THE SECOND VISIT OF CLIVE TO ENGLAND
During his administration of four years in Bengal Clive had been
greatly hampered by the contradictory orders he had received from the
Court of Directors. In that Court there were four parties: the party
of alarmists at the aggrandizement of the Company's possessions in
India; the party of progressists; the middle party, composed of men
who would retain all that had been conquered, but who, not
understanding the necessity which often compels a conqueror to
advance that he may retain, would on no account sanction the
proceeding of a step further; a fourth party bent only on acquiring
plunder. As one or other of these parties obtained preponderance in
the Court, so did the orders transmitted to India take their colour.
In those days, it must be remembered, there was no Board of Control
to regulate and, if necessary, to modify, even entirely to alter, the
rulings of the General Court. Thus it was that the agent on the spot,
finding the orders from England constantly changing, was driven to
rely upon his own judgement, and to act on his own responsibility.
This did not signify so much so long as there was, on the spot,
{139}holding supreme authority, a Clive or a Warren Hastings. But
when the local chief authority was in the hands of men wanting alike
in intellect, in high principle, and in nerve, the situation was
likely to become dangerous in the extreme.
For the moment, when Clive quitted India, the situation was tranquil.
But it might become at any moment the reverse. Therefore it was that
Clive had recommended as his successor a man whom he believed he had
sounded to the core, and in whom he had found one after his own
heart. But there is no proverb more true than that contained in the
criticism passed by Tacitus on Galba, 'Omnium consensu capax imperii,
nisi imperasset.' We shall see presently how the conduct of
Vansittart corresponded to this aphorism.
A little more than a year before quitting the shores of Bengal, Clive
had addressed to Mr. Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, then Secretary of
State, a letter (January 7, 1759) in which he had represented the
difficulties of the actual situation, and had suggested a mode of
dealing with them. He had described the actual Subahdar as a man
attached to the English, and as likely to continue that attachment
'while he has no other support,' but totally uninfluenced by feelings
of gratitude, feelings not common to his race. On the other hand, he
was advanced in years; his son, Miran, was utterly unworthy, so
unworthy 'that it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the
succession.' He added immediately, as though prescient of the events
{140}which were to follow, 'In case of their,' the native princes,
'daring to be troublesome,' they--a body of 2000 English soldiers--
would 'enable the Company to take the sovereignty upon themselves.'
After detailing how the transfer would be easy, and palatable, rather
than otherwise, to the natives generally, Clive proceeded to
represent that so large a sovereignty might possibly be an object too
extensive for a mercantile company, and to suggest that it might be
worthy of consideration whether the Crown should not take the matter
in hand. The points he urged were the following: First, the ease with
which the English 'could take absolute possession of these rich
kingdoms, and that with the Mughal's own consent, on condition of
paying him less than a fifth of the revenues thereof.' There would
remain a surplus of two millions, besides most valuable productions
of nature and art. He dwelt, secondly, on the influence in Europe
which would thereby accrue to England, and the enormous increase of
prestige and of the advantages which prestige conveys, on the spot.
He added that a small force of European troops would be sufficient,
as he could enlist any number of sipahis, who 'will very readily
enter our service.' This letter he transmitted by the hands of Mr.
Walsh, his secretary during the campaign of Plassey and the year
following, and whom he describes as 'a thorough master of the
subject,' 'able to explain to you the whole design and the facility
with which it may be executed.'
Mr. Pitt received the letter, but was deterred from {141}acting upon
it by difficulties which arose in his mind from his want of knowledge
of India and of matters connected with that country. To the son of a
man whose father had been Governor of Madras in the days when the
English were the humble lessees of the lords of the soil, the
proposition to become masters of territories far larger and richer
than their island home, seemed beset with difficulties which, if it
may be said without disrespect to his illustrious memory, existed
solely in his own imagination--for they have since been very easily
overcome.
The letter served to make Clive personally known to the great
statesman when he landed in England in September or October, 1760. He
had returned a very rich man; he was full of ambition; his fame as a
soldier had spread all over the kingdom. Pitt, shortly before his
arrival (1758), had spoken of him in the House of Commons as a
'Heaven-born General,' as the only officer, by land or sea, who had
sustained the reputation of the country and added to its glory. The
King himself, George II, when the Commander-in-chief had proposed to
him to send the young Lord Dunmore to learn the art of war under
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, had replied, 'What can he get by
attending the Duke of Brunswick? If he want to learn the art of war,
let him go to Clive.' These expressions show at least the temper of
the times, the feelings which would inspire the welcome which England
would give to her latest hero. And yet the welcome itself fell far
short of that which Clive had {142}anticipated. From the Crown there
was no immediate recognition; from the Court of Directors, a hostile
section of which held the supremacy, he received worse than neglect.
Almost their first act was to dispute his right to the jagir which
Mir Jafar had bestowed upon him.[1] From the general public there was
no demonstration. Clive felt that in England as in India he would
have to fight his way upwards.
[Footnote 1: See Chapter X, footnote 12.]
His health was not very good. He suffered from rheumatism, which had
assailed him in Bengal, and which bore a strong resemblance to
rheumatic gout. Scarcely had he recovered from this malady when he
was assailed by the insidious disease which, afterwards, but rarely
left him. This caused a depression of spirits which gradually wore
out his body. As a boy he had suffered at intervals from similar
attacks. They increased now in intensity, baffling the physicians who
attended him. He bore up bravely, however, and pushed forward with
his wonted energy the ambitious plans he had formed in the intervals
of quiet and repose.
At the age of thirty-five, with an enormous fortune, great ambition,
and sanguine hopes for the future, Clive trusted that the illness he
suffered from would eventually yield to treatment, and he entered on
his campaign in England with the confidence in himself which had been
one secret of his success in India. He had hoped, on his arrival, to
have been at once raised to the House of Peers. But the honours of
the {143}Crown, long delayed, took the shape only of an Irish
peerage. With this he was forced to be content, and, being debarred
from the Upper House, made all his arrangements to become a member of
the Lower. He speedily obtained a seat in that House.
Possibly he marred his prospects by the line which he took in
politics. In October, 1760, George II had died. The new King, whose
proudest boast was that he had been born an Englishman, made Lord
Bute Secretary of State. Soon after Pitt resigned, because the rest
of the Ministry refused to support him in his policy of going to war
with Spain, the Duke of Newcastle still remaining nominal head of the
Cabinet. In 1762 the Duke resigned, and Lord Bute became Prime
Minister. Sir John Malcolm states that Lord Clive was offered his own
terms if he would support the Bute Ministry. But Clive had given his
mental adhesion in another quarter, and therefore refused his
support, and was, it is stated, treated coldly in consequence.[2]
[Footnote 2: Vide Malcolm's _Clive_, vol. ii. p. 203: also Gleig, p.
134. There would seem to be some mistake as to the reason given by
Mr. Gleig for his statement that Clive refused his support to the
Bute Administration because of his devotion to George Grenville; for
George Grenville held the post of one of the principal Secretaries of
State in Lord Bute's Ministry.]
Though not a supporter of the Bute Administration, Clive did not
refrain from volunteering to it his advice when the preliminaries of
peace between France and England were under discussion. Both Powers
were resolved that the peace should extend to their possessions in
India. Clive wrote therefore to {144}Lord Bute suggesting the terms
upon which, in his opinion, it was absolutely necessary for the
safety of the East India Company he should insist. Prominent among
these were (1) the absolute limitation of the number of troops the
French might retain in Southern India, and (2) a prohibition to admit
into Bengal Frenchmen other than those engaged in commercial
enterprises. Lord Bute so far followed the advice as to induce the
French to agree not to maintain troops either in Bengal or the
Northern Sirkars. But when he would go further, and, on the
suggestion of Mr. Lawrence Sulivan, Chairman of the Court of
Directors, make the recognition of certain native princes a clause in
the projected treaty between the two Powers, Clive, with his habitual
prescience, denounced the clause as fraught with consequences most
disastrous to the position of England in India, and persuaded the
Minister to withdraw it.
The gentleman above referred to, Mr. Lawrence Sulivan, had become,
from pure motives of jealousy, one of the bitterest enemies of Clive.
Sulivan had served in India without distinction, but had succeeded in
amassing there a handsome fortune, and being a man of bold address
and pushing manners, had become a Director of the Company. Whilst
Clive was still in India Sulivan had professed the most unbounded
admiration for him and his achievements, and, by thus professing, had
obtained the support of the followers of Clive when he made a bid for
the Chairmanship of the Court. This he secured, and, being a man
{145}of considerable self-assertion and determination, succeeded in
becoming the dictator of the Council. Up to that time he had given
his support to Clive, but no sooner did he hear of the departure of
his hero for England, than, dreading the effect of his arrival upon
his own influence, he had become his most bitter opponent. He it was
who stimulated his colleagues to object to the donation of the jagir
to Clive, mentioned in a previous page. The grounds to the objection
were rather hinted at than expressed, for in those days the Court
could not deny the right of the Subahdar to bestow, or of Clive to
accept, so handsome a gift. The real motive was to exclude Clive from
a seat in the India House, and for a time Sulivan succeeded.
The hostility of Sulivan found an outcome in the progress of
political affairs. Clive had voted against the Peace of Paris
(February 10, 1763). Lord Bute, indignant at the opposition his
measure encountered, had made his power felt by dismissing three
dukes from their lord-lieutenancies, and he was very angry with
Clive. He then sought and obtained the alliance of Sulivan to crush
him. Up to that point Clive had remained quiescent; but at this new
outrage he turned. Very shortly afterwards Sulivan came before the
Court of Proprietors for re-election. To defeat him Clive had
purchased a large amount of India Stock and divided it amongst his
friends. At the show of hands there was a large majority against
Sulivan, but when the ballot-box was appealed to the position was
reversed, and Sulivan and his majority were returned. {146}For the
moment Clive's defeat was crushing, and he prepared to meet the
consequences of it. His opponents did not delay to show their hands.
Again was the question of the jagir mooted. The eminent counsel
employed by Clive gave an opinion that the Court had no case.
However, the Sulivan party persevered. Just on the eve of the trial,
however, there came news from India which produced a revolution of
opinion in the Court. The reports from Calcutta showed that the
combined avarice, greed, misgovernment, and tyranny of the civil
authorities left by Clive in Calcutta had produced a general
uprising; had almost undone the great work Clive had accomplished;
that there was no one on the spot who could be trusted to restore
order; but that unless such a task were committed to a competent man,
the possessions of the Company in Bengal would be in the greatest
danger. This intelligence caused a panic in the India House.
Instinctively the name of Clive came uppermost to every lip. The
Proprietors were summoned to meet in full Court. Panic-stricken, they
forced upon Clive the office, not merely of President, but of
Governor-General, with very full powers. That their conduct regarding
the jagir might not be pleaded by him as an objection to accept
office, the Proprietors passed a resolution that the proceedings
regarding the jagir should be stopped, and that the right of Clive to
it should be officially recognized.
This was indeed a triumph. The policy, _reculer pour mieux sauter_,
had been eminently justified. {147}But Clive was as generous in
victory as he had been great in defeat. He declined to profit by the
enthusiasm of the Proprietors. Declaring that he had a proposal to
make regarding the jagir, which he was confident the Court would
accept, he proceeded to declare that it would be impossible for him
to proceed to India leaving behind him a hostile Court and a hostile
chairman; that at least the existing chairman must be changed. He
carried the Proprietors with him, and measures were taken for a fresh
election.
This election took place on the 25th of April, 1764. At it one-half
of the candidates proposed by Sulivan were defeated, he himself being
returned by a majority of one only. The chairman and deputy-chairman
elected were both supporters of Clive. In the interval (March, 1764)
Clive had been nominated Governor-General and Commander-in-chief of
Bengal. To draw the fangs of the Council in Calcutta, four gentlemen
were nominated to form with him a Select Committee authorized to act
on their own authority, without reference to the Council.
One word, before the great man returns to the scenes of his triumphs,
clothed with the fullest authority, regarding the instrument used by
Mr. Sulivan and his friends to torture him. No sooner had the new
Court been elected than Clive made to it his suggestion regarding the
jagir. He proposed, and the Court agreed, that for a period of ten
years, the company should pay to him the full amount of the jagir
rents, unless he should die before, when the {148}payments would
cease; the ultimate disposal of the jagir to be made when the
occasion should arise.
These matters having been settled, the officers to serve under him
having been selected by himself, Clive, attended by two of the four
members who had been appointed by the Court to accompany him, Messrs.
Sumner and Sykes, embarked for Calcutta the 4th of June, 1764. Lady
Clive did not go with him. She had to remain in England to
superintend the education of her children.
{149}