call of ambition; but no principle was stronger with him than a sense
of duty. He had truly observed, some time before, in writing to Mr.
Palk[115], "It seems I am strongly solicited to remain in India another
year, and a promise is to be made me about perpetuating my jaghire.
If I could render the Company more essential service by stopping
than returning, and the situation of affairs made such a sacrifice
necessary, I should not hesitate one moment about complying with their
request, without being tempted by the bait of a jaghire. This does not
appear to be the case at present; and, I think, all that depends on
me will be effected in the space of two or three months; and, if the
necessity of continuing another year does not appear in a stronger
light than it does at present, I shall most certainly depart in January
or February next." The letter of the Directors, just quoted, arrived on
the 8th of December, after his complaint had made an alarming progress;
and it appears, by a letter of Mr. Strachey, of the 13th, that Lord
Clive had made up his mind, as a matter of necessity, to embark for
England in about a month from that time. In a letter to his friend Mr.
Palk, of the 30th of the same month, he says, "My state of health will
not permit me more than to acknowledge the receipt of your several
favours of the 20th, 27th, and 30th of September, and 7th, 11th, and
27th of October. The discussion of political points I cannot attempt
at present, though I find myself recover daily. The Court of Directors
have been very strenuous in soliciting me to continue another year
in India. They have loaded me with compliments, and given me as much
additional power as I could have wished. But the situation of the
Company's affairs does not require that I should sacrifice another
year in this climate; and even if it did call upon me to make such a
sacrifice, it would be in vain. The very severe attack of bile that I
have been struggling with for many weeks puts it beyond a doubt, that I
could not survive, and be of use to the Company in India another year."
His constitution from his youth had been subject to nervous attacks. He
now suffered from derangement of the biliary system, which affected his
health to a degree from which it never fully recovered, and which may
be considered as having finally hastened his end. It was occasionally
attended with spasms, of which the violence endangered his life. In
the intervals of comparative ease, however, he continued to direct
the affairs of the government. He had used great exertions to improve
the civil service, on which depended the prosperity of the country.
Many of those then at the head of it, from various causes, were unfit
to have any great share in conducting the administration of public
affairs. Some were too exclusively devoted to self-interest, and were
lax in their principles. The rapid fortunes that had been made of
late years had sent home a considerable proportion of the most active
of the older servants; others had been forced to resign, or had been
dismissed for malversation in office; and many others had fallen in
the massacre of Patna. Those next in succession were in general young
men of no experience, of luxurious and dissipated habits, who, having
been brought up in a bad school, were strangers to subordination and
to the restraints of duty. Clive, sensible that to place such men near
the head of a government, was to undo all that he had done, and that
no government can be carried on without fit instruments, had asked
from the Madras Government four of its ablest civil servants[116], who
were accordingly sent, and placed in Council. This necessary act made
him unpopular, and created many and powerful enemies. But Clive was
not a man to shrink back from his course when supported by conscious
rectitude, and by a firm persuasion that he was acting for the benefit
of his employers and of the public. He supported the Madras servants
against all the combinations formed to disgust and annoy them, and at
his departure left them all high in office. By that, and similar acts
of energy, he did all that one individual could do to remedy a vicious
system; and had his plans been firmly executed by his successors, and
supported instead of being opposed and tampered with by the Court of
Directors, the history of India for the ensuing twenty years might have
afforded a brighter and more pleasing retrospect than, unfortunately,
it now does.
Clive was in particular most desirous that, after his departure, the
Select Committee, the real engine of government, should be composed
of the ablest and most upright men in the country. He left the chief
direction of affairs with perfect confidence in the hands of Mr.
Verelst, a man of honour and intelligence[117]; but he was anxious to
add to his strength by placing about him other men of talent. Among
these he was particularly desirous that Mr. Sykes, in whom he had
great confidence, should reside in Calcutta, to be near the seat of
government: but that gentleman preferred remaining in the situation he
then held as resident at Moorshedabad. Clive's remonstrances on this
occasion are very honourable to him:--"I have received your letter,"
says he[118], "urging many reasons against your residing at Calcutta,
when Mr. Verelst came to the chair. Your intention of declining the
government, I must confess, is the only one that seems to carry any
weight. Your situation I believe, is a very agreeable one, and your
conduct, I am persuaded, will bring advantage to the Company and honour
to yourself. Yet let us not forget, Sykes, the principles upon which
you and I have hitherto acted, of sacrificing private convenience to
public good. To doubt my friendship, because I cannot carry it to
such lengths, is not to know me. I have loved you as a brother; yet a
brother cannot alter my sentiments of what is right and wrong. If you
are fully convinced that your health will not permit you to live in
Calcutta, and for that reason, among others, you mean to decline the
government, there may be reasons given in abundance for remaining in
your present station; and, among the rest, that of your being the most
fit for such an employment. To conclude: this matter must be decided
by my successor, Mr. Verelst, after my departure. I have given you my
sentiments, which are consistent with my friendship for you, and my
duty to the Company."
A letter to Mr. Cartier, one of the last he wrote in India, shows
a similar anxiety for the public interest. Mr. Cartier, like Mr.
Sykes, wished to take no active share in the general concerns of the
government, but to remain, performing local duties, at an out station.
Lord Clive, who had a favourable opinion of his qualifications, had
urged him to conquer this repugnance; and Mr. Cartier finally gave his
consent. "The receipt of your friendly letter[119]," says Lord Clive,
"and your acceptance of being nominated one of the Select Committee,
with so much cordiality, has afforded me more real satisfaction
than I have felt for these many months. I can now leave India with
satisfaction to myself, because I leave it in tranquillity, and the
chief management of these important and extensive concerns in the hands
of men of honour, and approved probity and abilities.
"Be assured, my good Sir, you will not have to encounter many of
those disagreeable circumstances which you seem to apprehend in your
letter to Mr. Verelst. That unthankful task has fallen to my lot. The
Select Committee, and Committee of Inspection, have already made every
regulation for the public good which can be desired or thought of; so
that it only rests with you, gentlemen, to keep matters in the same
channel, and not to relax in your authority, or let yourselves down, by
declining to support the dignity of your station.
"A gentleman endowed, like Mr. Cartier, with a good capacity and solid
judgment, of a generous and disinterested way of thinking, cannot fail
of proving a very deserving servant to the Company, and of acquiring
honour for himself, if he will but have a little more confidence in
himself." After assuring him that, if he finds his new situation at
Calcutta agreeable, he will use his interest to have him named Mr.
Verelst's successor in the government, he continues:--"The state of my
health is such, that I cannot continue in it (the government) another
year, with any prospect of doing the Company service: indeed, I do not
think I should survive another month; I have, therefore, determined to
resign the government.
"The General, myself, and other friends, take our departure on Monday
next.
"I remain, dear Sir,
"Your affectionate friend, ever,
"Clive."
Lord Clive had always intended to return home overland, and had
arranged with several of his friends to accompany him; but the state of
his health put an end to this long-cherished project.
When he was thus preparing to embark for his native country, broken as
he was in health and constitution, and numerous as the enemies were
whom his conduct had raised up against him, he might still look back
with proud and generous satisfaction on the great sacrifice which he
had made, and the splendid effects which it had produced. In the short
space of twenty months he had quelled the opposition of the civil
service, had dismissed the most culpable, and endeavoured to infuse a
better spirit into those left; by his firmness, and, perhaps, still
more by the magic influence of his name, he had subdued the dangerous
spirit of mutiny among the military officers, after it had broken
out in overt acts; had sent off the ringleaders without resistance;
had introduced new officers in their room, pardoned the less guilty,
and restored them to their rank and confidence; he had concluded an
advantageous peace with the Nabob-Vizier, by which he secured a large
contribution for the Company, to pay the expenses of the war, and
gained two provinces for the emperor, our ally; he had farther secured
for him an annual tribute out of Bengal; he had acquired for the
Company a grant of the dewannee, or rather, in reality, of the revenues
and government of the three great provinces; by means of which, and
of an agreement with the Nabob, the whole political power came into
the hands of the English, who, from that moment, were sovereigns, and
the effective arbiters of India: for the names of Nabob and Emperor,
unsupported by adequate military force, were but sounds. The Company's
debts in India had been reduced, and nearly extinguished; their large
investments provided, chiefly without drawing on home; the expenses
of the various establishments had been examined and reduced with a
liberal economy; the forces were never in a more efficient state, and
never supported at so small an expense. His perfect knowledge of every
part of the service, and his resolute determination, produced a silent
acquiescence in reductions proposed by him, which, perhaps, would have
excited the loudest murmurs had they come from any other quarter. And,
after all reductions had been made, he might justly boast that he left
the various services the best and most liberally paid in the world. He
had checked the misrule which had desolated the provinces, and imposed
fetters on the cupidity of the ruling caste, which were, unfortunately
too soon removed after his departure: he had restored the course of
justice to its original channel, and the natives to their wonted
trade and commerce. Their political power was, indeed, gone; hardly a
semblance of it remained; but the ordinary and daily aspect of society,
which had been so rudely broken in upon for four or five years, by the
interference of the English and their servants in the internal trade
and concerns of the country, was once more restored. No man but Clive
could have achieved such changes; and he derived his power to effect
them from his own energetic character, and from the glory which his
former exploits had diffused around him.
He held that the interest of England was best consulted by stopping
the career of conquest, and by confining ourselves to Bengal, Bahar,
and Orissa; rich, compact, and defensible provinces, that, by good
management, could be governed at little expense, and leave a large
surplus revenue. His policy in regard to the native princes he himself
explains. He never came into contact with the Mahrattas, the grand
disturbers of India, but was strongly urged by the Emperor Shah Aulum
to enter into an alliance with them, and accompany him to Delhi. This,
we have seen, he obstinately declined. "As I proceed up the country,"
says he in a letter[120] to Mr. Palk, "if I find the Mahrattas
discontented and disposed to be troublesome, I shall endeavour to
form an alliance with the Jauts, Rohillas, and Suja Dowla, to keep
the country on this side Delhi in tranquillity. This alliance is most
earnestly wished for by the three above-mentioned powers, and will, if
any thing can, intimidate the Mahrattas from committing ravages and
disturbances in Hindostan; for certain it is, if we should all unite
and attack their country, they could not stand one minute before us."
He had also speculated on the possibility, if necessary, of setting up
the Rajah of Nagpore (whose vakeels had waited on him at Calcutta to
ask an alliance) in opposition to the Peshwa, with whom that Prince was
then on bad terms, and in that way trusted to secure domestic peace
by dividing the force of his enemy.[121] He did not, however, provoke
hostilities; and his great military reputation probably preserved him
safe from the attacks of these freebooters, as well as from all other
foreign annoyance.
In his intercourse with the chiefs of the different European factories
in Bengal, French, Dutch, and Danish, though he never yielded the
minutest portion of the rights of his employers, he seems, from his
correspondence, to have lived on the most friendly and courteous
terms with them all, and to have conciliated them by his fairness and
urbanity. But never did he allow any consideration of private interest
to interfere with his public duty. We have already seen that, while
nearly the whole of his large fortune was in the hands of the Dutch,
he attacked and destroyed an armament of that nation, at a moment when
he might, without reproach from his Government, have abstained from
acting, and when, indeed, he hazarded the censure of his employers,
and of the British Government, by the bold and decided measure.
Another very characteristic instance of a similar nature occurs in his
correspondence. M. Vernet, the Dutch chief of Chinsura, had applied
to him to procure the release of some boats which had been stopped by
the Nabob's officers, for some informality or evasion. "I have the
honour," he says[122], "to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of
the 7th and 9th instant. In consequence of the latter, I have spoken
to Mahommed Reza Cawn, who will this day give orders for the release
of such of the Dutch boats as are furnished with your dustucks, and
contain no greater quantity of goods than are therein specified. But
should any of the boats be found laden with merchandise not mentioned
in the dustucks, you cannot but confess, from what I have already
written you, that it would be highly improper for me to interfere." He
immediately adds, "You favoured me, some time ago, with your promise
for bills for the amount of two lacs of rupees by your second ship.
I am now to request bills for one other lac, if you can conveniently
grant them." With him the separation between his public duty and
private interest was always complete: he never permitted the latter for
a moment to influence his conduct in the other.
The same urbanity and consideration which he showed to foreign
Europeans, secured to him the attachment and affection of most of the
natives of rank with whom he had occasion to treat. He behaved to them
uniformly with the deference and respect that were considered as their
due, by the usages of the country. In writing to a friend concerning
an increase which had been made to the revenues of Bengal, we have
seen[123] that he urged the necessity of stopping, that we might not
trench on the fund necessary for the support of the higher class of
native families. He was anxious that the regular gradation of ranks
should be preserved as it then was, that it should be exposed to no
sudden disruption. It would have been well if such beneficent and
politic maxims had always been acted upon in future years.
In his choice of men for public situations, he was guided by a regard
to their talents, and their capacity of being useful. Though no man
was more ready to attend to the recommendation of his friends, such
recommendation with him held but the second place, and was listened
to only in affairs of detail. All the higher offices, and such as
required superior abilities, he, like every other man who has a mind
made for command, filled from considerations of merit only. Even some
men whom he personally disliked, as for example, Colonel Richard Smith,
he constantly employed and encouraged from a sense of their useful
qualities.
Among other eminent men whom he patronised, he found Rennell, then a
lieutenant of engineers, employed in various surveys, encouraged him
to complete the general survey and map of Bengal, communicated to him
all such previous surveys as were to be found in the public offices,
furnished him with a proper establishment, gave him every assistance
in his power, and finally, young as he was, bestowed on him the office
of surveyor-general, which seems to have been created for him. Clive's
mode of treating officers in whom he could repose confidence, and his
means of securing the speedy and effectual execution of the orders he
gave, are illustrated by one of his letters[124] to Rennell. He had
ordered a general map of the provinces to be completed. "If you have
occasion for any assistants, name them, and I will order them to attend
you."
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."