circumstances, and to have felt much distress in becoming such a burden
to his son. In his answer to the letter which informed him of Clive's
agents being directed to give him the additional sum of 500_l._ per
annum, and to keep a coach for him, he observes[132], "I have received
your letter of the 9th of November, 1758, and am under the greatest
obligations that ever father was to a son, especially in the unhappy
circumstances my own imprudence and being bound for others hath rendered
me. Mr. Woolaston, for whom I was surety, is now dead; and what he owed
the government, together with what remained unpaid on my account, amount
to no less than 9000_l._ more than we have to pay. The Treasury, by
direction of the Duke of Newcastle, have postponed the payment to a
future day; but I fear that day will come before you arrive in England;
and when you come, what pretence have I to expect or desire you should
set me free, when I have already had your benevolence in so
extraordinary a manner? Thank God you have so much in your power! Let us
live on a fifth part of what you have so generously allowed me. If I am
free, I shall be content; and, while I live, bless Providence, and pray
for the increase of your happiness, who have saved a distressed family
from utter ruin."
The letters from Clive's mother breathe the truest maternal affection.
Her warmest gratitude is expressed for that comfort which he has
diffused throughout all his family, and above all, as the old lady
states, for his great kindness to "her girls."
The greater part of the letters from Clive's mother and sisters,
subsequent to his marriage, are addressed to Mrs. Clive, but docketed by
himself, and placed among his own papers; a proof of the value he
attached to the feelings which they expressed. They contain the common
topics of such correspondence, marked with a feeling of the warmest
affection for one who, amid all his public avocations, was continually
affording them proofs of his love and attachment. Towards Mrs. Clive
there appears to have been but one sentiment throughout the family: all
speak of her constant attention and kindness with gratitude, and appear
to rejoice as much in their brother's happiness in the married state, as
in the other instances of his good fortune.
Besides occasional acts of generosity, Clive continued incessant in his
endeavours to render happy, by his regard and attention, every branch of
his family, however distant. In this he was wholly disinterested, for
none of them (except, perhaps, Sir Edward Clive) were in a situation to
afford him the slightest aid; but they gave him, what he more valued,
their gratitude and affection.
The impressions produced by his conduct towards every one with whom he
was connected cannot be better shown than by inserting some short
extracts from the entertaining letters of one of his female cousins[133]
to Mrs. Clive in India.
"I don't know what title I must give you now[134], but I am sure I may
say, 'To the agreeable Mrs. Clive.' I have always wrote whenever I heard
the ships sailed, and by Captain Tully and Mr. King. Ill fate for you
and me, that so many fine thoughts should be sent to the bottom of the
sea! Neptune will be quite entertained. As to the name of Clive above
ground, the Colonel has made it so famous, that it is the only comfort I
have in still being a Clive. * * * * * * * He is in the highest esteem
in this part of the world, and does honour to all his relations. * * * *
Your father, my cousin Clive, dined with us yesterday, and read, or
tried to read, one of the Colonel's letters; but his joy, with
tenderness at the thoughts of such a son, made him burst twice into
tears before he could go on. Is it to be wondered at? for sure it must
be a pleasure so great, the strongest mind must be greatly affected.
Well, I sincerely wish you all safe on your native shore, with your bags
of money, and bushels of diamonds; with the Eastern Prince the Colonel
is so good as to say he will get for me. I can't possibly refuse him. I
have a taste to be a princess. As to Captain Clack, you are so good to
think of for me, if this Prince don't care to take so long a voyage,
don't leave the Captain behind. The war makes men very scarce. He shall
talk for ever, and I for ever have patience. I have been in town a
fortnight, at two plays; one, a new tragedy somewhat resembling the
story of The Children in the Wood. Did you ever read that old ballad?
Garrick is in as much vogue as ever; operas at a low ebb. I suppose you
are a complete mistress of harmony.
"I hope you will never receive this letter: not that I don't think it
very clever; but I wish the Colonel and all his family may be in a ship,
the sails filled with most prosperous gales, that will, soon as
possible, send you safe to your own country and friends; one of whom I
hope ever to be styled, which will always be a pleasure to your sincere
and affectionate cousin."
We meet the following passage in another letter from this lady, which
appears to have been written about the same period (for, like many
ladies' letters, it has no date.)
"I have a thousand things to say to you, and but a moment's time. I find
the bearer of this is a painter; hope the Colonel and you will let him
take your pictures. I should be glad of them in miniature. I begin to
fear the Colonel will not bring me the Eastern Prince till it is too
late: the bushel of diamonds runs strangely in my head. Fanny is going
to enter into the happy state of matrimony. I have seen the lover: upon
my word, a pretty, cherry-cheeked, agreeable young counsellor. I hear he
is called to the bar, and will have 500_l._ a year. I wish I had been
the Colonel's sister; not to detract from them; certainly he is a great
advantage to his family; and I believe, after my aunts and myself, that
horrid name of old maid will be extirpated out of the house of Clive.
"I have still a thousand things to say. Apelles is arrived, and must
have this letter: I don't know, but it may be of service to him, his
occasioning me to release you. Well, a little more. All diversions go on
as usual; a gloomy town—general mourning for the Princess of Orange; the
linen that is worn is crape, as yellow as saffron, and what they call
Turkey gauze, that looks like sarcenet: a sketch that the world is as
ridiculous as ever. A most elegant ball at Lord Sandwich's! I must not
say any more, only beg my respects and most sincere love to the Colonel.
I wish for your speedy return to England. Pray my love to cousin George,
who I would write to had I a moment, but will in the next ship."
Clive had appointed several of his relations and friends joint agents in
England; and he was very fortunate in having his near connexion, Sir
Edward Clive, Bart. (a Judge of circuit), as one of them. It appears to
have required all that gentleman's strictness to prevent his relation
suffering from the bad choice he had made of one of his men of business.
"One of your attorneys," Sir Edward remarks[135], "is a man I never can,
and never shall, accord with. I have several things to reveal to you
when you come home. I believe, in order to take care of your interest,
and (as I think) to protect your property, I must file a bill in
Chancery. When you arrive, you shall have an account of it: I don't
think any labour troublesome to serve you, but assure you (and Mr. King
knows it) I have had a great deal.
"It is a great pleasure," adds this respectable Judge, "to know that,
considering your father and his large family, God Almighty has put it
into your mind, as well as your power, to make him and them happy.
Assisting a parent must be the most agreeable sensation to good hearts.
I happened, in a small way, to have that happy opportunity. I call it
happy, and it affords me many agreeable reflections."
A few months after Clive sailed for India, his eldest sister[136]
married Sir James Markham, Bart.; and when he returned, he found that
three more had entered the matrimonial state, being much indebted (if we
are to believe their sprightly cousin already noticed) for their happy
settlement to the good fortune of having an Indian Colonel for their
brother.
Clive never forgot those to whom he was in any degree indebted for his
advancement. Several of his letters are addressed to Mr. Chauncey, a
gentleman who, though then retired, had, at one period, taken a very
active part in Indian affairs. In one of these letters[137], after
communicating to him the peace with Suraj-u-Dowlah, Clive observes, "If
I have been in any way instrumental in the late revolution, the merit is
entirely owing to you, who countenanced, favoured, and protected me, and
was the chief cause of my coming to India in a station which rendered me
capable of serving the Company. Accept, Sir, of my gratitude, and
sincerest wishes for your welfare. May you enjoy the blessings of peace
and retirement, and may success and every other happiness in this life
forsake me, when I forget how much I am obliged to you!"
However, a sense of gratitude had more value from being expressed in the
moment of victory, and from being addressed to an individual who had no
longer any power of promoting his views. I notice such facts, not only
because they are the truest indications of character, but as they
account for the zeal and attachment which Clive's numerous and
respectable friends displayed on many trying occasions. Neither his
wealth nor his fame could have inspired such feelings. Sincerity and
warmth of heart alone can kindle corresponding sentiments in honourable
minds.
Of Clive's friends in India I have already spoken. His ties with them
had been formed in the course of public service, and remained unbroken,
except in the rare cases, where he thought individuals parted from those
principles of action upon which his esteem was founded. His deep and
affectionate gratitude towards Colonel Lawrence has been mentioned. His
friendship for Mr. Pigot remained unchanged: not so that for Mr. Orme.
We find in one of his father's letters an observation upon his being
reconciled to that gentleman on his return to India in 1755. Mr. Clive
expresses his hope, in this letter, that Mr. Orme's History would be
speedily published, as the objections[138] on account of Mr. Chauncey
were at an end.
Clive, though his experience had rendered him singularly well acquainted
with the character of all classes of the natives of India, was very
little, if at all, versed in the languages of that country; but he
appears not only to have been most solicitous to avail himself of the
aid of those who had this advantage, but, when he found the acquirement
accompanied by integrity and talent, to recommend them, and place them
in the highest stations in the service. His notice and patronage of Mr.
Watts, Mr. Vansittart, and Mr. Hastings, afford ample proof of this
fact; and, on almost all occasions, public and private, when he brings
forward the names of those individuals, he adds some observations on the
great advantages they enjoy over others, from their knowledge of the
languages, the manners, and the habits of the people of India.
During his expedition to Bengal, Clive had only one of his relations in
his family, Mr. George Clive, for whom he cherished a very sincere
affection. The two persons to whom he appears to have been most attached
were Mr. Walsh and Mr. Luke Scrafton, both civil servants of the
Company, whose names have been frequently mentioned in the course of the
narrative. They continued through life in habits of the strictest
intimacy with their friend and patron. Of Mr. Walsh, Clive never speaks
without expressing great respect for his character; and of his regard
for Mr. Scrafton, whose lively disposition suited his own, we have many
proofs. Bad health obliging that gentleman to go to Madras, Clive wrote
by him to Sir George Pocock, in a style which evinced his kind and
anxious solicitude.
"The bearer of this[139]," he observes, "Mr. Luke Scrafton, is a young
fellow of great worth and honour. Much I fear he is too far gone to be
recovered by the coast air: he has been a constant attendant of mine in
all our expeditions, and can solve any question you may have to ask on
the subject of Bengal. For God's sake return him to me in good health
and condition!"
Clive was also on the most intimate terms with Captain Latham, a
distinguished officer of His Majesty's navy; and this intimacy was
increased from that gentleman's marriage to a relation of Mrs. Clive,
who had accompanied her to India. I have found numerous private letters
from Captain Latham, which are all written in the open manly style of a
British seaman, and bear a convincing testimony to the tone of Clive's
mind on all points connected with his friends. From the tenor of one, in
answer to a letter from Clive, written immediately after the
enthronement of Meer Jaffier, it would seem that Mrs. Latham was one of
those whom he considered (from the relation in which she stood to him)
entitled to participate in his good fortune. His conduct on this
occasion appears to have given sincere pleasure to Mrs. Clive; as the
letter in which his kindness and liberality are noticed is superscribed
with the word "Charming," in her own handwriting.
I have before mentioned the origin of Clive's regard for Colonel Forde;
the grounds upon which he selected him for the command of Bengal, and
the degree in which he deemed himself indebted to him for his great and
brilliant achievements. We have also seen the poignant feelings with
which he regarded the conduct of the Court of Directors towards this
able and gallant officer, who, immediately after the capture of
Masulipatam, had the mortification to find himself superseded by Colonel
Coote, who, a year before, had been his junior in Adlercron's regiment;
but, returning from India with fortune and reputation, had obtained a
Colonel's commission, and had just landed at Madras in command of a
regiment destined for Calcutta.
Though Colonel Coote had evinced, on the expedition to Bengal, those
qualities as an officer which subsequently made him so renowned, neither
his opportunities nor his achievements bore as yet any comparison with
those of Colonel Forde; but the successes of the latter were not known
in England at the period of Coote's appointment. Many, therefore, will
deny the justice of Clive's complaint of the conduct of his superiors on
this occasion; but even these must admire that warmth and decision, with
which he pledged himself to support an officer with whom he had no
private friendship, except such as had been formed in consequence of his
eminent public services.
The news of Colonel Coote's arrival reached Clive about the same period
as the account of Major Forde's capture of Masulipatam, and of the
conclusion of the treaty with the Subahdar of the Deccan. Desiring, at
such a moment, to afford every consolation to the mind of that
meritorious officer, he not only stated his opinion as to his superior
claims to those of the officer by whom he was superseded, but gave him
the most unqualified assurances of his future support.
"I can easily conceive," he observes in a letter[140] to Colonel Forde
upon this occasion, "that such rank and honour bestowed (I think I can
say without flattery) on one so much your inferior in every respect,
must give you much concern. I assure you it has affected me greatly, and
is one of my principal motives for wanting to push home with the utmost
expedition on the 'Royal George.' I flatter myself, the request I have
to make will not be denied me, which is, that you will stay in Bengal
all next year, provided Coote remains on the coast. If within that time
I do not get you a colonel's or lieutenant-colonel's commission, and an
appointment of Commander-in-chief of all the forces in India, I will
from that instant decline all transactions with Directors and East India
affairs."
Clive's resentment at the Court of Directors was increased by their
subsequently annulling Colonel Forde's appointment to Bengal, while his
attachment to that officer was greatly heightened by his admirable
conduct in the destruction of the Dutch armament. But there were other
feelings which may have influenced his mind. He certainly entertained at
this period a strong prejudice against Colonel Coote, which may possibly
have originated from the prominent manner in which that officer, when
only a Captain, was brought forward at Calcutta to support the alleged
rights of his Majesty's service against those of the Company. But we
have, nevertheless, proofs that Clive appreciated his talents from his
employing[141] him on all occasions, and particularly in detaching him,
after the battle of Plassey, in pursuit of the French corps. But at the
same time that he entertained this high opinion of his military talents,
he considered, from his whole conduct in Bengal, that he was mercenary
and prone to intrigue, and consequently an unfit person to be intrusted
with great powers on such a scene. I do not find among Clive's papers
any specific grounds to justify this opinion; and in the absence of all
such documents, we must conclude, from the high reputation which Colonel
Coote attained and supported, that it was erroneous; or, at all events,
that, if this eminent commander evinced in his youth any such
dispositions as those of which he was suspected, they were early
corrected: for though he never displayed any remarkable talents as a
statesman, he assuredly became as qualified for the chief military
command in India as any person that ever held that station; and during
his latter years, the love and esteem in which he was held by his
countrymen was even exceeded by the affectionate regard and attachment
of the native troops, whom he so often led to victory.
In giving this tribute to a soldier, whose memory I have venerated from
my earliest years, I must do justice to Clive by declaring my sincere
conviction (formed from the perusal of his numerous letters upon the
subject) that he was most sincere and conscientious in the opinion he
expressed, and upon which he acted. With such impressions upon his mind,
he certainly thought he was doing his duty to the public by his
endeavours to keep Colonel Coote at Madras; and he was so solicitous to
effect this object that he consented to the request of the government of
Fort St. George, that the regiment of that officer should remain for
some time at that presidency.
He enters fully upon this subject in his correspondence, both with Mr.
Pigot and Mr. Vansittart; but his letters contain merely a repetition of
his opinions as to Colonel Coote's unfitness for the general command of
the forces in Bengal, while he recognises the benefits to be derived
from his services in the mere military operations on the coast of
Coromandel. The success of Clive's efforts on this occasion proved
fortunate for the reputation of Colonel Coote, who, during the
subsequent year, established a high military character by the battle of
Wandewash and the capture of Pondicherry.
I have been compelled to enter more at length upon this subject than I
desired, from its being intimately connected with those disputes
regarding the employment of officers in India in which Clive became
involved on his return to England. Colonel Coote, when he revisited his
native country after the campaign of 1757, was received with favour and
distinction. He was possessed of a small fortune, his connections were
respectable, and his manners and address manly and agreeable. He became
more prominent from being the senior King's land officer employed on the
expedition to Bengal; and, from the comparatively low estimation in
which the Company's[142] officers were held at that period, his fame was
advanced to detract from their pretensions. He was represented as a
rising officer, of whom Clive was jealous; and it was believed by many
(till contradicted several years afterwards by his own evidence), that
it was through his advice and remonstrances that the army advanced to
the field of Plassey. Besides the influence and popularity which those
combined causes gave to this officer, he enjoyed the marked favour and
friendship of Mr. Sulivan, the Chairman of the Court of Directors, whose
subsequent rupture with Clive is in a great degree to be attributed to
their difference in opinion with regard to the respective pretensions
and merits of Colonels Coote and Forde.
Clive, at the period of his second visit to his native country, was
thirty-five years of age. We collect from his private correspondence,
that he retained much of that hilarity of disposition for which he had
been remarkable in youth. He was fond of female society; and many of his
letters show that he was by no means indifferent to those aids by which
personal appearance is improved. It was the fashion of the period to
dress in gayer apparel than we now do; and the European visiter at an
Indian Durbar, or Court, always wore a rich dress. We find in a
letter[143] to Clive, from his friend Captain Latham, a description of a
Durbar suit he was preparing for him, in which he says he has preferred
a fine scarlet coat with handsome gold lace, to the common wear of
velvet. He has also made up, he writes, a fine brocade waistcoat; and he
adds to this intelligence, that "it is his design to line the coat with
parchment, that it may not wrinkle!"
In a commission which Clive sent to his friend Mr. Orme, there is an
amusing instance of his attention to the most trifling parts of his
dress.
"I must now trouble you," he observes[144], "with a few commissions
concerning family affairs. Imprimis, what you can provide must be of the
best and finest you can get for love or money; two hundred shirts, the
wristbands worked, some of the ruffles worked with a border either in
squares or points, and the rest plain; stocks, neckcloths, and
handkerchiefs in proportion; three corge[145] of the finest stockings;
several pieces of plain and spotted muslin, two yards wide, for aprons;
book-muslins; cambrics; a few pieces of the finest dimity; and a
complete set of table linen of Fort St. David's diaper made for the
purpose."
In the list of packages which Mr. Richard Clive sent to his son in
Bengal, one is a box of wigs! Whether Clive had resorted to this
ornament from want of hair, or from deference to the fashion of the
period, I know not; but there is[146] an authentic anecdote of his
boyhood, which proves how essential a wig was considered to all who were
full dressed. Clive had, when very young, been admitted by a relation,
who was Captain of the Tower, to be one of the spectators when his
Majesty George the Second happened to visit that fortress. Nothing was
wanted in the boy's dress to prepare him for the honour of approaching
majesty except a wig! To supply this want one of the old Captain's was
put upon his head; and his appearance in this costume was so singular as
to attract the notice and smiles of the King, who inquired who he was,
and spoke to him in a very kind and gracious manner.[147]
In concluding this chapter on the private occurrences of Clive's life
during a period so eventful to his fame and fortune, I shall estimate,
as far as I have the means, the wealth he carried to England, as well as
the amount which he had, before he left India, given to, or settled
upon, his friends and relations. I have already shown, in the fullest
manner, how his great riches were acquired; and it is a grateful task to
record the generous manner in which a considerable portion of them was
distributed.
Clive, from what has been stated, may be said, when he returned to India
in 1755, to have been worth little or no money beyond what he had vested
for redeeming the small family estate, and giving his parents an
annuity. When he took possession of the government of Fort Saint David,
he embarked in trade, like others who filled similar stations; but, to
judge from his correspondence, he had not much success in his commercial
pursuits. We read of nothing but bad markets, or the want of means of
those who owed him money. He appears, before he embarked on the
expedition to Bengal, to have made a large speculation in benjamin,
which turned out badly. It is entertaining, when associated with the
scenes in which he became engaged, to pursue his remarks upon his
unprofitable adventure in this and other articles of trade.
After desiring his friend and agent, Mr. Orme, not to demand payment of
the money owing to him by Messrs. Pybus and Roberts, and that the
interest of the debt should be only 4 per cent., he observes[148], "You
have given me a most curious account of my adventure in the Grampus. If
I had not made better strokes in war than in trade, my money concerns
would by this time be drawing to a conclusion."