The present work was commenced in consequence of the possession of
a body of unpublished documents, which, having been preserved among
the family records at Walcot, were thrown open to the author by the
friendship of the Earl of Powis. These consisted chiefly of the whole
correspondence of Lord Clive, containing the originals of nearly
every letter which he had received from the time when he first filled
a public situation in India, down to the period at which he finally
quitted that country; with copies of answers to many of the most
important of them. They contained also several memoirs regarding the
chief enterprises in which he was engaged, and minutes of council on
the leading measures of his government.
From these sources, aided by the Reports of the different Parliamentary
Committees, and other authentic materials, published and unpublished,
Sir John had completed the introduction, and the first thirteen
chapters, before he left India, in 1830. The fourteenth and fifteenth
he finished after his return, and was engaged with the sixteenth, when
death put a close to his labours.
The author was accustomed to bestow his final revision upon each
successive portion of his work before he advanced to that which was to
follow it. He had, consequently, made no preparation beyond the point
where his progress was arrested; nor had he sketched out or indicated
the plan he meant to pursue.
A gentleman for whose abilities Sir John Malcolm entertained a high
respect, and by whose judgment it was his intention to have profited
before he committed his work to the press, kindly offered to supply
such a continuation as was necessary to bring down the narrative to the
death of Lord Clive.
The materials which were here available were, of necessity, less
abundant, less original, and less authentic than those from which the
earlier part of the Memoirs had been composed.
After Lord Clive reached England, he filled no public situation, and
had the means of settling his most important affairs directly by
personal communication. The incidents of his English life were to
be drawn chiefly from a limited and occasional correspondence with
his more intimate friends, and the parliamentary proceedings from
the reports in the periodical works of the day; in which the details
of contemporary occurrences are infinitely less ample than are now
afforded by similar publications.
The writer, therefore, by whose pen the concluding chapters were
contributed, laboured under a difficulty which would have discouraged
any person less influenced by friendship for the deceased, and by
kindness for those on whom the publication devolved; but it has been
surmounted in a manner which, it is hoped, will enable the reader to
pursue the subject to its close, without any feeling of unsatisfied
curiosity.
The family of Sir John Malcolm cannot close this brief notice, without
expressing to the continuator of the work their warmest gratitude for
the pains his affection has bestowed upon the last labours of his
friend.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
INTRODUCTION.
General View of the State of India in 1746 Page 1
CHAPTER I.
Clive's Family--his Boyhood.--Events of his early Life in
India.--History of the Carnatic to 1750 29
CHAP. II.
Wars in the Carnatic.--Siege of Arcot, and subsequent
Operations of Clive till 1752 67
CHAP. III.
Clive returns to England, 1753.--Again sent to India in
1755.--Capture of Gheriah.--Operations in Bengal.--Calcutta
retaken, and Sujah-u-Dowlah forced to make
Peace 128
CHAP. IV.
Surrender of Chandernagore.--Quarrel with Sujah-u-Dowlah 183
CHAP. V.
Conduct of Sujah-u-Dowlah.--Intrigues at his Court.--Battle
of Plassey.--He is deposed, and Meer Jaffier raised
to the Musnud.--Treaty 219
CHAP. VI.
Transactions subsequent to the Battle of Plassey 273
CHAP. VII.
State of Parties in Bengal, and in the Court of Meer Jaffier.--Clive
proceeds to Patna.--Accepts the Government
of Bengal 316
CHAP. VIII.
Clive projects an Expedition to occupy the northern Circars.--Intrigues
at the Court of Moorshedabad.--The
Shahzada's Invasion of Bahar.--Repelled by Clive--who
receives a Jaghire 364
[Illustration: MAP OF INDIA]