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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

LONGMANS' ENGLISH CLASSICS

EDITED BY

ASHLEY H. THORNDIKE, Ph.D., L.H.D.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

LORD MACAULAY

ESSAY ON LORD CLIVE

Eottgmang' dgngltefr Claggfcg MACAULAY'S

ESSAY ON LORD CLIVE

EDITED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION BY

PRESTON C. FARRAR, A.M.

Head of Department of English, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn

NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO

LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA I9IO

Copyright, IQIO, by Longmans, Green, and Co.

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©CLA265889

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction • • *x

I. Life of Macaulay ix

II. Characteristics of Macaulay 's Personality and Work . xx

III. The Essay on Clive xxvii

IV. A Brief Sketch of the History of India . . . . xxx

Bibliography xxxvii

Chronological Table — Macaulay xxxix

Chronological Table — Clive xliv

Essay on Lord Clive 3

Notes . . ^ . . 107

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress

http://www.archive.org/details/macaulaysessayon10maca

INTRODUCTION

I. Life of Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay, the most popular Eng- lish essayist and historian of the nineteenth century, was born at Rothley Temple in Leicestershire, on the 25th of October, 1800. His father, Zachary Macaulay, a descend- ant of a family of Scotch Presbyterian ministers, was a man of ability and high character, who gave his life to the suppression of slavery in the English colonies. His mother, who was the daughter of a Quaker, is described as a woman of " affectionate temper, yet clear-headed and firm withal." To the influence of these serious-minded and unselfish parents Macaulay evidently owes some of the best traits in his character.

He was a remarkably precocious child. "From the time that he was three years old," says Trevelyan,1 "he read incessantly, for the most part lying on the rug before the fire, with his book on the ground and a piece of bread- and-butter in his hand." From the same early age he showed unusual facility in the use of language. As he took his walk, "he would hold forth to his companion, whether jiurse or mother, telling interminable stories out of his own head, or repeating what he had been reading in language far above his years." Many amusing instances of the quaint maturity of his speech are given by his biographer. On one occasion when he was but four years

1 See Bibliography (p. xxxvii) for a note on Trevelyan's biography..

x INTRODUCTION

old, a servant spilled some hot coffee on his legs. When his hostess, a little later, asked how he felt, he replied, " Thank you, madam, the agony is abated." It must not be supposed, however, that language like this " pro- ceeded from affectation or conceit; for all testimony declares that a more simple and natural child never lived, or a more lively and merry one."

The boy's writing showed even greater precocity than his speech. Before he reached the age of eight, he had written a compendium of universal history rilling about a quire of paper, and had composed many "poems," which Mrs. Hannah More pronounced "quite extraordinary for such a baby." "It is worthy of note," writes his nephew, "that the voluminous writings of his childhood, dashed off at headlong speed in the odds and ends of leisure from school study and nursery routine, are not only perfectly correct in spelling and grammar, but display the same lucidity of meaning and scrupulous accuracy in punctu- ation and the other minor details of the literary art which characterize his mature work."

The greater part of Macaulay's childhood was spent at Clapham, a suburb of London. When he was twelve years old he was sent to a small private school which was then situated near Cambridge, but was removed two years later to Aspenden Hall in Hertfordshire. Here, under good instruction, he laid the foundation of sound scholarship in Latin and Greek, and found time besides to read great numbers of books for his own pleasure.

In 1818 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he spent six delightful years. His enjoyment of his life here was evidently due less to the regular work of the university than to the leisure and liberty and the oppor- tunities for unlimited reading and attractive companion-

INTRODUCTION xi

ship which the place afforded. Next to reading, Macaulay seems to have enjoyed talking more than anything else. He was always ready to talk, and the able and interesting young men with whom he was brought into intimate association, furnished the stimulus of intellectual combat that called forth all his powers. The most brilliant mem- ber of the little group was Charles Austin, who is said to have been "the only man who ever succeeded in domina- ting Macaulay," and who is believed to have won him over to the Whig party, and away from his inherited allegiance to the Tories. Witnesses of the scenes in which these two and their friends took part "declare that they have never since heard such conversation in the most renowned of social circles." The following incident told by Trevelyan gives some support to this opinion. "While on a visit to Lord Landsdowne at Bo wood, Austin and Macaulay happened to get upon college topics one morning at breakfast. When the meal was finished they drew their chairs to either end of the chimney-piece, and talked at each other across the hearth-rug as if they were in a first-floor room in the Old Court of Trinity. The whole company, ladies, artists, politicians, and diners- out, formed a silent circle round the two Cantabs, and with a short break for lunch, never stirred till the bell warned them that it was time to dress for dinner." In the more formal discussions of the Union Debating Society, also, Macaulay was one of the ablest speakers. The training that he received in this organization was excellent preparation for his work later in Parliament.

Macaulay's interest in the social life of Cambridge, and his hatred and neglect of mathematics prevented him from winning the highest university honours. But he twice gained the chancellor's medal for English verse, and

xii INTRODUCTION

he also won a prize and a scholarship for his classical attainments. After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1822, he continued his studies at the university for two years in the hope of winning a fellowship. In 1824 his desire was gratified by his election as a fellow of Trinity College with an income of three hundred pounds a year for seven years.

Macaulay's success was especially welcome to him, because during his stay at the university, his father, who had supposed himself to be worth a hundred thousand pounds, failed in business, and the duty of supporting the family fell largely upon his eldest son. This duty Ma- caulay undertook with the utmost cheerfuless. "He unlearned," says Trevelyan, "the very notion of framing his method of life with a view to his own pleasure; and such was his high and simple nature that it may well be doubted whether it ever crossed his mind that to live wholly for others was a sacrifice at all."

In 1826 Macaulay was called to the bar, but got little practice and soon gave up all serious thought of following the legal profession. In the meantime he had begun to achieve success of a very different kind. Before he left Cambridge, he had made a number of contributions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine: two or three spirited battle poems, a few short pieces of fictitious narrative, and other prose articles, which showed him already to be possessed of a very striking and effective style. But his first great literary success came in 1825. In August of that year, in the Edinburgh Review, at that time perhaps the most celebrated and influential periodical in England, appeared Macaulay's Essay on Milton. Its success was "splendid and decisive." The reading public had suddenly become aware that a new master of English prose had appeared.

INTRODUCTION ' xiii

Like Lord Byron, after the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold, Macaulay "awoke one morning and found himself famous." In the England of that day, literary success brought with it social distinction, and the Macaulay breakfast table was covered with cards of invitation to dinner from every quarter of London. The social prominence which began for Macaulay in this way was greatly increased by his triumphs in Parliament and especially by his brilliant ability as a talker. The one evidence of appreciation of his essay, however, which most pleased him was the comment with which Jeffrey, the great editor of the Edinburgh, acknowledged the receipt of his manuscript, — "The more I think, the less I can conceive where you picked up that style."

After the publication of The Essay on Milton, Macaulay became a frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review. In fact, for the next twenty years he was its most impor- tant contributor. During the first eight years of this period he published, on the average, about three essays a year in its columns. These articles brought him fame and some money. But it must not be supposed that writing them was his chief business. Instead, they occu- pied him only during the intervals of his very active work in the House of Commons and in the various govern- ment positions which he held.

In 1828 he was made a commissioner of bankruptcy. This office, together with his fellowship and his contribu- tions to the Edinburgh Review, gave him an income of about a thousand pounds a year. Two years later, just before the memorable struggle over the parliamentary reform bill, he was asked to stand, as they say in England, for Parliament, and was elected member for the borough of Calne.

xiv INTRODUCTION

"And so," writes Trevelyan, "on the eve of the most momentous conflict that ever was fought out by speech and vote within the walls of a senate-house, the young recruit went gaily to his post in the ranks of that party whose coming fortunes he was prepared loyally to follow, and the history of whose past he was destined eloquently, and perhaps imperishably, to record."

Macaulay's success in Parliament was as quickly achieved and as continuous as was his success in litera- ture. His first great triumph came with his first speech on the Reform Bill in 1831. "When he sat down the Speaker sent for him and told him that, in all his pro- longed experience, he had never seen the House in such a state of excitement. . . . 'Portions of the speech,' said Sir Robert Peel, 'were as beautiful as anything I ever heard or read. It reminded me of the old times.' The names of Fox, Burke, and Canning were during that evening in everybody's mouth." The reputation which Macaulay gained on this notable occasion was established and strengthened by his subsequent speeches. Of his speech on the second reading of the Reform Bill, Jeffrey said, " It puts him clearly at the head of the great speakers, if not the debaters, of the House." After his speech on the India Bill, which he himself considered the best he had ever made, an old member said to him, Sir, having heard that speech may console the young people for never having heard Mr. Burke." "It may well be ques- tioned," says Mr. Morrison, "whether Macaulay was so well endowed for any career as that of a great orator." So great was his reputation that whenever it was known that he was to speak there would be a great rush of mem- bers and spectators to hear him. Such an incident — on the occasion of Macaulay's speaking after a long

INTRODUCTION xv

absence from the House — is described by a contemporary newspaper:

"The talk [in the House] was not interesting — on a Wednesday it seldom is — and you were loitering along the committee lobby upstairs, wondering which of the rooms you should take next, when, as you paused uncer- tain, you were bumped against by somebody. He begged your pardon, and rushed on; a member; a stout member; a man you couldn't conceive in a run, and yet he's run- ning like mad. You are still staring at him, when two more men trot past you, one one each side, and they are members too. The door close to you, marked 'Members' Entrance,' is flung open, and five members dash from it, and plunge furiously down the lobby. More doors open; more members rush out; members are tearing past you, from all points, but in one direction. Then wigs and gowns appear. Their owners tell you, with happy faces, that their committees have adjourned; and then come a third class, the gentlemen of the Press, hilarious. Why, what's the matter? Matter? Macaulay is up! It was an announcement that one had not heard for years, and the passing of the word had emptied committee-rooms as, of old, it emptied clubs.

"You join the runners in a moment, and are in the gallery in time to see the senators, who had start of you, perspiring in their places. It was true. He was up, and in for a long speech. . . . The old voice, the old man- ner, and the old style — glorious speaking ! Well pre- pared, carefully elaborated, confessedly essayish; but spoken with perfect art and consummate management; the grand conversation of a man of the world, confiding his learning, his recollections, and his logic to a party of gentlemen, and just raising his voice enough to be heard

xvi INTRODUCTION

through the room. Such it was while he was only open- ing his subject, and waiting for his audience; but as the House filled, which it did with marvellous celerity, he got prouder and more oratorical; and then he poured out his speech, with rapidity increasing after every sentence, till it became a torrent of the richest words, carrying his hearers with him into enthusiasm, and yet not leaving them time to cheer. A torrent of words — that is the only description of Macaulay's style, when he was warmed into speed. And such words! Why, it wasn't four in the afternoon; lunch hardly digested; and the quiet, reserved English gentlemen were as wild with delight as an opera-house, after Grisi, at ten. You doubt it? See the division; and yet, before Mr. Macaulay had spoken., you might have safely bet fifty to one that Lord Hotham would have carried his bill. After that speech the bill was not thrown out, but pitched out."

As a reward for his services in support of the Reform Bill Macaulay was made a member, and afterwards secretary, of the Board of Control, " which represented the crown in its relations with the East India directors." This position brought him into close touch with East Indian affairs, and prepared the way for a more impor- tant appointment.

In 1833 he was chosen a member of the Supreme Coun- cil of India at a salary of ten thousand pounds a year. Although Macaulay had no desire for great wealth, he longed for independence and for the means of restoring ease and comfort to his father's family; and he was sure that from the large salary offered him he could, in a few years, save a fortune of thirty thousand pounds. Accord- ingly he accepted the position, and early in 1834 sailed for India.

INTRODUCTION xvii

While in India Macaulay rendered very valuable ser- vice to the government and the people. Besides doing the regular work of his office, he served voluntarily as president of the Committee of Public Instruction, which had the arduous task of organizing an entire educational system for the country. It is largely due to Macaulay that English, rather than the native tongues, was made the language of instruction in much of the work of the schools, and that, in this way, the treasuries of European literature and science were opened to the people of India.

Another service which he rendered to India is hardly less important. He was chairman of a committee ap- pointed to draw up two new codes of laws for the empire, a Penal Code, and a Code of Criminal Procedure. On account of the illness of other members of the committee, the larger part of the work involved in this laborious undertaking was done by Macaulay. In reply to a criticism that the work was not finished sooner, he wrote, "I am not ashamed to acknowledge that there are several chapters in the code on which I have been employed for months; of which I have changed the whole plan ten or twelve times; which contain not a single word as it origi- nally stood; and with which I am very far indeed from being satisfied. The time during which the commission has sat is as nothing compared with the time during which the work will produce good, or evil, to India." As to the value of the code an eminent English lawyer and judge says, "Lord Macaulay's great work was far too daring and original to be accepted at once. It was finally enacted in i860 after being revised by Sir Barnes Pea- cock. The draft and the revision are both eminently creditable to their authors; and the result of their suc- cessive efforts has been to reproduce in a concise and even

xviii INTRODUCTION

beautiful form the spirit of the law of England, the most technical, the most clumsy, and the most bewildering of all systems of criminal law." "If it be asked," says Trevelyan, " whether or not the Penal Code fulfills the ends for which it was framed, the answer may safely be left to the gratitude of Indian civilians, the younger of whom carry it about in their saddle-bags and the older in their heads."

While in India Macaulay was also instrumental in doing away with the censorship of the press, and in mak- ing the administration of justice the same for both Eng- lishmen and natives. The latter reform made him very unpopular with a number of his countrymen in Calcutta, and subjected him to the most virulent abuse, which he bore with "unruffled equanimity."

In January, 1838, Macaulay set sail for England. He had been able to save money more rapidly than he had expected and had acquired a modest but comfortable fortune. Before the end of 1835 he had written to his friend Ellis, "What my course will be when I return to England is very doubtful. But I am half determined to abandon politics, and to give myself wholly to letters; to undertake some great historical work which may be at once the business and the amusement of my life." This desire, however, he was not able for some time to realize. His sense of duty to his party and his political friends drew him again into politics. From 1838 to 1847, and again from 1852 to 1856, he represented Edinburgh in Parliament, the second time receiving his seat as an unasked recompense for his unwarranted defeat five years before. Twice during this period he held important government offices, first as Secretary at War, and after- wards as Paymaster-general. But although he rendered

INTRODUCTION xix

valuable service to his party, his interest in politics con- tinued to decrease.

Until 1844 he wrote a good many articles for the Edin- burgh Review. In 1842 he published a volume of poems, The Lays of Ancient Rome, which was received with great popular favour. But the literary work in which Macaulay was becoming more and more interested was his History of England from the Accession of James II. In 1841 he had written, "I have at last begun my his- torical labours ... I shall not be satisfied unless I pro- duce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies." The reception which was given the first two volumes on their publication in 1848 must have more than satisfied this ambition of their author. The work met with remark- able success both in England and America. Within a few months after the date of publication, Harper and Brothers wrote to Macaulay, "No work, of any kind, has ever so completely taken our whole country by storm." The third and fourth volumes were published in 1855, and the fifth and last volume after Macaulay's death. They were received with even greater favour than the first two. Only two years after the publication of the third and fourth volumes, Longmans, the publishers, paid the author $100,000. in a single check, as part of his royalty. Of the whole history hundreds of thousands of copies in English alone have been sold, and the work has been translated into every important European tongue.

The only other important literary work that Macaulay did during his later years was the writing of five brief biographies for the Encyclopedia Britannica — the articles on Atterbury, Bunyan, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, and William Pitt. They are among the best of his works.

xx INTRODUCTION

In 1852 Macaulay was seriously ill, his physician pro- nouncing the action of his heart much deranged. After this illness he never fully regained his old good health, but, withdrawing more and more from public affairs, he passed his remaining years in the quiet of his garden and his library at Holly Lodge in Kensington, still working when he could, and still enjoying the company of a few intimate friends. Many marks of distinction came to him during these last years both from his own country and the continent. Among these was his elevation to the peerage in 1857 as Baron Macaulay of Rothley. But he did not long enjoy his honours. On December 28, 1859, he died. He is buried in the Poets' Corner in West- minster Abbey.

II. Characteristics or Macaulay's Personality and Work

Whatever shortcomings may be found in Macaulay's literary work, no serious fault has ever been discovered in his personal character. Throughout his long political career not a word of real suspicion was ever breathed against his honesty. Whenever his personal interests conflicted with his sense of duty, he seems never to have given them a moment's thought. He once voted for a bill that took away his own office, and .once opposed a measure with the full expectation that his action would cost him his position. No wonder Sydney Smith could say that Macaulay was incorruptible.

His conduct in the more private relations of life seems to have been no less admirable. His unselfish acceptance of the burden of his father's household has already been mentioned. Moreover he brought to that household not merely financial support, but such an abundance of

INTRODUCTION xxi

cheerfulness and gaiety and fun that the younger chil- dren were hardly aware of the money troubles of the family. Macaulay never married, chiefly because, as he said, he never fell in love; but all the affection of his nature was poured out on his sisters and afterwards on their children. Throughout his life he seems to have been singularly tender-hearted, generous, and courageous. The only criticisms that have been seriously made against him are that the strength of his convictions sometimes amounted to prejudice, and that he was sometimes per- haps too intolerant of those whom he thought to be in the wrong.

Any discussion of Macaulay's personality would be incomplete without some description of his appearance. "Macaulay's outward man," writes Trevelyan, "was never better described than in two sentences of Praed's Introduction to Knight's Quarterly Magazine. 'There came up a short manly figure, marvellously upright, with a bad neckcloth, and one hand in his waistcoat-pocket. Of regular beauty he had little to boast; but in faces where there is an expression of great power, or of great good- humour, or both, you do not regret its absence.' This picture, in which every touch is correct, tells all that there is to be told. He had a massive head, and features of a powerful and rugged cast; but so constantly lighted up by every joyful and ennobling emotion that it mattered little if, when absolutely quiescent, his face was rather homely than handsome. While conversing at table, no one thought him other than good-looking; but when he rose, he was seen to be short and stout in figure. 'At Holland House, the other day/ writes his sister Mar- garet, in September, 1831, 'Tom met Lady Lyndhurst for the first time. She said to him, "Mr. Macaulay, you

xxii INTRODUCTION

are so different to what I expected. I thought you were dark and thin, but you are fair, and, really, Mr. Macaulay, you are fat."' He at all times sat and stood straight, full, and square."

Of Macaulay's remarkable intellect it is difficult to speak adequately. His two most noticeable mental char- acteristics seem to have been the unusual quickness with which his mind worked, and his wonderfully retentive memory. His mental quickness appears especially in his reading. "He read books faster than other people skimmed them, and skimmed them as fast as anyone else could turn the leaves." This unusual ability, accom- panied as it was by a passionate fondness for reading, made it possible for Macaulay to read great quantities of books. Writing of his journey to India he said, "Except at meals, I hardly exchanged a word with any human being. I devoured Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and English; folios, quartos, octavos, duodecimos." But what is even more surprising than the great extent of his reading is the fact that he apparently remembered nearly everything he ever read, good and bad, important and unimportant, alike. This accounts for one striking characteristic of his literary work. He seems to know everything even remotely connected with the subject in hand, and to have an illustration ready for every fact and circumstance.

These very abilities, however, suggest, if they are not partly responsible for, certain noticeable faults in his work. His abundant knowledge of literature and history sometimes led him to assume too great knowledge in his readers, and to overload his writing with unfamiliar illus- tration and allusion. Likewise his great memory doubt- less strengthened his confidence in his knowledge, and that

INTRODUCTION xxiii

feeling of certainty, whatever its cause, extended also to matters of mere opinion. "There is," says Mark Pat- tison, "an overwhelming confidence about his tone. . . . His propositions have no qualifications. Uninstructed readers like this assurance as they like a physician who has no doubt about their case. But a sense of distrust grows apon the more circumspect reader. . . . We inevi- tably think of a saying attributed to Lord Melbourne, 'I wish I were as cock-sure of any one thing as Macaulay is of everything.'"

There were many things, moreover, about which Ma- caulay had no reason to be "cock-sure." His interests and his reading were one-sided. He had a wide knowledge of the literature and the political history of several coun- tries. Bit he knew little of philosophy, of modern science, or of the best work that was being done in history and poetry by his contemporaries. His interests, apart from the political struggles in which he was engaged, seem to have been almost wholly in the past. The great move- ments of his own day in scientific and religious thought, which have made that period memorable in the history of the world, apparently did not affect him at all. This shortcoming is the more readily understood in the light of another: he shows little evidence of having thought deeply 01 any subject. His great abilities seem to have been exercised not in arriving at conclusions, but in expressirg and supporting opinions apparently acquired with little thinking. As a consequence critics find a lack of depti, of subtlety, of fine discrimination, of insight into character, in his literary work. The thought of much of it tley find commonplace if not shallow. It is not filled with new ideas or new ways of looking at old ones. It does not stir the depths of men's minds, or set them

XXIV

INTRODUCTION

thinking, as does the work of truly original writers like Carlyle and Emerson.

But perhaps it is unfair to find fault with an author for not doing what he did not attempt to do, for not being somebody else than he is. And it is certainly unrea- sonable to let an author's shortcomings blind one to his very evident merits. Macaulay's work has certain great merits. He has a very unusual power of narrative. Few men have equalled or approached him in the ability to present the forward movement of events or the outward spectacle of things in a vivid and memorable wfy. His style has the admirable qualities of vigour and of ease and rapidity of movement. He brings out his ideis in the most striking and interesting way possible. Bui perhaps the most praiseworthy quality of his writing is its unfail- ing clearness. He seems to have determined above all other things to make his meaning clear. After the pub- lication of the first two volumes of his history, i group of workingmen to whom the book had been reid aloud passed a vote of thanks to him for having writ en a his- tory which workingmen could understand.

Macaulay's method of writing shows how hq attained these admirable qualities. The following accourjt is given by Trevelyan:

"The main secret of Macaulay's success la] in this, that to extraordinary fluency and facility he utrited pa- tient, minute, and persistent diligence. He w^ll knew, as Chaucer knew before him, that

'There is na workeman That can bothe worken wel and hastilie. This must be done at leisure parfaitlie.'

If his mehod of composition ever comes into fashion, books probably will be better, and undoubtedly will be

INTRODUCTION xxv

shorter. As soon as he had got into his head all the information relating to any particular episode, he would sit down and write off the whole story at a head- long pace; sketching in the outlines under the genial and audacious impulse of a first conception; and securing in black and white each idea, and epithet, and turn of phrase, as it flowed straight from his busy brain to his rapid fingers. His manuscript, at this stage, to the eyes of any one but himself, appeared to consist of column after column of dashes and flourishes, in which a straight line, with a half -formed letter at each end and another in the middle, did duty for a word. It was from a chaos of such hieroglyphics that Lady Trevelyan, after her brother's death, deciphered that account qf the last days of William which fitly closes the History.

"As soon as Macaulay had finished his rough draft, he began to fill it in at the rate of six sides of foolscap every morning; written in so large a hand, and with such a multitude of erasures, that the whole six pages were, on an average, compressed into two pages of print. This portion he called his 'task,' and he was never quite at ease unless he completed it daily. More he seldom sought to accomplish; for he had learned from long experience that this was as much as he could do at his best; and, except when at his best, he never would work at all.

"Macaulay never allowed a sentence to pass muster until it was as good as he could make it. He thought little of recasting a chapter in order to obtain a more lucid arrangement, and nothing whatever of reconstruct- ing a paragraph for the sake of one happy stroke or apt illustration. . . .

"Macaulay deserved the compliment which Cecil paid

xxvi INTRODUCTION

to Sir Walter Raleigh as the supreme of commendations: 'I know that he can labour terribly.' ...

"When at length, after repeated revisions, Macaulay liad satisfied himself that his writing was as good as he could make it, he would submit it to the severest of all tests, that of being read aloud to others."

Macaulay' s writings may be summed up as follows:

i. The Essays. Macaulay's Essays are perhaps his most popular works. They have done more, it has been .said, to popularize literature and history, than have the writings of any other man. Most of them deal with English history or with English authors. A few deal with foreign history, and a few are controversial in char- acter. Among the best of the essays are those on Hallam, Sir William Temple, Clive, Warren Hastings, and Dr. Johnson. Taken as a body the essays are sometimes prejudiced and sometimes untrustworthy. They contain character studies and literary criticism which are often undiscriminating and undiscerning. Macaulay himself wrote, "I have never written a page of criticism on poetry or the fine arts which I would not burn if I had the power." Yet all of the essays are brilliantly written, and give us many interesting discussions of great questions, and many striking and vivid portrayals of men and events and periods.

2. The Poems. Macaulay did not write much poetry. He did not attempt poetry of the highest kind. But in what he did attempt he accomplished his purpose admi- rably. In his battle poems, Ivry and Naseby, and in the Lays of Ancient Rome, he has given us some of the most stirring and vigorous narratives in verse that we have. The simplicity and directness of his best passages, espe- cially in Horatius, leads Mr. Morrison to ask "not whether

INTRODUCTION xxvii

his work is good, but whether in its kind it has often been surpassed."

3. The Speeches. Enough, no doubt, has already been said of Macaulay's great ability as an orator. His pub- lished speeches contain some of his best work, and are deserving of far more attention than they now receive. Among the best are those on the Reform Bill, on the India Bill, and on Ireland. His speeches on the latter subject, says Mr. Morrison, "would alone suffice to place him in the rank of high far-seeing statesmen."

4. The History of England. Much has been said already about the writing and reception of this most important of Macaulay's works. It is a brilliant, pic- turesque, and interesting, though not always impartial account of the reigns of James II and William III. In his views of history, and indeed of literature, Macaulay is prejudiced by his Whig partisanship.

III. The Essay on Clive

Macaulay was exceptionally well qualified to write on the life of Clive. He was very familiar with the his- tory of English politics in the eighteenth century, and he had had unusual opportunities to know India, its people and its government, at first hand.

Even before his sojourn in India he had shown an unusual interest in the country. As member and secre- tary of the Board of Control he had to deal constantly with Indian affairs. But "his speeches and essays teem with expressions of a far deeper than official interest in India and her people; and his minutes remain on record to prove that he did not affect the sentiment for a literary or oratorical purpose. The attitude of his own mind with regard to our Eastern empire is depicted in the

xxvm INTRODUCTION

passage on Burke, in the essay on Warren Hastings,1 which commences with the words, 'His knowledge of India,' and concludes with the sentence, 'Oppression in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppression in the streets of London.'"

Macaulay's strong interest in India, it is interesting to note here, continued throughout his life. On August 28, 1857, at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny, he wrote in his journal, "A great day in my life. I staid at home, very sad about India. Not that I have any doubt about the result; but the news is heart-breaking. I went, very low, to dinner, and had hardly begun to eat when a mes- senger came with a letter from Palmerston. An offer of a peerage. I was very much surprised . . . but God knows that the poor women at Delhi and Cawnpore are more in my thoughts than my coronet." And later he writes, "The Indian troubles have affected my spirits more than any public events in the whole course of my life." Many other passages in his journal show his deep

interest in the situation in India at this time. J As early as June 15, 18$ 7 ,the year after the appearance

of Sir John Malcolm's Life of Clive, Macaulay wrote to Macvey Napier, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, "I will try my hand on Temple, and on Lord Clive." During the next two years he seems to have kept the subject in mind, but it was not until the summer and fall of 1839 that he actually wrote the essay. In July of that year, he wrote to Napier, "I mean to give you a life of Clive for October. The subject is a grand one and admits of decorations and illustrations innumerable." On Septem- ber 2, he wrote, "I shall work on Clive as hard as I can,

See Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings in this series, pp. 114, 115.

INTRODUCTION xxix

and make the paper as short as I can; but I am afraid that I cannot positively pledge myself either as to time or as to length. I rather think, however, that the article will take." In November he wrote, "I send back the paper on Clive. Remember to let me have a revise. I have altered the last sentence, so as to make it clearer and more harmonious; but I cannot consent to leave out the well-earned compliment to my dear old friend, Lord William Bentinck."

The essay appeared in the January (1840) number of the Edinburgh Review. Macaulay's own comments will serve best to show how it was received. The next year in writing about a proposed paper on Warren Hastings, he said, "I am not so vain as to think that I can do it full justice; but the success of my paper on Clive has emboldened me." Later he wrote, "The paper on Clive took greatly. That on Hastings, though in my own opinion by no means equal to that on Clive, has been even more successful." The comment of his nephew on the success of the two essays is also interesting. Writing of Macaulay's first impressions of India, he says, "The fresh and vivid character of those impressions, the gen- uine and multiform interest excited in him by all that met his ear or eye, explain the secret of the charm which enabled him in after-days to overcome the distaste for Indian literature entertained by that personage who, for want of a better, goes by the name of the general reader. Macaulay reversed in his own case the experience of those countless writers on Indian themes who have successively blunted their pens against the passive indifference of the British public; for his faithful but brilliant studies of the history of our Eastern empire are to this day imcom- parably the most popular of his works."

xxxn INTRODUCTION

of Delhi, and had himself proclaimed Padshah, or sover- eign of the country.

In this way Baber, who was of Mongol as well as of Turkish descent, founded a dynasty, which, though probably more Turkish than Mongol, has always been known as the Mogul (or Mongol) dynasty. Though of the same blood as Tamerlane and Ghengis Khan, Baber was no barbarian. "Like the other kings of his family he loved literature and the society of polished and learned men." Fearless, strong, and at times even ferocious, he was also generous and affec- tionate and "inspired by a tender and passionate ad- miration for the beauty of nature." Notwithstanding his brilliant victories Baber did little more than gain a foothold in India. He died before he had time to extend his conquests very widely or to convert his military occupation into a well-ordered government. This task was not accomplished until the reign of his grandson Akbar.

Akbar, whose reign from 1556 to 1605 is almost con- temporaneous with that of Queen Elizabeth, was the best and the greatest of the Moguls. He extended his empire until it included the greater part of Afghanistan and all of India except the southern part of the peninsula. But his real greatness is shown more in his far-seeing states- manship than in his conquests. He wished to have all races, Hindoos as well as Mussulmans, work together for the common good. Accordingly he treated the Hindoos with great toleration. He sought marriage alliances with native princes. He chose Hindoos as his intimate friends, and raised them to high positions in the state. He showed the same wisdom, also, in the organization of his empire, and the same intellectual breadth in the liberality of his

INTRODUCTION xxxiii

religious views/ in his enjoyment of the arts, and in his patronage of learned men and artists of all kinds.

Akbar's successor, his son Jahangir, though mentally and morally inferior- to his father, was able to preserve intact the empire which he inherited. The next emperor, his son Shahjahan, who came to the throne in 1628, accomplished the same result, and even extended his rule a little farther to the south. His reign is described as a period of peaceful prosperity. It is made memo- rable by the unexampled splendour of his court, in which the display of jewels, including the famous Peacock Throne, "was almost beyond belief." But his reign is even more noteworthy for the magnificent buildings which it produced. The mausoleum of the empress Mumtaj Mahall at Agra, commonly known as the Taj, is considered "the crowning glory of Mogul architecture."

In 1659, Aurangzeb, the third son of Shahjahan, after overcoming his three brothers, made his father a prisoner and placed himself upon the throne. Although he was one of the strongest of the Mogul rulers, his long reign of nearly fifty years was in the end a failure, and marks the beginning of the downfall of the empire. Unlike his great ancestor Akbar, he was narrowly intolerant of all who were not Mohammedans, and his failure was due to his obstinate attempt to force Mohammedanism upon the great Hindoo population of the country.

The rapid falling apart of the empire after Aurangzeb's death in 1707 is sufficiently described for our present purpose in Macaulay's essay itself (pages 12 and 13). Before beginning the essay, however, it will be well for the reader to consider briefly the growth of European influence in India before the time of Clive. 1 See Tennyson's Akbar's Dream.

xxxiv INTRODUCTION

Since the Mohammedan occupation of Egypt in the seventh century, the route from Europe to India by way of the Red Sea had been closed to Europeans, and the trade by sea had been entirely under Mohammedan con- trol. But in 1498 Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese navi- gator, completing the work of his countryman Dias, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and reached the western coast of India. The discovery of this new route opened up great possibilities for the nations of western Europe. The Portuguese were the first to take advan- tage of the new opportunities offered, and following up the expedition of de Gama with many others, they soon made themselves masters of the Eastern Seas, and built fortresses or established trading stations at several points along the western coast of India and at other places in the East.

But the Portuguese supremacy was short-lived. Before the close of the sixteenth century it began to decline, and in the first half of the next century the control of the commerce of the East passed to the Dutch. In 1602 all the Dutch trading companies were combined under the name of "The United East India Company of the Nether- lands," which quickly became a rich and powerful cor- poration. The Dutch drove the Portuguese from Ceylon, seized some of their posts on the mainland, and estab- lished others of their own. But their chief interest in the East was in the Malay Archipelago, where they acquired much more extensive possessions.

The supremacy of Holland in East Indian waters was not long undisputed. England had been making rapid strides as a naval power, and the commerce of India was fast becoming an object of national importance to her. "The struggle during the seventeenth century between

INTRODUCTION xxxv

the Dutch and the English for command of the Eastern seas and control of the sea-borne trade was long and severe. The general result was that the Dutch retained their leading position in the Malay Archipelago and Ceylon, but failed to attain considerable power in India."

In 1600 the English East India Company was incor- porated under the title, "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies." A century later, when it was united with a rival company and reorganized, the name was changed to "The United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies." In 1608 the Company established its first fac- tory or trading station at Surat on the western coast of India. Other settlements were made at various times during the seventeenth century. In 1639 the site of Madras was purchased. In 1668 the Company acquired control of the island of Bombay. In 1690 a permanent settlement was made on the site of Calcutta. From time to time new charters and additional privileges were given to the Company until at length it acquired prac- tically all the powers of government, including the power of punishing its servants by death. Thus the most important trading-posts gradually became seats of gov- ernment, and as the Company's power over the surround- ing country increased, presidents of factories became governors of provinces.

Meanwhile the French, who were to be the chief rivals of the English in the struggle for India, had begun to take an interest in the commerce of the East. During the first part of the seventeenth century various com- panies were formed and various attempts were made to trade with the East Indies. But it was not until 1664 that a strong French East India Company was organized.

xxxvi INTRODUCTION

Its first important settlement was made in 1674 at Pon- dicherry, about one hundred miles south of Madras. Other settlements were made at various times, especially at Karikal, south of Pondicherry, at Mahe on the west coast, and at Chandernagore near Calcutta. Early in the eighteenth century the French began to interfere in the affairs of the local rulers, and thereby gained for France a high estimation in the minds of the natives. The outcome of this policy and the results of the struggle with the English which followed are made clear in Ma- caulay's narrative.

Little need be said here of the history of British influ- ence in India since Clive's time. The power of the East India Company steadily increased. Either by conquest or by getting actual control of local governments, without taking away the nominal power of the native rulers, it gradually made the whole country subject to its authority. In 1858, partly as a result of the terrible sepoy mutiny of the year before, which threatened to drive the English from the country, all powers of government were taken from the East India Company and vested in the crown. Since that time the country has been managed directly by the English government. It is interesting to note that this very reform had been advocated by Clive nearly one hundred years before.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Macaulay

Works, authorized edition, edited by Lady Trevelyan,

Macaulay's sister. Longmans, Green, and Co. Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by Sir George Otto Trevelyan. 2 vols. This book, by Macaulay's nephew, is one of the most entertaining biographies in the world. It will be found interesting to young readers as well as to older ones. Students should be encouraged to read at least those parts that deal with Macaulay's boyhood, his life at the university, his first great oratorical successes, and his life with his younger brothers and sisters at home. Life of Macaulay (with criticism of his works), by J. Cotter Morrison. English Men of Letters series. This is the best brief biography. Brief biographical and critical articles.

By Leslie Stephen, in the Dictionary of National

Biography. By Mark Pattison, in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Criticism.

By Walter Bagehot, in Literary Studies, vol. II. By John Morley, in Miscellanies, vol. II; printed

also in Brewster's Studies in Structure and Style. By Leslie Stephen, in Hours in a Library, vol. III. By E. P. Whipple, in Essays and Reviews.

II. Clive and India

Lord Clive, by Col. G. B. Malleson, in Rulers of India

series. Clarendon Press. 1900. Lord Clive, by Col. Sir Charles Wilson. Macmillan.

1893.

xxxviii BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dupleix, by Col. G. B. Malleson, in Rulers of India series.

Of the multitude of books on India only a few need be mentioned here.

Oxford Student's History of India, by Vincent Smith, i vol. Clarendon Press. 1908. This book gives in one small volume a good general survey of the whole history of India.

A Brief History of the Indian Peoples, by Sir Wm. W. Hunter. 1 vol. Clarendon Press. 1892. An excel- lent epitome of Indian history, brief but comprehensive.

The Indian Empire, its History, Peoples, and Products, by Sir Wm. W. Hunter. 1 vol. Trubner and Co. 1882. This volume gives much information about the country and the people. The historical part is very much condensed.

A History of British India, by Sir Wm. W. Hunter. 2 vols. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1889. This is the best history of British India down to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Unfortunately it stops with the year 1708.

The Rise of the British Dominion in India, by Sir Alfred Lyall. 1 vol. Scribners. 1893.

The following books are suggested as likely to stimu- late the interest of pupils in India: Mine Own People, Plain Tales from the Hills, Soldiers

Three, and other stories of Indian life, by Rudyard

Kipling. On the Face of the Waters, by Flora Annie Steele. A

novel dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.

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CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF CLIVE

1725. Clive born.

1727. Accession of George II.

1 740-1 748. War of the Austrian Succession.

1 741. Dupleix becomes governor of Pondicherry.

1743. Clive sets sail for India to become a writer at Madras.

1744. Clive arrives at Madras.

1746. Madras captured by the French. Clive flees to Fort

St. David. 1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 1 750-1 754. Local war in the Carnatic. 1 75 1. Clive captures and defends Arcot.

1753. Clive marries Miss Maskelyne, and sails for England.

1754. Clive elected to Parliament for St. Michael, but unseated.

1754. Dupleix recalled.

1755. Clive made lieutenant-colonel and appointed governor of Fort St. David. Sails for India.

1756. Clive and Admiral Watson capture Gheriah. The Black Hole of Calcutta. English expedition under Clive and Watson sets sail for Bengal.

1756-1763. The Seven Years War.

1757. Clive and Watson retake Calcutta and capture the French fort at Chandernagore. Clive defeats Surajah Dowlah at Plassey.

1758. Clive made governor of Bengal. Colonel Forde drives the French out of the Northern Circars.

1759. Expedition of the Dutch to Bengal defeated.

1760. Accession of George III. The French defeated at Wan- dewash. Clive returns to England. Becomes Baron Clive of Plassey.

1 761. Elected to Parliament.

1 763-1 764. Struggle for control of the Board of Directors. 1764. Clive appointed governor and commander-in-chief in Bengal.

xliv

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xlv

1 765-1 767. Clive's last period in India. Reforms in the adminis- tration of Bengal.

1767. Clive returns to England.

1 772-1 7 73. Parliamentary investigation of Clive's conduct in India.

1774. Death of Clive.

ESSAY ON LORD CLIVE

LORD CLIVE

(January, 1840.)

The Life of Robert Lord Clive; collected from the Family Papers, communicated by the Earl of Powis. By Major- General Sir John Malcolm, K.C.B. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1836.

We have always thought it strange that, while the history of the Spanish empire in America is familiarly known to all the nations of Europe, the great actions of our country- men in the East should, even among ourselves, excite little interest. Every schoolboy knows who imprisoned Mon- 5 tezuma, and who strangled Atahualpa. But we doubt whether one in ten, even among English gentlemen of highly cultivated minds, can tell who won the battle of Buxar, who perpetrated the massacre of Patna, whether Sujah Dowlah ruled in Oude or in Travancore, or whether 10 Holkar was a Hindoo or a Mussulman. Yet the victories of Cortes were gained over savages who had no letters, who were ignorant of the use of metals, who had not broken in a single animal to labour, who wielded no better weapons than those which could be made out of sticks, 15 flints, and fish-bones, who regarded a horse-soldier as a monster, half man and half beast, who took a harque- busier for a sorcerer, able to scatter the thunder and lightning of the skies. The people of India, when we sub- dued them, were ten times as numerous as the Americans 20 whom the Spaniards vanquished, and were at the same time quite as highly civilised as the victorious Spaniards. They had reared cities larger and fairer than Saragossa or

3

4 LORD CLIVE

Toledo, and buildings more beautiful and costly than the cathedral of Seville. They could show bankers richer than the richest firms of Barcelona or Cadiz, viceroys whose splendour far surpassed that of Ferdinand the 5 Catholic, myriads of cavalry and long trains of artillery which would have astonished the Great Captain. It might have been expected, that every Englishman who takes any interest in any part of history would be curious to know how a handful of his countrymen, separated

10 from their home by an immense ocean, subjugated, in the course of a few years, one of the greatest empires in the world. Yet, unless we greatly err, this subject is, to most readers, not only insipid but positively distasteful.

Perhaps the fault lies partly with the historians. Mr.

15 Mill's book, though it has undoubtedly great and rare merit, is not sufficiently animated and picturesque to attract those who read for amusement. Orme, inferior to no English historian in style and power of painting, is minute even to tediousness. In one volume he allots,

20 on an average, a closely printed quarto page to the events of every forty-eight hours. The consequence is, that his narrative, though one of the most authentic and one of the most finely written in our language, has never been very popular, and is now scarcely ever read.

25 We fear that the volumes before us will not much attract those readers whom Orme and Mill have repelled. The materials placed at the disposal of Sir John Malcolm by the late Lord Powis were indeed of great value. But we cannot say that they have been very skilfully worked up.

30 It would, however, be unjust to criticize with severity a work which, if the author had lived to complete and revise it, would probably have been improved by condensation and by a better arrangement. We are more disposed to

LORD CLIVE 5

perform the pleasing duty of expressing our gratitude to the noble family to which the public owes so much useful and curious information.

The effect of the book, even when we make the largest allowance for the partiality of those who have furnished 5 and of those who have digested the materials, is, on the whole, greatly to raise the character of Lord Clive. We are far indeed from sympathizing with Sir John Malcolm, whose love passes the love of biographers, and who can see nothing but wisdom and justice in the actions of his idol. 10 But we are at least equally far from concurring in the severe judgment of Mr. Mill, who seems to us to show less discrimination in his account of Clive than in any other part of his valuable work. Clive, like most men who are born with strong passions and tried by strong 15 temptations, committed great faults. But every person who takes a fair and enlightened view of his whole career must admit that our island, so fertile in heroes and states- men, has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great either in arms or in council. 20

The Clives had been settled, ever since the twelfth cen- tury, on an es*~te of no great value, near Market-D ray- ton, in Shrops hre. In the reign of George the First, this moderate but ancient inheritance was possessed by Mr. Richard Clive, who seems to have been a plain man of no 25 great tact or capacity. He had been bred to the law, and divided his time between professional business and the avocations of a small proprietor. He married a lady from Manchester, of the name of Gaskill, and became the father of a very numerous family. His eldest son, 30 Robert, the founder of the British empire in India, was born at the old seat of his ancestors on the twenty-ninth of September, 1725.

6 LORD CLIVE

Some lineaments of the character of the man were early discerned in the child. There remain letters written by his relations when he was in his seventh year; and from these letters it appears that, even at that early age, his 5 strong will and his fiery passions, sustained by a consti- tutional intrepidity which sometimes seemed hardly com- patible with soundness of mind, had begun to cause great uneasiness to his family. "Fighting," says one of his uncles, "to which he is out of measure addicted, gives

iohis temper such a fierceness and imperiousness, that he flies out on every trifling occasion." The old people of the neighbourhood still remember to have heard from their parents how Bob Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of Market-Drayton, and with what terror

15 the inhabitants saw him seated on a stone spout near the summit. They also relate how he formed all the idle lads of the town into a kind of predatory army, and com- pelled the shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples and half -pence, in consideration of which he guaranteed

20 the security of their windows. He was sent from school to school, making very little progress in his learning, and gaining for himself every where the chiinixter of an ex- ceedingly naughty boy. One of his makers, it is said, was sagacious enough to prophesy that the idle lad would

25 make a great figure in the world. But the. general opinion seems to have been that poor Robert was a dunce, if not a reprobate. His family expected nothing good from such slender parts and such a headstrong temper. It is not strange, therefore, that they gladly accepted for him,

30 when he was in his eighteenth year, a writership in the service of the East India Company, and shipped him off to make a fortune or to die of a fever at Madras.

Far different were the prospects of Clive from those of

LORD CLIVE 7

the youths whom the East India College now annually sends to the Presidencies of our Asiatic empire. The Com- pany was then purely a trading corporation. Its territory consisted of a few square miles, for which rent was paid to the native governments. Its troops were scarcely nu- 5 merous enough to man the batteries of three or four ill-con- structed forts, which had been erected for the protection of the warehouses. The natives, who composed a con- siderable part of these little garrisons, had not yet been trained in the discipline of Europe, and were armed, some 10 with swords and shields, some with bows and arrows. The business of the servant of the Company was not, as now, to conduct the judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great country, but to take stock, to make advances to weavers, to ship cargoes, and above all to keep an eye on 15 private traders who dared to infringe the monopoly. The younger clerks were so miserably paid that they could scarcely subsist without incurring debt; the elder enriched themselves by trading on their own account; and those who lived to rise to the top of the service often accumu- 20 lated considerable fortunes.

Madras, to which Clive had been appointed, was, at this time, perhaps, the first in importance of the Com- pany's settlements. In the preceding century, Fort St. George had arisen on a barren spot beaten by a raging 25 surf; and in the neighbourhood a town, inhabited by many thousands of natives, had sprung up, as towns spring up in the East, with the rapidity of the prophet's gourd. There were already in the suburbs many white villas, each surrounded by its garden, whither the wealthy agents of 30 the Company retired, after the labours of the desk and the warehouse, to enjoy the cool breeze which springs up at sunset from the Bay of Bengal. The habits of these

8 LORD CLIVE

mercantile grandees appear to have been more profuse, luxurious, and ostentatious, than those of the high judicial and political functionaries who have succeeded them. But comfort was far less understood. Many devices which 5 now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong life, were unknown. There was far less inter- course with Europe than at present. The voyage by the Cape, which in our time has often been performed within three months, was then very seldom accomplished in six,

10 and was sometimes protracted to more than a year. Con- sequently, the Anglo-Indian was then much more es- tranged from his country, much more addicted to Oriental usages, and much less fitted to mix in society after his return to Europe, than the Anglo-Indian of the present

15 day.

Within the fort and its precinct, the English exercised, by permission of the native government, an extensive authority, such as every great Indian landowner exercised within his own domain. But they had never dreamed

20 of claiming independent power. The surrounding coun- try was ruled by the Nabob of the Carnatic, a deputy of the Viceroy of the Deccan, commonly called the Nizam, who was himself only a deputy of the mighty prince designated by our ancestors as the Great Mogul. Those

25 names, once so august and formidable, still remain. There is still a Nabob of the Carnatic, who lives on a pension allowed to him by the English out of the revenues of the province which his ancestors ruled. There is still a Nizam, whose capital is overawed by a British canton-

30 ment, and to whom a British resident gives, under the name of advice, commands which are not to be dis- puted. There is still a Mogul, who is permitted to play at holding courts and receiving petitions, but who has

LORD CLIVE 9

less power to help or hurt than the youngest civil servant of the Company.

Give's voyage was unusually tedious even for that age. The ship remained some months at the Brazils, where the young adventurer picked up some knowledge of Portu- 5 guese and spent all his pocket-money. He did not arrive in India till more than a year after he had left England. His situation at Madras was most painful. His funds were exhausted. His pay was small. He had contracted debts. He was wretchedly lodged, no small calamity in a climate 10 which can be made tolerable to an European only by spa- cious and well-placed apartments. He had been furnished with letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. George he found that this gentleman had sailed for England. The 15 lad's shy and haughty disposition withheld him from in- troducing himself to strangers. He was several months in India before he became acquainted with a single family. The climate affected his health and spirits. His duties were of a kind ill suited to his ardent and daring character. 20 He pined for his home, and in his letters to his relations expressed his feelings in language softer and more pensive than- we should have expected either from the waywardness of his boyhood, or from the inflexible sternness of his later years. "I have not enjoyed," says he, "one happy day 25 since I left my native country;" and again, "I must con- fess, at intervals, when I think of my dear native Eng- land, it affects me in a very particular manner .... If I should be so far blest as to revisit again my own country, but more especially Manchester, the centre of all my 30 wishes, all that I could hope or desire for would be pre- sented before me in one view."

One solace he found of the most respectable kind. The

io LORD CLIVE

Governor possessed a good library, and permitted Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever possessed. As a 5 boy he had been too idle, as a man he soon became too busy, for literary pursuits.

But neither climate nor poverty, neither study nor the sorrows of a home-sick exile, could tame the desperate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official superiors

io as he had behaved to his schoolmasters, and was several times in danger of losing his situation. Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he attempted to destroy himself ; and twice the pistol which he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This circumstance, it is said,

15 affected him as a similar escape affected Wallenstein. After satisfying himself that the pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an exclamation that surely he was reserved for something great.

About this time an event which at first seemed likely

20 to destroy all his hopes in life suddenly opened before him a new path to eminence. Europe had been, during some years, distracted by the war of the Austrian succes- sion. George the Second was the steady ally of Maria Theresa. The house of Bourbon took the opposite side.

25 Though England was even then the first of maritime powers, she was not, as she has since become, more than a match on the sea for all the nations of the world to- gether; and she found it difficult to maintain a contest against the united navies of France and Spain. In the

30 eastern seas France obtained the ascendency. Labour- donnais, governor of Mauritius, a man of eminent talents and virtues, conducted an expedition to the continent of India in spite of the opposition of the British fleet, landed,

LORD CLIVE ii

assembled an army, appeared before Madras, and com- pelled the town and fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up; the French colours were displayed on Eort St. George; and the contents of the Company's warehouses were seized as prize of war by the conquerors. It was 5 stipulated by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should remain in the hands of the French till it should be ransomed. Labourdonnais pledged his honour that only a moderate ransom should be required. 10

But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened the jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix, governor of Pondi- cherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun to revolve gigantic schemes, with which the restoration of Madras to the English was by no means compatible. He declared 15 that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his powers; that conquests made by the French arms on the continent of India were at the disposal of the governor of Pondicherry alone; and that Madras should be rased to the ground. Labourdonnais was compelled to yield. The anger which 20 the breach of the capitulation excited among the English was increased by the ungenerous manner in which Dupleix treated the principal servants of the Company. The Governor and several of the first gentlemen of Fort St. George were carried under a guard to Pondicherry, and 25 conducted through the town in a triumphal procession under the eyes of fifty thousand spectators. It was with reason thought that this gross violation of public faith absolved the inhabitants of Madras from the engagements into which they had entered with Labourdonnais. Clive 30 fled from the town by night in the disguise of a Mussul- man, and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of the small English settlements subordinate to Madras.

12 LORD CLIVE

The circumstances in which he was now placed naturally led him to adopt a profession better suited to his restless and intrepid spirit than the business of examining packages and casting accounts. He solicited and obtained an 5 ensign's commission in the service of the Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military career. His personal courage, of which he had, while still a writer, given signal proof by a desperate duel with a military bully who was the terror of Fort St. David, speedily made him conspicu-

10 ous even among hundreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his new calling other qualities which had not before been discerned in him, judgment, sagacity, deference to legitimate authority. He distinguished himself highly in several operations against the French, and was par-

15 ticularly noticed by Major Lawrence, who was then con- sidered as the ablest British officer in India.

Give had been only a few months in the army when intelligence arrived that peace had been concluded between Great Britain and France. Dupleix was in conse-

20 quence compelled to restore Madras to the English Com- pany; and the young ensign was at liberty to resume his former business. He did indeed return for a short time to his desk. He again quitted it in order to assist Major Lawrence in some petty hostilities with the natives, and

25 then again returned to it. While he was thus wavering between a military and a commercial life, events took place which decided his choice. The politics of India assumed a new aspect. There was peace between the English and French Crowns; but there arose between

30 the English and French Companies trading to the East a war most eventful and important, a war in which the prize was nothing less than the magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane.

LORD CLIVE 13

The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom was so large a population subject to a single prince, or so large a revenue poured into the treasury. The beauty and mag- 5 nificence of the buildings erected by the sovereigns of Hin- dostan, amazed even travellers who had seen St. Peter's. The innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp of Versailles. Some of the 10 great viceroys who held their posts by virtue of commis- sions from the Mogul ruled as many subjects as the King of France or the Emperor of Germany. Even the depu- ties of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of 15 Tuscany, or the Elector of Saxony.

There can be little doubt that this great empire, power- ful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed than the worst governed parts of Europe now are. The adminis- 20 tration was tainted with all the vices of Oriental despotism and with all the vices inseparable from the domination of race over race. The conflicting pretensions of the princes of the royal house produced a long series of crimes and public disasters. Ambitious lieutenants of the sovereign 25 sometimes aspired to independence. Fierce tribes of Hin- doos, impatient of a foreign yoke, frequently withheld tribute, repelled the armies of the government from the mountain fastnesses, and poured down in arms on the cul- tivated plains. In spite, however, of much constant mal- 30 administration, in spite of occasional convulsions which shook the whole frame of society, this great monarchy, on the whole, retained, during some generations, an out-

14 LORD CLIVE

ward appearance of unity, majesty, and energy. But throughout the long reign of Aurungzebe, the state, notwithstanding all that the vigour and policy of the prince could effect, was hastening to dissolution. After 5 his death, which took place in the year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid. Violent shocks from without co-operated with an incurable decay which was fast proceeding within; and in a few years the empire had undergone utter de- composition.

10 The history of the successors of Theodosius bears no small analogy to that of the successors of Aurungzebe. But perhaps the fall of the Carlo vingians furnishes the nearest parallel to the fall of the Moguls. Charlemagne was scarcely interred when the imbecility and the disputes

15 of his descendants began to bring contempt on themselves and destruction on their subjects. The wide dominion of the Franks was severed into a thousand pieces. Nothing more than a nominal dignity was left to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, Charles the Bald, and Charles the

20 Fat, and Charles the Simple. Fierce invaders, differing from each other in race, language, and religion, flocked, as it by concert, from the farthest corners of the earth, to plunder provinces which the government could no longer defend. The pirates of the Northern Sea extended

25 their ravages from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, and at length fixed their seat in the rich valley of the Seine. The Hun- garian, in whom the trembling monks fancied that they recognised the Gog or Magog of prophecy, carried back the plunder of the cities of Lombardy to the depths of

30 the Pannonian forests. The Saracen ruled in Sicily, desolated the fertile plains of Campania, and spread terror even to the walls of Rome. In the midst of these sufferings, a great internal change passed upon the empire.

LORD CLIVE 15

The corruption of death began to ferment into new forms of life. While the great body, as a whole, was torpid and passive, every separate member began to feel with a sense, and to move with an energy all its own. Just here, in the most barren and dreary tract of European history, all 5 feudal privileges, all modern nobility, take their source. It is to this point that we trace the power of those princes, who, nominally vassals, but really independent, long gov- erned, with the titles of dukes, marquesses and counts, almost every part of the dominions which had obeyed 10 Charlemagne.

Such or nearly such was the change which passed on the Mogul empire during the forty years which followed the death of Aurungzebe. A succession of nominal sover- eigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered away 15 life in secluded palaces, chewing bang, fondling concu- bines, and listening to buffoons. A succession of ferocious invaders descended through the western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of Hindostan. A Persian con- queror crossed the Indus, marched through the gates of 20 Delhi, and bore away in triumph those treasures of which the magnificence had astounded Roe and Bernier, the Peacock Throne, on which the richest jewels of Golconda had been disposed by the most skilful hands of Europe, and the inestimable Mountain of Light, which, after 25 many strange vicissitudes, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet Sing, and is now destined to adorn the hideous idol of Orissa. The Afghan soon followed to complete the work of devastation which the Persian had begun. The warlike tribes of Rajpootana threw off the Mussul- 30 man yoke. A band of mercenary soldiers occupied Rohil- cund. The Seiks ruled on the Indus. The Jauts spread dismay along the Jumna. The highlands which border

1 6 LORD CLIVE

on the western sea-coast of India poured forth a yet more formidable race, a race which was long the terror of every native power, and which, after many desperate and doubt- ful struggles, yielded only to the fortune and genius of 5 England. It was under the reign of Aurungzebe that this wild clan of plunderers first descended from their mountains; and soon after his death, every corner of his wide empire learned to tremble at the mighty name of the Mahrattas. Many fertile vice-royalties were entirely

10 subdued by them. Their dominions stretched across the peninsula from sea to sea. Mahratta captains reigned at Poonah, at Gualior, in Guzerat, in Berar, and in Tanjore. Nor did they, though they had become great sovereigns, therefore cease to be freebooters. They still

15 retained the predatory habits of their forefathers. Every region which was not subject to their rule was wasted by their incursions. Wherever their kettle-drums were heard, the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife

20 and children to the mountains or the jungles, to the milder neighbourhood of the hyaena and the tiger. Many prov- inces redeemed their harvests by the payment of an annual ransom. Even the wretched phantom who still bore the imperial title stooped to pay this ignominious

25 black-mail. The camp-fires of one rapacious leader were seen from the walls of the palace of Delhi. Another, at the head of his innumerable cavalry, descended year after year on the rice fields of Bengal. Even the European factors trembled for their magazines. Less than a hun-

30 dred years ago, it was thought necessary to fortify Cal- cutta against the horsemen of Berar; and the name of the Mahratta ditch still preserves the memory of the danger.

LORD CLIVE 17

Wherever the viceroys of the Mogul retained authority they became sovereigns. They might still acknowledge in words the superiority of the house of Tamerlane; as a Count of Flanders or a Duke of Burgundy might have acknowledged the superiority of the most helpless driveller 5 among the later Carlovingians. They might occasionally send to their titular sovereign a complimentary present, or solicit from him a title of honour. In truth, however, they were no longer lieutenants removable at pleasure, but independent hereditary princes. In this way orig- 10 inated those great Mussulman houses which formerly ruled Bengal and the Carnatic, and those which still, though in a state of vassalage, exercise some of the powers of royalty at Lucknow and Hyderabad.

In what was this confusion to end? Was the strife to 15 continue during centuries? Was it to terminate in the rise of another great monarchy? Was the Mussulman or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India? Was another Baber to descend from the mountains, and to lead the hardy tribes of Cabul and Chorasan against a wealthier and less 20 warlike race? None of these events seemed improbable. But scarcely any man, however sagacious, would have thought it possible that a trading company, separated from India by fifteen thousand miles of sea, and possessing in India only a few acres for purposes of commerce, would, in 25 less than a hundred years, spread its empire from Cape Comorin to the eternal snow of the Himalayas; would compel Mahratta and Mahommedan to forget their mutual feuds in common subjection; would tame down even those wild races which had resisted the most powerful of the 30 Moguls; and, having united under its laws a hundred mil- lions of subjects, would carry its victorious arms far to the east of the Burrampooter, and far to the west of the 3

18 LORD CLIVE

Hydaspes, dictate terms of peace at the gates of Ava, and seat its vassal on the throne of Candahar.

The man who first saw that it was possible to found an European empire on the ruins of the Mogul monarchy 5 was Dupleix. His restless, capacious, and inventive mind had formed this scheme, at a time when the ablest servants of the English Company were busied only about invoices and bills of lading. Nor had he only proposed to himself the end. He had also a just and distinct view of the means

10 by which it was to be attained. He clearly saw that the greatest force which the princes of India could bring into the field would be no match for a small body of men trained in the discipline, and guided by the tactics, of the West. He saw also that the natives of India might, under

15 European commanders, be formed into armies, such as Saxe or Frederic would be proud to command. He was perfectly aware that the most easy and convenient way in which an European adventurer could exercise sover- eignty in India, was to govern the motions, and to speak

20 through the mouth of some glittering puppet dignified by the title of Nabob or Nizam. The arts both of war and policy, which a few years later were employed with such signal success by the English, were first understood and practised by this ingenious and aspiring Frenchman.

25 The situation of India was such that scarcely any aggression could be without a pretext, either in old laws or in recent practice. All rights were in a state of utter uncertainty; and the Europeans who took part in the disputes of the natives confounded the confusion, by apply-

30 ing to Asiatic politics the public law of the West and analo- gies drawn from the feudal system. If it was convenient to treat a Nabob as an independent prince, there was an excellent plea for doing so. He was independent in fact.

LORD CLIVE 19

If it was convenient to treat him as a mere deputy of the Court of Delhi, there was no difficulty; for he was so in theory. If it was convenient to consider his office as an hereditary dignity, or as a dignity held during life only, or as a dignity held, only during the good pleasure of the Mogul, 5 arguments and precedents might be found for every one of those views. The party who had the heir of Baber in their hands represented him as the undoubted, the legitimate, the absolute sovereign, whom all subordinate authorities were bound to obey. The party against whom his name 10 was used did not want plausible pretexts for maintaining that the empire was in fact dissolved, and that, though it might be decent to treat the Mogul with respect, as a venerable relic of an order of things which had passed away, it was absurd to regard him as the real master of 15 Hindostan.

In the year 1748, died one of the most powerful of the new masters of India, the great Nizam al Mulk, Viceroy of the Deccan. His authority descended to his son, Nazir Jung. Of the provinces subject to this high functionary, 20 the Carnatic was the wealthiest and the most extensive. It was governed by an ancient Nabob, whose name the English corrupted into Anaverdy Khan.

But there were pretenders to the government both of the viceroyalty and of the subordinate province. Mirza- 25 pha Jung, a grandson of Nizam al Mulk, appeared as the competitor of Nazir Jung. Chunda Sahib, son-in-law of a former Nabob of the Carnatic, disputed the title of Anaverdy Khan. In the unsettled state of Indian law, it was easy for both Mirzapha Jung and Chunda Sahib to 30 make out something like a claim of right. In a society altogether disorganised, they had no difficulty in finding greedy adventurers to follow their standards. They

20 LORD CLIVE

united their interests, invaded the Carnatic, and applied for assistance to the French, whose fame had been raised by their success against the English in the recent war on the coast of Coromandel. 5 Nothing could have happened more pleasing to the subtle and ambitious Dupleix. To make a Nabob of the Carnatic, to make a Viceroy of the Deccan, to rule under their names the whole of southern India; this was indeed an attractive prospect. He allied himself with the pre-

10 tenders, and sent four hundred French soldiers, and two thousand sepoys, disciplined after the European fashion, to the assistance of his confederates. A battle was fought. The French distinguished themselves greatly. Anaverdy Khan was defeated and slain. His son Ma-

1 5 hommed AH, who was afterwards well known in England as the Nabob of Arcot, and who owes to the eloquence of Burke a most unenviable immortality, fled with a scanty remnant of his army to Trichinopoly; and the conquerors became at once masters of almost every part

20 of the Carnatic.

This was but the beginning of the greatness of Dupleix. After some months of fighting, negotiation, and intrigue, his ability and good fortune seemed to have prevailed every where. Nazir Jung perished by the hands of his

25 own followers; Mirzapha Jung was master of the Deccan; and the triumph of French arms and French policy was complete. At Pondicherry all was exultation and festivity. Salutes were fired from the batteries, and Te Deutn sung in the churches. The new Nizam came thither to visit

30 his allies; and the ceremony of his -installation was per- formed there with great pomp. Dupleix, dressed in the garb worn by Mahommedans of the highest rank, entered the town in the same palanquin with the Nizam, and, in

LORD CLIVE 21

the pageant which followed, took precedence of all the court. He was declared Governor of India from the river Kristna to Cape Comorin, a country about as large as France, with authority superior even to that of Chunda Sahib. He was intrusted with the command of seven 5 thousand cavalry. It was announced that no mint would be suffered to exist in the Carnatic except that at Pondi- cherry. A large portion of the treasures which former Viceroys of the Deccan had accumulated found its way into the coffers of the French governor. It was rumoured 10 that he had received two hundred thousand pounds ster- ling in money, besides many valuable jewels. In fact, there could scarcely be any limit to his gains. He now ruled thirty millions of people with almost absolute power. No honour or emolument could be obtained from the 15 government but by his intervention. No petition, unless signed by him, was perused by the Nizam.

Mirzapha Jung survived his elevation only a few months. But another prince of the same house was raised to the throne by French influence, and ratified all the promises 20 of his predecessor. Dupleix was now the greatest po- tentate in India. His countrymen boasted that his name was mentioned with awe even in the chambers of the palace of Delhi. The native population looked with amazement on the progress which, in the short space of 25 four years, an European adventurer had made towards dominion in Asia. Nor was the vain-glorious French- man content with the reality of power. He loved to dis- play his greatness with arrogant ostentation before the eyes of his subjects and of his rivals. Near the spot where 30 his policy had obtained its chief triumph, by the fall of Nazir Jung and the elevation of Mirzapha, he determined to erect a column, on the four sides of which four pompous

22 LORD CLIVE

inscriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his glory to all the nations of the East. Medals stamped with emblems of his successes were buried beneath the founda- tions of this stately pillar, and round it arose a town bear- 5 ing the haughty name of Dupleix Fatihabad, which is, being interpreted, the City of the Victory of Dupleix.

The English had made some feeble and irresolute attemps to stop the rapid and brilliant career of the rival Company, and continued to recognise Mahommed Ali

10 as Nabob of the Carnatic. But the dominions of Mahommed Ali consisted of Trichinopoly alone; and Trichinopoly was now invested by Chunda Sahib and his French auxiliaries. To raise the siege seemed impossible. The small force which was then at Madras had no com-

15 mander. Major Lawrence had returned to England: and not a single officer of established character remained in the settlement. The natives had learned to look with contempt on the mighty nation which was soon to conquer and to rule them. They had seen the French colours

20 flying on Fort St. George; they had seen the chiefs of the English factory led in triumph through the streets of Pondicherry; they had seen the arms and counsels of Dupleix every where successful, while the opposition which the authorities of Madras had made to his progress,

25 had served only to expose their own weakness, and to heighten his glory. At this moment, the valour and genius of an obscure English youth suddenly turned the tide of fortune.

Clive was now twenty-five years old. After hesi-

30 tating for some time between a military and a com- mercial life, he had at length been placed in a post which partook of both characters, that of commissary to the troops, with the rank of captain. The present emergency

LORD CLIVE 23

called forth all his powers. He represented to his superiors that, unless some vigorous effort were made, Trichinopoly would fall, the House of Anaverdy Khan would perish, and the French would become the real masters of the whole peninsula of India. It was absolutely necessary to strike 5 some daring blow. If an attack were made on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, and the favourite residence of the Nabobs, it was not impossible that the siege of Trichino- poly would be raised. The heads of the English settlement, now thoroughly alarmed by the success of Dupleix, and 10 apprehensive that, in the event of a new war between France and Great Britain, Madras would be instantly taken and destroyed, approved of Clive's plan, and in- trusted the execution of it to himself. The young cap- tain was put at the head of two hundred English soldiers, 15 and three hundred sepoys armed and disciplined after the European fashion. Of the eight officers who commanded this little force under him, only two had ever been in action, and four of the eight were factors of the Company, whom Clive's example had induced to offer their services. 2.0 The weather was stormy; but Clive pushed on, through thunder, lightning, and rain, to the gates of Arcot. The garrison, in a panic, evacuated the fort, and the English entered it without a blow.

But Clive well knew that he should not be suffered to 25 retain undisturbed possession of his conquest. He in- stantly began to collect provisions, to throw up works, and to make preparations for sustaining a siege. The garrison, which had fled at his approach, had now re- covered from its dismay, and, having been swollen by large 30 reinforcements from the neighbourhood to a force of three thousand men, encamped close to the town. At dead of night, Clive marched out of the fort, attacked the camp

24 LORD CLIVE

by surprise, slew great numbers, dispersed the rest, and returned to his quarters without having lost a single man.

The intelligence of these events was soon carried to 5 Chunda Sahib, who, with his French allies, was besieg- ing Trichinopoly. He immediately detached four thou- sand men from his camp, and sent them to Arcot. They were speedily joined by the remains of the force which Clive had lately scattered. They were further strength-

io ened by two thousand men from Vellore, and by a still more important reinforcement of a hundred and fifty French soldiers whom Dupleix despatched from Pondi- cherry. The whole of this army, amounting to about ten thousand men, was under the command of Rajah

15 Sahib, son of Chunda Sahib.

Rajah Sahib proceeded to invest the fort of Arcot, which seemed quite incapable of sustaining a siege. The walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the ramparts too narrow to admit the guns, the battlements too low to

20 protect the soldiers. The little garrison had been greatly reduced by casualties. It now consisted of a hundred and twenty Europeans and two hundred sepoys. Only four officers were left; the stock of provisions was scanty; and the commander, who had to conduct the defence

25 under circumstances so discouraging, was a young man of five and twenty, who had been bred a book-keeper.

During fifty days the siege went on. During fifty days the young captain maintained the defence, with a firmness, vigilance, and ability, which would have done honour to

30 the oldest marshal in Europe. The breach, however, increased day by day. The garrison began to feel the pressure of hunger. Under such circumstances, any troops so scantily provided with officers might have been

LORD CLIVE 25

expected to show signs of insubordination; and the danger was peculiarly great in a force composed of men differing ■widely from each other in extraction, colour, language, manners, and religion. But the devotion of the little band to its chief surpassed any thing that is related of the 5 Tenth Legion of Caesar, or of the Old Guard of Napoleon. The sepoys came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, who required more nourishment than the natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was 10 strained away from the rice, would suffice for themselves. History contains no more touching instance of military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind.

An attempt made by the government of Madras to relieve the place had failed. But there was hope from 15 another quarter. A body of six thousand Mahrattas, half soldiers, half robbers, under the command of a chief named Morari Row, had been hired to assist Mahommed Ali; but thinking the French power irresistible, and the triumph of Chunda Sahib certain, they had hitherto remained in- 20 active on the frontiers of the Carnatic. The fame of the defence of Arcot roused them from their torpor. Morari Row declared that he had never before believed that Eng- lishmen could fight, but that he would willingly help them since he saw that they had spirit to help themselves. 25 Rajah Sahib learned that the Mahrattas were in motion. It was necessary for him to be expeditious. He first tried negotiation. He offered large bribes to Clive, which were rejected with scorn. He vowed that, if his proposals were not accepted, he would instantly storm the fort, and put 30 every man in it to the sword. Clive told him in reply, with characteristic haughtiness, that his father was an usurper, that his army was a rabble, and that he would do

26 LORD CLIVE

well to think twice before he sent such poltroons into a breach defended by English soldiers.

Rajah Sahib determined to storm the fort. The day was well suited to a bold military enterprise. It was the great 5 Mahommedan festival which is sacred to the memory of Hosein the son of Ali. The history of Islam contains nothing more touching than the event which gave rise to that solemnity. The mournful legend relates how the chief of the Fatimites, when all his brave followers had

10 perished round him, drank his latest draught of water, and uttered his latest prayer, how the assassins carried his head in triumph, how the tyrant smote the lifeless lips with his staff, and how a few old men recollected with tears that they had seen those lips pressed to the lips of

15 the Prophet of God. After the lapse of near twelve centuries, the recurrence of this solemn season excites the fiercest and saddest emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslem of India. They work themselves up to such ago- nies of rage and lamentation that some, it is said, have

20 given up the ghost from the mere effect of mental excite- ment. They believe that whoever, during this festival, falls in arms against the infidels, atones by his death for all the sins of his life, and passes at once to the garden of the Houris. It was at this time that Rajah Sahib determined

25 to assault Arcot. Stimulating drugs were employed to aid

the effect of religious zeal, and the besiegers, drunk with

enthusiasm, drunk with bang, rushed furiously to the attack.

Clive had received secret intelligence of the design,

had made his arrangements, and, exhausted by fatigue,

30 had thrown himself on his bed. He was awakened by the alarm, and was instantly at his post. The enemy advanced driving before them elephants whose foreheads were armed with iron plates. It was expected that the

LORD CLIVE 27

gates would yield to the shock of these living battering- rams. But the huge beasts no sooner felt the English musket-balls than they turned round, and rushed furiously away, trampling on the multitude which had urged them forward. A raft was launched on the water which rilled 5 one part of the ditch. Clive, perceiving that his gunners at that post did not understand their business, took the management of a piece of artillery himself, and cleared the raft in a few minutes. Where the moat was dry, the assailants mounted with great boldness; but they were 10 received with a fire so heavy and so well-directed, that it soon quelled the courage even of fanaticism and of intox- ication. The rear ranks of the English kept the front ranks supplied with a constant succession of loaded mus- kets, and every shot told on the living mass below. After 15 three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch.

The struggle lasted about an hour. Four hundred of the assailants fell. The garrison lost only five or six men. The besieged passed an anxious night, looking for a renewal 20 of the attack. But when day broke, the enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, leaving to the Eng- lish several guns and a large quantity of ammunition.

The news was received at Fort St. George with tran- sports of joy and pride. Clive was justly regarded as 25 a man equal to any command. Two hundred English soldiers, and seven hundred sepoys were sent to him, and with this force he instantly commenced offensive opera- tions. He took the fort of Timery, effected a junction with a division of Morari Row's army, and hastened, by 30 forced marches, to attack Rajah Sahib, who was at the head of about five thousand men, of whom three hundred were French. The action was sharp, but Clive gained a

28 LORD CLIVE

complete victory. The military chest of Rajah Sahib fell into the hands of the conquerors. Six hundred sepoys, who had served in the enemy's army, came over to Clive's quarters, and were taken into the British service. Con- 5 jeveram surrendered without a blow. The governor of Arnee deserted Chunda Sahib, and recognised the title of Mahommed Ali.

Had the entire direction of the war been intrusted to Clive, it would probably have been brought to a speedy

10 close. But the timidity and incapacity which appeared in all the movements of the English, except where he was personally present, protracted the struggle. The Mah- rattas muttered that his soldiers were of a different race from the British whom they found elsewhere. The effect

15 of this languor was, that in no long time Rajah Sahib, at the head of a considerable army, in which were four hun- dred French troops, appeared almost under the guns of Fort St. George and laid waste the villas and gardens of the gentlemen of the English settlement. But he was

20 again encountered and defeated by Clive. More than a hundred of the French were killed or taken, a loss more serious than that of thousands of natives. The victorious army marched from the field of battle to Fort St. David. On the road lay the City of the Victory of Dupleix, and

25 the stately monument which was designed to commemo- rate the triumphs of France in the East. Clive ordered both the city and the monument to be rased to the ground. He was induced, we beiieve, to take this step, not by personal or national malevolence, but by a just and pro-

30 found policy. The town and its pompous name, the pillar and its vaunting inscriptions, were among the devices by which Dupleix had laid the public mind of India under a spell. This spell it was Clive's business to break. The

LORD CLIVE 29

natives had been taught that France was confessedly the first power in Europe, and that the English did not presume to dispute her supremacy. No measure could be more effectual for the removing of this delusion than the public and solemn demolition of the French trophies. 5

The government of Madras, encouraged by these events, determined to send a strong detachment, under Clive, to reinforce the garrison of Trichinopoly. But just at this conjuncture, Major Lawrence arrived from England, and assumed the chief command. From the waywardness 10 and impatience of control which had characterised Clive, both at school and in the counting-house, it might have been expected that he would not, after such achievements, act with zeal and good humour in a subordinate capacity. But Lawrence had early treated him with kindness; and it 15 is bare justice to Clive to say that, proud and overbearing as he was, kindness was never thrown away upon him. He cheerfully placed himself under the orders of his old friend, and exerted himself as strenuously in the second post as he could have done in the first. Lawrence well 20 knew the value of such assistance. Though himself gifted with no intellectual faculty higher than plain good sense, he fully appreciated the powers of his brilliant coadjutor. Though he had made a methodical study of military tactics, and, like all men regularly bred to a profession, was dis- 25 posed to look with disdain on interlopers, he had yet liberality enough to acknowledge that Clive was an excep- tion to common rules. "Some people," he wrote, "are pleased to term Captain Clive fortunate and lucky; but, in my opinion, from the knowledge I have of the gentle- 30 man, he deserved and might expect from his conduct every thing as it fell out ; — a man of an undaunted resolution, of a cool temper, and of a presence of mind which never

30 LORD CLIVE

left him in the greatest danger — born a soldier; for, without a military education of any sort, or much con- versing with any of the profession, from his judgment and good sense, he led on an army like an experienced 5 officer and a brave soldier, with a prudence that certainly warranted success."

The French had no commander to oppose to the two friends. Dupleix, not inferior in talents for negotiation and intrigue to any European who has borne a part in

10 the revolutions of India, was ill qualified to direct in person military operations. He had not been bred a soldier, and had no inclination to become one. His enemies accused him of personal cowardice; and he de- fended himself in a strain worthy of Captain Bobadil.

15 He kept away from shot, he said, because silence and tranquillity were propitious to his genius, and he found it difficult to pursue his meditations amidst the noise of fire-arms. He was thus under the necessity of intrusting to others the execution of his great warlike designs; and

20 he bitterly complained that he was ill served. He had indeed been assisted by one officer of eminent merit, the celebrated Bussy. But Bussy had marched northward with the Nizam, and was fully employed in looking after his own interests, and those of France, at the court of

25 that prince. Among the officers who remained with Dupleix, there was not a single man of capacity; and many of them were boys, at whose ignorance and folly the common soldiers laughed.

The English triumphed every where. The besiegers

30 of Trichinopoly were themselves besieged and compelled to capitulate. Chunda Sahib fell into the hands of the Mahrattas, and was put to death, at the instigation probably of his competitor, Mahommed Ali. The spirit

LORD CLIVE 31

of Dupleix, however, was unconquerable, and his resources inexhaustible. From his employers in Europe he no longer received help or countenance. They condemned his policy. They gave him no pecuniary assistance. They sent him for troops only the sweepings of the galleys. 5 Yet still he persisted, intrigued, bribed, promised, lavished his private fortune, strained his credit, procured new di- plomas from Delhi, raised up new enemies to the govern- ment of Madras on every side, and found tools even among the allies of the English Company. But all was in vain. 10 Slowly, but steadily, the power of Britain continued to increase, and that of France to decline.

The health of Clive had never been good during his residence in India; and his constitution was now so much impaired that he determined to return to England. Before 15 his departure he undertook a service of considerable diffi- culty, and performed it with his usual vigour and dexterity. The forts of Covelong and Chingleput were occupied by French garrisons. It was determined to send a force against them. But the only force available for this pur- 20 pose was of such a description that no officer but Clive would risk his reputation by commanding it. It consisted of five hundred newly-levied sepoys, and two hundred recruits who had just landed from England, and who were the worst and lowest wretches that the Company's 25 crimps could pick up in the flash-houses of London. Clive, ill and exhausted as he was, undertook to make an army of this undisciplined rabble, and marched with them to Covelong. A shot from the fort killed one of these extraordinary soldiers ; on which all the rest faced about 30 and ran away, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Clive rallied them. On another occasion, the noise of a gun terrified the sentinels so much that one of them was

32 LORD CLIVE

found, some hours later, at the bottom of a well. Clive gradually accustomed them to danger, and, by exposing himself constantly in the most perilous situations, shamed them into courage. He at length succeeded in forming 5 a respectable force out of his unpromising materials. Cove- long fell. Clive learned that a strong detachment was marching to relieve it from Chingleput. He took meas- ures to prevent the enemy from learning that they were too late, laid an ambuscade for them on the road, killed a

10 hundred of them with one fire, took three hundred pris- oners, pursued the fugitives to the gates of Chingleput, laid siege instantly to that fastness, reputed one of the strongest in India, made a breach, and was on the point of storming when the French commandant capitulated

15 and retired with his men.

Clive returned to Madras victorious, but in a state of health which rendered it impossible for him to remain there long. He married at this time a young lady of the name of Maskelyne, sister of the eminent mathematician,

20 who long held the post of Astronomer Royal. She is described as handsome and accomplished; and her hus- band's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he was devotedly attached to her.

^r Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive embarked

25 with his bride for England. He returned a very different person from the poor slighted boy who had been sent out ten years before to seek his fortune. He was only twenty- seven ; yet his country already respected him as one of her first soldiers. There was then general peace in Europe.

30 The Carnatic was the only part of the world where the English and French were in arms against each other. The vast schemes of Dupleix had excited no small uneasiness in the city of London; and the rapid turn of fortune, which

LORD CLIVE 33

was chiefly owing to the courage and talents of dive, had been hailed with great delight. The young captain was known at the India House by the honourable nickname of General Clive, and was toasted by that appellation at the feasts of the Directors. On his arrival in England, he 5 found himself an object of general interest and admiration. The East India Company thanked him for his services in the warmest terms, and bestowed on him a sword set with diamonds. With rare delicacy, he refused to receive this token of gratitude unless a similar compliment were paid 10 to his friend and commander, Lawrence.

It may easily be supposed that Clive was most cordially welcomed home by his family, who were delighted by his success, though they seem to have been hardly able to com- prehend how their naughty idle Bobby had become so great 15 a man. His father had been singularly hard of belief. Not until the news of the defence of Arcot arrived in Eng- land was the old gentleman heard to growl out that, after all, the booby had something in him. His expressions of approbation became stronger and stronger as news arrived 20 of one brilliant exploit after another; and he was at length immoderately fond and proud of his son.

Clive's relations had very substantial reasons for rejoicing at his return. Considerable sums of prize-money had fallen to his share; and he had brought home a moderate fortune, 25 part of which he expended in extricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, and in redeeming the family estate. The remainder he appears to have dissipated in the course of about two years. He lived splendidly, dressed gaily even for those times, kept a carriage and saddle horses, and, 30 not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election followed by a petition. 4

34 LORD CLIVE

At the time of the general election of 1754, the govern- ment was in a very singular state. There was scarcely any formal opposition. The Jacobites had been cowed by the issue of the last rebellion. The Tory party had 5 fallen into utter contempt. It had been deserted by all the men of talents who had belonged to it, and had scarcely given a symptom of life during some years. The small faction which had been held together by the influence and promises of Prince Frederic, had been dispersed by

10 his death. Almost every public man of distinguished talents in the kingdom, whatever his early connections might have been, was in office, and called himself a Whig. But this extraordinary appearance of concord was quite delusive. The administration itself was distracted by

15 bitter enmities and conflicting pretensions. The chief object of its members was to depress and supplant each other. The prime minister, Newcastle, weak, timid, jealous, and perfidious, was at once detested and despised by some of the most important members of his govern-

20 ment, and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secre- tary at War. This able, daring, and ambitious man seized every opportunity of crossing the First Lord of the Treas- ury, from whom he well knew that he had little to dread and little to hope; for Newcastle was through life equally

25 afraid of breaking with men of parts and of promoting them.

Newcastle had set his heart on returning two members for St. Michael, one of those wretched Cornish boroughs which were swept away by the Reform Act in 1832. He

30 was opposed by Lord Sandwich, whose influence had long been paramount there: and Fox exerted himself strenu- ously in Sandwich's behalf. Clive, who had been intro- duced to Fox, and very kindly received by him, was

LORD CLIVE 35

brought forward on the Sandwich interest, and was re- turned. But a petition was presented against the return, and was backed by the whole influence of the Duke of Newcastle.

The case was heard, according to the usage of that time, 5 before a committee of the whole House. Questions respect- ing elections were then considered merely as party ques- tions. Judicial impartiality was not even affected. Sir Robert Walpole was in the habit of saying openly that, in election battles, there ought to be no quarter. On the 10 present occasion the excitement was great. The matter really at issue was, not whether Clive had been properly or improperly returned, but whether Newcastle or Fox was to be master of the New House of Commons, and con- sequently first minister. The contest was long and ob- 15 stinate, and success seemed to lean sometimes to one side and sometimes to the other. Fox put forth all his rare powers of debate, beat half the lawyers in the House at their own weapons, and carried division after division against the whole influence of the Treasury. The com- 20 mittee decided in dive's favour. But when the resolution was reported to the House, things took a different course. The remnant of the Tory Opposition, contemptible as it was, had yet sufficient weight to turn the scale between the nicely-balanced parties of Newcastle and Fox. New- 25 castle the Tories could only despise. Fox they hated, as the boldest and most subtle politician and the ablest de- bater among the Whigs, as the steady friend of Walpole, as the devoted adherent of the Duke of Cumberland. After wavering till the last moment, they determined to vote in a 30 body with the Prime Minister's friends. The consequence was that the House, by a small majority, rescinded the decision of the committee, and Clive was unseated.

36 LORD CLIVE

Ejected from Parliament and straitened in his means, he naturally began to look again towards India. The Company and the Government were eager to avail them- selves of his services. A treaty favourable to England 5 had indeed been concluded in the Carnatic. Dupleix had been superseded, and had returned with the wreck of his immense fortune to Europe, where calumny and chica- nery soon hunted him to his grave. But many signs in- dicated that a war between France and Great Britain

10 was at hand; and it was therefore thought desirable to send an able commander to the Company's settlements in India. The Directors appointed Clive governor of Fort St. David. The king gave bim the commission of lieu- tenant-colonel in the British army, and in 1755 he again

15 sailed for Asia.

The first service on which he was employed after his return to the East was the reduction of the stronghold of Gheriah. This fortress, built on a craggy promontory, and almost surrounded by the ocean, was the den of a

20 pirate named Angria, whose barks had long been the terror of the Arabian Gulf. Admiral Watson, who commanded the English squadron in the Eastern seas, burned Angria's fleet, while Clive attacked the fastness by land. The place soon fell, and a booty of a hundred and fifty thou-

25 sand pounds sterling was divided among the conquerors.

After this exploit, Clive proceeded to his government

of Fort St. David. Before he had been there two months

he received intelligence which called forth all the energy

of his bold and active mind.

30 Of the provinces which had been subject to the House of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No part of India possessed such natural advantages, both for agri- culture and for commerce. The Ganges, rushing through

LORD CLIVE 37

a hundred channels to the sea, has formed a vast plain of rich mould which, even under the tropical sky, rivals the verdure of an English April. The rice fields yield an in- crease such as is elsewhere unknown. Spices, sugar, vege- table oils, are produced with marvellous exuberance. The 5 rivers afford an inexhaustible supply of fish. The desolate islands along the sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, and swarming with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated districts with abundance of salt. The great stream which fertilises the soil is, at the same time, the chief highway 10 of Eastern commerce. On its banks, and on those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, the most splen- did capitals, and the most sacred shrines of India. The tyranny of man had for ages struggled in vain against the overflowing bounty of nature. In spite of the Mussul- 15 man despot, and of the Mahratta freebooter, Bengal was known through the East as the garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied exceedingly. Distant provinces were nourished from the overflowing of its granaries; and the noble ladies of London and Paris 20 were clothed in the delicate produce of its looms. The race by whom this rich tract was peopled, enervated by a soft climate and accustomed to peaceful avocations, bore the same relation to other Asiatics which the Asiatics gen- erally bear to the bold and energetic children of Europe. 25 The Castilians have a proverb that in Valencia the earth is water and the men women; and the description is at least equally applicable to the vast plain of the Lower Ganges. Whatever the Bengalee does he does languidly. His favourite pursuits are sedentary. He shrinks from 30 bodily exertion; and, though voluble in dispute, and sin- gularly pertinacious in the war of chicane, he seldom engages in a personal conflict, and scarcely ever enlists as a soldier.

38 LORD CLIVE

We doubt whether there be a hundred genuine Bengalees in the whole army of the East India Company. There never, perhaps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature and by habit for a foreign yoke. 5 The great commercial companies of Europe had long possessed factories in Bengal. The French were settled, as they still are, at Chandernagore on the Hoogley. Higher up the stream the Dutch traders held Chinsurah. Nearer to the sea, the English had built Fort William. A church

10 and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors of the East India Company, lined the banks of the river; and in the neighbourhood had sprung up a large and busy native town, where some Hindoo merchants of great opulence

15 had fixed their abode. But the tract now covered by the palaces of Chowringhee contained only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A jungle, abandoned to water- fowl and alligators, covered the site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which is now daily crowded at sunset

20 with the gayest equipages of Calcutta. For the ground on which the settlement stood, the English, like other great landholders, paid rent to the government; and they were, like other great landholders, permitted to exercise a certain jurisdiction within their domain.

25 The great province of Bengal, together with Orissa and Bahar, had long been governed by a viceroy, whom the English called Aliverdy Khan, and who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become virtually independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty descended to his

30 grandson, a youth under twenty years of age, who bore the name of Surajah Dowlah. Oriental despots are per- haps the worst class of human beings; and this unhappy boy was one of the worst specimens of his class. His

LORD CLIVE 39

understanding was naturally feeble, and his temper natu- rally unamiable. His education had been such as would have enervated even a vigorous intellect and perverted even a generous disposition. He was unreasonable, be- cause nobody ever dared to reason with him, and selfish, 5 because he had never been made to feel himself dependent on the good- will of others. Early debauchery had un- nerved his body and his mind. He indulged immoderately in the use of ardent spirits, which inflamed his weak brain almost to madness. His chosen companions were flat- 10 terers, sprung from the dregs of the people, and recom- mended by nothing but buffoonery and servility. It is said that he had arrived at that last stage of human de- pravity, when cruelty becomes pleasing for its own sake, when the sight of pain, as pain, where no advantage is to 15 be gained, no offence punished, no danger averted, is an agreeable excitement. It had early been his amusement to torture beasts and birds; and, when he grew up, he enjoyed with still keener relish the misery of his fellow- creatures. 20

From a child Surajah Dowlah had hated the English. It was his whim to do so; and his whims were never op- posed. He had also formed a very exaggerated notion of the wealth which might be obtained by plundering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was incapable of 25 perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had they been even greater than he imagined, would not compensate him for what he must lose, if the European trade, of which Bengal was a chief seat, should be driven by his violence to some other quarter. Pretexts for a quarrel were readily found. 30 The English, in expectation of a war with France, had begun to fortify their settlement without special permis- sion from the Nabob. A rich native, whom he longed to

40 LORD CLIVE

plunder, had taken refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered up. On such grounds as these Surajah Dowlah marched with a great army against Fort William.

The servants of the Company at Madras had been forced 5 by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers. Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were terrified and bewildered by the approaching danger. The governor, who had heard much of Surajah Dowlah's cruelty, was frightened out of his wits, jumped into a boat, and took

10 refuge in the nearest ship. The military commandant thought that he could not do better than follow so good an example. The fort was taken after a feeble resistance; and great numbers of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Nabob seated himself with regal

15 pomp in the principal hall of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in rank among the prisoners, to be brought before him. His Highness talked about the insolence of the English, and grumbled at the smallness of the treasure which he had found; but promised to

20 spare their lives, and retired to rest.

Then was committed that great crime, memorable for its singular atrocity, memorable for the tremendous retri- bution by which it was followed. The English captives were left to the mercy of the guards, and the guards

25 determined to secure them for the night in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor, that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square.

30 The air-holes were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and by the constant waving of fans. The

LORD CLIVE 41

number of the prisoners was one hundred and forty-six. When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. 5 They soon discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated; but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon them. 10

Nothing in history or fiction, not even the story which Ugolino told in the sea of everlasting ice, after he had wiped his bloody lips on the scalp of his murderer, ap- proaches the horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. They 15 strove to burst the door. Holwell who, even in that extremity, retained some presence of mind, offered large bribes to the gaolers. But the answer was that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody woke 20 him. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They trampled each other down, fought for the places at the windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed, blasphemed, implored the guards to fire among 25 them. The gaolers in the mean time held lights to the bars, and shouted with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At length the tumult died away in low gaspings and moanings. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted the door to be 30 opened. But it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on each side the heaps of corpses on which the burning climate had

42 LORD CLIVE

already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of the charnel-house. A pit was instantly 5 dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and twenty-three in number, were flung into it promiscuously, and covered up. But these things which, after the lapse of more than eighty years, cannot be told or read without horror, awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom of the

10 savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on the mur- derers. He showed no tenderness to the survivors. Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing was to be got, were suffered to depart; but those from whom it was thought that anything could be extorted were treated with ex-

15 ecrable cruelty. Holwell, unable to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached him, threatened him, and sent him up the country in irons, together with some other gentlemen who were suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell about the treasures of the Company.

20 These persons, still bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain and water, till at length the intercessions of the female relations of the Nabob procured their release. One Englishwoman had survived that night. She was

25 placed in the haram of the Prince at Moorshedabad.

Surajah Dowlah, in the mean time, sent letters to his nominal sovereign at Delhi, describing the late conquest in the most pompous language. He placed a garrison in Fort William, forbade any Englishman to dwell in the

30 neighbourhood, and directed that, in memory of his great actions, Calcutta should thenceforward be called Alina- gore, that is to say, the Port of God.

In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached

LORD CLIVE 43

Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resentment. The cry of the whole settlement was for vengeance. With- in forty-eight hours after the arrival of the intelligence it was determined that an expedition should be sent to the Hoogley, and that Clive should be at the head of the land 5 forces. The naval armament was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine hundred English infantry, fine troops and full of spirit, and fifteen hundred sepoys, com- posed the army which sailed to punish a Prince who had more subjects than Louis the Fifteenth or the Empress 10 Maria Theresa. In October the expedition sailed; but it had to make its way against adverse winds, and did not reach Bengal till December.

The Nabob was revelling in fancied security at Moor- shedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the state 15 of foreign countries that he often used to say that there were not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it had never occurred to him as possible that the English would dare to invade his dominions. But, though undisturbed by any fear of their military power, he began to miss them 20 greatly. His revenues fell off; and his ministers succeeded in making him understand that a ruler may sometimes find it more profitable to protect traders in the open enjoy- ment of their gains than to put them to the torture for the purpose of discovering hidden chests of gold and jewels. 25 He was already disposed to permit the Company to resume its mercantile operations in his country, when he received the news that an English armament was in the Hoogley. He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at Moor- shedabad, and marched towards Calcutta. 30

Clive had commenced operations with his usual vigour. He took Budgebudge, routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered Calcutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. The

44 LORD CLIVE

Nabob, already disposed to make some concessions to the English, was confirmed in his pacific disposition by these proofs of their power and spirit. He accordingly made overtures to the chiefs of the invading armament, and 5 offered to restore the factory, and to give compensation to those whom he had despoiled.

Clive's profession was war; and he felt that there was something discreditable in an accommodation with Sura- jah Dowlah. But his power was limited. A committee,

10 chiefly composed of servants of the Company who had fled from Calcutta, had the principal direction of affairs; and these persons were eager to be restored to their posts and compensated for their losses. The government of Madras, apprised that war had commenced in Europe, and appre-

15 hensive of an attack from the French, became impatient for the return of the armament. The promises of the Nabob were large, the chances of a contest doubtful; and Clive consented to treat, though he expressed his regret that things should not be concluded in so glorious a manner

20 as he could have wished.

With this negotiation commences a new chapter in the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier, carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valour, the plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly regarded

25 as a statesman; and his military movements are to be considered as subordinate to his political designs. That in his new capacity he displayed great ability, and ob- tained great success, is unquestionable. But it is also un- questionable, that the transactions in which he now began

30 to take a part have left a stain on his moral character. We can by no means agree with Sir John Malcolm, who is obstinately resolved to see nothing but honour and in- tegrity in the conduct of his hero. But we can as little

LORD CLIVE 45

agree with Mr. Mill, who has gone so far as to say that Clive was a man "to whom deception, when it suited his purpose, never cost a pang." Clive seems to us to have been constitutionally the very opposite of a knave, bold even to temerity, sincere even to indiscretion, hearty in 5 friendship, open in enmity. Neither in his private life, nor in those parts of his public life in which he had to do with his countrymen, do we find any signs of a propensity to cun- ning. On the contrary, in all the disputes in which he was engaged as an Englishman against Englishmen, from his 10 boxing-matches at school to those stormy altercations at the India House and in Parliament amidst which his later years were passed, his very faults were those of a high and magnanimous spirit. The truth seems to have been that he considered Oriental politics as a game in which 15 nothing was unfair. He knew that the standard of mo- rality among the natives of India differed widely from that established in England. He knew that he had to deal with men destitute of what in Europe is called honour, with men who would give any promise without hesitation, 20 and break any promise without shame, with men who would unscrupulously employ corruption, perjury, forgery, to compass their ends. His letters show that the great difference between Asiatic and European morality was constantly in his thoughts. He seems to have imagined, 25 most erroneously in our opinion, that he could effect noth- ing against such adversaries, if he was content to be bound by ties from which they were free, if he went on telling truth, and hearing none, if he fulfilled, to his own hurt, all his engagements with confederates who never kept 30 an engagement that was not to their advantage. Accord- ingly this man, in the other parts of his life an honourable English gentleman and a soldier, was no sooner matched

46 LORD CLI\T

against an Indian intriguer, than he became himself an Indian intriguer, and descended, without scruple, to falsehood, to hypocritical caresses, to the substitution of documents, and to the counterfeiting of hands. 5 The negotiations between the English and the Xabob were carried on chiefly by two agents. Mr. Watts, a servant of the Company, and a Bengalee of the name of Omichund. This Omichund had been one of the wealthiest native merchants resident at Calcutta, and had sustained great

10 losses in consequence of the Nabob's expedition against that place. In the course of his commercial transactions, he had seen much of the English, and was peculiarly qualified to serve as a medium of communication between them and a native court. He possessed great influence

15 with his own race, and had in large measure the Hindoo

talents, quick observation, tact, dexterity, perseverance,

and the Hindoo vices, servility, greediness, and treachery.

The Xabob behaved with all the faithlessness of an

Indian statesman, and with all the levity of a boy whose

20 mind had been enfeebled by power and serf -indulgence. He promised, retracted, hesitated, evaded. At one time he advanced with his army in a threatening manner towards Calcutta; but when he saw the resolute front which the English presented, he fell back in alarm, and

25 consented to make peace with them on their own terms. The treaty was no sooner concluded than he formed new designs against them. He intrigued with the Erench authorities at Chandernagore. He invited Bussy to march from the Deccan to the Hoogley, and to drive the English

30 out of Bengal. All this was well known to Clive and Watson. They determined accordingly to strike a de- cisive blow, and to attack Chandernagore, before the force there could be strengthened by new arrivals, either

LORD CLIYE 47

from the south of India or from Europe. Watson directed the expedition by water, Give by land. The success of the combined movements was rapid and complete. The fort, the garrison, the artillery, the military stores, all fell into the hands of the English. Near rive hundred European 5 troops were among the prisoners.

The Xabob had feared and hated the English, even while he was still able to oppose to them their French rivals. The French were now vanquished; and he began to regard the English with still greater fear and still greater hatred. 10 His weak and unprincipled mind oscillated between ser- vility and insolence. One day he sent a large sum to Cal- cutta, as part of the compensation due for the wrongs which he had committed. The next day he sent a present of jewels to Bussy, exhorting that distinguished officer to 15 hasten to protect Bengal " against Clive, the daring in war, on whom," says his Highness, "may all bad fortune at- tend." He ordered his army to march against the English. He countermanded his orders. He tore Give's letters. He then sent answers in the most florid language of com- 20 pliment. He ordered Watts out of his presence, and threatened to impale him. He again sent for Watts, and begged pardon for the insult. In the mean time, his wretched maladministration, his folly, his dissolute manners, and his love of the lowest company, had dis- 25 gusted all classes of his subjects, soldiers, traders, civil functionaries, the proud and ostentatious Mahommedans, the timid, supple, and parsimonious Hindoos. A formi- dable confederacy was formed against him, in which were included Roydullub, the minister of finance, Meer Jaffier, 30 the principal commander of the troops, and Jugget Seit, the richest banker in India. The plot was confided to the English agents, and a communication was opened be-

48 LORD CLIVE

tween the malcontents at Moorshedabad and the com- mittee at Calcutta.

In the committee there was much hesitation; but Clive's voice was given in favour of the conspirators, and his 5 vigour and firmness bore down all opposition. It was determined that the English should lend their powerful assistance to depose Surajah Dowlah, and to place Meer JafTier on the throne of Bengal. In return, Meer Jaffier promised ample compensation to the Company and its

10 servants, and a liberal donative to the army, the navy, and the committee. The odious vices of Surajah Dowlah, the wrongs which the English had suffered at his hands, the dangers to which our trade must have been exposed had he continued to reign, appear to us fully to justify the

15 resolution of deposing him. But nothing can justify the dissimulation which Clive stooped to practise. He wrote to Surajah Dowlah in terms so affectionate that they for a time lulled that weak prince into perfect security. The same courier who carried this "soothing letter," as Clive

20 calls it, to the Nabob, carried to Mr. Watts a letter in the following terms: "Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing. I will join him with five thousand men who never turned their backs. Assure him I will march night and day to his assistance, and stand by him as long as I have a man

25 left."

It was impossible that a plot which had so many rami- fications should long remain entirely concealed. Enough reached the ears of the Nabob to arouse his suspicions. But he was soon quieted by the fictions and artifices

30 which the inventive genius of Omichund produced with miraculous readiness. All was going well; the plot was nearly ripe; when Clive learned that Omichund was likely to play false. The artful Bengalee had been prom-

LORD CLIVE 49

ised a liberal compensation for all that he had lost at Calcutta. But this would not satisfy him. His services had been great. He held the thread of the whole intrigue. By one word breathed in the ear of Surajah Dowlah, he could undo all that he had done. The lives of Watts, of 5 Meer Jaffier, of all the conspirators, were at his mercy; and he determined to take advantage of his situation and to make his own terms. He demanded three hun- dred thousand pounds sterling as the price of his secrecy and of his assistance. The committee, incensed by the 10 treachery and appalled by the danger, knew not what course to take. But Clive was more than Omichund's match in Omichund's own arts. The man, he said, was a villain. Any artifice which would defeat such knavery was justifiable. The best course would be to promise 15 what was asked. Omichund would soon be at their mercy; and then they might punish him by withholding from him, not only the bribe which he now demanded, but also the compensation which all the other sufferers of Calcutta were to receive. 20

His advice was taken. But how was the wary and sagacious Hindoo to be deceived? He had demanded that an article touching his claims should be inserted in the treaty between Meer JarHer and the English, and he would not be satisfied unless he saw it with his own eyes. Clive 25 had an expedient ready. Two treaties were drawn up, one on white paper, the other on red, the former real, the latter fictitious. In the former Omichund's name was not mentioned; the latter, which was to be shown to him, contained a stipulation in his favour. 30

But another difficulty arose. Admiral Watson had scruples about signing the red treaty. Omichund's vigilance and acuteness were such that the absence of so 5

So LORD CLIVE

important a name would probably awaken his suspicions. But Clive was not a man to do any thing by halves. We almost blush to write it. He forged Admiral Watson's name. 5 All was now ready for action. Mr. Watts fled secretly from Moorshedabad. Clive put his troops in motion, and wrote to the Nabob in a tone very different from that of his previous letters. He set forth all the wrongs which the British had suffered, offered to submit the points

10 in dispute to the arbitration of Meer Jamer, and concluded by announcing that, as the rains were about to set in, he and his men would do themselves the honour of waiting on his Highness for an answer.

SurajahDowlah instantly assembled his whole force, and

15 marched to encounter the English. It had been agreed that Meer Jamer should separate himself from the Nabob, and carry over his division to Clive. But, as the decisive moment approached, the fears of the conspirator over- powered his ambition. Clive had advanced to Cossim-

20 buzar; the Nabob lay with a mighty power a few miles off at Plassey; and still Meer Jamer delayed to fulfil his engagements, and returned evasive answers to the earnest remonstrances of the English general.

Clive was in a painfully anxious situation. He could

25 place no confidence in the sincerity or in the courage of his confederate: and, whatever confidence he might place in his own military talents, and in the valour and dis- cipline of his troops, it was no light thing to engage an army twenty times as numerous as his own. Before him

30 lay a river over which it was easy to advance, but over which, if things went ill, not one of his little band would ever return. On this occasion, for the first and for the last time, his dauntless spirit, during a few hours, shrank

LORD CLIVE 51

from the fearful responsibility of making a decision. He called a council of war. The majority pronounced against fighting; and Clive declared his concurrence with the majority. Long afterwards, he said that he had never called but one council of war, and that, if he had taken 5 the advice of that council, the British would never have been masters of Bengal. But scarcely had the meeting broken up when he was himself again. He retired alone under the shade of some trees, and passed near an hour there in thought. He came back determined to put 10 every thing to the hazard, and gave orders that all should be in readiness for passing the river on the morrow.

The river was passed; and at the close of a toilsome day's march, the army, long after sunset, took up its quarters in a grove of mango-trees near Plassey, within a mile of 15 the enemy. Clive was unable to sleep ; he heard, through the whole night, the sound of drums and cymbals from the vast camp of the Nabob. It is not strange that even his stout heart should now and then have sunk, when he reflected against what odds, and for what a prize, he was in 20 a few hours to contend.

Nor was the rest of Surajah Dowlah more peaceful. His mind, at once weak and stormy, was distracted by wild and horrible apprehensions. Appalled by the greatness and nearness of the crisis, distrusting his captains, dreading 25 every one who approached him, dreading to be left alone, he sat gloomily in his tent, haunted, a Greek poet would have said, by the furies of those who had cursed him with their last breath in the Black Hole.

The day broke, the day which was to decide the fate 30 of India. At sunrise the army of the Nabob, pouring through many openings from the camp, began to move towards the grove where the English lay. Forty thou-

52 LORD CLIVE

sand infantry, armed with firelocks, pikes, swords, bows and arrows, covered the plain. They were accompanied by fifty pieces of ordnance of the largest size, each tugged by a long team of white oxen, and each pushed on from 5 behind by an elephant. Some smaller guns, under the direction of a few French auxiliaries, were perhaps more formidable. The cavalry were fifteen thousand, drawn, not from the effeminate population of Bengal, but from the bolder race which inhabits the northern provinces ; and the

10 practised eye of Clive could perceive that both the men and the horses were more powerful than those of the Carnatic. The force which he had to oppose to this great multitude consisted of only three thousand men. But of these nearly a thousand were English; and all were led by English

15 officers, and trained in the English discipline. Conspicu- ous in the ranks of the little army were the men of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment, which still bears on its colours, amidst many honourable additions won under Wellington in Spain and Gascony, the name of Plassey, and the proud

20 motto, Primus in Indis.

The battle commenced with a cannonade in which the artillery of the Nabob did scarcely any execution, while the few field-pieces of the English produced great effect. Several of the most distinguished officers in Sura j ah

25 Dowlah's service fell. Disorder began to spread through his ranks. His own terror increased every moment. One of the conspirators urged on him the expediency of re- treating. The insidious advice, agreeing as it did with what his own terrors suggested, was readily received. He

30 ordered his army to fall back, and this order decided his fate. Clive snatched the moment, and ordered his troops to advance. The confused and dispirited multitude gave way before the onset of disciplined valour. No mob

LORD CLIVE 53

attacked by regular soldiers was ever more completely routed. The little band of Frenchmen, who alone ven- tured to confront the English, were swept down the stream of fugitives. In an hour the forces of Surajah Dowlah were dispersed, never to reassemble. Only five 5 hundred of the vanquished were slain. But their camp, their guns, their baggage, innumerable waggons, innumer- able cattle, remained in the power of the conquerors. With the loss of twenty-two soldiers killed and fifty wounded, Clive had scattered an army of nearly sixty thousand men, 10 and subdued an empire larger and more populous than Great Britain.

Meer Jaffier had given no assistance to the English during the action. But as soon as he saw that the fate of the day was decided, he drew off his division of the army, and, when 1 5 the battle was over, sent his congratulations to his ally. The next morning he repaired to the English quarters, not a little uneasy as to the reception which awaited him there. He gave evident signs of alarm when a guard was drawn out to receive him with the honours due to his rank. 20 But his apprehensions were speedily removed. Clive came forward to meet him, embraced him, saluted him as Nabob of the three great provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, listened graciously to his apologies, and advised him to march without delay to Moorshedabad. 25

Surajah Dowlah had fled from the field of battle with all the speed with which a fleet camel could carry him, and arrived at Moorshedabad in little more than twenty-four hours. . There he called his councillors round him. The wisest advised him to put himself into the hands of the 30 English, from whom he had nothing worse to fear than deposition and confinement. But he attributed this suggestion to treachery. Others urged him to try the

54 LORD CLIVE

chance of war again. He approved the advice, and issued orders accordingly. But he wanted spirit to adhere even during one day to a manly resolution. He learned that Meer Jaffier had arrived; and his terrors became insup- 5 portable. Disguised in a mean dress, with a casket of jewels in his hand, he let himself down at night from a window of his palace, and, accompanied' by only two attendants, embarked on the river for Patna.

In a few days Clive arrived at Moorshedabad, escorted

10 by two hundred English soldiers and three hundred sepoys. For his residence had been assigned a palace, which was surrounded by a garden so spacious that all the troops who accompanied him could conveniently encamp within it. The ceremony of the installation of Meer Jamer was

15 instantly performed. Clive led the new Nabob to the seat of honour, placed him on it, presented to him, after the immemorial fashion of the East, an offering of gold, and then, turning to the natives who filled the hall, con- gratulated them on the good fortune which had freed

20 them from a tyrant. He was compelled on this occasion to use the services of an interpreter; for it is remarkable that, long as he resided in India, intimately acquainted as he was with Indian politics and with the Indian char- acter, and adored as he was by his Indian soldiery, he

25 never learned to express himself with facility in any Indian language. He is said indeed to have been some- times under the necessity of employing, in his intercourse with natives of India, the smattering of Portuguese which he had acquired, when a lad in Brazil.

30 The new sovereign was now called upon to fulfil the engagements into which he had entered with his allies. A conference was held at the house of Jugget Seit, the great banker, for the purpose of making the necessary

LORD CLIVE 55

arrangements. Omichund came thither, fully believing himself to stand high in the favour of dive, who, with dis- simulation surpassing even the dissimulation of Bengal, had up to that day treated him with undiminished kindness. The white treaty was produced and read. Clive then 5 turned to Mr. Scrafton, one of the servants of the Com- pany, and said in English, "It is now time to undeceive Omichund." "Onuchund," said Mr. Scrafton in Hindos- tanee, "the red treaty is a trick. You are to have noth- ing." Omichund fell back insensible into the arms of his 10 attendants. He revived; but his mind was irreparably ruined. Clive, who, though little troubled by scruples of conscience in his dealings with Indian politicians, was not inhuman, seems to have been touched. He saw Omichund a few days later, spoke to him kindly, advised him to 15 make a pilgrimage to one of the great temples of India, in the hope that change of scene might restore his health, and was even disposed, notwithstanding all that had passed, again to employ him in the public service. But, from the moment of that sudden shock, the unhappy man sank 20 gradually into idiocy. He, who had formerly been distin- guished by the strength of his understanding and the simplicity of his habits, now squandered the remains of his fortune on childish trinkets, and loved to exhibit him- self dressed in rich garments, and hung with precious 25 stones. In this abject state he languished a few months, and then died.

We should not think it necessary to offer any remarks for the purpose of directing the judgment of our readers with respect to this transaction, had not Sir John Malcolm 30 undertaken to defend it in all its parts. He regrets, indeed, that it was necessary to employ means so liable to abuse as forgery; but he will not admit that any blame

6 LORD CLIVE

attaches to those who deceived the deceiver. He thinks that the English were not bound to keep faith with one who kept no faith with them, and that, if they had ful- filled their engagements with the wily Bengalee, so signal 5 an example of successful treason would have produced a crowd of imitators. Now, we will not discuss this point on any rigid principles of morality. Indeed, it is quite unnecessary to do so: for, looking at the question as a question of expediency in the lowest sense of the word,

10 and using no arguments but such as Machiavelli might have employed in his conferences with Borgia, we are convinced that Clive was altogether in the wrong, and that he committed, not merely a crime, but a blunder. That honesty is the best policy is a maxim which we

15 firmly believe to be generally correct, even with respect to the temporal interests of individuals ; but, with respect to societies, the rule is subject to still fewer exceptions, and that, for this reason, that the life of societies is longer than the life of individuals. It is possible to mention

20 men who have owed great worldly prosperity to breaches of private faith. But we doubt whether it be possible to mention a state which has on the whole been a gainer by a breach of public faith. The entire history of British India is an illustration of the great truth, that it is not

25 prudent to oppose perfidy to perfidy, and that the most efficient weapon with which men can encounter falsehood is truth. During a long course of years, the English rulers of India, surrounded by allies and enemies whom no engagement could bind, have generally acted with

30 sincerity and uprightness ; and the event has proved that sincerity and uprightness are wisdom. English valour and English intelligence have done less to extend and to preserve our Oriental empire than English veracity. All

LORD OLIVE 57

that we could have gained by imitating the doublings, the evasions, the fictions, the perjuries which have been employed against us, is as nothing, when compared with what we have gained by being the one power in India on whose word reliance can be placed. Xo oath which super- 5 stition can devise, no hostage however precious, inspires a hundredth part of the confidence which is produced by the "yea, yea," and "nay, nay," of a British envoy. No fast- ness, however strong by art or nature, gives to its inmates a security like that enjoyed by the chief who, passing 10 through the territories of powerful and deadly enemies, is armed with the British guarantee. The mightiest princes of the East can scarcely, by the offer of enormous usury, draw forth any portion of the wealth which is con- cealed under the hearths of their subjects. The British 15 Government offers little more than four per cent. ; and ava- rice hastens to bring forth tens of millions of rupees from its most secret repositories. A hostile monarch may prom- ise mountains of gold to our sepoys, on condition that they will desert the standard of the Company. The 20 Company promises only a moderate pension after a long service. But every sepoy knows that the promise of the Company will be kept: he knows that if he lives a hun- dred years his rice and salt are as secure as the salary of the Governor-General: and he knows that there is not 25 another state in India which would not, in spite of the most solemn vows, leave him to die of hunger in a ditch as soon as he had ceased to be useful. The greatest advantage which a government can possess is to be the one trust- worthy government in the midst of governments which 30 nobody can trust. This advantage we enjoy in Asia. Had we acted during the last two generations on the principles which Sir John Malcolm appears to have considered as

58 LORD CLIVE

sound, had we, as often as we had to deal with people like Omichund, retaliated by lying, and forging, and breaking faith, after their fashion, it is our firm belief that no cour- age or capacity could have upheld our empire. 5 Sir John Malcolm admits that Clive's breach of faith could be justified only by the strongest necessity. As we think that breach of faith not only unnecessary, but most inexpedient, we need hardly say that we altogether condemn it.

10 Omichund was not the only victim of the revolution. Surajah Dowlah was taken a few days after his flight, and was brought before Meer Jafner. There he flung himself on the ground in convulsions of fear, and with tears and loud cries implored the mercy which he had

15 never shown. Meer Jafner hesitated; but his son Meeran, a youth of seventeen, who in feebleness of brain and sav- ageness of nature greatly resembled the wretched captive, was implacable. Surajah Dowlah was led into a secret chamber, to which in a short time the ministers of death

20 were sent. In this act the English bore no part; and Meer Jarfler understood so much of their feelings, that he thought it necessary to apologise to them for having avenged them on their most malignant enemy.

The shower of wealth now fell copiously on the Com-

25 pany and its servants. A sum of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, in coined silver, was sent down the river from Moorshedabad to Fort William. The fleet which conveyed this treasure consisted of more than a hundred boats, and performed its triumphal voyage with flags

30 flying and music playing. Calcutta, which a few months before had been desolate, was now more prosperous than ever. Trade revived; and the signs of affluence appeared in every English house. As to Clive, there was no limit

LORD CLIVE 59

to his acquisitions but his own moderation. The treasury of Bengal was thrown open to him. There were piled up, after the usage of Indian princes, immense masses of coin, among which might not seldom be detected the florins and byzants with which, before any European ship had turned 5 the Cape of Good Hope, the Venetians purchased the stuffs and spices of the East. Clive walked between heaps of gold and silver, crowned with rubies and diamonds, and was at liberty to help himself. He accepted between two and three hundred thousand pounds. 10

The pecuniary transactions between Meer Jaffier and Clive were sixteen years later condemned by the public voice, and severely criticised in Parliament. They are vehemently defended by Sir John Malcolm. The accusers of the victorious general represented his gains as the wages 1 5 of corruption, or as plunder extorted at the point of the sword from a helpless ally. The biographer, on the other hand, considers these great acquisitions as free gifts, hon- ourable alike to the donor and to the receiver, and com- pares them to the rewards bestowed by foreign powers on 20 Marlborough, on Nelson, and on Wellington. It had always, he says, been customary in the East to give and receive presents; and there was, as yet, no Act of Parliament positively prohibiting English functionaries in India from profiting by this Asiatic usage. This reasoning, we own, 25 does not quite satisfy us. We do not suspect Clive of sell- ing the interests of his employers or his country; but we cannot acquit him of having done what, if not in itself evil, was yet of evil example. Nothing is more clear than that a general ought to be the servant of his own govern- 30 ment, and of no other. It follows that whatever rewards he receives for his services ought to be given either by his own government, or with the full knowledge and appro-

60 LORD CLIVE

bation of his own government. This rule ought to be strictly maintained even with respect to the merest bauble, with respect to a cross, a medal, or a yard of coloured riband. But how can any government be well served, 5 if those who command its forces are at liberty, without its permission, without its privity, to accept princely fortunes from its allies? It is idle to say that there was then no Act of Parliament prohibiting the practice of taking presents from Asiatic sovereigns. It is not on the

10 Act which was passed at a later period for the purpose of preventing any such taking of presents, but on grounds which were valid before that Act was passed, on grounds of common law and common sense, that we arraign the conduct of Clive. There is no Act that we know of,

15 prohibiting the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from being in the pay of continental powers. But it is not the less true that a Secretary who should receive a secret pension from France would grossly violate his duty, and would deserve severe punishment. Sir John

20 Malcolm compares the conduct of Clive with that of the Duke of Wellington. Suppose — and we beg pardon for putting such a supposition even for the sake of argu- ment — that the Duke of Wellington had, after the cam- paign of 181 5, and while he commanded the army of

25 occupation in France, privately accepted two hundred thousand pounds from Louis the Eighteenth, as a mark of gratitude for the great services which his Grace had rendered to the House of Bourbon; what would be thought of such a transaction? Yet the statute-book no more

30 forbids the taking of presents in Europe now than it forbade the taking of presents in Asia then.

At the same time, it must be admitted that, in Clive's case, there were many extenuating circumstances. He

LORD CLIVE 61

considered himself as the general, not of the Crown, but of the Company. The Company had, by implication at least, authorized its agents to enrich themselves by means of the liberality of the native princes, and by other means still more objectionable. It was hardly to be expected that the 5 servant should entertain stricter notions of his duty than were entertained by his masters. Though Clive did not distinctly acquaint his employers with what had taken place, and request their sanction, he did not, on the other hand, by studied concealment, show that he was conscious 10 of having done wrong. On the contrary, he avowed with the greatest openness that the Nabob's bounty had raised him to affluence. Lastly, though we think that he ought not in such a way to have taken any thing, we must admit that he deserves praise for having taken so little. He ac- 1 5 cepted twenty lacs of rupees. It would have cost him only a word to make the twenty forty. It was a very easy ex- ercise of virtue to declaim in England against Clive's rapacity; but not one in a hundred of his accusers would have shown so much self-command in the treasury of Moor- 20 shedabad.

Meer Jaffier could be upheld on the throne only by the hand which had placed him on it. He was not, indeed, a mere boy; nor had he been so unfortunate as to be born in the purple. He was not therefore quite so imbecile or 25 quite so depraved as his predecessor had been. But he had none of the talents or virtues which his post required; and his son and heir, Meeran, was another Surajah Dow- lah. The recent revolution had unsettled the minds of men. Many chiefs were in open insurrection against 30 the new Nabob. The viceroy of the rich and powerful province of Oude, who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, was now in truth an independent sovereign, men-

62 LORD CLIVE

aced Bengal with invasion. Nothing but the talents and authority of Clive could support the tottering govern- ment. While things were in this state a ship arrived with despatches which had been written at the India House 5 before the news of the battle of Plassey had reached Lon- don. The Directors had determined to place the English settlements in Bengal under a government constituted in the most cumbrous and absurd manner; and, to make the matter worse, no place in the arrangement was assigned

10 to Clive. The persons who were selected to form this new government, greatly to their honour, took on them- selves the responsibility of disobeying these preposterous orders, and invited Clive to exercise the supreme authority. He consented; and it soon appeared that the servants of

15 the Company had only anticipated the wishes of their employers. The Directors, on receiving news of Clive 's brilliant success, instantly appointed him governor of their possessions in Bengal, with the highest marks of gratitude and esteem. His power was now boundless,

20 and far surpassed even that which Dupleix had attained in the south of India. Meer Jaffier regarded him with slavish awe. On one occasion, the Nabob spoke with severity to a native chief of high rank, whose followers had been engaged in a brawl with some of the Company's

25 sepoys. "Are you yet to learn," he said, "who that Colonel Clive is, and in what station God has placed him?" The chief, who, as a famous jester and an old friend of Meer Jaffier, could venture to take liberties, answered, "I affront the Colonel! I, who never get up

30 in the morning without making three low bows to his jackass!" This was hardly an exaggeration. Europeans and natives were alike at Clive's feet. The English re- garded him as the only man who could force Meer Jaffier

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to keep his engagements with them. Meer Jaffier regarded him as the only man who could protect the new dynasty against turbulent subjects and encroaching neighbours.

It is but justice to say that Clive used his power ably and vigorously for the advantage of his country. He sent 5 forth an expedition against the tract lying to the north of the Carnatic. In this tract the French still had the ascendency; and it was important to dislodge them. The conduct of the enterprise was intrusted to an officer of the name of Forde, who was then little known, but in whom 10 the keen eye of the Governor had detected military talents of a high order. The success of the expedition was rapid and splendid.

While a considerable part of the army of Bengal was thus engaged at a distance, a new and formidable danger 15 menaced the western frontier. The Great Mogul was a prisoner at Delhi in the hands of a subject. His eldest son, named Shah Alum, destined to be, during many years, the sport of adverse fortune, and to be a tool in the hands first of the Mahrattas, and then of the English, had fled 20 from the palace of his father. His birth was still revered in India. Some powerful princes, the Nabob of Oude in particular, were inclined to favour him. Shah Alum found it easy to draw to his standard great numbers of the mili- tary adventurers with whom every part of the country 25 swarmed. An army of forty thousand men, of various races and religions, Mahrattas, Rohillas, Jauts, and Af- ghans, was speedily assembled round him; and he formed the design of overthrowing the upstart whom the English had elevated to a throne, and of establishing his own 30 authority throughout Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar.

Meer Jaffier's terror was extreme; and the only expe- dient which occurred to him was to purchase, by the

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payment of a large sum of money, an accommodation with Shah Alum. This expedient had been repeatedly employed by those who, before him, had ruled the rich and unwarlike provinces near the mouth of the Ganges. 5 But Clive treated the suggestion with a scorn worthy of his strong sense and dauntless courage. "If you do this," he wrote, "you will have the Nabob of Oude, the Mahrattas, and many more, come from all parts of the confines of your country, who will bully you out of money

10 till you have none left in your treasury. I beg your excellency will rely on the fidelity of the English, and of those troops which are attached to you." He wrote in a similar strain to the governor of Patna, a brave native soldier whom he highly esteemed. "Come to no

15 terms; defend your city to the last. Rest assured that the English are stanch and firm friends, and that they never desert a cause in which they have once taken a part."

He kept his word. Shah Alum had invested Patna,

20 and was on the point of proceeding to storm,, when he learned that the Colonel was advancing by forced marches. The whole army which was approaching consisted of only four hundred and fifty Europeans, and two thousand five hundred sepoys. But Clive and his Englishmen were

25 now objects of dread over all the East. As soon as his advanced guard appeared, the besiegers fled before him. A few French adventurers who were about the person of the prince advised him to try the chance of battle; but in vain. In a few days this great army, which had been

30 regarded with so much uneasiness by the Court of Moor- shedabad, melted away before the mere terror of the British name. The conqueror returned in triumph to Fort William..

LORD CLIVE 65

The joy of Meer Jaffier was as unbounded as his fears had been, and led him to bestow on his preserver a princely token of gratitude. The quit-rent which the East India company were bound to pay to the Nabob for the extensive lands held by them to the south of Calcutta amounted 5 to near thirty thousand pounds sterling a year. The whole of this splendid estate, sufficient to support with dignity the highest rank of the British peerage, was now conferred on Clive for life.

This present we think Clive justified in accepting. It 10 was a present which, from its very nature, could be no secret. In fact, the Company itself was his tenant, and, by its acquiescence, signified its approbation of Meer Jaffier's grant.

But the gratitude of Meer Jaffier did not last long. He 15 had for some time felt that the powerful ally who had set him up might pull him down, and had been looking round for support against the formidable strength by which he had himself been hitherto supported. He knew that it would be impossible to find among the natives of India any 20 force which would look the Colonel's little army in the face. The French power in Bengal was extinct. But the fame of the Dutch had anciently been great in the Eastern seas; and it was not yet distinctly known in Asia how much the power of Holland had declined in Europe. Secret com- 25 munications passed between the Court of Moorshedabad and the Dutch factory at Chinsurah; and urgent letters were sent from Chinsurah, exhorting the government of Batavia to fit out an expedition which might balance the power of the English in Bengal. The authorities of Bata- 30 via, eager to extend the influence of their country, and still more eager to obtain for themselves a share of the wealth which had recently raised so many English adventurers 6

66 LORD CLIVE

to opulence, equipped a powerful armament. Seven large ships from Java arrived unexpectedly in the Hoogley. The military force on board amounted to fifteen hun- dred men, of whom about one half were Europeans. The 5 enterprise was well timed. Clive had sent such large attachments to oppose the French in the Carnatic that his army was now inferior in number to that of the Dutch. He knew that Meer Jaffier secretly favoured the invaders. He knew that he took on himself a serious responsibility

10 if he attacked the forces of a friendly power; that the English ministers could not wish to see a war with Hol- land added to that in which they were already engaged with France; that they might disavow his acts; that they might punish him. He had recently remitted a great

15 part of his fortune to Europe, through the Dutch East India Company; and he had therefore a strong interest in avoiding any quarrel. But he was satisfied, that if he suffered the Batavian armament to pass up the river and to join the garrison of Chinsurah, Meer Jafiier would

20 throw himself into the arms of these new allies, and that the English ascendency in Bengal would be exposed to most serious danger. He took his resolution with char- acteristic boldness, and was most ably seconded by his officers, particularly by Colonel Forde, to whom the most

25 important part of the operations was intrusted. The Dutch attempted to force a passage. The English en- countered them both by land and water. On both ele- ments the enemy had a great superiority of force. On both they were signally defeated. Their ships were

30 taken. Their troops were put to a total rout. Almost all the European soldiers, who constituted the main strength of the invading army, were killed or taken. The conquerors sat down before Chinsurah; and the chiefs of

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that settlement, now thoroughly humbled, consented to the terms which Clive dictated. They engaged to build no fortifications, and to raise no troops beyond a small force necessary for the police of their factories; and it was distinctly provided that any violation of these covenants 5 should be punished with instant expulsion from Bengal. Three months after this great victory, Clive sailed for England. At home, honours and rewards awaited him, not indeed equal to his claims or to his ambition, but still such as, when his age, his rank in the army, and his original 10 place in society are considered, must be pronounced rare and splendid. He was raised to the Irish peerage, and en- couraged to expect an English title. George the Third, 1 who had just ascended the throne, received him with great distinction. The ministers paid him marked atten- 15 tion; and Pitt, whose influence in the House of Commons and in the country was unbounded, was eager to mark his regard for one whose exploits had contributed so much to the lustre of that memorable period. The great orator had already in Parliament described Clive as a heaven- 20 born general, as a man who, bred to the labour of the desk, had displayed a military genius which might excite the admiration of the King of Prussia. There were then no reporters in the gallery: but these words, emphatically spoken by the first statesman of the age, had passed from 25 mouth to mouth, had been transmitted to Clive in Bengal, and had greatly delighted and flattered him. Indeed, since the death of Wolfe, Clive was the only English general of whom his countrymen had much reason to be proud. The Duke of Cumberland had been generally unfortunate; and 30 his single victory, having been gained over his countrymen, and used with merciless severity, had been more fatal to his popularity than his many defeats. Conway, versed in

68 LORD CLIVE

the learning of his profession, and personally courageous, wanted vigour and capacity. Granby, honest, generous and as brave as a lion, had neither science nor genius. Sackville, inferior in knowledge and abilities to none of 5 his contemporaries, had incurred, unjustly as we believe, the imputation most fatal to the character of a soldier. It was under the command of a foreign general that the British had triumphed at Minden and Warburg. The people therefore, as was natural, greeted with pride and

10 delight a captain of their own, whose native courage and self-taught skill had placed him on a level with the great tacticians of Germany.

The wealth of Clive was such as enabled him to vie with the first grandees of England. There remains proof

15 that he had remitted more than a hundred and eighty thousand pounds through the Dutch East India Com- pany, and more than forty thousand pounds through the English Company. The amount which he had sent home through private houses was also considerable. He had

20 invested great sums in jewels, then a very common mode of remittance from India. His purchases of diamonds, at Madras alone, amounted to twenty-five thousand pounds. Besides a great mass of ready money, he had his Indian estate, valued by himself at twenty-seven

25 thousand a year. His whole annual income, in the opinion of Sir John Malcolm, who is desirous to state it as low as possible, exceeded forty thousand pounds; and incomes of forty thousand pounds at the time of the accession of George the Third were at least as rare as incomes of a

30 hundred thousand pounds now. We may safely affirm that no Englishman who started with nothing has ever, in any line of life, created such a fortune at the early age of thirty-four.

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It would be unjust not to add that Clive made a credit- able use of his riches. As soon as the battle of Plassey had laid the foundation of his fortune, he sent ten thou- sand pounds to his sisters, bestowed as much more on other poor friends and relations, ordered his agent to pay eight 5 hundred a year to his parents, and to insist that they should keep a carriage, and settled five hundred a year on his old commander Lawrence, whose means were very slender. The whole sum which Clive expended in this manner may be calculated at fifty thousand pounds. 10

He now set himself to cultivate parliamentary interest. His purchases of land seem to have been made in a great measure with that view, and, after the general election of 1 76 1, he found himself in the House of Commons, at the head of a body of dependents whose support must have been 15 important to any administration. In English politics, however, he did not take a prominent part. His first attachments, as we have seen, were to Mr. Fox; at a later period he was attracted by the genius and success of Mr. Pitt; but finally he connected himself in the closest manner 20 with George Grenville. Early in the session of 1764, when the illegal and impolitic persecution of that worthless demagogue Wilkes had strongly excited the public mind, the town was amused by an anecdote, which we have seen in some unpublished memoirs of Horace Walpole. Old 25 Mr. Richard Clive, who, since his son's elevation, had been introduced into society for which his former habits had not well fitted him, presented himself at the levee. The King asked him where Lord Clive was. "He will be in town very soon," said the old gentleman, loud enough 30 to be heard by the whole circle, "and then your Majesty will have another vote."

But in truth all Clive 's views were directed towards the

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country in which he had so eminently distinguished him- self as a soldier and a statesman; and it was by considera- tions relating to India that his conduct as a public man in England was regulated. The power of the Company, 5 though an anomaly, is in our time, we are firmly per- suaded, a beneficial anomaly. In the time of Clive, it was not merely an anomaly, but a nuisance. There was no Board of Control. The Directors were for the most part mere traders, ignorant of general politics, igno-

10 rant of the peculiarities of the empire which had strangely become subject to them. The Court of Proprietors, wherever it chose to interfere, was able to have its way. That court was more numerous, as well as more pow- erful than at present; for then every share of five hun-

15 dred pounds conferred a vote. The meetings were large, stormy, even riotous, the debates indecently virulent. All the turbulence of a Westminster election, all the trickery and corruption of a Grampound election, disgraced the pro- ceedings of this assembly on questions of the most solemn

20 importance. Fictitious votes were manufactured on a gigantic scale. Clive himself laid out a hundred thousand pounds in the purchase of stock, which he then divided among nominal proprietors on whom he could depend, and whom he brought down in his train, to every discussion and

25 every ballot. Others did the same, though not to quite so enormous an extent.

The interest taken by the public of England in Indian questions was then far greater than at present, and the reason is obvious. At present a writer enters the service

30 young; he climbs slowly; he is fortunate if, at forty-five, he can return to his country with an annuity of a thousand a year, and with savings amounting to thirty thousand pounds. A great quantity of wealth is made by English

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functionaries in India; but no single functionary makes a very large fortune, and what is made is slowly, hardly, and honestly earned. Only four or five high political offices are reserved for public men from England. The residencies, the secretaryships, the seats in the boards 5 of revenue and in the Sudder courts, are all filled by men who have given the best years of life to the ser- vice of the Company; nor can any talents however splendid or any connections however powerful obtain those lucrative posts for any person who has not 10 entered by the regular door, and mounted by the regu- lar gradations. Seventy years ago, less money was brought home from the East than in our time. But it was divided among a very much smaller number of persons, and immense sums were often accumulated in a few 15 months. Any Englishman, whatever his age might be, might hope to be one of the lucky emigrants. If he made a good speech in Leadenhall Street, or published a clever pamphlet in defence of the chairman, he might be sent out in the Company's service, and might return in three or four 20 years as rich as Pigot or as Clive. Thus the India House was a lottery office, which invited every body to take a chance, and held out ducal fortunes as the prizes destined for the lucky few. As soon as it was known that there was a part of the world where a lieutenant-colonel had one 25 morning received as a present an estate as large as that of the Earl of Bath or the Marquis of Rockingham, and where it seemed that such a trifle as ten or twenty thou- sand pounds was to be had by any British functionary for the asking, society began to exhibit all the symptoms of the 30 South Sea year, a feverish excitement, an ungovernable im- patience to be rich, a contempt for slow, sure, and moderate gains.

72 LORD CLIVE

At the head of the preponderating party in the India House, had long stood a powerful, able, and ambitious director of the name of Sulivan. He had conceived a strong jealousy of Clive, and remembered with bitterness 5 the audacity with which the late governor of Bengal had repeatedly set at nought the authority of the distant Directors of the Company. An apparent reconciliation took place after Clive's arrival; but enmity remained deeply rooted in the hearts of both. The whole body

10 of Directors was then chosen annually. At the election of 1763, Clive attempted to break down the power of the dominant faction. The contest was carried on with a violence which he describes as tremendous. Sulivan was victorious, and hastened to take his revenge. The grant

15 of rent which Clive had received from Meer Jaffier was, in the opinion of the best English lawyers, valid. It had been made by exactly the same authority from which the Company had received their chief possessions in Bengal, and the Company had long acquiesced in it. The Direc-

20 tors, however, most unjustly determined to confiscate it, and Clive was forced to file a bill in Chancery against them.

But a great and sudden turn in affairs was at hand. Every ship from Bengal had for some time brought alarm-

25 ing tidings. The internal misgovernment of the province had reached such a point that it could go no further. What, indeed, was to be expected from a body of public servants exposed to temptation such that, as Clive once said, flesh and blood could not bear it, armed with irresist-

30 ible power, and responsible only to the corrupt, turbu- lent, distracted, ill-informed Company, situated at such a distance that the average interval between the sending of a despatch and the receipt of an answer was above a

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year and a half? Accordingly, during the five years which followed the departure of Clive from Bengal, the misgov- ernment of the English was carried to a point such as seems hardly compatible with the very existence of society. The Roman proconsul, who, in a year or two, squeezed out of 5 a province the means of rearing marble palaces and baths on the shores of Campania, of drinking from amber, of feasting on singing birds, of exhibiting armies of gladiators and flocks of camelopards, the Spanish viceroy, who, leav- ing behind him the curses of Mexico or Lima, entered Madrid 1 0 with a long train of gilded coaches, and of sumpter-horses trapped and shod with silver, were now outdone. Cruelty, indeed, properly so called, was not among the vices of the servants of the Company. But cruelty itself could hardly have produced greater evils than sprang from their 15 unprincipled eagerness to be rich. They pulled down their creature, Meer Jaffier. They set up in his place another Nabob, named Meer Cossim. But Meer Cossim had parts and a will; and, though sufficiently inclined to op- press his subjects himself, he could not bear to see them 20 ground to the dust by oppressions which yielded him no profit nay, which destroyed his revenue in the very source. The English accordingly pulled down Meer Cossim, and set up Meer Jaffier again; and Meer Cossim, after re- venging himself by a massacre surpassing in atrocity that 25 of the Black Hole, fled to the dominions of the Nabob of Oude. At every one of these revolutions, the new prince divided among his foreign masters whatever could be scraped together in the treasury of his fallen predecessor. The immense population of his dominions was given up as 30 a prey to those who had made him a sovereign, and who could unmake him. The servants of the Company ob- tained, not for their employers, but for themselves, a

74 LORD CLIVE

monopoly of almost the whole internal trade. They forced the natives to buy dear and to sell cheap. They insulted with impunity the tribunals, the police, and the fiscal authorities of the country. They covered with 5 their protection a set of native dependents who ranged through the provinces, spreading desolation and terror wherever they appeared. Every servant of a British factor was armed with all the power of his master; and his master was armed with all the power of the Company.

10 Enormous fortunes were thus rapidly accumulated at Calcutta, while thirty millions of human beings were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. They had been accustomed to live under tyranny, but never under tyranny like this. They found the little finger of the

15 Company thicker than the loins of Surajah Dowlah. Under their old masters they had at least one resource: when the evil became insupportable, the people rose and pulled down the government. But the English govern- ment was not to be so shaken off. That government,

20 oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the strength of civilisation. It resembled the government of evil Genii, rather than the government of human tyrants. Even despair could not inspire the soft Bengalee with courage to confront

25 men of English breed, the hereditary nobility of mankind, whose skill and valour had so often triumphed in spite of tenfold odds. The unhappy race never attempted resistance. Sometimes they submitted in patient misery. Sometimes they fled from the white man, as their fathers

30 had been used to fly from the Mahratta; and the palan- quin of the English traveller was often carried through silent villages and towns, which the report of his approach had made desolate.

LORD CLIVE 75

The foreign lords of Bengal were naturally objects of ha- tred to all the neighbouring powers; and to all the haughty- race presented a dauntless front. The English armies, every where outnumbered, were every where victorious. A succession of commanders, formed in the school of Clive, 5 still maintained the fame of their country. "It must be acknowledged," says the Mussulman historian of those times, "that this nation's presence of mind, firmness of temper, and undaunted bravery, are past all question. They join the most resolute courage to the most cautious 10 prudence; nor have they their equals in the art of ranging themselves in battle array and fighting in order. If to so many military qualifications they knew how to join the arts of government, if they exerted as much ingenuity and solici- tude in relieving the people of God, as they do in whatever 1 5 concerns their military affairs, no nation in the worldwould be preferable to them, or worthier of command. But the people under their dominion groan every where, and are reduced to poverty and distress. Oh God! come to the assistance of thine afflicted servants, and deliver them 20 from the oppressions which they suffer."

It was impossible, however, that even the military es- tablishment should long continue exempt from the vices which pervaded every other part of the government. Rapacity, luxury, and the spirit of insubordination 25 spread from the civil service to the officers of the army, and from the officers to the soldiers. The evil con- tinued to grow till every mess-room became the seat of conspiracy and cabal, and till the sepoys could be kept in order only by wholesale executions. 30

At length the state of things in Bengal began to excite uneasiness at home. A succession of revolutions; a dis- organized administration; the natives pillaged, yet the

76 LORD CLIVE

Company not enriched; every fleet bringing back fortu- nate adventurers who were able to purchase manors and to build stately dwellings, yet bringing back also alarm- ing accounts of the financial prospects of the govern- 5 ment; war on the frontiers; disaffection in the army; the national character disgraced by excesses resembling those of Verres and Pizarro; such was the spectacle which dis- mayed those who were conversant with Indian affairs. The general cry was that dive, and Clive alone, could

10 save the empire which he had founded.

This feeling manifested itself in the strongest manner at a very full General Court of Proprietors. Men of all parties, forgetting their feuds and trembling for their dividends, exclaimed that Clive was the man whom the

15 crisis required, that the oppressive proceedings which had been adopted respecting his estate ought to be dropped, and that he ought to be entreated to return to India.

Clive rose. As to his estate, he said, he would make such propositions to the Directors as would, he trusted,

20 lead to an amicable settlement. But there was a still greater difficulty. It was proper to tell them that he never would undertake the government of Bengal while his enemy Sulivan was chairman of the Company. The tumult was violent. Sulivan could scarcely obtain a

25 hearing. An overwhelming majority of the assembly was on Clive's side. Sulivan wished to try the result of a ballot. But, according to the by-laws of the Com- pany, there can be no ballot except on a requisition signed by nine proprietors; and, though hundreds were

30 present, nine persons could not be found to set their hands to such a requisition.

Clive was in consequence nominated Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the British possessions in Bengal.

LORD CLIVE 77

But he adhered to his declaration, and refused to enter on his office till the event of the next election of Directors should be known. The contest was obstinate; but Clive triumphed. Sulivan, lately absolute master of the India House, was within a vote of losing his own seat; and 5 both the chairman and the deputy-chairman were friends of the new governor.

Such were the circumstances under which Lord Clive sailed for the third and last time to India. In May, 1765, he reached Calcutta; and he found the whole machine of 10 government even more fearfully disorganized than he had anticipated. Meer Jaffier, who had some time before lost his eldest son Meeran, had died while Clive was on his voyage out. The English functionaries at Calcutta had already received from home strict orders not to accept 15 presents from the native princes. But, eager for gain, and unaccustomed to respect the commands of their dis- tant, ignorant, and negligent masters, they again set up the throne of Bengal to sale. About one hundred and forty thousand pounds' sterling were distributed among nine of 20 the most powerful servants of the Company; and, in con- sideration of this bribe, an infant son of the deceased Nabob was placed on the seat of his father. The news of the igno- minious bargain met Clive on his arrival. In a private letter written immediately after his landing to an intimate 25 friend, he poured out his feelings in language which, pro- ceeding from a man so daring, so resolute, and so little given to theatrical display of sentiment, seems to us singu- larly touching. "Alas!" he says, "how is the English name sunk! I could not avoid paying the tribute of a 30 few tears to the departed and lost fame of the British nation — irrecoverably so, I fear. However, I do declare, by that great Being who is the searcher of all hearts, and

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to whom we must be accountable if there be a hereafter, that I am come out with a mind superior to all corruption, and that I am determined to destroy these great and growing evils, or perish in the attempt." 5 The Council met, and Clive stated to them his full determination to make a thorough reform, and to use for that purpose the whole of the ample authority, civil and military, which had been confided to him. John- stone, one of the boldest and worst men in the assembly,

i o made some show of opposition. Clive interrupted him, and haughtily demanded whether he meant to question the power of the new government. Johnstone was cowed, and disclaimed any such intention. All the faces round the board grew long and pale; and not another syllable

1 5 of dissent was uttered.

Clive redeemed his pledge. He remained in India about a year and a half; and in that short time effected one of the most extensive, difficult, and salutary reforms that ever was accomplished by any statesman. This was

20 the part of his life on which he afterwards looked back with most pride. He had it in his power to triple his already splendid fortune; to connive at abuses while pretending to remove them; to conciliate the good-will of all the English in Bengal, by giving up to their rapacity

25 a helpless and timid race, who knew not where lay the island which sent forth their oppressors, and whose com- plaints had little chance of being heard across fifteen thousand miles of ocean. He knew that, if he applied himself in earnest to the work of reformation, he should

30 raise every bad passion in arms against him. He knew how unscrupulous, how implacable, would be the hatred of those ravenous adventurers who, having counted on accumulating in a few months fortunes sufficient to support

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peerages, should find all their hopes frustrated. But he had chosen the good part; and he called up all the force of his mind for a battle far harder than that of Plassey. At first success seemed hopeless; but soon all obstacles be- gan to bend before that iron courage and that vehement 5 will. The receiving of presents from the natives was rigidly prohibited. The private trade of the servants of the Company was put down. The whole settlement seemed to be set, as one man, against these measures. But the inexorable governor declared that, if he could 10 not find support at Fort William, he would procure it else- where, and sent for some civil servants from Madras to assist him in carrying on the administration. The most factious of his opponents he turned out of their offices. The rest submitted to what was inevitable; and in a very 15 short time all resistance was quelled.

But Clive was far too wise a man not to see that the recent abuses were partly to be ascribed to a cause which could not fail to produce similar abuses, as soon as the pres- sure of his strong hand was withdrawn. The Company 20 had followed a mistaken policy with respect to the remu- neration of its servants. The salaries were too low to afford even those indulgences which are necessary to the health and comfort of Europeans in a tropical climate. To lay by a rupee from such scanty pay was impossible. It could 25 not be supposed that men of even average abilities would consent to pass the best years of life in exile, under a burn- ing sun, for no other consideration than these stinted wages. It had accordingly been understood, from a very early period, that the Company's agents were at liberty to enrich 30 themselves by their private trade. This practice had been seriously injurious to the commercial interests of the corporation. That very intelligent observer, Sir Thomas

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Roe, in the reign of James the First, strongly urged the Directors to apply a remedy to the abuse. "Absolutely prohibit the private trade," said he; "for your business will be better done. I know this is harsh. Men profess 5 they come not for bare wages. But you will take away this plea if you give great wages to their content; and then you know what you part from."

In spite of this excellent advice, the Company adhered to the old system, paid low salaries, and connived at

10 the indirect gains of the agents. The pay of a member of Council was only three hundred pounds a year. Yet it was notorious that such a functionary could not live in India for less than ten times that sum; and it could not be expected that he would be content to live even

1 5 handsomely in India without laying up something against the time of his return to England. This system, before the conquest of Bengal, might affect the amount of the dividends payable to the proprietors, but could do little harm in any other way. But the Company was now a

20 ruling body. Its servants might still be called factors, junior merchants, senior merchants. But they were in truth proconsuls, propraetors, procurators of extensive regions. They had immense power. Their regular pay was universally admitted to be insufficient. They were,

25 by the ancient usage of the service, and by the implied permission of • their employers, warranted in enriching themselves by indirect means; and this had been the origin of the frightful oppression and corruption which had desolated Bengal. Clive saw clearly that it was

30 absurd to give men power, and to require them to live in penury. He justly concluded that no reform could be effectual which should not be coupled with a plan for liberally remunerating the civil servants of the Company.

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The Directors, he knew, were not disposed to sanction any increase of the salaries out of their own treasury. The only course which remained open to the governor was one which exposed him to much misrepresentation, but which we think him fully justified in adopting. He 5 appropriated to the support of the service the monopoly of salt, which has formed, down to our own time, a princi- pal head of Indian revenue; and he divided the proceeds according to a scale which seems to have been not un- reasonably fixed. He was in consequence accused by his 10 enemies, and has been accused by historians, of disobeying his instructions, of violating his promises, of authorising that very abuse which it was his special mission to destroy, namely, the trade of the Company's servants. But every discerning and impartial judge will admit, that there 1 5 was really nothing in common between the system which he set up and that which he was sent to destroy. The monopoly of salt had been a source of revenue to the governments of India before Clive was born. It con- tinued to be so long after his death. The civil servants 20 were clearly entitled to a maintenance out of the revenue; and all that Clive did was to charge a particular portion of the revenue with their maintenance. He thus, while he put an end to the practices by which gigantic fortunes had been rapidly accumulated, gave to every British function- 25 ary employed in the East the means of slowly, but surely, acquiring a competence. Yet, such is the injustice of mankind that none of those acts which are the real stains of his life has drawn on him so much obloquy as this meas- ure, which was in truth a reform necessary to the success 30 of all his other reforms.

He had quelled the opposition of the civil service: that of the army was more formidable. Some of the retrench- 7

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ments which had been ordered by the Directors affected the interests of the military service; and a storm arose, such as even Caesar would not willingly have faced. It was no light thing to encounter the resistance of those 5 who held the power of the sword, in a country governed only by the sword. Two hundred English officers en- gaged in a conspiracy against the government, and de- termined to resign their commissions on the same day, not doubting that Clive would grant any terms rather

10 than see the army, on which alone the British empire in the East rested, left without commanders. They little knew the unconquerable spirit with which they had to deal. Clive had still a few officers round his person on whom he could rely. He sent to Fort St. George for a

15 fresh supply. He gave commissions even to mercantile agents who were disposed to support him at this crisis; and he sent orders that every officer who resigned should be instantly brought up to Calcutta. The conspirators found that they had miscalculated. The governor was

20 inexorable. The troops were steady. The sepoys, over whom Clive had always possessed extraordinary influence, stood by him with unshaken fidelity. The leaders in the plot were arrested, tried, and cashiered. The rest, humbled and dispirited, begged to be permitted to with-

25 draw their resignations. Many of them declared their repentance even with tears. The younger offenders Clive treated with lenity. To the ringleaders he was inflexibly severe; but his severity was pure from all taint of private malevolence. While he sternly upheld the just authority

30 of his office, he passed by personal insults and injuries with magnanimous disdain. One of the conspirators was accused of having planned the assassination of the governor; but Clive would not listen to the

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charge. "The officers," he said, "are Englishmen, not assassins."

While he reformed the civil service and established his authority over the army, he was equally successful in his foreign policy. His landing on Indian ground was the 5 signal for immediate peace. The Nabob of Oude, with a large army, lay at that time on the frontier of Bahar. He had been joined by many Afghans and Mahrattas, and there was no small reason to expect a general coalition of all the native powers against the English. But the 10 name of Clive quelled in an instant all opposition. The enemy implored peace in the humblest language, and submitted to such terms as the new governor chose to dictate.

At the same time, the government of Bengal was placed 15 on a new footing. The power of the English in that province had hitherto been altogether undefined. It was unknown to the ancient constitution of the empire, and it had been ascertained by no compact. It resembled the power which, in the last decreptitude of the Western 20 Empire, was exercised over Italy by the great chiefs of foreign mercenaries, the Ricimers and the Odoacers, who put up and pulled down at their pleasure a succession of insignificant princes, dignified with the names of Caesar and Augustus. But as in Italy, so in India, the warlike 25 strangers at length found it expedient to give to a domina- tion which had been established by arms the sanction of law and ancient prescription. Theodoric thought it poli- tic to obtain from the distant court of Byzantium a com- mission appointing him ruler of Italy; and Clive, in the 30 same manner, applied to the Court of Delhi for a formal grant of the powers of which he already possessed the real- ity. The Mogul was absolutely helpless; and, though he

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murmured, had reason to be well pleased that the English were disposed to give solid rupees which he never could have extorted from them, in exchange for a few Persian characters which cost him nothing. A bargain was 5 speedily struck; and the titular sovereign of Hindostan issued a warrant, empowering the Company to collect and administer the revenues of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. There was still a Nabob, who stood to the British authorities in the same relation in which the last drivel-

10 ling Chilperics and Childerics of the Merovingian line stood to their able and vigorous Mayors of the Palace, to Charles Martel and to Pepin. At one time Clive had almost made up his mind to discard this phantom alto- gether; but he afterwards thought that it might be con-

15 venient still to use the name of the Nabob, particularly in dealings with other European nations. The French, the Dutch, and the Danes would, he conceived, submit far more readily to the authority of the native Prince, whom they had always been accustomed to respect, than

20 to that of a rival trading corporation. This policy may, at that time, have been judicious. But the pretence was soon found to be too flimsy to impose on any body; and it was altogether laid aside. The heir of Meer Jaffier still resides at Moorshedabad, the ancient capital of his

25 house, still bears the title of Nabob, is still accosted by the English as "Your Highness," and is still suffered to retain a portion of the regal state which surrounded his ancestors. A pension of a hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year is annually paid to him by the government.

30 His carriage is surrounded by guards, and preceded by attendants with silver maces. His person and his dwell- ing are exempted from the ordinary authority of the min- isters of justice. But he has not the smallest share of

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political power, and is, in fact, only a noble and wealthy subject of the Company.

It would have been easy for Clive, during his second ad- ministration in Bengal, to accumulate riches such as no subject in Europe possessed. He might indeed, without 5 subjecting the rich inhabitants of the province to any pressure beyond that to which their mildest rulers had accustomed them, have received presents to the amount of three hundred thousand pounds a year. The neighbour- ing princes would gladly have paid any price for his 10 favour. But he appears to have strictly adhered to the rules which he had laid down for the guidance of others. The Rajah of Benares offered him diamonds of great value. The Nabob of Oude pressed him to accept a large sum of money and a casket of costly jewels. Clive courteously, 15; but peremptorily refused: and it should be observed that he made no merit of his refusal, and that the facts did not come to light till after his death. He kept an exact account of his salary, of his share of the profits accruing from the trade in salt, and of those presents which, accord- 20 ing to the fashion of the East, it would be churlish to refuse. Out of the sum arising from these resources he defrayed the expenses of his situation. The surplus he divided among a few attached friends who had accom- panied him to India. He always boasted, and, as far as 25 we can judge, he boasted with truth, that his last admin- istration diminished instead of increasing his fortune.

One large sum indeed he accepted. Meer Jaffier had left him by will above sixty thousand pounds sterling in specie and jewels: and the rules which had been recently 30 laid down extended only to presents from the living, and did not affect legacies from the dead. Clive took the money, but not for himself. He made the whole over to

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the Company, in trust for officers and soldiers invalided in their service. The fund which still bears his name owes its origin to this princely donation.

After a stay of eighteen months, the state of his health

5 made it necessary for him to return to Europe. At the

close of January, 1767, he quitted for the last time the

country on whose destinies he had exercised so mighty

an influence.

His second return from Bengal was not, like his first,

10 greeted by the acclamations of his countrymen. Numer- ous causes were already at work which embittered the remaining years of his life, and hurried him to an un- timely grave. His old enemies at the India House were still powerful and active; and they had been reinforced

15 by a large band of allies whose violence far exceeded their own. The whole crew of pilferers and oppressors from whom he had rescued Bengal persecuted him with the implacable rancour which belongs to such abject natures. Many of them even invested their property in India stock,

20 merely that they might be better able to annoy the man whose firmness had set bounds to their rapacity. Lying newspapers were set up for no purpose but to abuse him; and the temper of the public mind was then such, that these arts, which under ordinary circumstances, would

25 have been ineffectual against truth and merit, produced an extraordinary impression.

The great events which had taken place in India had called into existence a new class of Englishmen, to whom their countrymen gave the name of Nabobs. These per-

30 sons had generally sprung from families neither ancient nor opulent; they had generally been sent at an early age to the East; and they had there acquired large fortunes, which they had brought back to their native land. It

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was natural that, not having had much opportunity of mixing with the best society, they should exhibit some of the awkwardness and some of the pomposity of upstarts. It was natural that, during their sojourn in Asia, they should have acquired some tastes and habits surprising, 5 if not disgusting, to persons who never had quitted Europe. It was natural that, having enjoyed great con- sideration in the East, they should not be disposed to sink into obscurity at home; and as they had money, and had not birth or high connection, it was natural that they 10 should display a little obtrusively the single advantage which they possessed. Wherever they settled there was a kind of feud between them and the old nobility and gentry, similar to that which raged in France between the farmer- general and the marquis. This enmity to the aristocracy 15 long continued to distinguish the servants of the Company. More than twenty years after the time of which we are now speaking, Burke pronounced that among the Jacobins might be reckoned "the East Indians almost to a man, who cannot bear to find that their present importance 20 does not bear a proportion to their wealth."

The Nabobs soon became a most unpopular class of men. Some of them had in the East displayed eminent talents, and rendered great services to the state; but at home their talents were not shown to advantage, and 25 their services were little known. That they had sprung from obscurity, that they had acquired great wealth, that they had exhibited it insolently, that they spent it ex- travagantly, that they raised the price of every thing in their neighbourhood, from fresh eggs to rotten boroughs, 30 that their liveries outshone those of dukes, that their coaches were finer than thafr of the Lord Mayor, that the examples of their large and ill-governed households

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corrupted half the servants in the country, that some of them, with all their magnificence, could not catch the tone of good society, but, in spite of the stud and the crowd of menials, of the plate and the Dresden china, of 5 the venison and the Burgundy, were still low men; these were things which excited, both in the class from which they had sprung and in the class into which they at- tempted to force themselves, the bitter aversion which is the effect of mingled envy and contempt. But when

10 it was also rumoured that the fortune which had enabled its possessor to eclipse the Lord-Lieutenant on the race- ground, or to carry the county against the head of a house as old as Domesday Book, had been accumulated by violating public faith, by deposing legitimate princes, by

15 reducing whole provinces to beggary, all the higher and better as well as all the low and evil parts of human nature were stirred against the wretch who had obtained by guilt and dishonour the riches which he now lavished with arrogant and inelegant profusion. The unfortunate

20 Nabob seemed to be made up of those foibles against which comedy has pointed the most merciless ridicule, and of those crimes which have thrown the deepest gloom over tragedy, of Turcaret and Nero, of Monsieur Jourdain and Richard the Third. A tempest of execration and

25 derision, such as can be compared only to that outbreak of public feeling against the Puritans which took place at the time of the Restoration, burst on the servants of the Company. The humane man was horror-struck at the way in which they had got their money, the thrifty

30 man at the way in which they spent it. The dilettante sneered at their want of taste. The maccaroni black- balled them as vulgar fellows. Writers the most unlike in sentiment and style, Methodists and libertines, phi-

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losophers and buffoons, were for once on the same side. It is hardly too much to say that, during a space of about thirty years, the whole lighter literature of England was coloured by the feelings which we have described. Foote brought on the stage an Anglo-Indian chief, dissolute, 5 ungenerous, and tyrannical, ashamed of the humble friends of his youth, hating the aristocracy, yet child- ishly eager to be numbered among them, squandering his wealth on pandars and flatterers, tricking out his chair- men with the most costly hot-house flowers, and astounding 10 the ignorant with jargon about rupees, lacs, and jaghires. Mackenzie, with more delicate humour, depicted a plain country family raised by the Indian acquisitions of one of its members to sudden opulence, and exciting derision by an awkward mimicry of the manners of the great. 15 Cowper, in that lofty expostulation which glows with the very spirit of the Hebrew, poets, placed the oppression of India foremost in the list of those national crimes for which God had punished England with years of disastrous war, with discomfiture in her own seas, and with the loss 20 of her transatlantic empire. If any of our readers will take the trouble to search in the dusty recesses of circu- lating libraries for some novel published sixty years ago, the chance is that the villain or sub- villain of the story will prove to be a savage old Nabob, with an immense fortune, 25 a tawny complexion, a bad liver, and a worse heart.

Such, as far as we can now judge, was the feeling of the country respecting Nabobs in general. And Clive was eminently the Nabob, the ablest, the most celebrated, the highest in rank, the highest in fortune, of all the fra- 30 ternity. His wealth was exhibited in a manner which could not fail to excite odium. He lived with great mag- nificence in Berkeley Square. He reared one palace in

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Shropshire and another at Claremont. His parliamentary influence might vie with that of the greatest families. But in all this splendour and power envy found something to sneer at. On some of his relations wealth and dignity 5 seem to have sat as awkwardly as on Mackenzie's Margery Mushroom. Nor was he himself, with all his great quali- ties, free from those weaknesses which the satirists of that age represented as characteristic of his whole class. In the field, indeed, his habits were remarkably simple. He

10 was constantly on horseback, was never seen but in his uniform, never wore silk, never entered a palanquin, and was content with the plainest fare. But when he was no longer at the head of an army, he laid aside this Spartan temperance for the ostentatious luxury of a Sybarite.

15 Though his person was ungraceful, and though his harsh features were redeemed from vulgar ugliness only by their stern, dauntless, and commanding expression, he was fond of rich and gay clothing, and replenished his wardrobe with absurd profusion. Sir John Malcolm gives us a

20 letter worthy of Sir Matthew Mite, in which Clive orders "two hundred shirts, the best and finest that can be got for love or money." A few follies of this description, grossly exaggerated by report, produced an unfavourable impression on the public mind. But this was not the

25 worst. Black stories, of which the greater part were pure inventions, were circulated respecting his conduct in the East. He had to bear the whole odium, not only of those bad acts to which he had once or twice stooped, but of all the bad acts of all the English in India, of bad

30 acts committed when he was absent, nay, of bad acts which he had manfully opposed and severely punished. The very abuses against which he had waged an honest, resolute, and successful war, were laid to his account.

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He was, in fact, regarded as the personification of all the vices and weaknesses which the public, with or without reason, ascribed to the English adventurers in Asia. We have ourselves heard old men, who knew nothing of his history, but who still retained the prejudices conceived in 5 their youth, talk of him as an incarnate fiend. Johnson always held this language. Brown, whom Clive employed to lay out his pleasure grounds, was amazed to see in the house of his noble employer a chest which had once been filled with gold from the treasury of Moorshedabad, and 10 could not understand how the conscience of the criminal could suffer him to sleep with such an object so near to his bedchamber. The peasantry of Surrey looked with mys- terious horror on the stately house which was rising at Claremont, and whispered that the great wicked lord had 15 ordered the walls to be made so thick in order to keep out the devil, who would one day carry him away bodily. Among the gaping clowns who drank in this frightful story was a worthless ugly lad of the name of Hunter, since widely known as William Huntington, S.S.; and the 20 superstition which was strangely mingled with the knavery of that remarkable impostor seems to have derived no small nutriment from the tales which he heard of the life and character of Clive.

In the mean time, the impulse which Clive had given to 25 the administration of Bengal was constantly becoming fainter and fainter. His policy was to a great extent abandoned; the abuses which he had suppressed began to revive; and at length the evils which a bad government had engendered were aggravated by one of those fearful 30 visitations which the best government cannot avert. In the summer of 1770, the rains failed; the earth was parched up; the tanks were empty; the rivers shrank within their

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beds; and a famine, such as is known only in countries where every household depends for support on its own little patch of cultivation, filled the whole valley of the Ganges with misery and death. Tender and delicate women, whose 5 veils had never been lifted before the public gaze, came forth from the inner chambers in which Eastern jealousy had kept watch over their beauty, threw themselves on the earth before the passers-by, and, with loud wailings, implored a handful of rice for their children. The Hoogley

10 every day rolled down thousands of corpses close to the porticoes and gardens of the English conquerors. The very streets of Calcutta were blocked up by the dying and the dead. The lean and feeble survivors had not energy enough to bear the bodies of their kindred to the

15 funeral pile or to the holy river, or even to scare away the jackals and vultures, who fed on human remains in the face of day. The extent of the mortality was never ascertained; but it was popularly reckoned by millions. This melancholy intelligence added to the excitement

20 which already prevailed in England on Indian subjects. The proprietors of East India stock were uneasy about their dividends. All men of common humanity were touched by the calamities of our unhappy subjects; and indignation soon began to mingle itself with pity. It

25 was rumoured that the Company's servants had created the famine by engrossing all the rice of the country; that they had sold grain for eight, ten, twelve times the price at which they had bought it; that one English functionary who, the year before, was not worth a hundred guineas,

30 had, during that season of misery, remitted sixty thousand pounds to London. These charges we believe to have been unfounded. That servants of the Company had ventured, since dive's departure, to deal in rice, is prob-

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able. That, if they dealt in rice, they must have gained by the scarcity, is certain. But there is no reason for thinking that they either produced or aggravated an evil which physical causes sufficiently explain. The outcry which was raised against them on this occasion was, we 5 suspect, as absurd as the imputations which, in times of dearth at home, were once thrown by statesmen and judges, and are still thrown by two or three old women, on the corn factors. It was, however, so loud and so gen- eral that it appears to have imposed even on an intellect 10 raised so high above vulgar prejudices as that of Adam Smith. What was still more extraordinary, these unhappy events greatly increased the unpopularity of Lord Clive. He had been some years in England when the famine took place. None of his acts had the smallest tendency to 15 produce such a calamity. If the servants of the Com- pany had traded in rice, they had done so in direct con- travention of the rule which he had laid down, and, while in power, had resolutely enforced. But, in the eyes of his countrymen, he was, as we have said, the Na- 20 bob, the Anglo-Indian character personified; and, while he was building and planting in Surrey, he was held responsible for all the effects of a dry season in Bengal. Parliament had hitherto bestowed very little attention on our Eastern possessions. Since the death of George 25 the Second, a rapid succession of weak administrations, each of which was in turn flattered and betrayed by the Court, had held the semblance of power. Intrigues in the palace, riots in the capital, and insurrectionary movements in the American colonies, had left the ad- 30 visers of the Crown little leisure to study Indian politics. When they did interfere, their interference was feeble and irresolute. Lord Chatham, indeed, during the short

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period of his ascendency in the councils of George the Third, had meditated a bold attack on the Company. But his plans were rendered abortive by the strange malady which about that time began to overcloud his 5 splendid genius.

At length, in 1772, it was generally felt that Parliament could no longer neglect the affairs of India. The Govern- ment was stronger than any which had held power since the breach between Mr. Pitt and the great Whig connec-

10 tion in 1761. No pressing question of domestic or Euro- pean policy required the attention of public men. There was a short and delusive lull between two tempests. The excitement produced by the Middlesex election was over; the discontents of America did not yet threaten civil war;

15 the financial difficulties of the Company brought on a crisis; the Ministers were forced to take up the subject; and the whole storm, which had long been gathering, now broke at once on the head of Clive.

His situation was indeed singularly unfortunate. He

20 was hated throughout the country, hated at the India House, hated, above all, by those wealthy and powerful servants of the Company, whose rapacity and tyranny he had withstood. He had to bear the double odium of his bad and of his good actions, of every Indian abuse

25 and of every Indian reform. The state of the political world was such that he could count on the support of no powerful connection. The party to which he had belonged, that of George Grenville, had been hostile to the Govern- ment, and yet had never cordially united with the other

30 sections of the Opposition, with the little band which still followed the fortunes of Lord Chatham, or with the large and respectable body of which Lord Rockingham was the acknowledged leader. George Grenville was now

LORD CLIVE 95

dead; his followers were scattered; and dive, unconnected with any of the powerful factions which divided the Parlia- ment, could reckon only on the votes of those members who were returned by himself. His enemies, particularly those who were the enemies of his virtues, were unscrupu- 5 lous, ferocious, implacable. Their malevolence aimed at nothing less than the utter ruin of his fame and for- tune. They wished to see him expelled from Parlia- ment, to see his spurs chopped off, to see his estate confiscated; and it may be doubted whether even such 10 a result as this would have quenched their thirst for revenge.

dive's parliamentary tactics resembled his military tactics. Deserted, surrounded, outnumbered, and with every thing at stake, he did not even deign to stand on the 15 defensive, but pushed boldly forward to the attack. At an early stage of the discussions on Indian affairs he rose, and in a long and elaborate speech vindicated himself from a large part of the accusations which had been brought against him. He is said to have produced a great impres- 20 sion on his audience. Lord Chatham, who, now the ghost of his former self, loved to haunt the scene of his glory, was that night under the gallery of the House of Commons, and declared that he had never heard a finer speech. It was subsequently printed under dive's direction, and, 25 when the fullest allowance has been made for the assist- ance which he may have obtained from literary friends, proves him to have possessed, not merely strong sense and a manly spirit, but talents both for disquisition and dec- lamation which assiduous culture might have improved 30 into the highest excellence. He confined his defence on this occasion to the measures of his last administration, and succeeded so far that his enemies thenceforth thought it

06 LORD CLIVE

expedient to direct their attacks chiefly against the earlier part of his life.

The earlier part- of his life unfortunately presented some assailable points to their hostility. A committee was 5 chosen by ballot to inquire into the affairs of India; and by this committee the whole history of that great revolu- tion which threw down Surajah Dowlah and raised Meer Jafiier was sifted with malignant care. Clive was sub- jected to the most unsparing examination and cross-

10 examination, and afterwards bitterly complained that he, the Baron of Plassey, had been treated like a sheep- stealer. The boldness and ingenuousness of his replies would alone suffice to show how alien from his nature were the frauds to which, in the course of his Eastern

15 negotiations, he had sometimes descended. He avowed the arts which he had employed to deceive Omichund, and resolutely said that he was not ashamed of them, and that, in the same circumstances, he would again act in the same manner. He admitted that he had re-

20 ceived immense sums from Meer Jafiier; but he denied that, in doing so, he had violated any obligation of morality or honour. He laid claim, on the contrary, and not without some reason, to the praise of eminent dis- interestedness. He described in vivid language the situ-

25 ation in which his victory had placed him; a great prince dependent on his pleasure; an opulent city afraid of being given up to plunder; wealthy bankers bidding against each other for his smiles; vaults piled with gold and jewels thrown open to him alone. "By God, Mr. Chairman,"

30 he exclaimed, "at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation."

The inquiry was so extensive that the Houses rose before it had been completed. It was continued in the

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following session. When at length the committee had concluded its labours, enlightened and impartial men had little difficulty in making up their minds as to the result. It was clear that Clive had been guilty of some acts which it is impossible to vindicate without attacking the author- 5 ity of all the most sacred laws which regulate the inter- course of individuals and of states. But it was equally clear that he had displayed great talents, and even great virtues; that he had rendered eminent services both to his country and to the people of India; and that it was in truth 10 not for his dealings with Meer Jaffier nor for the fraud which he had practised on Omichund, but for his determined resistance to avarice and tyranny, that he was now called in question.

Ordinary criminal justice knows nothing of set-off. The 15 greatest desert cannot be pleaded in answer to a charge of the slightest transgression. If a man has sold beer on Sunday morning, it is no defence that he has saved the life of a fellow-creature at the risk of his own. If he has har- nessed a Newfoundland dog to his little child's carriage, 20 it is no defence that he was wounded at Waterloo. But it is not in this way that we ought to deal with men, who, raised far above ordinary restraints, and tried by far more than ordinary temptations, are entitled to a more than or- dinary measure of indulgence. Such men should be judged 2 5 by their contemporaries as they will be judged by posterity. Their bad actions ought not, indeed, to be called good; but their good and bad actions ought to be fairly weighed; and, if on the whole the good preponderate, the sentence ought to be one, not merely of acquittal, but of approba- 30 tion. Not a single great ruler in history can be absolved by a judge who fixes his eye inexorably on one or two un- justifiable acts. Bruce the deliverer of Scotland, Maurice

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the deliverer of Germany, William the deliverer of Hol- land, his great descendant the deliverer of England, Mur- ray the good regent, Cosmo the father of his country, Henry the Fourth of France, Peter the Great of Russia, how 5 would the best of them pass such a scrutiny? History takes wider views; and the best tribunal for great political cases is the tribunal which anticipates the verdict of history.

Reasonable and moderate men of all parties felt this in

10 Clive's case. They could not pronounce him blameless; but they were not disposed to abandon him to that low- minded and rancorous pack who had run him down and were eager to worry him to death. Lord North, though not very friendly to him, was not disposed to go to

15 extremities against him. While the inquiry was still in progress, Clive, who had some years before been created a Knight of the Bath, was installed with great pomp in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. He was soon after ap- pointed Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire. When he kissed

20 hands, George the Third, who had always been partial to him, admitted him to a private audience, talked to him half an hour on Indian politics, and was visibly affected when the persecuted general spoke of his services and of the way in which they had been requited.

25 At length the charges came in a definite form before the House of Commons. Burgoyne, chairman of the commit- tee, a man of wit, fashion, and honour, an agreeable dra- matic writer, an officer whose courage was never questioned and whose skill was at that time highly esteemed, appeared

30 as the accuser. The members of the administration took different sides; for in that age all questions were open questions, except such as were brought forward by the Government, or such as implied some censure on the

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Government. Thurlow, the Attorney-General, was among the assailants. Wedderburne, the Solicitor-General, strongly attached to Clive, defended his friend with extraordinary force of argument and language. It is a curious circumstance that, some years later, Thurlow 5 was the most conspicuous champion of Warren Hastings, while Wedderburne was among the most unrelenting per- secutors of that great though not faultless statesman. Clive spoke in his own defence at less length and with less art than in the preceding year, but with much energy 10 and pathos. He recounted his great actions and his wrongs; and, after bidding his hearers remember that they were about to decide not only on his honour but on their own, he retired from the House.

The Commons resolved that acquisitions made by the 15 army of the State belong to the State alone,, and that it is illegal in the servants of the State to appropriate such acquisitions to themselves. They resolved that this whole- some rule appeared to have been systematically violated by the English functionaries in Bengal. On a subsequent 20 day they went a step farther, and resolved that Clive had, by means of the power which he possessed as commander of the British forces in India, obtained large sums from Meer Jaffier. Here the Commons stopped. They had voted the major and minor of Burgoyne's syllogism; but 25 they shrank from drawing the logical conclusion. When it was moved that Lord Clive had abused his powers, and set an evil example to the servants of the public, the previous question was put and carried. At length, long after the sun had risen on an animated debate, Wedderburne 30 moved that Lord Clive had at the same time rendered great and meritorious services to his country; and this motion passed without a division.

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The result of this memorable inquiry appears to us, on the whole, honourable to the justice, moderation, and dis- cernment of the Commons. They had indeed no great temptation to do wrong. They would have been very 5 bad judges of an accusation brought against Jenkinson or against Wilkes. But the question respecting Clive was not a party question; and the House accordingly acted with the good sense and good feeling which may always be expected from an assembly of English gentle-

10 men, not blinded by faction.

The equitable and temperate proceedings of the British Parliament were set off to the greatest advantage by a foil. The wretched government of Louis the Fifteenth had murdered, directly or indirectly, almost every French-

15 man who had served his country with distinction in the East. Labpurdonnais was flung into the Bastile, and, after years of suffering, left it only to die. Dupleix, stripped of his immense fortune, and broken-hearted by humiliating attendance in antechambers, sank into an

20 obscure grave. Lally was dragged to the common place of execution with a gag between his lips. The Commons of England, on the other hand, treated their living captain with that discriminating justice which is seldom shown except to the dead. They laid down sound general prin-

25 ciples; they delicately pointed out where he had deviated from those principles; and they tempered the gentle cen- sure with liberal eulogy. The contrast struck Voltaire, always partial to England, and always eager to expose the abuses of the Parliaments of France. Indeed he seems,

30 at this time, to have meditated a history of the conquest of Bengal. He mentioned his design to Dr. Moore when that amusing writer visited him at Ferney. Wedder- burne took great interest in the matter, and pressed Clive

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to furnish materials. Had the plan been carried into execution, we have no doubt that Voltaire would have produced a book containing much lively and picturesque narrative, many just and humane sentiments poignantly expressed, many grotesque blunders, many sneers at the 5 Mosaic chronology, much scandal about the Catholic missionaries, and much sublime theo-philanthropy, stolen from the New Testament, and put into the mouths of virtuous and philosophical Brahmins.

Clive was now secure in the enjoyment of his fortune 10 and his honours. He was surrounded by attached friends and relations; and he had not yet passed the season of vigorous bodily anU mental exertion. But clouds had long been gathering over his mind, and now settled on it in thick darkness. From early youth he had been subject 15 to fits of that strange melancholy " which rejoice th exceed- ingly and is glad when it can find the grave." While still a writer at Madras, he had twice attempted to destroy himself. Business and prosperity had produced a salutary effect on his spirits. In India, while he was occupied by 20 great affairs, in England, while wealth and rank had still the charm of novelty, he had borne up against his consti- tutional misery. But he had now nothing to do, and noth- ing to wish for. His active spirit in an inactive situation drooped and withered like a plant in an uncongenial air. 25 The malignity with which his enemies had pursued him, the indignity with which he had been treated by the com- mittee, the censure, lenient as it was, which the House of Commons had pronounced, the knowledge that he was regarded by a large portion of his countrymen as a cruel 30 and perfidious tyrant, all concurred to irritate and depress him. In the mean time, his temper was tried by acute physical suffering. During his long residence in tropical

102 LORD CLIVE

climates, he had contracted several painful distempers. In order to obtain ease he called in the help of opium; and he was gradually enslaved by this treacherous ally. To the last, however, his genius occasionally flashed through 5 the gloom. It is said that he would sometimes, after sit- ting silent and torpid for hours, rouse himself to the dis- cussion of some great question, would display in full vigour all the talents of the soldier and the statesman, and would then sink back into his melancholy repose.

10 The disputes with America had now become so serious that an appeal to the sword seemed inevitable; and the Ministers were desirous to avail themselves of the services of Clive. Had he still been what he was when he raised the siege of Patna, and annihilated the Dutch army and navy

15 at the mouth of the Ganges, it is not improbable that the resistance of the Colonists would have been put down, and that the inevitable separation would have been de- ferred for a few years. But it was too late. His strong mind was fast sinking under many kinds of suffering. On

20 the twenty-second of November, 1774, he died by his

own hand. He had just completed his forty-ninth year.

In the awful close of so much prosperity and glory, the

vulgar saw only a confirmation of all their prejudices; and

some men of real piety and genius so far forgot the maxims

25 both of religion and of philosophy as confidently to ascribe the mournful event to the just vengeance of God, and to the horrors of an evil conscience. It is with very different feelings that we contemplate the spectacle of a great mind ruined by the weariness of satiety, by the pangs of wounded

30 honour, by fatal diseases, and more fatal remedies.

Clive committed great faults; and we have not at- tempted to disguise them. But his faults, when weighed against his merits, and viewed in connection with his

LORD CLIVE 103

temptations, do not appear to us to deprive him of his right to an honourable place in the estimation of pos- terity.

From his first visit to India dates the renown of the English arms in the East. Till he appeared, his country- 5 men were despised as mere pedlars, while the French were revered as a people formed for victory and command. His courage and capacity dissolved the charm. With the defence of Arcot commences that long series of Oriental triumphs which closes with the fall of Ghizni. Nor must 10 we forget that he was only twenty-five years old when he approved himself ripe for military command. This is a rare if not a singular distinction. It is true that Alexander, Conde, and Charles the Twelfth, won great battles at a still earlier age; but those princes were surrounded by 15 veteran generals of distinguished skill, to whose suggestions must be attributed the victories of the Granicus, of Rocroi, and of Narva. Clive, an inexperienced youth, had yet more experience than any of those who served under him. He had to form himself, to form his officers, and to form 20 his army. The only man, as far as we recollect, who at an equally early age ever gave equal proof of talents for war, was Napoleon Bonaparte.

From Clive's second visit to India dates the political ascendency of the English in that country. His dexterity 25 and resolution realised, in the course of a few months, more than all the gorgeous visions which had floated before the imagination of Dupleix. Such an extent of cultivated territory, such an amount of revenue, such a multitude of subjects, was never added to the dominion of Rome by the 30 most successful proconsul. Nor were such wealthy spoils ever borne under arches of triumph, down the Sacred Way, and through the crowded Forum, to the threshold of Tar-

104 LORD CLIVE

peian Jove. The fame of those who subdued Antiochus and Tigranes grows dim when compared with the splen- dour of the exploits which the young English adventurer achieved at the head of an army not equal in numbers to 5 one half of a Roman legion.

From Clive's third visit to India dates the purity of the administration of our Eastern empire. When he landed in Calcutta in 1765, Bengal was regarded as a place to which Englishmen were sent only to get rich, by any

10 means, in the shortest possible time. He first made dauntless and unsparing war on that gigantic system of oppression, extortion, and corruption. In that war he manfully put to hazard his ease, his fame, and his splen- did fortune. The same sense of justice which forbids us

15 to conceal or extenuate the faults of his earlier days com- pels us to admit that those faults were nobly repaired. If the reproach of the Company and of its servants has been taken away, if in India the yoke of foreign masters, elsewhere the heaviest of all yokes, has been found lighter

20 than that of any native dynasty, if to that gang of public robbers which formerly spread terror through the whole plain of Bengal has succeeded a body of functionaries not more highly distinguished by ability and diligence than by integrity, disinterestedness, and public spirit, if we

25 now see such men as Munro, Elphinstone, and Metcalfe, after leading victorious armies, after making and deposing kings, return, proud of their honourable poverty, from a land which once held out to every greedy factor the hope of boundless wealth, the praise is in no small measure due

30 to Clive. His name stands high on the roll of conquerors. But it is found in a better list, in the list of those who have done and suffered much for the happiness of mankind. To the warrior, history will assign a place in the same

LORD CLIVE 105

rank with Lucullus and Trajan. Nor will she deny to the reformer a share of that veneration with which France cherishes the memory of Turgot, and with which the latest generations of Hindoos will contemplate the statue of Lord William Bentinck.

NOTES

SO much has been written in recent years about the teaching of English in secondary schools, that few if any suggestions about the handling of this essay seem to be called for. The only suggestions that the writer feels ought to be made are perhaps required by the peculiar nature of Macaulay's subject and style. Nothing in the teaching of the essay, it seems almost too obvious to say, should be allowed to interfere with the student's natural interest in the story of Clive's life. In this case, however, there are unusual temptations. It has been necessary, in order to explain Macaulay's abundant allusions and illustrations, to give in the notes a good deal of information that does not bear very directly on the story of Clive. But to make the acquisition of this information the chief part of the student's work is to defeat the very purpose for which the study of literature in schools should be carried on.

Whether the introductory matter should be read before or after the text is a question on which there is room for some difference of opinion. In the present instance, however, it will probably be found that the essay will be read with less difficulty and with greater intelligence if the brief sketch of Indian history is read first. For the same reason it will be found desirable to have pupils constantly consult the map for names of places in India.

No full analysis of Macaulay's style has been attempted in the Introduction, chiefly because, in the writer's judgment, it is much better to let the student first draw his own conclusions about details of style, than to give him conclusions ready made. To help him to reach opinions for himself, however, it will be found advisable to have him examine a number of paragraphs in the essay with a view to answering such question as the fol- lowing: Are Macaulay's sentences, in the paragraphs you have examined, generally long or short, or neither? Have you had

107

108 NOTES

any difficulty in grasping the meaning of the long sentences? Do you find much variety in the length of sentences? Do you find any purpose served or advantage gained by the grouping or arrangement of long and short sentences? Do you find many sentences that are wholly or largely periodic in structure? In what different ways does Macaulay make sentences periodic? Do you find many instances of parallel structure in phrases? in clauses? in sentences? Do you find many balanced sentences? Do these sentences usually express a contrast? Do you find much variety in the structure of sentences? Do all of Macau- lay's paragraphs seem to you to be well constructed? Do they have unity? Does the thought move easily from sentence to sentence? How is this transition between sentences chiefly accomplished? By transitional words and phrases? By refer- ence words? By repeating words or phrases from the preceding sentence? By beginning consecutive sentences with the same expression, or by retaining the same subject? Do you find any instances of climax in the arrangement of sentences in the para- graph? Do you find many topic sentences? In cases where you do not find them, do they seem to be needed? Do you find many summary sentences? Of what advantage is each to the paragraph in which it occurs?

3. 5. Montezuma II, King of Mexico, was imprisoned, as perhaps some schoolboys need to be reminded, by Hernando Cortes in 15 18. For a full account of the incident, see Pres- cott's Conquest of Mexico.

3. 6. Atahualpa, the last Inca of Peru, was strangled by order of the Spanish invader, Pizarro. The story is told in Prescott's Conquest of Peru.

3. 8. The Battle of Buxar: In 1764 Major Munro defeated the combined forces of the Nabob of Oude and Meer Cossim, the Nabob of Bengal. This victory gave the English complete control of the valley of the Ganges. Cf. note, p. 83, 1. n.

3. 9. The massacre of Patna: In 1763, through the miscon- duct of an English official at Patna, war broke out between the English and Meer Cossim, whom they had placed upon the throne of Bengal. The Nabob was defeated and fled to Oude, but his English prisoners at Patna, 148 in number, were mas- sacred, doubtless according to his instructions, by Walter Rein-

NOTES 109

hardt, a German soldier of fortune, then in his service. See

P- 73, 1. 25-

3. 10. Sujah Dowlah ruled in Oude (1754 to 1775). He is not to be confused with Surajah Dowlah, who is frequently mentioned later in the essay. See p. 38, 1. 31.

3. 10. Oude, Travancore: To get a clear understanding of this narrative, the student should not fail to consult the map whenever he comes upon unfamiliar names of places.

3. n. Holkar: the name of a dynasty of Hindoo Mahratta chiefs in Central India. It is possible that Macaulay here means the founder of the dynasty, who was active about the middle of the eighteenth century, but more likely that he has in mind Jaswint Rao Holkar, who stubbornly opposed the Eng- lish at the beginning of the nineteenth century and defeated their armies more than once.

3. 11. The victories of Cortes: Macaulay was apparently not well informed about the Mexicans. They were more highly civilized than he thought.

3. 17. Harquebusier : a soldier armed with a harquebus, or arquebus, a primitive musket used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

4. 4. Ferdinand the Catholic: Ferdinand V, King of Aragon (1456-1576), who married Isabella, Queen of Castile. Why are these sovereigns of especial interest to American readers?

4. 6. The Great Captain: Gonsalvo Hernandez de Cordova, a distinguished Spanish general of the time of Ferdinand. The title, The Great Captain, was given him for his services in regaining Naples from the French.

4. 14. Mr. Mill's book: a History of British India published in 181 7-18 by James Mill, an English philosopher and historian whose fame has been overshadowed by that Of his more dis- tinguished son, John Stuart Mill.

4. 17. Orme: Robert Orme (1 728-1801) wrote a History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan from the year 1745, published in 1763 and 1778. He lived in India during much of the time that Clive was there, knew Clive inti- mately, and, as a member of the council at Madras in 1756, commended the appointment of Clive to command the expedi- tion to Calcutta.

4. 27. Sir John Malcolm, whose Life of Clive Macaulay is

no NOTES

ostensibly reviewing, was a soldier and diplomatist of some prominence in his day. He was in the service of the East India Company for many years, and was made Governor of Bombay in 1827.

4. 28. Lord Powis: Lord Clive's eldest son, Edward, who had married the daughter of the former Earl of Powis, was made Earl of Powis in 1804. He died in 1839.

5. 9. Whose love passes the love of biographers: the word- ing is taken from David's lament over Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. 26. Find other instances of the influence of the English Bible on Macaulay's style.

5. 12. The severe judgment of Mr. Mill: Mill accuses Clive of too much attention to self-interest and of lack of far-sighted statesmanship. But he acknowledges his boldness and skill, and virtually vindicates his conduct. He says that Clive " appears not in any instance to have sacrificed what he regarded as their (the Company's) interests to his own," and that " it would have required an extraordinary man to have acted, in that most trying situation in which he was placed, with greater disinterest than he displayed." {Hist, of Brit. India, III, 5n.)

5. 23. Shropshire: In what part of England?

5. 28. Avocations: Distinguish between avocation and voca- tion.

6. 17. Predatory: Meaning? Give the meaning of the sen- tence in simpler English.

6. 22. Character: What word would writers of the present day use instead?

6. 30. Writership: clerkship.

6. 31. East India Company: see Introduction, p. 26.

7. 1. East Endia College: at Haleybury, Herfordshire. The school was established by the East India Company to prepare young men for the Company's service.

7. 2. Presidencies: formerly the three main political divi- sions of India, the presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. Originally, in India, the word was applied to the office of the head of a factory or trading-post. As factories gradually became centers of government, " presidency " came to mean the prov- ince governed.

7. 28. The prophet's gourd: see Jonah iv. 6-10.

NOTES in

8. 5. The heat of the climate. To get a better idea of the effect of the climate on Europeans, read some of Kipling's stories, e.g., The End of the Passage, or With the Main Guard.

8. 7. The voyage . . . performed within three months: How long does it take now to go from England to India? What is the usual route?

8. 16. Precinct: In what sense is the word used here?

8. 24. The Great Mogul: see Introduction, p. 23.

10. 11. Twice ... he attempted to destroy himself: Macaulay's statement, though not literally inconsistent with other accounts of the incident, is misleading. One cannot help feeling that his fondness for the balanced sentence has led him to sacrifice exactness to rhetorical effect. A reader gets the impression that Clive attempted his own life on two separate occasions. Sir Charles Wilson's account of the story is as fol- lows: "During this period he is said, either in a fit of despair or of low spirits, to have attempted suicide. A companion coming into his room on one occasion, was requested to take up a pistol and fire it out of the window. He did so; whereupon Clive, who was in one of his gloomy moods, sprang up and exclaimed: ' Well, I am reserved for something! I have twice snapped that pistol at my own head.' "

10. 15. Wallenstein: a great general in the service of the Emperor Ferdinand II in the Thirty Years War.

10. 22. The war of the Austrian succession (1 740-1 748): On the death of the Emperor Charles VI, in 1740, the succession of his daughter Maria Theresa, to the throne of Austria was disputed. The Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the throne, was supportd by France, Spain, and Prussia. England and Holland supported Maria Theresa. In India and America the war was simply a struggle between France and England for colonial possessions. In American history it is generally known as King George's war.

10. 24. The House of Bourbon: the royal family of France since 1589. Since 1700 it has included also the royal family of Spain.

10. 26. More than a match on the sea for all the nations of the world: Would this statement be true of England's present strength on the sea?

10. 30. Labourdonnais : see also p. 100, 1. 16.

112 NOTES

10. 31. Mauritius and Reunion, of which Labourdonnais was also governor, are islands in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar.

11. 7. Parole: "a pledge of honour given by a prisoner of war that he will not try to escape, if allowed to go about at liberty, or will return to custody at a stated time, or will not take up arms against his captors within a stated period."

11. 12. Dupleix: see also p. 36, 1. 5, and p. 100, 1. 17.

11. 29. Engagements: In what sense is the word used? Into what engagements had the inhabitants entered?

12. 5. Ensign: formerly a commissioned office of the lowest grade in the British infantry. Equivalent to what rank in the American army?

12. 8. A desperate duel: Clive accused an ensign in the Company's service of cheating in a game of cards, and refused to pay what he had lost. In the duel, which immediately fol- lowed, " Clive fired and missed his opponent, who walking up to him held the pistol to his head and bade him ask for his life. After some hesitation he complied, but when further pressed to withdraw his remarks and promise payment, he replied, ' Fire and be damned! I said you cheated; I say so still, and I will never pay you.' The astonished ensign, finding threats useless, called him a madman, and flung his pistol away." — Wilson's Life of Clive. This story furnished the chief inci- dent in Browning's dramatic poem, Clive, which all students of this essay should read.

12. 18. Peace had been concluded: the Peace of Aix-la- Chapelle, 1748, by which the English and French restored the conquests they had made.

12. 30. The English and French Companies: At the begin- ning of this struggle the French in India were much stronger than the English; their settlements were more extensive, and their military force and their influence were greater.

12. S3- Tamerlane, Baber, Moguls: see Introduction, pp. xxxi and xxxii.

13. 10. Versailles: a suburb of Paris, where Louis XIV built a magnificent palace, since then the residence of the kings and emperors of France.

14. 2. Aurungzebe: see Introduction, p. xxxiii.

14. 10. Theodosius: Theodosius the Great, the last emperor

NOTES 113

to rule over the united Roman Empire (379-395, a.d.). After his death the Empire was rapidly broken up.

14. 13. Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, became King of the Franks in 768 a.d. In the year 800 he was crowned Emperor of Rome. His domain included, besides France, much of what is now Germany and Italy, and parts of Austria and Spain. The kings of his line are called Carlovingians.

14. 19. Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple ruled the empire of the Franks from 840 to 929.

14. 24. The pirates of the Northern Sea: the Northmen or Normans, who early in the tenth century with the consent of Charles the Simple established themselves in northern France, thereafter called Normandy. From here, a century and a half later, they invaded and conquered England.

14. 28. The Gog or Magog of prophecy: Revelations xx. 8, Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix. The names are supposed to refer to the heathen nations of Asia.

14. 30. Pannonian: a Roman province lying in what is now the southwestern part of Austria-Hungary. It was bounded on the north and east by the Danube.

14. 31. Campania: A large district in southern Italy com- prising Naples and the surrounding country.

15. 16. Bang: the dried leaves and capsules of the Indian hemp; the hashish of the Arabs. It is used in different forms in Oriental countries as a narcotic and intoxicant.

15. 22. Roe: Sir Thomas Roe, who was sent out by James I in 16 1 5 as ambassador to the Mogul Jahangir. He wrote a book giving an interesting account of the Mogul's court, at which he had spent more than three years.

15. 22. Bernier: Francois Bernier, a learned French pl^si- cian and traveller — a schoolfellow of Moliere's — spent twelve years at the court of Aurungzebe as his physician. His Travels were published in 1670.

15. 23. The Peacock Throne: built by the Emperor Shah Jehan (1628-1658) in his palace at Delhi. Estimates of its value range from five million to fifty million dollars.

15. 23. Golconda: the name of a city and fortress, formerly also of a kingdom in southern India. The city is famous for the diamonds which were cut and polished there.

15. 25. Mountain of Light: the Koh-i-noor. This famous

9

H4 NOTES

diamond afterwards came into the possession of the East India Company which presented it to Queen Victoria.

13. 27. Runjeet Sing: Lord of the Punjab in the early nine- teenth century. He died in 1839.

15. 27. Hideous idol of Orissa: Jagannath, better known as the Juggernaut. See comment and illustration for Juggernaut in The Standard Dictionary.

15. 32. Seiks, or Sikhs: a Hindu sect which in the eighteenth century gradually became a nation.

I5« 32- Jauts or Jats: a Hindu tribe.

17. 20. Cabul or Kabul: the name of a province as well as of the capital city of Afghanistan.

17. 20. Chorasan: the northeastern province of Persia.

17. 33. Burrampooter : the Brahmaputra.

18. 1. Hydaspes: the ancient name of the Jhelum, a branch of the Indus. Near this river Alexander the Great defeated the native ruler Porus in 326 B.C.

18. 1. Dictate terms of peace at the gates of Ava: at the close of the first Burmese war in 1826. Ava was the former capital of Burma.

18. 2. Candahar: a city in southern Afghanistan. In the first Afghan war, which began in 1838, the English dethroned one ruler of Afghanistan, and put another on the throne. Their control of the country, however, was short-lived.

18. 16. Saxe: Comte Maurice de Saxe, generally called Mar- shal Saxe, one of the most brilliant generals of France in the eighteenth century. He defeated the English at Fontenoy in

1745-

18. 16. Frederic: Frederic II, King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, known as Frederick the Great. He was a genius in the art of war.

19. 2. Court of Delhi: Delhi was the capital of the Mogul Empire..

19. 11. Want: In which sense is the word used?

20. 11. Sepoy: a native East Indian soldier as distinguished from a European soldier. The work is a corruption of sipahi, Hindustani for soldier.

20. 16. Owes to the eloquence of Burke: Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) was one of England's greatest statesmen and orators. The reference is to his speech on the payment of the Nabob

NOTES 115

of Arcot's debts. The Nabob owed, it was claimed, large sums to the East India Company's servants. It was proposed that these debts should be paid out of the revenues of the Carnatic. Burke opposed this plan on the ground that the debts were fraudulent or represented bribes offered to the Company's ser- vants for the assistance of the English in the Nabob's unprin- cipled schemes. See Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings, ed. Samuel M. Tucker, in Longmans' " English Classics."

20. 28. Te Deum: an ancient Christian hymn named from its opening words " Te Deum laudamus," " We praise thee, O God," much used in the service of the church and on occasions of special thanksgiving.

21. 27. The vain-glorious Frenchman: Macaulay's epithet is misleading. The acts which Macaulay attributes to Dupleix's vanity were doubtless due to his sagacity. He chose the best way of impressing the natives with a sense of his greatness and the greatness of the French. Macaulay recognizes this else- where; cf. p. 28, 1. 30, to p. 29, 1. 5.

25. 6. The Tenth Legion: a legion in which Caesar placed especial confidence. It was famed for its devotion and courage.

25. 6. The Old Guard: the senior division of the Imperial Guard, the flower of Napoleon's army. Only veterans who had served with distinction were admitted to it.

25. 16. Mahrattas: see page 15, 1. 33, to p. 16, 1. 33.

26. 6. Hosein the son of Ali: Ali, a cousin of Mohammed, had married Fatima, the prophet's favourite daughter. He became the fourth caliph, or head of the Mohammedan state. His claim to the throne, however, was opposed, and as a result the church was broken into two factions. Ali was murdered, and his eldest son, Hassan, abdicated and was afterwards poi- soned. Several years later Ali's younger son, Hosein, refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new caliph, Yezid, and was assassinated in the plain of Kerbela in the year 680. The fes- tival of which Macaulay speaks, called the Muharram from the month in which it occurred, was observed by the Shiah Mos- lems, the followers of Ali, as the anniversary of the death of Hosein.

26. 9. Fatimites: descendants of Fatima, or their supporters. See preceding note.

26. 12. The tyrant: Yezid.

n6 NOTES

26. 14. They had seen those lips pressed: that is, they had seen Mohammed kiss his little grandson, Hosein.

26. 23. The garden of the Houris: the Mohammedan para- dise. Houris, according to the Moslem faith, are nymphs who are to be the companions of the faithful.

26. 26. Drunk with enthusiasm, drunk with bang: evidently a half humorous imitation of Milton's

" Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine."

— Samson Agonistes, 1. 1670.

30. 14. Captain Bobadil: a blustering, cowardly soldier, in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour.

30. 22. Bussy: Charles- Joseph Patissier, Marquis de Bussy- Castelnau, was the ablest of the French officers in India. He was distinguished alike for his brilliant military exploits, and for his skill in dealing with the natives. For several years he was the virtual ruler at Hyderabad. See Malleson's History of the French in India.

30. 24. At the court of that prince: at Hyderabad.

31. 26. Crimps: persons who decoyed or kidnapped men for military or naval service. The East India Company obtained great numbers of young men in this way and shipped them to India.

31. 26. Flash-houses: houses that received stolen goods and that were frequented by all sorts of disreputable people.

32. 24. Clive embarked for England: in February, 1753, eight years after his arrival at Madras.

34. 3. Jacobites: from " Jacobus," James. Adherents of James II after he was deposed in 1688, or of his male descendants; hence opponents of the House of Hanover. The last rebellion refers to an unsuccessful attempt, made in 1745, to put Charles Edward, known as the Young Pretender, a grandson of James II, upon the throne. A similar attempt in 1 715 in favour of his father, James, the Old Pretender, had likewise failed.

34. 9. Prince Frederic: oldest son of George II and father of George III. He died in 1751.

34. 17. Newcastle: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of New- castle. He was made a secretary of state in 1724, and by aiding now one party and now another, he managed to keep himself in office for thirty-eight years. He became prime minister in 1754.

NOTES 117

34. 20. Henry Fox: the first Lord Holland. He was the father of Charles James Fox, one of the most famous orators and statesmen of the latter part of the century.

34. 22. First Lord of the Treasury: Newcastle. The prime minister is usually, though not necessarily, First Lord of the Treasury.

34. 27. Returning: In England a man is " returned " to Parliament when elected even for the first time. A writ is issued by the clerk of the crown, to the sheriff of the county, and after the election the writ is sent back bearing the name of the candidate elected. Hence, " returned."

34. 29. The Reform Act in 1832, besides extending the franchise, did away with the "rotten boroughs," which up to that time had continued to elect members to Parliament, although their population had dwindled or disappeared altogether. These boroughs were openly bought and sold.

34. 32. Clive . . . was brought forward: In England a member of Parliament need not be a resident of the district for which he is elected.

35. 8. Sir Robert Walpole: a great Whig leader, who for twenty-one years, from 1721 to 1742, was prime minister of England. He is said to have established the modern system of cabinet government.

35. 29. The Duke of Cumberland: second son of George III. See note on p. 67, 1. 30.

35. 32. The House rescinded the decision of the committee: that is, the House in its regular legislative capacity, reversed the decision it had reached when acting as a committee.

37. 26. Castilians: inhabitants of the old kingdom of Castile in the northern and central part of Spain. Valencia: a province, formerly a Moorish kingdom, in eastern Spain, on the shore of the Mediterranean.

38. 6. Factories: organizations of factors or agents engaged in trade, not in manufacturing: hence, trading stations. The principal English factories "consisted of merchants, senior and junior, who conducted the trade; factors, who ordered goods, inspected and despatched them; and writers, who were clerks and book-keepers. . . . From the senior merchants the members of council were chosen, and one of these last was selected as president of the factory."

n8 NOTES

38. 16. Chowringhee : a part of Calcutta occupied by govern- ment buildings and houses of wealthy merchants.

40. 7. The governor . . . took refuge in the nearest ship: " From daylight on Sunday till late in the afternoon of Monday, the deserted garrison signalled to the ships for assistance. A few boats might have rescued all who remained, yet the governor and the commandant made no effort to save their countrymen. There is no more disgraceful incident in the history of the British Empire." — Wilson's Life of Clive.

40. 30. It was the summer solstice: June 20, 1756.

41. n. The story which Ugolino told: In the Inferno, Cantos XXXII and XXXIII, Dante sees Count Ugolino of Pisa and Archbishop Ruggieri imprisoned together in the sea of ever- lasting ice, the former gnawing forever at the skull of the latter. Ugolino tells the poet how he and his children were starved to death by Ruggieri. The children died first, and the father fondled their dead bodies until "hunger did what sorrow could not do."

43. 5. And that Clive should be at the head of the land forces: This prompt decision, however, was followed by dis- putes between the council and certain officers, which delayed the departure of the fleet for two months.

44. 14. War had commenced in Europe: the Seven Years War. France and Austria, aided by Sweden, Poland, and Russia, attempted to crush Frederic the Great of Prussia. Eng- land alone took the side of Prussia. That part of the conflict which took place in America is known as the French and Indian War.

46. 24. He fell back in alarm: not, however, until after an engagement in which the English lost heavily. 46. 28. Bussy: see p. 30, 1. 22, and note.

46. 32. Chandernagore : Chandernagore is on the Hooghley, about twenty miles north of Calcutta. Here the French had built a strong fort, which was defended at this time by "five hundred Europeans and seven hundred blacks." The English ships, which fought at very close range, suffered severely. Every officer but one on Admiral Watson's flagship was either killed or wounded.

47. 2. The success of the movements was rapid: The siege lasted ten days. The fort surrendered on March 23, 1757.

NOTES 119

50. 3. He forged Admiral Watson's name: Clive instructed his secretary to sign the Admiral's name. " When questioned by the Select Committee of Parliament he declared that to the best of his belief the Admiral gave Mr. Lushington leave to sign his name, but that he would have ordered his name to be attached whether he had consented or not." — Wilson's Life of Clive.

50. 29. Before him lay a river: the Bhagirathi, the northern part of the Hooghley.

51. 3. Clive declared his concurrence with the majority: " On the 21st Clive summoned a council of war to decide whether the English should attack at once or entrench themselves at Katwa. The question having been put, Clive, contrary to his usual practice, gave his own vote first. He voted for delay, and was supported by Kilpatrick and eleven others. A minority of seven, with Eyre Coote at their head, voted for an imme- diate attack." — Wilson's Life of Clive.

51. 28. Furies: The furies or Eumenides, in classical mythol- ogy, were avenging goddesses.

51. 30. The day broke: June 23, 1757.

51. 2>3- Forty thousand infantry . . . cavalry . . . fifteen thou- sand: Clive's own estimate of the Nabob's army was 50,000. Orme puts the number at 68,000.

52. 22. Scarcely any execution: During the cannonade the English were protected by a mud bank and ditch surrounding the grove in which they lay.

55. 20. The unhappy man sank into idiocy: "Aminchand (Omichund) naturally was overwhelmed when Clive cooly con- fessed to the deception, but the current story that he lost his reason from the shock and died an imbecile is false. The old Calcutta records prove that after an interval he resumed busi- ness and engaged in several transactions with the English." — Oxford Student's History of India.

56. 10. Machiavelli: Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), a cele- brated Florentine statesman and writer. Because of his work The Prince, a treatise on the principles of statecraft, his name has come to suggest what is deceptive and cold-blooded and unscrupulous in the policy of states or individuals.

56. 11. Borgia: Caesar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, was one of the worst of Italian princes. He mercilessly slaughtered

120 NOTES

his enemies, had his brother assassinated, and is supposed to have been an adept in the art of poisoning. He is the hero of Machiavelli's Prince. He died in 1507.

57. 8. Yea, yea, and nay, nay: see James v. 12, and Matthew

v. 37-

57. 17. Rupees: The rupee is a silver coin, nominally worth fifty cents. On account of the depreciation in the value of silver it is now worth much less.

58. 8. We altogether condemn it: Speaking in the House of Commons, Clive said that he looked upon Omichund as a "pub- lic enemy," and considered "every artifice that could deceive him to benot only defensible but just and proper." He always defended his action and declared that he was ready to do it a hundred times over. Sir Charles Wilson in his Life of Clive, says, " The sham treaty was a blunder no less than a crime, for it was unnecessary. ... All that can be said is that except in this one instance he appears to have been singularly straight- forward in his dealings with the natives, and that before he left Bengal he had succeeded in winning their implicit con- fidence."

59. 4. Florin: originally a gold coin, first issued in Florence in 1252. The name has since been given to different gold and silver coins'.

59. 5. Byzant: a gold coin first made in Byzantium, the old name of Constantinople.

59. 6. The Venetians purchased the stuff, etc.: The Moham- medans who controlled both the caravan trade and the trade by the Red Sea brought the products of the Orient to the eastern Mediterranean ports and sold them to the Venetian merchants.

59. 7. Clive walked between heaps of gold: see p. 96, 11. 24- 31. According to some authorities the total amount that Clive received from Meer Jaffier was 188,000 pounds.

59. 20. Rewards bestowed ... on Marlborough, etc.: After the battle of Blenheim (1704) the Emperor Joseph I gave the Duke of Marlborough the principality of Mindelheim in Bavaria. In 1798 Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, gave Nelson, as a reward for his services in the battle of the Nile, the estate of Bronte and the title of Duke of Bronte. After Wellington defeated the French at Vittoria in 181 3, the Spanish government made him Duke of Vittoria and gave him an estate in Spain. Does

NOTES 121

Macaulay meet the argument implied in these cases? Why does he say nothing more about them?

60. 26. Louis the Eighteenth: Wellington's victory at Water- loo made the throne of France secure for Louis XVIII and the House of Bourbon.

61. 16. Twenty lacs of rupees: A lac is 100,000. Twenty lacs of rupees would be equivalent to a million dollars.

63. 1. Engagements: In what sense is the word used?

63. 6. The tract lying to the north of the Carnatic: This tract was called the Northern Circars. See map. Colonel Forde showed unusual ability in the conduct of the expedition. He defeated the French army at Kondur, and, with a force inferior to the garrison opposed to him, he carried the strongly fortified town of Masulipatam by assault. "The storming of Masuli- patam," says Sir Charles Wilson, "is one of the most daring feats of arms on record. . . . And yet, strange to say, . . . though strongly recommended by Clive, the English commander received no mark of distinction from the Company or from the country he had served so well." — Life of Clive.

65. 3. Quit-rent: strictly, a rent paid by a freeholder, where- by he was released from feudal service. Here the word means simply rent. Such an assignment of rent or revenues as Meer Jaffier made to Clive is called a jaghir.

65. 10. This present we think Clive justified in accepting: Is Macaulay consistent in approving the acceptance of this gift and condemning the acceptance of Meer Jafher's first gift? Was the first gift a secret one? Did the Company at the time disapprove of it? The question is discussed in Wilson's Life of Clive, pp. 109, no.

65. 29. Batavia: the capital of Java. What other East Indian possessions do the Dutch now have?

66. 23. Ably seconded by Colonel Forde: The Dutch commo- dore had landed 1500 soldiers on the west bank of the Hooghley. " Forde hesitated to attack the troops of a friendly state without explicit instructions, and wrote to Clive that, if he had an order in Council, he could attack the Dutch with a fair chance of success. Clive was playing whist when the note arrived, and without rising from the table, replied in pencil, 'Dear Forde — Fight them immediately. I will send you the order in Council to-morrow.' " — Wilson's Life of Clive, p. 129.

122 NOTES

67. 7. Clive sailed for England: in February, 1760, a little more than four years after he arrived. He had found the Eng- lish almost driven from Bengal; he left them the masters of the province and the strongest power in India.

67. 12. The Irish peerage: Clive was given the title of Baron Clive of Plassey. He never received an English title. An Irish peer is not a member of the House of Lords, and may sit in the House of Commons, as Clive actually did.

67. 16. Pitt: William Pitt, the elder (1 708-1 778), known as the great Commoner, afterwards Earl of Chatham.

67. 19. That memorable period: The year 1759 was a great year of victories for the English. In Europe they defeated the French army at Minden, and their navy off Cape Lagos and in Quiberon Bay. In America they captured Quebec. In India they defeated the Dutch in Bengal, and when the year was scarcely ended, they crushed the French power in the Carnatic.

67. 23. The King of Prussia: Frederick the Great. See p. I8,

I. 16, and note.

67. 23. There were then no reporters in the gallery: Until 1 771 the proceedings of Parliament were not allowed to be published. Reporters' galleries were not erected until after the fire of 1834.

67. 28. The death of Wolfe: Major-General James Wolfe was killed on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec, September 13, 1759. Like Clive he was only thirty-two years old when he won his greatest victory.

67. 30 The Duke of Cumberland, the second son of George

II, had been defeated at Fontenoy and Lauffeld in the War of the Austrian Succession and at Hastenbeck in the Seven Years War. His only victory was at Culloden, where he defeated the Jacobites and treated them with such cruelty that he was after- wards called "The Butcher."

67. 2>2>- Conway: General Henry Seymour Conway served in the Seven Years, at one time commanding the British forces in Germany under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. Afterwards he was Secretary of State and commander-in-chief of the army.

68. 2. Granby: John Manners, Marquis of Granby, served with distinction in the Seven Years War. Later he became commander-in-chief of the army.

68. 4. Sackville: Lord George Sackville, afterwards Lord

NOTES 123

George Germain, commander of the English forces in Germany, was dismissed from the service for refusing to charge at the battle of Minden, where he was in command of the allied cav- alry. The "imputation most fatal" is, of course, that of cow- ardice.

68. 7. Under the command of a foreign general: Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, commanding the English, Hessian, and Hanoverian forces, defeated the French at Minden in 1759 and at Warburg in 1760.

69. 12. His purchases of land seem to have been made with that view: How could the purchase of land help his parliamen- tary interest? See note on p. 34, 1. 29.

69. 21. George Grenville: Prime Minister from 1763 to 1765. It was his ministry that began the attempt to impose taxes on the American colonies.

69. 22. That worthless demagogue Wilkes: Although John Wilkes was a demagogue and a profligate, he helped to bring about several important reforms. He 'was accused of libelling the King in his paper, the North Briton, and was arrested on a general, or blank warrant. The arrest resulted in the very important decision from the Chief Justice that general warrants were illegal. In 1768 Wilkes was elected to Parliament for Middlesex, but was expelled from the House. He was re-elected three times, and each time expelled. Finally in 1774, he was elected again, and was allowed to take his seat. This long struggle resulted in establishing the right of a constituency to choose its own representative. Wilkes also took an active part in obtaining for the people the right to make public the pro- ceedings of Parliament.

69. 25. Horace Walpole, a son of Sir Robert Walpole, was a prominent literary and social figure in the middle and latter part of the eighteenth century.

69. 28. The levee: the King's morning reception.

69. 31. Your Majesty will have another vote: George III was building up a party of supporters in Parliament, known as the King's friends, by whose aid he hoped to regain for the crown much of the power which it had lost since the days of the Tudors.

70. 8. Board of Control: a government board consisting of six members of the Privy Council, which had supreme authority

124

NOTES

over the civil and military administrations of the Company. It was established in 1784 and existed until 1858.

70. 11. The Court of Proprietors consisted of holders of the stock of the Company to the amount of 500 pounds.

70. 17. A Westminster election: Macaulay probably has in mind the election of 1784. In that year, in order to defeat Charles James Fox, who was a candidate for Parliament for Westminster, the King and his ministers, of whom the younger Pitt was at the head, resorted to bribery and illegal voting. A great deal of excitement prevailed. Fox, although elected, was excluded from his seat by political trickery. He was then elected from another borough. A similar turbulent election had occurred in Westminster in 1689.

70. 18. A Grampound election: Grampound was a borough in Cornwall in which several persons were convicted of bribery and corrupt practices in 181 9.

71. 5. Residencies: A residency is the office of a representa- tive of the Governor-General at a native court.

71. 6. Sudder courts: the Company's courts of highest civil and criminal jurisdiction. Englishmen had had the right of appeal from these courts to the supreme court at Calcutta. Macaulay while in India did away with this special privilege.

71. 18. Leadenhall Street: the location of the India House.

71. 21. Pigot: Lord Pigot, Governor of Madras. During the forty years of his residence in India he had amassed a for- tune of $2,000,000.

71. 31. The South Sea year: The South Sea Company was organized in 1711 to engage in South American commerce. Great numbers of people in a fever of speculation invested their money in the stock and in that of smaller bubble companies which had sprung up. In the year 1720, to which Macaulay refers, the price of South Sea Company stock rose to 1000 pounds a share and then dropped to 135 pounds. The smaller com- panies went to pieces. Thousands of families were ruined.

72. 21. To file a bill in Chancery against them: to make a written complaint or petition to a court of equity, setting forth all the facts and circumstances upon which the complaint is founded, and praying for equitable relief.

73. 5. The Roman proconsul: Lucullus, proconsul in Asia Minor from 74 to 66 B.C., one of the ablest of Roman generals.

NOTES 125

He defeated Mithridates, King of Pontus, and Tigranes, King of Armenia. When superseded by Pompey, through the jeal- ousy of politicians at Rome, he retired from public life, and spent the rest of his days in the enjoyment of the great fortune that he had acquired.

73. 9. Camelopards: giraffes.

73. 9. The Spanish viceroy: If Macaulay has in mind any particular viceroy, he probably means Cortez or Hernando Pizarro, borther of the conqueror of Pern.

73. 11. Sumpter-horses: baggage horses.

73. 25. A massacre surpassing in atrocity: the massacre of Patna. See note on p. 3, 1. o.

73. 32. The servants of the Company obtained a monopoly of the internal trade: They did this in the following way. Tolls and duties were imposed on goods transported by roads and rivers. By special permit, the Company's goods were exempt from these charges. The servants of the Company used the Company's permit to escape the payment of duties on their own private goods. As a result the native merchants could not compete with their privileged rivals and were driven out of business.

74. 14. The little finger . . . thicker than the loins: see 1 Kings xii. 10.

74. 30. Palanquin: For definition and illustration, see The Century or Webster's Dictionary.

75. 29. Cabal: For meaning and Macaulay's own comment on the word, see The Standard or The Century Dictionary.

75. 29. Sepoys . . . kept in order only by wholesale execu- tions: The first sepoy mutiny occurred at Patna in 1764. Twenty of the mutineers were executed by being blown from the guns. Other mutinies occurred from time to time. The great uprising known as The Mutiny, which threatened to drive the English out of India, took place in 1857, just one hundred years after Plassey. Students of the essays on Clive and Hastings will be interested in reading of the thrilling events of this period. Ac- counts of The Mutiny will be found in any good history of Great Britain. Some of the events of the time are vividly por- trayed in Mrs. Steele's novel, On the Face of the Waters.

76. 7. Verres: a Roman praetor who oppressed and plundered the Sicilians. They accused him before the Roman Senate, and

126 NOTES

Cicero prosecuted him. Pizarro: Francisco Pizarro (1470-1541), a Spanish adventurer, in 1531 invaded Peru, treacherously seized and killed the reigning monarch, Atahualpa, and subjugated the country. He was assassinated in 1541. See note on p. 3, 1. 6.

77. 2. Till the event of the election should be known: In what sense is event used? How does the derivation of the word help you to understand this old use of it?

77. 22. Infant: The word is used here in the sense that it has in law, viz., minor, not yet of age. The new nabob, Nujum- ud-Dowlah, was twenty years old. Macaulay understates the size of the bribe paid to the English for putting him on the throne. The Governor and Council received 200,000 pounds.

79. 2. He had chosen the good part : See Luke x. 42.

80. 22. Proconsuls, propraetors, procurators: Proconsuls and propraetors, after serving in Rome as consuls and praetors, served as military and civil governors of provinces. A procurator was a financial agent or manager in an imperial province.

81. 33. Some of the retrenchments which had been ordered: Officers on field duty were allowed extra pay, known as batta. After Plassey Meer Jaffier had granted double batta. This double allowance had been continued until the officers came to look upon it almost as a matter of right. When Clive, in obe- dience to instructions from the Directors, gave orders that the double batta should be discontinued, the conspiracy which Macaulay describes was formed.

82. 23. Cashiered: dismissed.

83. 11. The name of Clive quelled all opposition: Macaulay's statement is misleading. In October of the preceding year (1764), seven months before Clive's arrival at Calcutta, the English under Major Munro had severely defeated the Nabob and his allies at Buxar. They had followed up this success with such vigour that the Nabob threw himself on the mercy of his. conquerors. Cf. note, p. 3, 1. 9.

83. 33. Such terms as the new governor chose to dictate: Clive dealt leniently with the Nabob. He allowed him to retain nearly all of his dominions, but required him to pay the expenses of the war and to open his territory to British trade.

83. 22. Ricimers: Count Ricimer, or Rikimer, was a German general who was the real ruler of Rome from 456 to 472 a.d.

NOTES 127

He was known as the King-maker, because he set up and deposed four puppet-emperors.

83. 22. Odoacer: Odoacer or Odovaker, another German general, ruled Italy from 476 to 493 a.d. He did not dare call himself King of Italy, but he induced Zeno, the Emperor of the East, to appoint him as his nominal lieutenant.

83. 28. Theodoric, the king of the East Goths (or Ostro- goths), invaded Italy in 489, and after four years of fighting conquered and killed Odoacer. Until his death in 526, he ruled Italy in the name of the eastern emperor, although he was not in any real sense subordinate to him.

83. 29. Byzantium: Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

84. 7. The revenues of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar: These revenues were estimated at more than three million pounds a year. Out of this income the Company was to pay annually a rent of 260,000 pounds to the Mogul, and a salary or pension of 530,000 pounds to the Nabob of Bengal.

84. 9. The last drivelling Chilperics and Childerics of the Merovingian line: The Merovingians, so called from Merovius or Merowig, the first of the line, were kings of the Franks from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the eighth century. Under the strong rule of Clovis, the third of the line, the Franks became the first power in western Europe; and although on the death of Clovis the empire was divided into four petty kingdoms, a kind of unity was preserved and the nation continued to hold its position of supremacy. But the later Merovingians were kings only in name, for the real control of the government had passed into the hands of the Mayors of the Palace, who had become a kind of hereditary prime minister. In 720, Chilperic II of Neustria (northwestern France) was recognized as the nominal king by Charles Martel, who ruled the empire and saved it and Europe from the Saracens by his great victory near Tours in 732. Childeric III was the last of the Merovin- gians. Pepin (or Pippin), the Short, son of Charles Martel, crowned him king of Neustria in 742, and ten years later, with the approval of the Pope, deposed him and had himself made king of the Franks. On Pepin's death in 768 , his son Charles, afterwards known as Charlemagne (Charles the Great), came to the throne. See p. 14, 1. 13, and note.

128 NOTES

87. 14. Farmer-general: In France before the Revolution the state did not collect the taxes, but sold the right of collec- tion to private individuals, known as revenue farmers or farmers- general. Many of these men grew rich by paying the state as little money as possible and collecting from the people as much as possible.

87. 18. Jacobins: The Jacobins were a revolutionary society in France at the time of the Revolution, so called because they met in the convent of the Jacobin or Dominican Friars, who in turn had received their name from the fact of their meeting in the church of St. Jacques in Paris. Observe, however, that Burke, in the passage referred to, applies the term to the English, not to the French radicals.

87. 30. Rotten borough: Cf. note, p. 34, 1. 20.

88. 11. Lord-Lieutenant: The term means either (1) the viceroy of Ireland, or (2) an important county official who orig- inally levied and led the forces in time of war, and now appoints the justices of the peace and issues minor military commissions. In which of these senses does Macaulay use the title?

88. 13. Domesday Book: a book containing the record of the statistical survey of England made by William the Conqueror twenty years after the Conquest. It contains the names of the chief land owners, the extent and values of estates, etc.

88. 23. Turcaret: the chief character in Le Sage's comedy, Tur caret, written in 1709. He is rich, unprincipled, and foolish, and is duped by a gay baroness to whom he makes love during the absence of his wife.

88. 23. Monsieur Jourdain: the chief character in Moliere's comedy, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. He is a wealthy merchant who, like Mackenzie's family mentioned below, " excites derision by an awkward mimicry of the manners of the great."

88. 30. The Dilettante: Dilettante here means a lover of the fine arts. A society of dilettanti was established in 1734 by several gentlemen who wished to introduce a taste for the fine arts into England. The word has come to mean a dabbler hi art, or a superficial amateur.

88. 31. The Maccaroni: In the eighteenth century, maccaroni was a name for a fop or dandy. For the origin of this meaning see The Century Dictionary.

89. 4. Foote: an actor and playwright of dive's time. In

NOTES 129

1772 he produced a comedy called The Nabob, to which Macau- lay refers.

89. 9. His chairmen: What were they? For illustration, see " sedan " in The Standard or The Century Dictionary.

89. 11. Jaghires, or jaghirs, were land revenues assigned with the power to collect or administer. See p. 65, 1. 3, and note.

89. 12. Mackenzie: Henry Mackenzie (1 745-1831) was a Scotch writer, remembered now chiefly as the author of The Man of Feeling, a novel which enjoyed a great vogue in its day. Macaulay refers to a letter signed "Margery Mushroom" in No. 36 of a periodical called The Lounger, which was published in Edinburgh in 1 785-1 786.

89. 16. Cowper in that lofty expostulation: The passage to which Macaulay refers is in the poem called Expostulation* 11. 364-375:

" Hast thou, though suckled at fair Freedom's breast, Exported slavery to the conquered East? Pulled down the tyrants India served with dread, And raised thyself, a greater, in their stead? Gone thither armed and hungry, returned full, Fed from the richest veins of the Mogul, A despot big with power obtained by wealth, And that obtained by rapine and by stealth? With Asiatic vices stored thy mind, But left their virtues and thine own behind; And, having trucked thy soul, brought home the fee, To tempt the poor to sell himself to thee? " 89. 23. Sixty years ago: About what year?

89. 33. Berkeley Square: in London.

90. 1. Claremont: an estate in Surrey which Clive purchased. 90. 5. Mackenzie's Margery Mushroom: see note above on

p. 89, 1. 12.

90. 14. Sybarite: an inhabitant of Sybaris, a Greek city in southern Italy, noted for its luxury. Hence Sybarite has come to mean a luxurious person, a voluptuary.

90. 20. Sir Matthew Mite: a character in Foote's comedy,. The Nabob. He is a wealthy East Indian merchant.

90. 25. Black stories were circulated: see p. 86, 11. 13-26.

91. 6. Johnson: Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the great literary dictator of the eighteenth century. He is said to have

I3P NOTES

described Clive as "a man who had acquired his fortune by such crimes that his consciousness of them impelled him to cut his own throat."

91. 7. Brown: afterwards head gardener at Hampton Court and Windsor.

91. 20. William Huntington: a notorious sensational preacher who gave himself the title, S.S. (Sinner Saved).

92. 26. Engrossing: buying up, or as we say in America, cornering.

93. 9. Corn factors: wholesale grain dealers.

93. 11. Adam Smith (17 23-1 790): England's first great political economist, author of The Wealth of Nations. Smith's comments on the private trade of the Company's servants may 'be found in Book IV, chapters 5 and 7.

93. 33. Lord Chatham had meditated a bold attack on the Company: He had thought of transferring the government of India from the Company to the crown. In a letter written in 1759, Clive had suggested this plan to Pitt. Almost one hun- dred years later, in 1858, the plan was adopted.

94. 13. The Middlesex election: see note on p. 69, 1. 22. 94. 28. George Grenville: see note on p. 69, 1. 21.

94. 28. Government: the governing party, the party in power.

94. 30. Opposition: the party or parties out of power.

94. 32. Lord Rockingham, a leader of the conservative Whigs, was prime minister in 1765 and again in 1782. It was in his first ministry that the American Stamp Act, which had been passed in the Grenville ministry, was repealed.

95. 3. Those members who were returned by himself: those who were elected from boroughs which he controlled.

96. 11. He had been treated like a sheep-stealer : Clive made this statement in a speech in the House of Commons.

96. 32. Rose: adjourned.

97. 33. Bruce the deliverer of Scotland: In Grayfriars Church, Dumfries, in 1306, Robert Bruce killed John Comyn, whom he suspected of treachery.

97. 33. Maurice the deliverer of Germany: Maurice, Duke of Saxony (1521-1553), for his own personal ends joined the emperor Charles V against the Protestants. After gaining what he wished, he deserted the emperor, and joining the Protestants,

NOTES

131

forced the emperor to grant certain liberties to the Protestants, and to the German princes.

98. 1. William the deliverer of Holland: William the Silent, Prince of Orange (1533-1584), under whose leadership Holland threw off the yoke of Spain, was suspected of murdering his wife. Motley says that he was guiltless of this charge and of others made against him.

98. 2. His great descendant: William, Prince of Orange, great grandson of William the Silent, became William III of England in 1689. By his orders a number of Scotch Highlanders who had been supporters of James II were massacred in the valley of Glencoe because of their failure to submit to the new king within the prescribed time.

98. 2. Murray: James Stuart, Earl of Murray, regent of Scotland and leader of the Scotch reformers. He intrigued in the most unscrupulous manner against his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, and made war upon her.

98. 3. Cosmo: Cosmo de Medici, the Elder, ruler of Florence in the middle of the fifteenth century. With his great wealth he was a munificent patron of literature and the fine arts, and did much to revive the study of the ancient classics. But he was cruel and unscrupulous, and really crushed out the freedom of Florence.

98. 3. Henry the Fourth of France (1589-1610): Henry of Navarre, the leader of the Huguenots, gave up his Protestant religion and embraced Catholicism in order to become king of France. He is also accused of gross licentiousness.

98. 4. Peter the Great, Czar of Russia (1 689-1 725), though one of the greatest of rulers was a barbarian at heart, and was guilty of coarse and brutal conduct.

98. 13. Lord North was prime minister from 1771 to 1782.

98. 17. Knight of the Bath: This order of knighthood is said to have been instituted at the coronation of Henry IV in 1399. "It received this name from the fact that the can- didates for the honour were put into a bath the preceding even- ing, to denote a purification or absolution from all former stain and that they were now to begin a new life." — The Century Dictionary.

98. 18. Henry the Seventh's chapel: in Westminster Abbey. For a description of this famous chapel see Irving's Sketch Book.

132

NOTES

98. 26. Burgoyne . . . whose skill was at that time highly esteemed: Because of what event in America was his skill less highly esteemed?

99. 6. Warren Hastings was governor of Bengal from 1772 to 1774, and governor-general of India from 1774 to 1785. See Macaulay's essay on Warren Hastings, edited by Samuel M. Tucker, in Longmans' English Classics.

99. 24. Voted the major and minor of Burgoyne's syllogism: A syllogism is the regular logical form of deductive reasoning. It consists of three propositions: a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion which follows from the premises. Burgoyne's major premise is found in the first sentence in the paragraph, his minor premise in the second and third.

99. 28. The previous question: In England this is "an inge- nious mode of avoiding a vote on a question." Usually some one wishing to prevent a vote, moves " that the previous ques- tion be now put." He makes this motion just in order that it may be defeated. If it is defeated, the main question cannot be voted on at that time, and its opponents have disposed of it without going on record as against it. Although Macaulay says that the previous question, in this case, was carried, he evidently means that its purpose was accomplished by a nega- tive vote. In America the previous question is moved in order to stop debate. If it is defeated the debate continues. The main question is not disposed of.

100. 5. Jenkinson: Charles Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, was a prominent figure during the reign of George III. He was one of the " King's friends," and because of the influence which he was thought to exert over the king, he was much hated by his opponents.

100. 6. Wilkes: Cf. note, p. 69, 1. 22.

100. 20. Lally: Count Lally, son of an Irish refugee, was commander-in-chief of the French troops in India during the Seven Years War. He mismanaged his campaign, and in 1760 he was completely defeated by Sir Eyre Coote at Wandewash near Madras.

100. 27. Voltaire: the most celebrated French authc^r of the eighteenth century. He wrote histories, dramas, philosophic treatises, romances, epics, and innumerable letters. "His mis- sion was to exalt and popularize reason." His influence on

NOTES 133

history was remarkable. " The existence, character, and career of this extraordinary person ..constituted in themselves a new and prodigious era." — John Morley.

100. 31. Dr. Moore: John Moore who was surgeon to the English ambassador at Paris. He was the father of Sir John Moore whose burial is celebrated in Wolfe's famous poem. See Palgrave's Golden Treasury, No. 262.

101. 16. Which rejoiceth exceedingly: see Job iii. 22.

102. 20. He died by his own hand: There is much uncertainty about the manner of Clive's death. One story is that he took an overdose of laudanum; another, that he cut his throat with a pen-knife. The latter account seems to have been generally accepted at the time. Lord Stanhope, on the authority of Lord Shelburne, gives the following details: "It so chanced that a young lady, an attached friend of Clive's family, was then upon a visit at his house in Berkeley square, and sat writing a letter in one of its apartments. Seeing Lord Clive walk through, she called him to come and mend her pen. Lord Clive obeyed her summons, and taking out his pen-knife fulfilled her request; after which, passing on to another chamber, he turned the same knife against himself."

103. 10. Which closes with the fall of Ghizni: Ghizni, or Ghazni, is a strongly fortified city in Afghanistan near the north- western frontier of India. It was captured by the English in 1839, in the first Afghan War — just before Macaulay wrote this essay — but in 1842 it was recovered by the Afghans, who drove the English out of the country. The same year the city was retaken by the English but was restored to the Afghans. In the Third Afghan War it was captured a third time by the English, and again restored to the Afghans who still hold it.

103. 13. Alexander, Conde, and Charles XII: Alexander the Great defeated an army of Persians and Greek mercenaries in the battle of the Granicus in Asia Minor when he was twenty- two years old. At the same age the Prince of Conde, afterwards known as the Great Conde, defeated the Spanish army at Rocroi in France in 1643. Charles XII of Sweden was little more than eighteen years of age when, with an army of eight thousand, he defeated a Russian army of forty thousand at Narva in 1700. Napoleon was twenty-four when he commanded the artillery '

134 NOTES

at the seige of Toulon, and showed such unusual ability that he was promoted to the rank of general of brigade.

103. 33. The threshold of Tarpeian Jove: the threshold of the temple of Jupiter which stood on the Tarpeian Hill, the lower summit of the Capitoline Hill. Here victorious generals offered sacrifice.

104. 1. Those who subdued Antiochus and Tigranes: In 190 B.C., Antiochus the Great, King of Syria, was completely defeated at the battle of Magnesia in Asia Minor, by Lucius Scipio, the brother of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hanni- bal. In this battle Scipio had thirty thousand troops, Antiochus nearly three times as many. In 65 B.C. Antiochus Asiaticus was ejected from the throne of Syria by Pompey. As this king offered no real resistance to the Romans, it seems more likely that Macaulay had Antiochus the Great in mind.

Tigranes, king of Armenia, was badly defeated by Lucullus in the great battle of Tigranocerta in 69 B.C. The Roman general, however, was recalled before he could finish his work, and the comparatively easy task of completing the subjugation of the Armeinan king was left to Pompey.

104. 25. Munro, Elphinstone, and Metcalfe: Sir Thomas Munro was governor of Madras from 1820 to 1827. Mont- stuart Elphinstone, historian as well as statesman, was gover- nor of Bombay from 1819 to 1827. Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe, one of the ablest of Indian officials, was pro- visional governor-general of India from 1835 to 1837, part of the period, it will be remembered, during which Macaulay was in India.

105. 1. Lucullus and Trajan: For Lucullus see p. 73, 1. 5, and note, and note on p. 103, 1. S3- Trajan, one of the best of the Roman emperors, ruled from 98 to 117 a.d. He conquered the Dacians, the Armenians, and the Parthians. Under his rule the Roman empire reached its greatest extent.

105. 3. Turgot: controller-general of finance to Louis XVI (1 774-1 776). He attempted great reforms, but because of the weakness of the king and the influence of the courtiers, failed to accomplish much, and was dismissed from office.

105. 5. Lord William Bentinck: governor-general of Bengal and later of India, from 1828 to 1835. In his "epoch-making administration" he brought about many important reforms,

NOTES 135

among them the abolition of the suttee or the practice of burn- ing a widow on her husband's funeral pile or of burying her alive. Macaulay, who composed the inscription on his statue at Calcutta, praises him as the man who "ruled India with eminent prudence, integrity, and benevolence," and " whose constant study it was to elevate the intellectual and moral character of the nation committed to his charge."

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