. Clive's conduct, in this instance, is very characteristic of his friendly and energetic temper. Mr. Strachey writes Mr. Gladwin[126],--"His Lordship directs me to assure you, that if the recommendations he gave you, some time ago, should not procure you an appointment in the Company's service, he will further exert his interest in your behalf, nor desist till the point be attained."

Though a steady friend, he was not blind to the faults of those whom he patronised; and his correspondence contains many letters, in which he freely gives his opinions on their conduct, and his candid advice. An extract from a letter to Mr. Middleton[127] may be given as an example. "I have received your letter of the 19th of September," says he, "in which you express your concern at the censure passed upon you by the board, and imagine you may have done something to forfeit my friendship.

"To reason in this way, is to know but little of the duty of a governor in a public station. If the board were unanimous, which they really were, in thinking you and the other gentlemen had been wanting in diligence and attention to the Company's business, was it in my power to change or alter their sentiments? Or could I attempt such a thing consistently with my duty, or the principles upon which I have hitherto acted? The real truth of the matter is, that the relaxation of government for some years past, has introduced so much luxury, extravagance, independency, and indolence into Bengal, that every effort upon our part to reclaim this settlement is looked upon as a hardship, or an act of injustice; although it be absolutely necessary for the salvation of the whole." After some observations on the wrongheaded opposition which had been made by some of the younger servants, and the danger they thereby incurred, he adds:--

"To set aside the Governor, and speak as a friend, I entertain no doubt of the integrity of your intentions, and of your zeal for the service; but you are naturally of an indolent, good-natured, and hospitable disposition, which in private life may make you beloved by all that know you; yet, in a public station, these qualities may subject you to the greatest inconveniences. You become responsible, not only to the public for your want of attention, but for the want of attention of those acting under you, who will perpetually trespass on your good nature. The indulgence shown by you to the young gentlemen of the factory, which I myself was an eyewitness to, must have this consequence,--of their becoming very familiar, which in your present station they ought not to be, of being very supine and very neglectful of the Company's business, in which your own reputation is more immediately concerned. And I wish the mischief may only end here. After having led so luxurious, extravagant, and independent a life, there will be much to fear for themselves after your departure.

"The open manner in which you have expressed your sentiments and grievances, gives me a right to send you mine in return, which I do assure you proceeds from real friendship and regard for the interests of those who are acting under you. Perhaps they may not be looked upon in that light by said young men. If not, I wish future experience may not convince them to the contrary."

Such friendly remonstrances, from a man like Lord Clive, from one who had a right to command, should have had their effect; and, at all events, are creditable alike to his heart and understanding.

In the same spirit, and from a firm persuasion of the noxious effects of expensive habits in young men in the lower branches of the service, we find him refusing dustucks for the conveyance of a chariot and barouche to gentlemen who were only writers, as being quite unjustifiable.

Many of the imprudent and ill-advised officers who had been engaged in the mutinous proceedings, applied to him to be reinstated. This he peremptorily refused, as injurious to the public service: but, from his private letters we find that, in numerous instances, he advanced sums from his private purse, to enable them to subsist after their dismissal, and to convey them to their native country.

On the 16th of January, 1767, Lord Clive was well enough to attend, for the last time, a meeting of the Select Committee. On this occasion he laid before them a letter, in which, after mentioning that he had no prospect of recovering health, or even of preserving life, but by an immediate embarkation for his native country, and that this necessity would be most painful to him, did he not leave the country in peace and in a flourishing state, and in the hands of an upright and able government, he proceeds to exercise his authority for continuing the Select Committee, filled up the vacancies in its members, and laid down regulations for its guidance. He advises them not to be anxious to increase the revenues, especially where it could only be effected by oppressing the landholders and tenants, for that so long as the country remained in peace, the collections would exceed the demands. He points out some difficulties likely to result from the state of the currency, and strongly recommends that all Company's servants and free traders should be recalled from the interior; as, until that was done the natives could hardly be said to be masters of their own property: that the orders for the abolition of their salt trade being express, must be punctually obeyed.[128] "But, as I am of opinion," he continues, "that the trade upon its present footing is rather beneficial than injurious to the inhabitants of the country, and that a continuation of this indulgence, or some equivalent, is become absolutely necessary, and would be an honourable incitement to diligence and zeal in the Company's service, I flatter myself the Court of Directors will be induced to settle some plan that will prove agreeable to your wishes."

He evinced great apprehension (says Sir John Malcolm[129], speaking of Lord Clive's farewell letter,) of the danger to which the empire would be exposed by the revival of that spirit of corruption and insubordination which he had, with so much difficulty, subdued. "It has been too much the custom," he observes, "in this government to make orders and regulations, and thence to suppose the business done. To what end and purpose are they made, if they be not promulgated and enforced? No regulation can be carried into execution, no order obeyed, if you do not make rigorous examples of the disobedient. Upon this point I rest the welfare of the Company in Bengal. The servants are now brought to a proper sense of their duty. If you slacken the reins of government affairs will soon revert to their former channel; anarchy and corruption will again prevail, and, elate with a new victory, be too headstrong for any future efforts of government. Recall to your memories the many attempts that have been made in the civil and military departments to overcome our authority, and to set up a kind of independency against the Court of Directors. Reflect also on the resolute measures we have pursued, and their wholesome effects. Disobedience to legal power is the first step of sedition; and palliative measures effect no cure. Every tender compliance, every condescension on your parts, will only encourage more flagrant attacks, and will daily increase in strength, and be at last in vain resisted. Much of our time has been employed in correcting abuses. The important work has been prosecuted with zeal, diligence, and disinterestedness; and we have had the happiness to see our labours crowned with success. I leave the country in peace. I leave the civil and military departments under discipline and subordination: it is incumbent upon you to keep them so. You have power, you have abilities, you have integrity; let it not be said that you are deficient in resolution. I repeat that you must not fail to exact the most implicit obedience to your orders. Dismiss or suspend from the service any man who shall dare to dispute your authority. If you deviate from the principles upon which you have hitherto acted, and upon which you are conscious you ought to proceed; or if you do not make a proper use of that power with which you are invested, I shall hold myself acquitted, as I do now protest against the consequences."

"Such," continues Sir John, "was the parting advice which Lord Clive gave to his former colleagues: but the task of reform which he had commenced could have been completed by his own commanding talents alone, aided by the impression of his high personal character. It was far too great for the strength of those on whom it devolved."

On the 23d of January he wrote an additional letter to the Select Committee. It was for the purpose of recommending a measure which he had omitted to mention in his letter of the 16th, but which he considered as essentially necessary to the interest and honour of the Company. "The people of this country," says he, "have little or no idea of a divided power; they imagine all authority is vested in one man. The Governor of Bengal should always be looked upon by them in this light, as far as is consistent with the honour of the Committee and Council. In every vacant season, therefore, I think it expedient that he take a tour up the country, in the quality of a supervisor-general. Frauds and oppressions of every sort being by this means laid open to his view, will, in a great measure, be prevented, and the natives preserve a just opinion of the importance and dignity of our president, upon whose character and conduct much of the prosperity of the Company's affairs in Bengal must ever depend."

Lord Clive finally embarked for England in the Britannia, in the end of January, 1767. In the East all his endeavours had been crowned with brilliant success. His operations, from the moment he appeared on that theatre till he quitted it, formed a great era in the history of England, of India, and of the world. The rapidity and ease with which the richest provinces in India were subjugated, threw a new light on the nature of the intercourse between Europe and Asia. The veil which Bussy had in part lifted up, he removed. Men, who till now had appeared in the humble garb of merchants and suitors, henceforward assumed the reins of government, and took their place in the direction of nations and of states where they had lately been strangers. The power of the East was once more, as in the days of Alexander, brought into collision with that of the West, and once more quailed before it. The grand secret of oriental splendour and weakness was confirmed; and Clive had sufficient greatness of mind to forego the tempting occasion of being the conqueror of the Mogul empire, and to content himself with a more moderate and less brilliant, but to his country, infinitely more useful triumph. He had the rare, and, in a successful soldier and conqueror, almost unparalleled magnanimity, to place his ambition under the guidance of his judgment and his duty.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 66: Letter to Major Stibbert, Bankepore, dated 27th September, 1766.]

[Footnote 67: Dated 4th October, 1765.]

[Footnote 68: He afterwards saw reason to estimate a Colonel's share at 7000_l._]

[Footnote 69: Here, unfortunately, Sir John Malcolm's labours close. A few extracts, marked out by him, afterwards occur, where they are pointed out.]

[Footnote 70: End of 1762.]

[Footnote 71: Vansittart's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 164-170.]

[Footnote 72: 10th July, 1763.]

[Footnote 73: 24th April, 1764.]

[Footnote 74: 18th May, 1764.]

[Footnote 75: Verelst's View, p. 113.]

[Footnote 76: 30th March, 1772.]

[Footnote 77: Letter of Directors, 1st June, 1764.]

[Footnote 78: This tax was not on the real value, but on a reduced estimate: and paid before it was carried into the country.]

[Footnote 79: Had the plan been allowed to proceed, the renunciation of trade would have been compulsory.]

[Footnote 80: 14th December, 1765.]

[Footnote 81: Dated 23d November, 1765.]

[Footnote 82: Letter to Select Committee of Bengal, 17th May, 1766. Fourth Report of Secret Committee, App. No. 45.]

[Footnote 83: 17th May, 1766.]

[Footnote 84: See Fourth Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, App. No. 58.]

[Footnote 85: Fourth Report of Select Committee, App. No. 61.]

[Footnote 86: 15th December, 1769.]

[Footnote 87: Dated 28th August, 1767. Fourth Report of Select Committee, App. No. 59.]

[Footnote 88: Letter dated Bath, 14th November, 1767.]

[Footnote 89: See Clive's speech, 30th March, 1772, which contains an unanswerable defence of his conduct.]

[Footnote 90: See Verelst's View, p. 84.; App. p. 239.; and Sir James Steuart's Principles of Money applied to the present State of the Coin of Bengal, Works, vol. v.]

[Footnote 91: 11th July, 1765.]

[Footnote 92: 3d August, 1765.]

[Footnote 93: 12th August, 1765.]

[Footnote 94: Letter to Court of Directors, 30th September, 1765.]

[Footnote 95: The illustrious, the chosen of the kingdom, arranger of the state, firm in war.]

[Footnote 96: The few pages that follow, enclosed between brackets, contain the last fragment of the Memoir written by Sir John Malcolm.]

[Footnote 97: Dated Calcutta, 25th September, 1765.]

[Footnote 98: Calcutta, 29th September, 1765.]

[Footnote 99: Letter to Harry Clive, Esq., dated Calcutta, 25th September, 1765.]

[Footnote 100: 24th September, 1765.]

[Footnote 101: Vide note on p. 129.]

[Footnote 102: Mootejyl, 19th April, 1766.]

[Footnote 103: Mootejyl, 25th April, 1766.]

[Footnote 104: Letter to Mr. Blomer, Dinagepore, 22d September, 1766.]

[Footnote 105: There can be little doubt that the ryot was in Bengal, as in other parts of India, in reality a proprietor of the land: a circumstance which afterwards, in making the permanent settlement, on English or Mussulman ideas, was unfortunately overlooked. See Colonel Briggs's valuable and too little known work, on the Land Tax in India. Lond. 1830. 8vo.]

[Footnote 106: Letter, 29th December, 1765.]

[Footnote 107: 8th July, 1765.]

[Footnote 108: 10th August, 1765.]

[Footnote 109: 28th August, 1767.]

[Footnote 110: Letter to Colonel Smith, 23d August, 1765.]

[Footnote 111: 21st May, 1766.]

[Footnote 112: Mr. Campbell, writing to Mr. Strachey, who accompanied Lord Clive in his rapid journey to Benares the preceding year, gives a lively idea of the speed of the travellers. "You complain of my silence, but without reason. There are four or five letters on their way to you. But how should the dawks, or the devil himself, overtake you travelling at such a rate? Besides, you are everywhere and nowhere, sometimes travelling by land, sometimes by water. How, or where, am I to address you? The facetious Dean Swift tells Lord Peterborough that the ministry were obliged to write _at_ him, not _to_ him. I must do the same. Like his Lordship, you are in perpetual motion. You are now at Benares: a week hence you will be at Allahabad; a month more will carry you to Delhi. From thence I expect you will shape your course north-east towards China, and give us the slip, by taking your passage to Europe from Canton." Letter, August 10, 1765.]

[Footnote 113: 8th December, 1766.]

[Footnote 114: Letter of the Court of Directors to Lord Clive, 17th May, 1766, pars. 2. and 11.; Third Report of Select Committee; App., No. 74.]

[Footnote 115: 17th October, 1766.]

[Footnote 116: Messrs. Russell, Rumbold, Aldersey, and Kelsall.]

[Footnote 117: Mr. Campbell, in a letter to Mr. Strachey, 18th August, 1765, gives an instance of Mr. Verelst's good temper. "Mr. Verelst is eternally losing by water what he gains by land. While he was at dinner with me yesterday, advice was brought that a vessel of his, worth 14,000 rupees, had foundered at sea. But he is callous to such accidents as would make me run mad. He called for a glass of wine, and said he would get up the loss. This is true philosophy."]

[Footnote 118: 2d October, 1766.]

[Footnote 119: 22d January, 1767.]

[Footnote 120: 25th April, 1766.]

[Footnote 121: Letter to Mr. Palk, 8th September, 1766.]

[Footnote 122: 11th November, 1766.]

[Footnote 123: Letter to Mr. Palk, 25th April, 1766, already quoted.]

[Footnote 124: 4th October, 1765.]

[Footnote 125: Letter to Captain Keble, Master Attendant, 28th April, 1766.]

[Footnote 126: 26th April, 1766.]

[Footnote 127: Letter to Samuel Middleton, Esq., 4th October, 1766.]

[Footnote 128: Lord Clive having, on this occasion, resigned the shares in the salt trade, to which by the scheme the governor was entitled, a commission of 1-1/8 per cent. on the revenues was assigned as an equivalent, to commence 1st September, 1766, and to end 1st September, 1767, the term of the salt society's privilege.]

[Footnote 129: Malcolm's Political India, vol. ii. p. 32.]

CHAP. XVII.

Lord Clive landed at Portsmouth on the 14th of July, 1767, and reached London on the following day. Though the sea-voyage probably preserved his life, it still left his constitution very much shattered; and, on his arrival in London, his physicians immediately recommended that he should repair to Bath, for the purpose of drinking the waters. He remained in town, therefore, only a few days to be presented to their Majesties, to whom he had brought letters and presents from the Nabob of Arcot; and, in the first days of August, he set out for Bath, taking in his way Wotton, the seat of his friend Mr. George Grenville. His disorder was a severe bilious complaint, attended with spasms, loss of appetite, and indigestion; a continuation or consequence of that derangement of the liver from which he had already suffered so much in Bengal.

On his arrival, he was warmly welcomed, not only by his family and numerous private friends, but by the men most distinguished for rank and talent in England, and by the Court of Directors, who owed him so much. While conducting the affairs of his country with such distinguished honour and success in India, he had not been forgotten in Europe, where his name occupied a high rank among those of the illustrious men, who had raised the fame of England to so high an eminence at that glorious period. His statue, with those of Admiral Sir George Pocock, and of General Lawrence, had been placed in the India House.[130] The first part of Orme's "History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan," had appeared in 1763, and had spread the renown of the hero of the story wherever the English language is read. When Clive, during his second government, had enlarged so much his own fame, and the fame and power of his country, he felt a natural desire that the elegant historian should continue his work, and commemorate these great events; and accordingly he furnished him with all the materials that he possessed for aiding his progress. "What think you," says he, with a just pride, in a letter to Orme, "of closing the third volume of your history with an account of the King (of Delhi's) being at last placed in a situation of affluence and grandeur, the Vizier Sujah-u-Dowlah being obliged to sue for peace, which was granted upon very honourable terms, and the Company being in possession of the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, amounting to 4,000,000_l._ sterling per annum, and the country in a state of perfect tranquillity?"[131] The subject was a fine one, every way worthy of the historian's talents; and the proposed enlargement would have given a suitable close and unity to his former labours. But Orme did not delight in bold and rapid sketches; and the perhaps excessive detail in which he indulged in his most interesting historical work, prevented him from at all entering on the history of these memorable transactions; so that, at the close of his third volume, he had not advanced beyond the year 1760, the time when Clive left the country after his first government. At the same time, it is not to be supposed that Clive escaped a large share of that envy, and of the consequent abuse, that generally attend the triumph of a fortunate commander. The many enemies whom he had made, filled the public papers, to a more than ordinary degree, with acrimonious attacks; and scattered pamphlets, full of misstatements and personalities, which affected his sensitive mind more than they deserved.

Though Lord Clive now filled so large a space in the eyes of his countrymen and of foreign nations, he was yet only in his forty-second year; an age at which he might still have looked forward to a long career of public service and of glory. It is much to be regretted that, circumstanced as he was, in possession of an ample fortune, with his talents in their fullest vigour, and with one of the first reputations of the age, he did not confine himself to the high ground on which he stood, and shun being once more forced into the dark, and unsatisfactory circle of Leadenhall Street politics. He was, however, unfortunately pressed by too many immediate interests, both of his own and of his friends, to suffer him to adopt a course which would have contributed so much to his future peace. He had spent his whole life in Indian affairs, which naturally, in his estimation, had a peculiar importance; and perhaps his active mind could not at once break off the ties which had so long attached him to the Company and its concerns.

He found, on his return, the affairs of the East India Company considerably more complicated than he had left them. The two parties of Mr. Rous and Mr. Sulivan still divided the Directors; but the accounts of the great accession of wealth acquired for the Company in Bengal had excited the cupidity of the British Government, which, impoverished by the expenses of a war carried on in every quarter of the globe, eagerly looked for a partial relief to the treasures that were to flow into England from her Eastern dominions. The same expectation naturally roused the Proprietors of India Stock, who insisted on enjoying the benefit of the happy change in the most obvious way, by an increase of their dividend. To embroil still more these adverse interests, the servants of the Company, who had resigned or been dismissed, in consequence of their malversation in office, returned to England, breathing revenge against the man whose honest vigour had stopped them in their career; and having employed, in the purchase of Company's stock, a part of the great wealth which they had accumulated, were able, by throwing their interest into the scale, to influence the proceedings of the Court of Proprietors, and, therefore, ultimately that of the Directors.

Three years before, Lord Clive had left England, immediately after gaining a victory over Mr. Sulivan and his party. But as that gentleman had long managed the Company's affairs, was widely connected, and still retained many friends, the new Directors had by no means an easy part to act. For the first year, Mr. Sulivan's interest continued to be so strong among the Directors, that Mr. Rous, the new Chairman, sometimes found it difficult even to muster a sufficient number to sign his ordinary letters. In the election of 1765, Mr. Boulton was chosen Chairman; and the stability of the party in office seeming to increase, considerable defection, as is usual in such cases, took place from the ranks of their opponents. They also carried the election in the following year (1766) completely, when Mr. Dudley was elected Chairman. Still, however, the party of Sulivan continued to be strong; and when Lord Chatham's ministry was formed, in July, 1766, Sulivan was understood to be favoured by them, through the interest of Lord Shelburne, who was his friend.

We have seen the alarming aspect of the Company's affairs, when Clive was induced[132] to forego the comforts of home, and once more to visit Bengal, for the purpose of retrieving them. He had not been long absent when the drooping hopes of the Proprietors having revived, they demanded an increase of the dividend. Clive, ever sanguine, was of opinion that they ought to have been indulged; but the difficulties were considerable. "Believe the word of a Director," says Mr. Scrafton, writing[133] to him, before the news of his great success had reached England; "Believe the word of a Director, that the Company must have many lacs, before they can increase their dividend. Consider, my Lord, what a vast sum of their capital has been locked up without interest in Mahommed Ali's debt, the vast fortifications, the fatal Manilla expedition, and the sum locked up in the support of French prisoners, for which no instalments are yet settled, all form prodigious deductions, which a year's revenue of the whole province of Bengal will barely replace; not to mention the dreadful breach in the Company's capital before the battle of Plassey." And Mr. Dudley, at a still later period, acknowledges[134] that the Company had contracted several hundred thousand pounds of debt at home during the war, for which demands were urgent.

But when the news reached England of the re-establishment of the Company's affairs, and of the great advantages that had been gained for them by the various treaties concluded by Clive, the joy of the Proprietors was extreme; the price of stock rose, and there was a general and more clamorous demand for an increase of dividend. During the war in India, it had been reduced from 8 to 6 per cent. The more prosperous state of affairs seemed now to justify a considerable increase.

On this point, unfortunately, the Directors and Proprietors differed. While the Directors, as managers of the general stock, and intimately acquainted with the difficulties amidst which they were placed, looked to the clearing off of their burdens, and, the better to effect this object, had, not very wisely, attempted to conceal the expected extent of the new revenues, the Proprietors, who, by various channels, had gained information, probably exaggerated, of the recent addition to the Company's means, clamoured for an instant rise of dividend. The Directors saw that the change which had taken place in the Company's affairs in Bengal, however favourable, could not at once operate in Europe. The immediate demands on the Company were great, while a considerable period of time was requisite to allow the capital sent from Bengal to China, and elsewhere to be invested in goods, returned to England, sold, and the proceeds realised. The Company might be in great affluence abroad, and bankrupt at home. Demands to the amount of 2,600,000_l._ became payable between Michaelmas and Midsummer (1766), while only 2,000,000_l._ were available to discharge them. It was therefore necessary to borrow in order to pay even the ordinary dividends.

The Court of Directors did not show much ability in extricating themselves from the dilemma in which they were placed. Had they fully weighed the difficulties of their situation, and the necessity there was, even for the sake of the prosperous management of the Company's funds, and the payment of its lawful creditors, that the Court of Proprietors should be conciliated and unanimity preserved, they would themselves, without concealing their difficulties, have proposed some moderate increase of the annual dividend, and have held out the prospect of a farther rise at some future and not very distant period. Instead of acting on some such plan of politic conciliation, they shunned meeting the Proprietors, and exerted every endeavour to continue the low dividend then payable, so very disproportioned to the price to which stock had now risen. Their situation was delicate, but their conduct was injudicious, as they were liable to be overruled by the Court of Proprietors in any contest with whom they must inevitably fail.

A party of considerable strength had lately sprung up in the Court of Proprietors. We have seen that when, on Lord Clive's arrival in Bengal, an investigation had been commenced into the transactions that attended the death of Meer Jaffier and the accession of Nujm-u-Dowla, and particularly as to the large sums of money paid to the members of Council on that occasion. Mr. John Johnstone, the most active agent in these proceedings, had resigned the service, and so placed himself, for the time, beyond the reach of the Company; and that some other members of the Council had afterwards been dismissed. They, with many of lower rank in the civil and military services who had resigned or been discharged, in consequence of Lord Clive's inquiries and reforms, had, as already mentioned, purchased a large amount of India stock, the better to enable them to wreak their revenge on the man who had obstructed their plans of wealth.

The Court of Directors, desirous of punishing the infraction of their orders, and of supporting Lord Clive in his exertions to fulfil their instructions, directed a case to be laid before the Attorney and Solicitor-General, and the Company's law-officers, who gave an unanimous opinion, that the orders of the Company for the execution of the covenants against accepting presents, having been received and laid before the board, prior to the death of Meer Jaffier, the delay in the execution, for purposes the object of which was so evident, could form no justification; that the covenants were binding in equity, and that suits ought to be brought for restitution of the pretended presents. In consequence of this opinion, bills were filed at the instance of the East India Company against Mr. Johnstone, and the other members of Council in England; and orders were sent to India to adopt corresponding measures against such as were still in that country.

Mr. Johnstone, who was not only a man of family, but of uncommon resolution and considerable talent, was strongly supported by several large proprietors of stock. When the time approached that his answers were to be given in, his brother, Mr. William Johnstone, afterwards Sir William Pulteney, waited on the Chairman, Mr. Dudley, and delivered a copy of a motion intended to be made at the General Court to be held the next day, recommending to the Court of Directors to confirm the presents received by the Company's servants in Bengal, before the 9th of May, 1765, when the covenants were presented to them to be signed, and to countermand all prosecutions against them. The Chairman was at the same time informed, that, if this motion was rejected, the conduct of Lord Clive should be called in question. Mr. Dudley replied, that they were welcome to exhibit any charge against Lord Clive, but that the prosecutions could not be withdrawn. Next day, however, the opposition, probably finding that they had not strength enough to carry their motion, did not bring it forward; and Mr. Pulteney himself seconded a motion for adjournment.

But the determined resistance of the Directors to any increase of dividend gave their enemies great advantages over them in the Court of Proprietors. The Directors had themselves caused a motion for an increase of 2 per cent. to be brought forward in June, 1766, when they succeeded in getting it negatived; and thus, in consequence of particular rules, which regulated the Court's proceedings, gained some time. But this delay did not check the determination of the party in opposition, which daily gained strength. Lord Holland, and several other great proprietors, joined it, and Mr. Johnstone and his friends threw all their weight into the scale. Only two days before the Quarterly Court, in September[135], the party split 125,000_l._ stock into shares, and, by their exertions, succeeded in carrying the dividend to 10 per cent., in opposition to the expressed wish and advice of the Court of Directors. But a consequence of this difference of opinion between the Courts was, that this declared increase of dividend had no influence in raising the price of their stock.

At this period, party animosity ran very high, and produced its usual effects of mutual abuse and recrimination. The opposition started a paper, called the India Examiner, which the Directors answered in the India Observer.

Although it was on occasion of the vote for this increase of dividend that the Government began to intermeddle in the affairs of the Company, it may be most convenient, before attending to the proceedings of the Ministry, to conclude the narrative of the contest of the Directors with the Court of Proprietors.[136]

Mr. Johnstone and his friends had trusted to be relieved from the prosecutions instituted against them, by exerting their influence to effect a change of Directors. In April, 1767, however, their efforts for that purpose again failed: the elections were still favourable to the old Directors, and Mr. Rous was again chosen Chairman. Lord Clive was then on his passage home. Mr. Johnstone's party, seeing that nothing was to be looked for from the Directors, adopted the resolution of attempting to work on the Proprietors, who were still, in general, discontented on the subject of the dividends. At the General Court, therefore, held on the 6th of May following, Mr. Pulteney moved, that the dividend should be raised to 12-1/2 per cent.; a proposition which met with very general concurrence. Mr. Pulteney having thus secured the good-will of the Proprietors, Mr. Franks then moved to dismiss the prosecutions which had been instituted against Mr. Johnstone and other persons, for their alleged unwarrantable receipt of money in Bengal. The Chairman in vain proposed that the opinion of the lawyers should be read: the Court, displeased with the Directors, and elated with the measure they had carried against them, with the assistance of Mr. Johnstone and his friends, refused to hear it. Seeing them so determined, and so strong, no opposition was attempted by the Directors, nor even a ballot demanded. The motion of indemnity was carried without farther examination; a great victory to the accused members of Council, and a severe blow on the authority of the Court of Directors and of the Indian governments. It declared indemnity abroad to all who at home had powerful friends connected with the India House; an intimation that was not long disregarded.[137]

The Ministry, in the meanwhile, had begun to take a share in the proceedings of the Company, which for a long time before had not been usual. The reported advantages of the trade, and the great fortunes suddenly amassed and brought home, had excited in the country no small envy, and some desire to share in these advantages; while the repeated revolutions in India, the circumstances attending them, with the rapacity and extortions which had distinguished the progress of the inland trade, had, when known, produced general murmurs throughout the nation. When the news arrived of the successful negotiations of Lord Clive, and of the immense territorial advantages said to be acquired for the Company, the question was raised, to whom belonged these dominions, the government of which was apparently so little suited to the system of a trading company; and the financial difficulties which the Ministers so strongly felt, led them to consider in what way the nation could be admitted to share in them. This was particularly observable after the formation of Lord Chatham's administration.[138]

It has been already mentioned, that Lord Clive shared in that excessive admiration of Mr. Pitt, which, during his first administration, and for some years after, may be said to have been felt by the whole people of England. Lord Clive, in his own politics, had, as we have seen, most attached himself to the Right Hon. George Grenville, a man of great knowledge of business, and of much talent and worth, the leader of one great portion of the Whig interest; but who, at this period, was on indifferent terms with his illustrious though overbearing friend. On the great question of the right to territorial acquisitions, Mr. Pitt was disposed to consider them as under the control of the state; but he was not insensible to the difficulties, legal and political, which the question involved, from the nature of the territories themselves, situated in the dominions of an ancient and independent empire; from the influence which such acquisitions, especially from the patronage they afforded, must have on the British constitution, and the minor difficulties of detail attending any change of local management. We have seen that Lord Clive was strongly persuaded of the paramount rights of the state, and had communicated his opinion to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Walsh, who took an active share in the management of his affairs in England, was anxious to have the approbation, or, at least, the opinion of the great commoner on recent events in India. He, in consequence, had occasional interviews with him, the circumstances of which he communicated in his letters to his friend; and though Mr. Pitt, who always entertained the highest opinion of Lord Clive's merits, appears to have cautiously avoided committing himself by any decided opinion, yet, as the letters relate to persons on every account so remarkable, no apology seems necessary for introducing them.

The first of these notices occurs in a letter of Mr. Walsh, written after the news had arrived of Lord Clive's negotiation with the Vizier, and of the subsequent peace, and its advantages to the Company, especially in the possession of the dewannee, which really made them rulers of Bengal. "I am very sorry," says Mr. Walsh, "you did not write a few lines to Mr. Pitt, to conciliate him to your negotiations: he has left us for Pynsent, where he is doing great things. I spoke a few words to him, just as he left the House of Commons, telling him you had, in great measure, carried into execution what I had once the honour of laying before him; to which he answered, that he had heard of the great things you had done; that you had acquired great honour; but that they were too vast: it was some time he had been dissatisfied with our proceedings there: however, he was very glad to hear that Lord Clive was well, and that he had not gone up to Delhi. This was all that passed between us, whilst he was getting on his great coat."--"I should be very sorry," he continues, "to have been adverse to you or your regulations, therefore mention this that due attention may be paid to him. One word from him would go far in making or unmaking the Company; and it is the uncertainty of the public, how far the Company may be supported by the Government, that makes their stock so low, notwithstanding the late events. The renewal of their charter is a serious object; the effecting it may possibly be reserved for you." It gives a grand idea of Mr. Pitt's reputation, and of his influence on the public mind, to consider, that, when this interview took place, he was merely a private member of Parliament, holding no office.

In the interval between this letter of May, and the following of November, Mr. Pitt had come into office with Lord Camden, Lord Shelburne, the Earl of Northington, and Charles Townsend, and had been raised to the peerage. There was some reason to think that the new Ministry were disposed to take part with that portion of the Court of Directors that was hostile to Lord Clive. Lord Shelburne in particular, who was supposed to have much influence with the Premier, had always favoured Sulivan. "Soon after the new administration was formed," says Mr. Walsh[139], "the Chairman and Deputy Chairman were sent for to the Cabinet Council, and were acquainted that, as the affairs of the India Company were likely to be taken into consideration by Parliament, it would be proper for them to be prepared. An intimation of the kind could not fail to alarm, and affect the stock greatly.

"The Quarterly Court being over, I made an excursion to Bath, where Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and Lord Northington were assembled. My private motive for this journey was to discover their disposition towards the Company; and, by means of my intimacy with Lord Camden, to endeavour to put you on a good footing with Lord Chatham, who, there was some reason to apprehend, was not the best disposed either towards you, the present direction, or the Company. I recollected Lord Chatham's discourse to me about your acquisitions being too vast; and saw Shelburne, Barré, and the enemies of the present direction in the highest employs. Lord Camden immediately removed any apprehensions as to any thing hostile being intended against the Company. I told him that I was ignorant whether the Directors had given the Administration full information concerning the affairs of Bengal: but, whatever their conduct might have been in that respect, I, as acting for Lord Clive, should use no kind of reserve with the Administration; that Lord Clive, though a zealous servant of the Company, ever considered his duty to his country to be the first and greatest obligation upon him; that he had formerly submitted to Lord Chatham's consideration, whether the Bengal acquisitions were an object for the state or the Company; and that, though the Company had in a manner been left to pursue their own measures in that respect, yet it was reasonable that, in such great prosperity as theirs, they should contribute liberally to the exigencies of the state; that your friends would readily concur in such a measure, and that I wished for an opportunity of assuring Lord Chatham of this; but as I knew him, particularly in his present ill state of health, to be inaccessible, I requested his Lordship to report it to him. He advised my writing a note to see Lord Chatham, which I accordingly did, and was admitted, though it was then a favour, as I understood, he had only granted to Lord Camden.

"I should have mentioned that, before I left town, I waited on General Conway[140]; made him the same offer of information; gave him a state of the revenues, and pointed out to him some of the means by which the commerce of the Company might be greatly advanced. He appeared quite unacquainted with these affairs, but very desirous to be informed.

"It was the 11th of last month that I saw Lord Chatham. I told him the occasion of my visit in almost the same words I had used to Lord Camden; in answer to which, after complimenting me on the purity, as he styled it, of my intentions, and of the liberal way in which I had considered this matter, he told me that all _matters of fact_ relating to India would be very acceptable to him, though he did not wish to receive _propositions_ on that head, as the affair was of too extensive and too difficult a nature for Ministers to determine; that they could not undertake to decide between the State and the Company, what was precisely proper for each; that the consideration must of necessity come into Parliament; that by the means of so many gentlemen coming from different parts of the kingdom, and turning the subject different ways in their minds, many new lights might be gathered; that the Crown had nothing to do in the affair, and that its ministers could only interfere in preventing unreasonableness and oppressions on one side or the other; and that the Company, in all cases, must subsist. On my giving him the state of the revenues, he seemed much surprised at the smallness of the amount, saying that Holwell and common report had made it much larger. He spoke very handsomely of you; said that he heard with concern of the virulent publications against you; that it was incumbent on the Company to support you strongly, and likewise to reward you. I mentioned how greatly the Company's commerce might be extended with the assistance of Government; hinted the necessity there was of excluding foreigners from being stockholders and sharing in our benefits; and concluded with observing that every thing I had heard from him gave me the highest satisfaction, except the impracticability that he intimated of any arrangement between the Administration and the Directors before the meeting of Parliament.

"This is the substance of my conversation with this great man, who is certainly not only the most vigorous, but the most comprehensive and judicious, minister this kingdom ever had. I hope, in consequence of what I before wrote you, that you have taken some steps to conciliate and attach him. He has a greatness in himself, which makes him feel and assert the great actions of others.

"I put your public letters into the hands of Lord Camden, who, doubtless, showed them to Lord Chatham. Both one and the other, I am certain, are well satisfied with the confidence. Mr. Grenville has had all the papers laid before him, and part of them, particularly those relative to the conduct of the servants, have been communicated to others."

From these letters, it is evident that Lord Chatham had been yet able to form no plan on the vast subject of Indian affairs; that he was disposed to let matters take their course for some time longer through the intervention of the Company, and that the recent extension of their dominions probably rather embarrassed him; that he was alive, as he had always been, to Lord Clive's splendid merits, and an advocate for the rewards the gratitude of the country ought to bestow. At the same time he was cautiously guarded not to commit himself by any opinions, but rather disposed to gain time and watch what the progress of events might produce. It could hardly fail to gratify him to see all parties contending for his favour, and laying the information they possessed, and a tender of their services, at his feet.

Lord Chatham's administration was formed in the last days of July, and it was in September that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Company were sent for to the Council, and informed that it was likely that the affairs of the Company would be taken into consideration when the Parliament met. The same notice was soon after communicated in writing.

The Directors, thus put upon their guard, looked eagerly to what was to follow. The movement began in the House of Commons, where Mr. Beckford gave notice of a motion for an inquiry into the affairs of the East India Company[141]; and in the course of his speech, adverting to the burdens laid on the landed interest, and to the rich acquisitions of the Company in the East, congratulated his brother landholders that they should no longer be hewers of wood and drawers of water. The very exaggerated statements of the revenues of Bengal, published by Mr. Holwell and others, had induced the public to look to them for at least a partial relief from their burdens. The Ministers, however, cautiously concealed their intentions, if they had any, and proposed nothing. Lord Chatham was constantly confined by the gout, remained chiefly in the country, and showed himself but little; and his colleagues did not venture, in his absence, to propose any important measure. Matters went on languidly. Indeed, the symptoms of disunion very soon became visible in the motley cabinet which had been formed, and was supported chiefly by Lord Chatham's great name.

His opinions on the Indian question were veiled in impenetrable mystery. Committees were, however, appointed to examine into the state of the Company, and votes were passed that copies of their charters, their treaties with native princes, statements of their Indian revenues, and their correspondence with their servants in India, should be laid before the Committees. On a motion for printing these papers[142], the Directors being alarmed, presented a petition showing the dangers and inconveniences likely to result from making public some part of the papers, especially the private correspondence; when, after a warm debate, that part of the order was discharged. Almost every person of eminence who had been in India, or connected with it, was, however, examined on oath before the House of Lords.

These inquiries inevitably led to the important question of the Company's right to their territorial acquisitions, which a strong party insisted must belong to the Crown. "The Crown," says Mr. Dudley[143], the Chairman of the Directors, "claims a right to all the Company's acquisitions, possessions, and revenues that have been obtained by conquest, which the Cabinet Council, with Lord Chatham at their head, say is the case with respect to every thing we have got from the King, the Nabobs, or other princes of the country for some years past, both at Bengal and Madras."--"We have been, and still are under the dilemma of studying the wants of the Administration, for they themselves will not open their mouths to utter one syllable. They seem to me to determine in their own minds that the right is in the Crown; and, therefore, if the Company have a desire to preserve a share in it, they must acknowledge that right, and pay largely for it." In the numerous debates on Indian affairs that took place in the course of the session, Mr. Beckford, Colonel Barré, and Mr. Nugent pressed upon the Company, while Mr. George Grenville and Mr. Charles Yorke strongly supported its rights, and pleaded the injustice of making any demands upon it in consequence of its conquests, as long as the term of its charter was unexpired. The lawyers were, in general, in favour of the Company; but neither the Ministry nor the Directors wished the dry question of law to be decided: neither party were altogether prepared for its consequences; both rather wished for a compromise, as more favourable to their present ease and their future views. Sir Matthew Fetherstonehaugh, a considerable proprietor of India stock, in a letter to Lord Clive[144], describes some of these debates. "In a question like this," says he, "about the right of property and the forfeiture of a charter, one would have thought that the opinion of almost all the lawyers in the house might have been attended to; but they were called by Colonel Barré 'a sort of _heavy artillery_, which did very little execution;' for which the Master of the Rolls called him, instead of the _honourable_ gentleman, the _valiant_ gentleman. Mr. Grenville, on both days, defended the Company's rights with a force that was unanswerable, always declaring that, if the Company wanted the renewal of their term, or any other favour from the public, they should be made to pay for it in the best bargain which could be made for the public; but protesting against extorting money from them by the terror and threats of parliamentary power."--"But the finest piece of oratory was Mr. Burke's (late secretary to Lord Rockingham). After pointing out the ill effects which so violent a measure might have on the public credit; 'but, perhaps,' said he, 'this house is not the place where our reasons can be of any avail. The great person who is to determine on this question, may be a being far above our view; one so immeasurably high, that the greatest abilities (pointing to Mr. Townshend), or the most amiable dispositions that are to be found in this house (pointing to Mr. Conway), may not gain access to him; a being before whom 'thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers' (waving his hand all this time over the treasury bench, which he sat behind), 'all veil their faces with their wings. But though our _arguments_ may not reach him, possibly our _prayers_ may.' He then apostrophised into a solemn prayer to the Great Minister above, that rules and governs over all to have mercy upon us, and not to destroy the work of his own hands; to have mercy on the public credit, of which he had made so free and large a use:--'Doom not to perdition that vast public debt, a mass of 70,000,000_l._ of which thou hast employed in rearing a pedestal for thy own statue.' Here Augustus Harvey called him to order to the regret of many." After a long series of debates, the Directors were finally frightened into a temporary compromise, agreeing to pay to the Government 400,000_l._, by half-yearly payments, for one year; and an act to that effect passed the house[145], and soon after received the royal assent.[146] A similar agreement was renewed the year after.

It was some time before that the vote of the Court of Proprietors raising the dividend to 12-1/2 per cent. had been passed[147]; on which occasion a message from the Ministry had been read to the General Court, recommending that no augmentation should take place till their affairs, then under the view of Parliament, were considered. The Court having proceeded nevertheless, a bill was introduced, by which this order was rescinded, and the Company prevented from dividing more than 10 per cent. before the next meeting of Parliament.