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The present work was commenced in consequence of the possession of a body of unpublished documents, which, having been preserved among the family records at Walcot, were thrown open to the author by the friendship of the Earl of Powis.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sources, aided by the Reports of the different Parliamentary Committees, and other authentic materials, published and unpublished, Sir John had completed the introduction, and the first thirteen chapters, before he left India, in 1830.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