with a prudence that certainly warranted success." But all was in vain. Slowly, but steadily, the power of Britain continued to increase, and that of France to decline. The French had no commander to oppose to the two friends. Dupleix, not inferior in talents for negotiation The health of Clive had never been and intrigue to any European who has good during his residence in India; borne a part in the revolutions of and his constitution was now so much India, was ill qualified to direct in impaired that he determined to return person military operations. He had to England. Before his departure he not been bred a soldier, and had no undertook a service of considerable inclination to become one. His ene- difficulty, and performed it with his mies accused him of personal cowardice; usual vigour and dexterity. The forts and he defended himself in a strain of Covelong and Chingleput were ocworthy of Captain Bobadil. He kept cupied by French garrisons. It was away from shot, he said, because silence determined to send a force against and tranquillity were propitious to his them. But the only force available for genius, and he found it difficult to this purpose was of such a description pursue his meditations amidst the that no officer but Clive would risk his noise of fire-arms. He was thus under reputation by commanding it. It conthe necessity of intrusting to others sisted of five hundred newly levied the execution of his great warlike de- sepoys, and two hundred recruits who signs; and he bitterly complained that had just landed from England, and he was ill served. He had indeed who were the worst and lowest wretches been assisted by one officer of eminent that the Company's crimps could pick merit, the celebrated Bussy. But Bussy up in the flash-houses of London. had marched northward with the Nizam, Clive, ill and exhausted as he was, and was fully employed in looking undertook to make an army of this after his own interests, and those of undisciplined rabble, and marched with France, at the court of 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. He at them to Covelong. A shot from the fort killed one of these extraordinary soldiers; on which all the rest faced about and ran away, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Clive rallied them. On another occasion, the noise The English triumphed everywhere. of a gun terrified the sentinels so much The besiegers of Trichinopoly were that one of them was found, some themselves besieged and compelled to hours later, at the bottom of a well. capitulate. Chunda Sahib fell into the Clive gradually accustomed them to hands of the Mahrattas, and was put danger, and, by exposing himself conto death, at the instigation probably stantly in the most perilous situations, of his competitor, Mahommed Ali. shamed them into courage. The spirit of Dupleix, however, was length succeeded in forming a respectunconquerable, and his resources in- able force out of his unpromising maexhaustible. From his employers in terials. Covelong fell. Clive learned Europe he no longer received help or that a strong detachment was marching countenance. They condemned his to relieve it from Chingleput. policy. They gave him no pecuniary took measures to prevent the enemy assistance. They sent him for troops from learning that they were too late, only the sweepings of the galleys. laid an ambuscade for them on the Yet still he persisted, intrigued, bribed, promised, lavished his private fortune, strained his credit, procured new diplomas from Delhi, raised up new enemies to the government of Madras on every side, and found tools even among the allies of the English Company. He road, killed a hundred of them with one fire, took three hundred prisoners, 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 and retired man heard to growl out that, after all, 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, who long held the post of Astronomer Royal. She is described as handsome and accomplished; and her husband's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he was devotedly attached to her. Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive embarked 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. 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 was chiefly owing to the courage and talents of Clive, 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 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 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 comprehend how their naughty idle Bobby had become so great a man. His father had been singularly hard of belief. Not until the news of the defence of Arcot arrived in England was the old gentle the booby had something in him. His expressions of approbation became stronger and stronger as news arrived 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, 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, 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. At the time of the general election of 1754, the government 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 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 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 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 government, and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secretary at War. This able, daring, and ambitious man seized every opportunity of crossing the First | the ablest debater among the Whigs, Lord of the Treasury, from whom he as the steady friend of Walpole, as the well knew that he had little to dread devoted adherent of the Duke of Cumand little to hope; for Newcastle was berland. After wavering till the last through life equally afraid of breaking moment, they determined to vote in a with men of parts and of promoting body with the Prime Minister's friends. them. The consequence was that the House, by a small majority, rescinded the decision of the committee, and Clive was unseated. 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 Ejected from Parliament, and straitAct in 1832. He was opposed by Lord ened in his means, he naturally began *Sandwich, whose influence had long to look again towards India. The Combeen paramount there: and Fox exerted pany and the Government were eager himself strenuously in Sandwich's be- to avail themselves of his services. A half. Clive, who had been introduced treaty favourable to England had indeed to Fox, and very kindly received by been concluded in the Carnatic. Duhim, was brought forward on the Sand-pleix had been superseded, and had wich interest, and was returned. But a petition was presented against the return, and was backed by the whole influence of the Duke of Newcastle. returned with the wreck of his immense fortune to Europe, where calumny and chicanery soon hunted him to his grave. But many signs indicated that a war between France and Great Britain was at hand; and it was therefore thought The case was heard, according to the usage of that time, before a committee of the whole House. Questions re-desirable to send an able commander to specting elections were then considered the Company's settlements in India. merely as party questions. Judicial The Directors appointed Clive governor impartiality was not even affected. Sir of Fort St. David. The King gave him Robert Walpole was in the habit of the commission of a lieutenant-colonel saying openly that, in election battles, in the British army, and in 1755 he there ought to be no quarter. On the again sailed for Asia. present occasion the excitement was The first service on which he was great. The matter really at issue was, employed after his return to the East not whether Clive had been properly was the reduction of the stronghold of or improperly returned, but whether Gheriah. This fortress, built on a Newcastle or Fox was to be master of craggy promontory, and almost surthe new House of Commons, and con-rounded by the ocean, was the den of a sequently first minister. The contest pirate named Angria, whose barks had was long and obstinate, and success long been the terror of the Arabian 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 committee decided in Clive'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. Newcastle the Tories could only despise. Fox they hated, as the boldest and most subtle politician and VOL. II. 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 thousand 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. Of the provinces which had been subject to the house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No part of H 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 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 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. India possessed such natural advan- | so thoroughly fitted by nature and by tages both for agriculture and for com- habit for a foreign yoke. merce. The Ganges, rushing through a The great commercial companies of hundred channels to the sea, has formed Europe had long possessed factories in a vast plain of rich mould which, even Bengal. The French were settled, as under the tropical sky, rivals the ver- they still are, at Chandernagore on the dure of an English April. The rice Hoogley. Higher up the stream the fields yield an increase such as is else- Dutch traders held Chinsurah. Nearer where unknown. Spices, sugar, vege- to the sea, the English had built Fort table oils, are produced with marvellous William. A church and ample wareexuberance. The rivers afford an inex-houses rose in the vicinity. A row of haustible supply of fish. The desolate spacious houses, belonging to the chief 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 of Eastern commerce. On its banks, and on those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, the most splendid 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 Mussulman 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 were clothed in the The great province of Bengal, todelicate produce of its looms. The race gether with Orissa and Bahar, had long by whom this rich tract was peopled, been governed by a viceroy, whom the enervated by a soft climate and accus- English called Aliverdy Khan, and tomed to peaceful employments, bore who, like the other viceroys of the the same relation to other Asiatics Mogul, had become virtually indepenwhich the Asiatics generally bear to dent. He died in 1756, and the sovethe bold and energetic children of Eu-reignty descended to his grandson, a rope. The Castilians have a proverb, youth under twenty years of age, who that in Valencia the earth is water and bore the name of Surajah Dowlah. the men women; and the description is Oriental despots are perhaps the worst at least equally applicable to the vast class of human beings; and this unplain of the Lower Ganges. Whatever happy boy was one of the worst specithe Bengalee does he does languidly.mens of his class. His understanding His favourite pursuits are sedentary. was naturally feeble, and his temper He shrinks from bodily exertion; and, though voluble in dispute, and singularly pertinacious in the war of chicane, he seldom engages in a personal conflict, and scarcely ever enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether there be a hundred genuine Bengalees in the whole army of the East India Company. There never, perhaps, existed a people naturally unamiable. His education had been such as would have enervated even a vigorous intellect, and perverted even a generous disposition. He was unreasonable, because nobody ever dared to reason with him, and selfish, 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 in- English fell into the hands of the condulged immoderately in the use of querors. The Nabob seated himself ardent spirits, which inflamed his weak with regal pomp in the principal hall brain almost to madness. His chosen of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holcompanions were flatterers sprung from well, the first in rank among the prithe dregs of the people, and recom-soners, to be brought before him. His mended by nothing but buffoonery and Highness talked about the insolence of servility. It is said that he had arrived the English, and grumbled at the smallat the last stage of human depravity, ness of the treasure which he had when cruelty becomes pleasing for its found; but promised to spare their own sake, when the sight of pain as lives, and retired to rest. pain, where no advantage is to be Then was committed that great gained, no offence punished, no danger crime, memorable for its singular atroaverted, is an agreeable excitement. It city, memorable for the tremendous rehad early been his amusement to tor-tribution by which it was followed. ture beasts and birds; and, when he The English captives were left to the grew up, he enjoyed with still keener mercy of the guards, and the guards relish the misery of his fellow-creatures. determined to secure them for the night From a child Surajah Dowlah had in the prison of the garrison, a chamber hated the English. It was his whim to known by the fearful name of the Black do so; and his whims were never op- Hole. Even for a single European posed. He had also formed a very ex-malefactor, that dungeon would, in such aggerated notion of the wealth which a climate, have been too close and might be obtained by plundering them; narrow. The space was only twenty and his feeble and uncultivated mind feet square. The air-holes were small was incapable of perceiving that the and obstructed. It was the summer riches of Calcutta, had they been even solstice, the season when the fierce heat greater than he imagined, would not of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tocompensate him for what he must lose, lerable to natives of England by lofty if the European trade, of which Bengal halls and by the constant waving of was a chief seat, should be driven by fans. The number of the prisoners was his violence to some other quarter. one hundred and forty-six. When they Pretexts for a quarrel were readily were ordered to enter the cell, they imafound. The English, in expectation of gined that the soldiers were joking; a war with France, had begun to fortify and, being in high spirits on account of their settlement without special per- the promise of the Nabob to spare their mission from the Nabob. A rich native, lives, they laughed and jested at the whom he longed to plunder, had taken absurdity of the notion. They soon refuge at Calcutta, and had not been discovered their mistake. They exposdelivered up. On such grounds as these tulated; they entreated; but in vain. Surajah Dowlah marched with a great The guards threatened to cut down all army against Fort William. 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. The servants of the Company at Madras had been forced 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 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 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, approaches the horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. They strove to burst the door. Holwell who, even in that extremity, retained some presence of mind, offered large bribes to the gaolers. But the |
