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.