allowances, was in some measure countenanced by the local Government,
which had evaded the execution of the orders issued by the Directors
for the abolition of double batta. Nor is it very surprising, that
the officers should have heedlessly rushed on the extreme measure
of resigning their commissions, when we advert to the encouragement
which their combination had received from an officer of the rank and
reputation of Sir Robert Fletcher; and to the sympathy and support
which had been expressed and afforded by the civilians, among whom were
some who held confidential situations under the Government, and others
who were believed to have great influence in England: these persons
were, as well as the military, discontented with the revisions and
reductions which Lord Clive had adopted. Under these circumstances, and
under the impression that their services could not be dispensed with,
at a time when the country was not only unsettled, but threatened with
invasion by a large Mahratta army, the officers felt confident that the
Governor must have yielded to their demands. But in thus judging, they
appear to have little understood the character of him with whom they
had to contend; and when they were met, not only with an unyielding
spirit, but treated at once as criminals, and every measure adopted
for their punishment, they fell without a struggle. They had prepared
no means to go beyond their first act; and this, though it was by some
brought forward as a proof of want of forethought and weakness, was,
in fact, a proof of their innocence of any deliberate intention to
injure the interests of their country: though, but for the overruling
genius of Clive, the most fatal injury would assuredly have been the
consequence of the success of their guilty combination; for, had they
succeeded, the civil Government would have lost all respect, and the
usurpation of the public authority, by a combination of officers, would
have given an example to their men which, if followed, would have
been alike destructive of all discipline, and have terminated in the
subversion of the English government in Bengal.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: This account is an abstract of a narrative of the mutiny,
written by the late Sir Henry Strachey, and which forms Appendix 1st
to the 9th Report of the Committee of Secresy of the House of Commons,
A.D. 1773.]
[Footnote 2: Vide Ibid. Appendix, No. 1. a. fo. 699.]
[Footnote 3: The Court's orders for this reduction, dated the 11th of
June, 1764, are very positive and peremptory.]
[Footnote 4: The order was expected some time before it was issued.]
[Footnote 5: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 1. fo. 699.
This remonstrance sets forth the high rates of supplies at a distance
from the coast, objections of servants to act except in one capacity,
and various expenses and hardships entailed by their situation, and
aggravated by the reduction of allowances.]
[Footnote 6: Ibid. No. 2. fo. 700.]
[Footnote 7: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 4 fo. 702.]
[Footnote 8: Ibid. No. 5. fo. 702.]
[Footnote 9: ibid. No. 6. fo. 702.]
[Footnote 10: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 7. fo. 702.]
[Footnote 11: Ibid. No. 8. fo. 702.]
[Footnote 12: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 9. fo. 703.]
[Footnote 13: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 10. fo. 703.]
[Footnote 14: Ibid. No. 12. fo. 734.]
[Footnote 15: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 13. fo. 704.]
[Footnote 16: Ibid. No. 14. fo. 704.]
[Footnote 17: Vide Letter, 1st May. No. 17. fo. 705. No. 18. fo. 705.]
[Footnote 18: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, Letter 4th May, App.
No. 21. fo. 706.]
[Footnote 19: Ibid. No. 22. fo. 706.]
[Footnote 20: Vide Letter 5th May, No. 23. fo. 706.]
[Footnote 21: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, Letter 5th May, App.
No. 24. fo. 707.]
[Footnote 22: Ibid. No. 27. fo. 707.]
[Footnote 23: Ibid. Nos. 28. and 30. fo. 708.]
[Footnote 24: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 29. fo. 708.]
[Footnote 25: Ibid. No. 31. fo. 708.]
[Footnote 26: Ibid. No. 32. fo. 708.]
[Footnote 27: Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 38. fo. 780.]
[Footnote 28: A legacy of 70,000_l._ was bequeathed by Meer Jaffier
Aly Khan, Nawab of Bengal, in 1765, to Lord Clive, and paid by his
Lordship, in the year 1766, into the Company's treasury at Fort
William, to run at interest at the rate of 8 per cent., as an annual
fund for the support of European officers and soldiers, who may be
disabled or decayed in the Company's service in Bengal, and for the
widows of officers and soldiers who may die on service there, 8th June,
1766.
The Company extended this donation afterwards to the benefit of all
invalided, disabled, or superannuated officers and soldiers, and the
widows of such officers and soldiers as may die in their service in
any of their settlements in the East Indies, pursuant to an agreement
stipulated between them and Lord Clive in the year 1770, by which the
former establishment of shares was altered to the present moieties or
proportions specified as follows:--
All commissioned or warrant officers shall have half the ordinary
stated pay they enjoyed while in service.
Serjeants belonging to the artillery shall receive 9_d._ per day, and
such as have lost a limb 1_s._ per day: private men of the artillery,
6_d._ per day; and such as lose a limb, 9_d._ per day.
All other non-commissioned officers and private men shall receive
4-3/4_d._ per day.--23d July, 1771.
Vide Parliamentary Papers, A.D. 1773, vol. iv. report 9. p. 535.]
[Footnote 29: A station adjoining the city of Patna.]
[Footnote 30: Captain Goddard became afterwards a very distinguished
officer. He commanded the force that Warren Hastings sent to the relief
of the settlement of Bombay in 1778.]
[Footnote 31: It is not unworthy of remark, that Sir Robert Fletcher,
thus cashiered by sentence of a court-martial for mutiny, was, in 1775,
appointed, by the Court of Directors, Commander-in-chief of the army at
Madras. There he headed the opposition which set aside Lord Pigot from
the government of Madras in 1776.
No mention is made in the text of John Petrie as one of the ringleaders
of the mutiny of the officers of the Bengal army in 1766.
This man was sent home by Lord Clive on that account with a rope about
his neck; but so much do things depend on the party who may be in
power, or influence, with the Court of Directors, that this very John
Petrie obtained an appointment high in the civil service at Bengal,
through the interest of his friends the Johnstones, who were in
opposition to Lord Clive's party in England.]
[Footnote 32: 20th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 33: Letter to General Lawrence, dated Calcutta, 1st June,
1766.]
[Footnote 34: Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, 28th June, 1765.]
[Footnote 35: Mahommed Ali, at Madras.]
[Footnote 36: Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, under date 6th August, 1765.]
[Footnote 37: Letter to Mr. Sumner, dated 7th July, 1765.]
[Footnote 38: Letter to General Carnac under date 8th July, 1765.]
[Footnote 39: Letter to Mr. Verelst, dated 11th July, 1765.]
[Footnote 40: Vide letter from Colonel Richard Smith to Lord Clive,
under date 31st August, 1765.]
[Footnote 41: Vide letter to Colonel Richard Smith from Lord Clive,
under date 15th February, 1766.]
[Footnote 42: Letter to Sir R. Barker, under date 16th February, 1766.]
[Footnote 43: Dated 3d February, 1766.]
[Footnote 44: Letter to Mr. Verelst, dated 3d May, 1766.]
[Footnote 45: Letter to Mr. Verelst, 4th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 46: Letter to Sir R. Barker, p. 19.]
[Footnote 47: Letter to Colonel Smith, dated 15th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 48: Dated 16th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 49: Dated 18th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 50: Dated 22d May, 1766.]
[Footnote 51: Letters to Mr. Sumner and Mr. Sykes, dated 23d and 24th
May.]
[Footnote 52: Letter to H. Verelst, Esq., 25th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 53:
"Patna, le 27 Mai, 1766.
"Monsieur,
"J'ai eu l'honneur de votre lettre du quinzième courant. Le sujet étant
aussi intéressant pour vous, il sera, je crois, essentiel qu'une lettre
me soit addressée de votre part et de votre conseil conjointement.
"Un nombre de nos officiers ont très-déshonorablement quitté le
service, sous un prétexte le plus injuste; à savoir, qu'ils n'ont pas
de quoi subsister; quoique notre militaire est le plus advantageux
du monde. Ils sont actuellement en chemin pour Calcutta. Comme ils
passeront par votre Colonie, j'ai jugé à propos de vous l'annoncer; et
je me persuade que vous ne donnerez point d'accueil à des gens qui ont
agi si indignement.
"Je suis, &c.,
"Clive."]
[Footnote 54: Letter to Mr. Verelst, 28th May, 1766. Messrs. Abzal's
gardens.]
[Footnote 55: Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, dated 30th May, 1766.]
[Footnote 56: Letter to H. Verelst, Esq., dated 6th June, 1766.]
[Footnote 57: Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, dated 3d July, 1766.]
[Footnote 58: Vide Letter to the Junior Field Officers, 6th October,
1766.]
[Footnote 59: Before Lord Clive left India, he wrote to Sir R. Barker,
earnestly advising him to remain till Colonel Smith returned, and
assuring him of his support to succeed that officer in the command of
the troops in Bengal.]
[Footnote 60: Letter to Sir R. Barker, dated 12th August, 1766.]
[Footnote 61: Letter to Sir R. Barker, dated 8th October, 1766.]
[Footnote 62: Vide Verelst's "View of the English Government in
Bengal." Lond. 1772. 4to, p. 56.]
[Footnote 63: A repetition of this command was among the particular
instructions to Lord Clive in 1764.]
[Footnote 64: Under the establishment of this double batta, a Captain's
commission produced little short of 1000_l._ per annum: when reduced,
it was worth from 650_l._ to 700_l._, as appeared upon the action of
Captain Parker against Lord Clive.]
[Footnote 65: Mill's "History of British India," vol. iii. p. 376.]
CHAP. XVI.
In the preceding two chapters, an account has been given of Lord
Clive's successful efforts in the arduous task of reforming the abuses,
and restoring order and discipline to the civil and military services
of Bengal: it remains to notice other public proceedings of importance
during his last residence in India.
No question connected with this period of his service was, at the
moment and subsequently, the subject of more comment and discussion,
both on the part of the Government at home and of individuals, than the
monopoly of the salt trade; the profits of which he divided among the
Governor, the Counsellors, and the senior civil and military officers;
deeming this indulgence, as he repeatedly states in his official and
private letters, indispensable to the integrity and efficiency of the
public service. Men in high station, he argued, unless some ample and
open allowance was given them, could never be expected to be reconciled
to a strict observance of the covenants that prohibited presents, nor
to the loss of that internal trade which had been denounced as so
ruinous and oppressive. The shares in the profits from salt were, by
his plan, divided according to the rank and duties of the parties. The
amount was known, and, though liberal, it was limited, and, certainly,
would not appear, from the statements made of it, to be more than a
fair remuneration to men employed as those were to whom it was allotted.
Whether this mode of remunerating service was the best at the period
when it was adopted, and whether the monopoly of the salt produced in
the lower parts of Bengal, which the East India Company found existing,
and have ever since, under one shape or another, continued, was
advantageous or hurtful, on sound financial principles, are questions
which merit notice, both as connected with the biography of Clive, and
with the source of our Indian revenues.
The habits of thinking, and constitution, of the Court of Directors,
rendered them very adverse to granting adequate salaries to those
employed in high stations. These had all (including the military)
the privilege of trading; and to the exercise of this privilege many
of the abuses of the earlier times of the service have been justly
attributed. Clive appears to have made reiterated representations
upon this subject, impressing the necessity of adequate allowances,
in some shape, to the superior officers, in order to animate their
zeal, and preserve their public integrity. The narrow allowance to
military officers, and their being expected to gain by trade, he
particularly condemned. Writing to Major Stibbert[66], he observes,
"I have received your letter of the 17th inst., and am not a little
surprised that you should so soon request leave to return to Calcutta,
considering how short a time you have done duty in your brigade. Your
attention, I suspect, is too much taken up with commercial affairs; a
study very foreign from an officer, even of an inferior rank, as it
must frequently interfere with the services of a military station, but
particularly reprehensible in those to whom a share in the profits upon
salt is allotted. However, I admit that the death of your attorney
may make your presence in Calcutta necessary. You have, therefore, my
permission to leave the cantonments immediately, if the service will
permit, and Colonel Smith has no objection."
The ground on which he felt the necessity of assuring to military
officers of rank liberal allowances, in order that they might suitably
maintain their station in life, and enjoy a reward for long service;
and the necessity he saw for putting an end, on their part, to all
indefinite and indirect perquisites, and of giving to their minds a
tone that should elevate them above all sordid views, and make them
what their stations required they should be, is well stated in a
letter[67] to Sir Robert Barker:--"Colonel Smith is making a vigorous
progress in reforming the abuses that fall under his notice. The
monstrous charges and impositions of quarter-masters, surgeons, &c.,
&c., require, indeed, the strictest scrutiny; and he seems determined
to go through it with great spirit and attention to the Company's
interest. Nor shall I be disappointed in the assistance I expect from
you in these matters, whilst I shall, at the same time, have the
satisfaction of knowing that you can enforce wholesome regulations
without creating disgust. The privilege of making bills, and the long
track of frauds introduced under the customary disguise of perquisites,
I wish to see entirely abolished. Every emolument shall be fixed, plain
and open: the medium shall, if possible, be struck between extravagance
and niggardly restrictions: but economy shall take place. The allowance
to field officers will be so large as to prevent even their wishing for
more; and, at the same time, so reasonable, that I think the Company
must approve of them. A colonel's share of the salt produce will be
from 5000_l._ to 6000_l._ per annum, or more[68]; lieutenant-colonel's
and major's in proportion; and as a further encouragement, I intend
that all the field officers shall be allowed sufficient to defray the
expense of their table. When all mean advantages are disclaimed and
held in contempt by gentlemen high in the service, reformation will, of
course, be with greater ease introduced among inferiors. You will do me
the justice to believe that I mean this as a general observation only,
and not as a necessary hint, either to yourself or any of the field
officers of your regiment, as I know you are all men of honour and
principle."
The reasons of expediency that led Clive to recommend that high public
officers, civil and military, should be remunerated by shares in the
profits of the salt trade, are stated in numerous letters. He thought
that an open, direct, pecuniary allowance would not willingly be
sanctioned by the Company out of any of the revenues which flowed into
their treasury, and still less from the profits of their trade; and
that, besides, such large avowed allowances would invite an attack from
the Crown on their patronage; and that the grasping character of the
administration in England would lead to a ruinous interference in the
nomination of men to India who had no recommendation but their high
birth and great interest.
It was the above considerations that compelled him to devise the means
he deemed least objectionable of adequately rewarding service, in
order to gain, by the tie of self-interest as well as honour, those
instruments without whose aid he was sensible the great reform he had
resolved to introduce could neither be complete nor permanent. In
Clive's correspondence and measures, at this period, will be found
the origin and introduction of that important principle of a fair and
honourable payment for service, suited to its nature and the rank and
responsibility of the individuals employed, which has been generally
ascribed to the more enlightened policy of a subsequent administration.
That his efforts failed, was owing to the conduct of others, and
particularly the public authorities in England, who, in their attack
upon the salt monopoly and its appropriation, and in the condemnation
of his measures, threw, for a period, a disrepute upon all that he had
done, which led to a revival of a great proportion of the abuses he had
corrected, and a disregard of the principles he had established. As
the salt monopoly and its appropriation has been a subject of constant
attack upon his character, and continues, so far as the monopoly is
concerned, to be still one upon the Indian Government, the subject
merits a cursory notice, which is all that the limits and objects of
this Memoir will permit.[69]
We have already seen that, by the firman of the King of Delhi, the
English Company possessed the right of trading free from duties. This
privilege was granted to favour the kind of trade they then carried
on, which was confined to exports and imports by sea: and the dustuck,
or passport, of the English presidents or chiefs, was respected by the
Subahdar's officers to that extent. Under this privilege the President
favoured also the private trade of the Company's servants or officers,
which, though not strictly according to the words of the firman, was
never objected to.
As to the internal or carrying trade of the country, to engage in it
never entered into the plans of the Company or its servants, which
were confined to the valuable and profitable traffic between Europe
and India; and, had they thought of it, it is clear that it could not
have been profitably conducted by foreigners under a native government,
which had the power of enforcing justice in the transactions between
them and its own subjects.
But after the deposition of Suraj-u-Dowlah, and the elevation of Meer
Jaffier, the influence of the English in Bengal became paramount;
and, as they were all traders, some of them extended their views, and
availed themselves of their political superiority to enter into the
internal trade also; and, applying their partial freedom from duties on
foreign trade to circumstances totally different, employed it to exempt
themselves from duties even on their illegal internal commerce; an
indulgence which, of course, had never been intended.
As long as Clive remained in Bengal, he checked these pretensions by
his characteristic firmness and spirit; but no sooner had he left the
country, than there was a general rush of the Company's servants,
and of Europeans of all classes, towards the interior trade of the
three provinces. In the foreign trade, the Company and its officers
had, indeed, the advantage of trading free of duties, but the returns
were tardy, and in some instances uncertain; whereas in the internal
trade the return was rapid and certain; and, as they most unjustly
claimed for this trade the same exemption from duties which they had
enjoyed for the articles of their foreign export trade, it is clear
that they had it in their power to undersell the native merchant in
his own market; that, to the extent of their capital, they had all
the advantages of a monopoly; and that, as their trade increased, the
revenues of the sovereign must decay. By this assumption they, in fact,
made themselves participators in the benefit of the taxes imposed for
the public service.
Of all the articles of inland trade, that of salt was by much the most
important. Its manufacture and trade had always, to a certain extent,
been a monopoly, and was generally farmed or granted for a price, as
a boon, to some favourite of the prince. Being a necessary of life,
the demand was great and steady; and the capital employed in the trade
being limited, the return on it was very large. It seems, under the
frugal management of the natives, to have amounted to 200 per cent.
After the deposition of Meer Jaffier in favour of Cossim Ali, planned,
as we have seen, by Mr. Holwell, and imprudently executed by Mr.
Vansittart in 1760, not long after Lord Clive's departure, the abuses
of the English private trade in this and all its other branches, no
longer sufficiently checked by the Governor, increased daily. Fortunes
were amassed with singular rapidity; and such was the certainty of
gain, that native capital flowed plentifully into the hands of the
English merchant, who employed it himself, or permitted the trade
of natives to be carried on covertly under his name. It could not be
otherwise; for, while the native purchased the commodity at a high
rate, paid an enormous duty, and was subject to all the expense and
annoyance of frequent tolls, exactions, and stoppages, the English had
become possessed of the principal salt works, paid no duty, and carried
their wares at pleasure about the country for sale free from all demand
or exaction whatever.
Cossim Ali, a prince of great sagacity, and no mean financier,
remonstrated with Mr. Vansittart on the abuses exercised by the
English, and still more under their name, all over the country, to
the oppression of his subjects, and the ruin of the public revenues;
for not only did the Gomashtahs, and others in the service of the
English, refuse payment of customs, but they insulted, and sometimes
even insolently punished, on their own authority, the officers of the
native Government. Mr. Vansittart, quite aware of the justice of the
complaints, and not unwilling to remedy them, as far as the little
power left in his hands by the rapacity of his Council, and his own
want of vigour, would allow, at length entered into a treaty with the
Subah[70], by which, among other stipulations, it was agreed, that the
English should be allowed to engage in the inland trade, but subject
to duties; and, in particular, were to be allowed to purchase salt,
subject to a low duty of 9 per cent. only, and might transport it about
the country, free from all the transit duties paid by the Subah's own
subjects.[71]
This arrangement, such as it was, afforded but a feeble redress to
Meer Cossim: but the Council, themselves the principal traders, were
indignant, even at this moderate deduction from their commercial gains,
and disavowed the act of the Governor. The consequence was what we have
seen: Meer Cossim, seeing his subjects deprived of their trade, and
himself of his revenues, proclaimed a general exemption from customs
and duties for two years, to his subjects and to all others.
The rage of the Council of Calcutta at this step, rendered necessary
by their own conduct, led to a bloody war, the massacre of Patna, the
deposition of Meer Cossim, and the restoration of Meer Jaffier. It was
not without reason that the Court of Directors regarded "the inland
trade as the foundation of all the bloodshed, massacres, and confusion
which have happened of late years in Bengal."
By the treaty[72] with the restored prince, the English got a right
of trading by their own dustuck, free of all taxes, duties, and
impositions, excepting one of two and a half per cent. on salt. This
was, in effect, giving them a monopoly of that profitable trade; and it
appears that even this duty, trifling as it was, was never levied. The
arrangement threw the whole inland trade of the country into the hands
of the English and their agents, whose violence totally paralysed the
native Government.