FOOTNOTES:
[1] This account is an abstract of a narrative of the mutiny, written by the late Sir Henry Strachey, and which forms Appendix 1st to the 9th Report of the Committee of Secresy of the House of Commons, A.D. 1773.
[2] Vide Ibid. Appendix, No. 1. a. fo. 699.
[3] The Court's orders for this reduction, dated the 11th of June, 1764, are very positive and peremptory.
[4] The order was expected some time before it was issued.
[5] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 1. fo. 699. This remonstrance sets forth the high rates of supplies at a distance from the coast, objections of servants to act except in one capacity, and various expenses and hardships entailed by their situation, and aggravated by the reduction of allowances.
[6] Ibid. No. 2. fo. 700.
[7] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 4 fo. 702.
[8] Ibid. No. 5. fo. 702.
[9] ibid. No. 6. fo. 702.
[10] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 7. fo. 702.
[11] Ibid. No. 8. fo. 702.
[12] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 9. fo. 703.
[13] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 10. fo. 703.
[14] Ibid. No. 12. fo. 734.
[15] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 13. fo. 704.
[16] Ibid. No. 14. fo. 704.
[17] Vide Letter, 1st May. No. 17. fo. 705. No. 18. fo. 705.
[18] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, Letter 4th May, App. No. 21. fo. 706.
[19] Ibid. No. 22. fo. 706.
[20] Vide Letter 5th May, No. 23. fo. 706.
[21] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, Letter 5th May, App. No. 24. fo. 707.
[22] Ibid. No. 27. fo. 707.
[23] Ibid. Nos. 28. and 30. fo. 708.
[24] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 29. fo. 708.
[25] Ibid. No. 31. fo. 708.
[26] Ibid. No. 32. fo. 708.
[27] Vide 9th Rep. of Com. of Secresy, App. No. 38. fo. 780.
[28] A legacy of 70,000l. was bequeathed by Meer Jaffier Aly Khan, Nawab of Bengal, in 1765, to Lord Clive, and paid by his Lordship, in the year 1766, into the Company's treasury at Fort William, to run at interest at the rate of 8 per cent., as an annual fund for the support of European officers and soldiers, who may be disabled or decayed in the Company's service in Bengal, and for the widows of officers and soldiers who may die on service there, 8th June, 1766.
The Company extended this donation afterwards to the benefit of all invalided, disabled, or superannuated officers and soldiers, and the widows of such officers and soldiers as may die in their service in any of their settlements in the East Indies, pursuant to an agreement stipulated between them and Lord Clive in the year 1770, by which the former establishment of shares was altered to the present moieties or proportions specified as follows:—
All commissioned or warrant officers shall have half the ordinary stated pay they enjoyed while in service.
Serjeants belonging to the artillery shall receive 9d. per day, and such as have lost a limb 1s. per day: private men of the artillery, 6d. per day; and such as lose a limb, 9d. per day.
All other non-commissioned officers and private men shall receive 4¾d. per day.—23d July, 1771.
Vide Parliamentary Papers, A.D. 1773, vol. iv. report 9. p. 535.
[29] A station adjoining the city of Patna.
[30] Captain Goddard became afterwards a very distinguished officer. He commanded the force that Warren Hastings sent to the relief of the settlement of Bombay in 1778.
[31] It is not unworthy of remark, that Sir Robert Fletcher, thus cashiered by sentence of a court-martial for mutiny, was, in 1775, appointed, by the Court of Directors, Commander-in-chief of the army at Madras. There he headed the opposition which set aside Lord Pigot from the government of Madras in 1776.
No mention is made in the text of John Petrie as one of the ringleaders of the mutiny of the officers of the Bengal army in 1766.
This man was sent home by Lord Clive on that account with a rope about his neck; but so much do things depend on the party who may be in power, or influence, with the Court of Directors, that this very John Petrie obtained an appointment high in the civil service at Bengal, through the interest of his friends the Johnstones, who were in opposition to Lord Clive's party in England.
[32] 20th May, 1766.
[33] Letter to General Lawrence, dated Calcutta, 1st June, 1766.
[34] Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, 28th June, 1765.
[35] Mahommed Ali, at Madras.
[36] Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, under date 6th August, 1765.
[37] Letter to Mr. Sumner, dated 7th July, 1765.
[38] Letter to General Carnac under date 8th July, 1765.
[39] Letter to Mr. Verelst, dated 11th July, 1765.
[40] Vide letter from Colonel Richard Smith to Lord Clive, under date 31st August, 1765.
[41] Vide letter to Colonel Richard Smith from Lord Clive, under date 15th February, 1766.
[42] Letter to Sir R. Barker, under date 16th February, 1766.
[43] Dated 3d February, 1766.
[44] Letter to Mr. Verelst, dated 3d May, 1766.
[45] Letter to Mr. Verelst, 4th May, 1766.
[46] Letter to Sir R. Barker, p. 19.
[47] Letter to Colonel Smith, dated 15th May, 1766.
[48] Dated 16th May, 1766.
[49] Dated 18th May, 1766.
[50] Dated 22d May, 1766.
[51] Letters to Mr. Sumner and Mr. Sykes, dated 23d and 24th May.
[52] Letter to H. Verelst, Esq., 25th May, 1766.
"Patna, le 27 Mai, 1766.
"Monsieur,
"J'ai eu l'honneur de votre lettre du quinzième courant. Le sujet étant aussi intéressant pour vous, il sera, je crois, essentiel qu'une lettre me soit addressée de votre part et de votre conseil conjointement.
"Un nombre de nos officiers ont très-déshonorablement quitté le service, sous un prétexte le plus injuste; à savoir, qu'ils n'ont pas de quoi subsister; quoique notre militaire est le plus advantageux du monde. Ils sont actuellement en chemin pour Calcutta. Comme ils passeront par votre Colonie, j'ai jugé à propos de vous l'annoncer; et je me persuade que vous ne donnerez point d'accueil à des gens qui ont agi si indignement.
"Je suis, &c.,
"Clive."
[54] Letter to Mr. Verelst, 28th May, 1766. Messrs. Abzal's gardens.
[55] Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, dated 30th May, 1766.
[56] Letter to H. Verelst, Esq., dated 6th June, 1766.
[57] Letter to Sir R. Fletcher, dated 3d July, 1766.
[58] Vide Letter to the Junior Field Officers, 6th October, 1766.
[59] Before Lord Clive left India, he wrote to Sir R. Barker, earnestly advising him to remain till Colonel Smith returned, and assuring him of his support to succeed that officer in the command of the troops in Bengal.
[60] Letter to Sir R. Barker, dated 12th August, 1766.
[61] Letter to Sir R. Barker, dated 8th October, 1766.
[62] Vide Verelst's "View of the English Government in Bengal." Lond. 1772. 4to, p. 56.
[63] A repetition of this command was among the particular instructions to Lord Clive in 1764.
[64] Under the establishment of this double batta, a Captain's commission produced little short of 1000l. per annum: when reduced, it was worth from 650l. to 700l., as appeared upon the action of Captain Parker against Lord Clive.
[65] Mill's "History of British India," vol. iii. p. 376.
In the preceding two chapters, an account has been given of Lord Clive's successful efforts in the arduous task of reforming the abuses, and restoring order and discipline to the civil and military services of Bengal: it remains to notice other public proceedings of importance during his last residence in India.
No question connected with this period of his service was, at the moment and subsequently, the subject of more comment and discussion, both on the part of the Government at home and of individuals, than the monopoly of the salt trade; the profits of which he divided among the Governor, the Counsellors, and the senior civil and military officers; deeming this indulgence, as he repeatedly states in his official and private letters, indispensable to the integrity and efficiency of the public service. Men in high station, he argued, unless some ample and open allowance was given them, could never be expected to be reconciled to a strict observance of the covenants that prohibited presents, nor to the loss of that internal trade which had been denounced as so ruinous and oppressive. The shares in the profits from salt were, by his plan, divided according to the rank and duties of the parties. The amount was known, and, though liberal, it was limited, and, certainly, would not appear, from the statements made of it, to be more than a fair remuneration to men employed as those were to whom it was allotted.
Whether this mode of remunerating service was the best at the period when it was adopted, and whether the monopoly of the salt produced in the lower parts of Bengal, which the East India Company found existing, and have ever since, under one shape or another, continued, was advantageous or hurtful, on sound financial principles, are questions which merit notice, both as connected with the biography of Clive, and with the source of our Indian revenues.
The habits of thinking, and constitution, of the Court of Directors, rendered them very adverse to granting adequate salaries to those employed in high stations. These had all (including the military) the privilege of trading; and to the exercise of this privilege many of the abuses of the earlier times of the service have been justly attributed. Clive appears to have made reiterated representations upon this subject, impressing the necessity of adequate allowances, in some shape, to the superior officers, in order to animate their zeal, and preserve their public integrity. The narrow allowance to military officers, and their being expected to gain by trade, he particularly condemned. Writing to Major Stibbert[66], he observes, "I have received your letter of the 17th inst., and am not a little surprised that you should so soon request leave to return to Calcutta, considering how short a time you have done duty in your brigade. Your attention, I suspect, is too much taken up with commercial affairs; a study very foreign from an officer, even of an inferior rank, as it must frequently interfere with the services of a military station, but particularly reprehensible in those to whom a share in the profits upon salt is allotted. However, I admit that the death of your attorney may make your presence in Calcutta necessary. You have, therefore, my permission to leave the cantonments immediately, if the service will permit, and Colonel Smith has no objection."
The ground on which he felt the necessity of assuring to military officers of rank liberal allowances, in order that they might suitably maintain their station in life, and enjoy a reward for long service; and the necessity he saw for putting an end, on their part, to all indefinite and indirect perquisites, and of giving to their minds a tone that should elevate them above all sordid views, and make them what their stations required they should be, is well stated in a letter[67] to Sir Robert Barker:—"Colonel Smith is making a vigorous progress in reforming the abuses that fall under his notice. The monstrous charges and impositions of quarter-masters, surgeons, &c., &c., require, indeed, the strictest scrutiny; and he seems determined to go through it with great spirit and attention to the Company's interest. Nor shall I be disappointed in the assistance I expect from you in these matters, whilst I shall, at the same time, have the satisfaction of knowing that you can enforce wholesome regulations without creating disgust. The privilege of making bills, and the long track of frauds introduced under the customary disguise of perquisites, I wish to see entirely abolished. Every emolument shall be fixed, plain and open: the medium shall, if possible, be struck between extravagance and niggardly restrictions: but economy shall take place. The allowance to field officers will be so large as to prevent even their wishing for more; and, at the same time, so reasonable, that I think the Company must approve of them. A colonel's share of the salt produce will be from 5000l. to 6000l. per annum, or more[68]; lieutenant-colonel's and major's in proportion; and as a further encouragement, I intend that all the field officers shall be allowed sufficient to defray the expense of their table. When all mean advantages are disclaimed and held in contempt by gentlemen high in the service, reformation will, of course, be with greater ease introduced among inferiors. You will do me the justice to believe that I mean this as a general observation only, and not as a necessary hint, either to yourself or any of the field officers of your regiment, as I know you are all men of honour and principle."
The reasons of expediency that led Clive to recommend that high public officers, civil and military, should be remunerated by shares in the profits of the salt trade, are stated in numerous letters. He thought that an open, direct, pecuniary allowance would not willingly be sanctioned by the Company out of any of the revenues which flowed into their treasury, and still less from the profits of their trade; and that, besides, such large avowed allowances would invite an attack from the Crown on their patronage; and that the grasping character of the administration in England would lead to a ruinous interference in the nomination of men to India who had no recommendation but their high birth and great interest.
It was the above considerations that compelled him to devise the means he deemed least objectionable of adequately rewarding service, in order to gain, by the tie of self-interest as well as honour, those instruments without whose aid he was sensible the great reform he had resolved to introduce could neither be complete nor permanent. In Clive's correspondence and measures, at this period, will be found the origin and introduction of that important principle of a fair and honourable payment for service, suited to its nature and the rank and responsibility of the individuals employed, which has been generally ascribed to the more enlightened policy of a subsequent administration. That his efforts failed, was owing to the conduct of others, and particularly the public authorities in England, who, in their attack upon the salt monopoly and its appropriation, and in the condemnation of his measures, threw, for a period, a disrepute upon all that he had done, which led to a revival of a great proportion of the abuses he had corrected, and a disregard of the principles he had established. As the salt monopoly and its appropriation has been a subject of constant attack upon his character, and continues, so far as the monopoly is concerned, to be still one upon the Indian Government, the subject merits a cursory notice, which is all that the limits and objects of this Memoir will permit.[69]
We have already seen that, by the firman of the King of Delhi, the English Company possessed the right of trading free from duties. This privilege was granted to favour the kind of trade they then carried on, which was confined to exports and imports by sea: and the dustuck, or passport, of the English presidents or chiefs, was respected by the Subahdar's officers to that extent. Under this privilege the President favoured also the private trade of the Company's servants or officers, which, though not strictly according to the words of the firman, was never objected to.
As to the internal or carrying trade of the country, to engage in it never entered into the plans of the Company or its servants, which were confined to the valuable and profitable traffic between Europe and India; and, had they thought of it, it is clear that it could not have been profitably conducted by foreigners under a native government, which had the power of enforcing justice in the transactions between them and its own subjects.
But after the deposition of Suraj-u-Dowlah, and the elevation of Meer Jaffier, the influence of the English in Bengal became paramount; and, as they were all traders, some of them extended their views, and availed themselves of their political superiority to enter into the internal trade also; and, applying their partial freedom from duties on foreign trade to circumstances totally different, employed it to exempt themselves from duties even on their illegal internal commerce; an indulgence which, of course, had never been intended.
As long as Clive remained in Bengal, he checked these pretensions by his characteristic firmness and spirit; but no sooner had he left the country, than there was a general rush of the Company's servants, and of Europeans of all classes, towards the interior trade of the three provinces. In the foreign trade, the Company and its officers had, indeed, the advantage of trading free of duties, but the returns were tardy, and in some instances uncertain; whereas in the internal trade the return was rapid and certain; and, as they most unjustly claimed for this trade the same exemption from duties which they had enjoyed for the articles of their foreign export trade, it is clear that they had it in their power to undersell the native merchant in his own market; that, to the extent of their capital, they had all the advantages of a monopoly; and that, as their trade increased, the revenues of the sovereign must decay. By this assumption they, in fact, made themselves participators in the benefit of the taxes imposed for the public service.
Of all the articles of inland trade, that of salt was by much the most important. Its manufacture and trade had always, to a certain extent, been a monopoly, and was generally farmed or granted for a price, as a boon, to some favourite of the prince. Being a necessary of life, the demand was great and steady; and the capital employed in the trade being limited, the return on it was very large. It seems, under the frugal management of the natives, to have amounted to 200 per cent. After the deposition of Meer Jaffier in favour of Cossim Ali, planned, as we have seen, by Mr. Holwell, and imprudently executed by Mr. Vansittart in 1760, not long after Lord Clive's departure, the abuses of the English private trade in this and all its other branches, no longer sufficiently checked by the Governor, increased daily. Fortunes were amassed with singular rapidity; and such was the certainty of gain, that native capital flowed plentifully into the hands of the English merchant, who employed it himself, or permitted the trade of natives to be carried on covertly under his name. It could not be otherwise; for, while the native purchased the commodity at a high rate, paid an enormous duty, and was subject to all the expense and annoyance of frequent tolls, exactions, and stoppages, the English had become possessed of the principal salt works, paid no duty, and carried their wares at pleasure about the country for sale free from all demand or exaction whatever.
Cossim Ali, a prince of great sagacity, and no mean financier, remonstrated with Mr. Vansittart on the abuses exercised by the English, and still more under their name, all over the country, to the oppression of his subjects, and the ruin of the public revenues; for not only did the Gomashtahs, and others in the service of the English, refuse payment of customs, but they insulted, and sometimes even insolently punished, on their own authority, the officers of the native Government. Mr. Vansittart, quite aware of the justice of the complaints, and not unwilling to remedy them, as far as the little power left in his hands by the rapacity of his Council, and his own want of vigour, would allow, at length entered into a treaty with the Subah[70], by which, among other stipulations, it was agreed, that the English should be allowed to engage in the inland trade, but subject to duties; and, in particular, were to be allowed to purchase salt, subject to a low duty of 9 per cent. only, and might transport it about the country, free from all the transit duties paid by the Subah's own subjects.[71]
This arrangement, such as it was, afforded but a feeble redress to Meer Cossim: but the Council, themselves the principal traders, were indignant, even at this moderate deduction from their commercial gains, and disavowed the act of the Governor. The consequence was what we have seen: Meer Cossim, seeing his subjects deprived of their trade, and himself of his revenues, proclaimed a general exemption from customs and duties for two years, to his subjects and to all others.
The rage of the Council of Calcutta at this step, rendered necessary by their own conduct, led to a bloody war, the massacre of Patna, the deposition of Meer Cossim, and the restoration of Meer Jaffier. It was not without reason that the Court of Directors regarded "the inland trade as the foundation of all the bloodshed, massacres, and confusion which have happened of late years in Bengal."
By the treaty[72] with the restored prince, the English got a right of trading by their own dustuck, free of all taxes, duties, and impositions, excepting one of two and a half per cent. on salt. This was, in effect, giving them a monopoly of that profitable trade; and it appears that even this duty, trifling as it was, was never levied. The arrangement threw the whole inland trade of the country into the hands of the English and their agents, whose violence totally paralysed the native Government.
These proceedings, and their fatal consequences, were viewed by the Court of Directors with indignation and alarm. The new assumptions had not even the air of being for their benefit, but were exclusively for the advantage of their servants. They therefore, in order to repress the evil, on the 8th of February, 1764, sent out an order to put an end to the inland trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, and all other articles produced and consumed in the country.
It was soon after this order was resolved upon that, the news of the massacre of Patna, the war with Meer Cossim, and other events, having reached England, and diffused the greatest consternation every where, and especially at the India House, Lord Clive was solicited once more to return to Bengal, to restore peace and stability to the empire of which he was the founder. In his letter to the Court of Directors[73], accepting of the government, fully aware of one great source of misrule, he recommended an entire abolition of the inland trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, as having, with other circumstances, concurred to hasten and bring on the late troubles.
But, soon after the date of this letter, the Court of Proprietors, among whom were numbers favourable to the claims of the servants, and who saw with alarm a stop likely to be put to a trade which, in the short space of four years, had already sent many large fortunes to England, had come to a resolution[74] to recommend "to the Court of Directors to reconsider the orders sent to Bengal relative to the trade of the Company's servants in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco; and that they do give such directions for regulating the same, agreeably to the interest of the Company and the Subah, as to them may appear most prudent; either by settling here at home the restrictions under which this trade ought to be carried on, or by referring it to the Governor and Council of Fort William to regulate this important point in such a manner as may prevent all future disputes betwixt the Subah and the Company."
The orders of the 8th of February had been dispatched previously to the arrival of the news of the new treaty with Meer Jaffier; "the terms of which, however," the Directors justly observe, "appear to be so very injurious to the Nabob, and to the natives, that they cannot, in the very nature of them, tend to any thing but the producing general heart-burnings and dissatisfaction;" it is therefore directed, that the orders of the 8th of February remain in force, till a more equitable plan can be formed; the Governor and Council being directed to consult the Nabob as to the manner of carrying on the inland trade of salt, and other articles produced and consumed in the country, which may be most to his satisfaction and advantage, the interest of the Company, and likewise of the Company's servants, and to form and transmit home an equitable plan, to enable the Court to give directions. It is to be remembered, therefore, that in this view there was a threefold interest to be considered; that of the Nabob, of the Company, and of the Company's servants.
This letter was carried out to India in the ship which conveyed Lord Clive; though a copy, sent by another vessel, arrived some time before him.
When Lord Clive reached India, one of the first objects that engaged his attention was the manner in which the public servants were to be remunerated.
At that period, their direct salaries were very trifling; that of councillor being only 350l., and the others small in proportion. The Company was originally strictly a trading Company, and its clerks and servants were paid chiefly by being allowed to trade on their own account. When the Company found it necessary to have troops for the defence of their factories, their military officers were paid in the same way. All were merchants and traders, from the governor, the commandant, and the chaplain, down to the youngest writer and ensign.
Now that they were princes with a large territory, and a formidable army, the steps by which they reached that eminence had been so sudden, and the consequences so unforeseen, that their servants still continued to be civil, military, and ecclesiastical traders: the old system remained unchanged.
But a change of circumstances necessarily called for a change of regulations. The relative situation of the English and natives was no longer the same: for instance, the receiving of presents from native princes, or men of rank, had quite altered its nature. While the Company were mere traders, there could be no good reason for hindering their servants and the natives from mutually receiving and bestowing presents. The parties were on a level, bound to each other by common interest, and presents were nothing more than a mark of the good-will that subsisted between them; the consequence of their friendship or relations in trade, exhibited according to the usage and fashion of the country, of which the giving and receiving of presents formed a part.
In the altered situation of the Company, when their servants concluded treaties, influenced the fate of provinces, and made and unmade princes, things were essentially changed. Presents were now liable to become, not the sign and consequence of good-will, but the motive, and sometimes the guilty motive, of public acts; and great sums might be thus extorted, to the injury both of the natives and of the Company: and, indeed, this natural effect did ensue. The paramount influence of the English authority was abused, for purposes of private interest and selfish rapacity. Great fortunes were made in this way during the five years that Lord Clive was absent in England, and these benevolences became a most heavy burden on the men of rank and wealth in India.
To check this evil, the Court of Directors, as we have seen, ordered covenants against receiving presents to be entered into by all their servants.
The orders issued regarding the inland trade nearly shut up another great source of gain. During the five years in which the public servants had carried it on with such amazing profit, the export trade, as an inferior branch, had been left chiefly to free merchants and free mariners. The orders excluding the Company's servants from the inland trade now drove them back, once more, to foreign and general trade, but in more unfavourable circumstances.
They complained to the Directors that, by the course of events, which had done so much for the Company, they were placed in a worse situation than ever, and engaged in an unfavourable competition even with the free traders: that, instead of benefiting, they suffered by being in the Company's service, as they were confined to one spot by the Company's concerns, while the others could run over the country, and had nothing to engage them but their own interests. In this representation there was much truth; though the conclusion might have reached farther than either the Company or their servants would have been willing to allow.
Men who had been accustomed to look to great and immediate returns for their capital, or for the mere use of their name, looked upon the restrictions under which they were now placed as the height of tyranny. The habits of indulgence and expense which they had acquired from the rapid influx of wealth, and the golden prospects which their situation had seemed to hold out to them, were bad preparations for returning to, or for acquiring, the patient, sober, and steady habits of business which general commerce requires. Lord Clive found the settlement in a ferment; and all ranks of the Company's servants resolved to throw every obstacle in the way of executing the Company's orders.
How he triumphed over the civil, as well as military, combinations which threatened ruin to the British ascendency in India, we have already seen: but if he triumphed, it was not by firmness alone; it was equally by the justice, the consideration, the policy, which guided all his measures.
He had all the powers of mind necessary for his new situation; but his instruments were very imperfect. He saw that a grand crisis had arrived in the Company's affairs; that their servants were brought into contact with men possessed of the greatest wealth and power, and whose fate they really held in their hands. "Without proposing a reasonable prospect of independent fortunes," says one of his friends[75], "it was ridiculous to hope that common virtue could withstand the allurements of daily temptation; or that men armed with power would abstain from the spoils of a prostrate nation."
Clive was particularly desirous, as we have seen, that the chief men in the administration of affairs, but especially the Governor, should be withdrawn from trade, and from whatever could warp the freedom of their opinions: it is a subject to which he often reverts in his private correspondence.
But to expect that the Directors would directly sanction large salaries to their servants from the profits of the Company's trade, or from their territorial revenues, was vain. It was quite at variance with the old maxims by which they were accustomed to regulate their concerns.
There seemed to be no alternative, therefore, but either to let things proceed in the ruinous course in which they now were, to enforce the covenants, and enter, unaided, on a hopeless struggle between private interest and public duty; or to find means, from such resources of the country as were not yet claimed by the Company, to pay the superior servants in an adequate and ample manner; and this last he resolved to attempt.
"It was not expedient," says Clive himself, in his speech in the House of Commons[76], "to draw the reins too tight. It was not expedient that the Company's servants should pass from affluence to beggary. It was necessary that some emoluments should accrue to the servants in general, and more especially to those in superior stations, who were to assist in carrying on the measures of Government. The salary of a councillor is, I think, scarcely 300l. per annum; and it is well known that he cannot live in that country for less than 3000l. The same proportion holds among the other servants. It was requisite, therefore, that an establishment should take place; and the Select Committee, after the most mature deliberation, judged that the trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, under proper regulations, might effectually answer the purpose."
One difficulty had been removed when, about the time of the grant of the dewannee, the young Nabob, Nujum-ed-Dowlah, had yielded up to the Company the whole of the revenues of the three provinces, in consideration of a fixed annuity. The question, after that, no longer regarded the Nabob, or his revenues; it was only between the Company, their servants, and the natives; and Clive believed that, by an arrangement regarding the salt trade, the interest of all could be conciliated: and it is to be recollected, that the Directors had ordered that the new plan should have a view to "the interest of the Company, and likewise of the Company's servants."[77]
It is unnecessary to enter into all the details of the plan finally adopted in September, 1765, which were chiefly arranged by Mr. Sumner. The salt trade was to be conducted solely by a society composed of all the higher officers of Government, civil and military; their capital was to consist of a certain number of shares; the civil servants, as low down as factors, the military, as low down as majors, were to hold shares; chaplains and surgeons had also their shares; the capital for carrying on the trade was to be furnished by the sharers, in their due proportions. The affairs of the Society were conducted by a committee; the salt was to be furnished to them by contractors, and was to be sold at various grand stations by agents, generally Europeans, appointed by the Committee, the purchasers from whom could carry and sell it over the country at pleasure; 35 per cent. on the price was allowed as a tax to the company[78], who had now come into the Nabob's place; the selling price, at the different remote stations, was also fixed at rates 12 or 15 per cent. below what was found to have been the average rate of the twenty years preceding.
Besides providing ample allowances to the chief of the Company's servants, the great advantage of this plan was, that it allowed them to withdraw their attention wholly from trade.[79] They were sleeping partners of a sure and profitable concern, the whole details of which, without any care on their part, was managed by a committee devoted to the business.
The profits of this Society were, as might have been expected, very great. "The capital of the salt trade," says Clive, writing to Colonel Call[80], "is 32 lacs of sicca rupees, upon which the most moderate expect to make 50 per cent., clear of all charges; others, 75 per cent.; and the most sanguine, 100 per cent. Take the lowest, and a councillor's and a colonel's profit will be 7000l. sterling per annum; a lieutenant-colonel's and junior merchant's, 3000l.; majors' and factors', 2000l. These advantages, and a free open trade, are in lieu of all presents from the natives, and all perquisites disadvantageous to the Company, and dishonourable to the servants." And in a letter[81] to Mr. Palk, the Governor of Madras, after mentioning the large allowance that the trade would give to the different sharers, he adds, "This extraordinary indulgence is in lieu of perquisites; for I intend the Governor and Council shall take a most solemn oath at the Mayor's Court, in presence of all the inhabitants, that they shall receive no perquisites whatever, or other advantages, excepting what arises from their trade; and to this shall be added a penalty-bond of a very very large sum of money. These articles, upon my arrival, were altogether in the hands of the Company's servants and free merchants, and only yielded to the Company 60,000l. per annum, and to the Nabob nothing, for they did not even pay the 2½ per cent. duties. Neither will the method we are pursuing be attended with the least disadvantage to the inhabitants: the same hands who made and worked the salt are still employed at the same rates; and the salt in general will be sold at a much lower price than formerly. Formerly the salt was sold dear or cheap, according to the demand for that article; we shall endeavour to fix upon a price for every market, and always sell it for the same."
The result of the first year's sales was very prosperous, and even exceeded expectation: insomuch that, in forming the plan for the following year, it was resolved to diminish the profits of the proprietors, and to raise those of the East India Company, the duty to whom was now fixed at 50 per cent., which, at a low valuation of the salt, was to produce about 160,000l. Clive had, however, in the course of his progress through the country, observed the inconvenience of employing European agents in the trade; and a very material improvement was introduced, by dispensing with their agency altogether, and selling the article at Calcutta, or where it was made, to the natives only, with permission to convey it wherever they pleased. In this way Europeans were totally removed from any direct interference with the natives in the interior, and the trade was as free as any monopoly can be. This second year's Society commenced in September, 1766.
Not long after it began its operations, letters from the Court of Directors reached Bengal, disapproving of the plan of the first year's Society, and commanding the trade to be thrown open, and left entirely to the natives. In coming to this resolution, they were not so much influenced by any views of the particular merits or demerits of the new plan itself, as by consideration of the mischiefs which had for several years attended the general system of internal trade carried on by the English gentlemen with a high hand, free of duties. Their orders, repeatedly sent out, to pay the legal duties to the Nabob, and to keep within the meaning of the Emperor's firman, had been totally neglected, or provokingly evaded. Repeated revolutions had been the consequence, and immense suffering to the country. "We are fully sensible," say the Court of Directors[82], "that these innovations, and illegal traffic, laid the foundation of all the bloodshed, massacres, and confusion which have happened of late years. We cannot suffer ourselves to indulge a thought towards the continuance of them, upon any conditions whatsoever. No regulations can, in our opinion, be formed, that can be effectual to prevent the like consequences which we have seen." They desire, however, that the duties, as forming part of the revenues of Bengal, should not be abolished. In a letter of the same date, to Lord Clive, the Directors, after bestowing the greatest and most merited praise on the penetration with which he had at once discerned their true interest in every branch of their concerns; the rapidity with which he had restored order, peace, and tranquillity; and the integrity which governed all his actions, proceed to give their resolutions on the inland trade. "The vast fortunes," they observe, "acquired in the inland trade have been obtained by a scene of the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct that ever was known, in any age or country. We have been uniform in our sentiments and orders on this subject, from the first knowledge we had of it; and your Lordship will not, therefore, wonder, after the fatal experience we had of the violent abuses committed in this trade, that we could not be brought to approve it, even in the limited and regulated manner with which it comes to us, in the plan laid down in the Committee's proceedings. We agree in opinion with your Lordship on the propriety of holding out such advantages to our chief servants, civil and military, as may open to them the means of honourably acquiring a competency in our service; but the difficulty of the subject, and the short time we have at present to consider it, have obliged us to defer giving our sentiments and directions thereupon, until the next despatch." The letter concludes with entreaties to him to remain for another year in India, and with holding out the prospect of some solid permanent retribution, corresponding to his most important services.
The real causes of the resolutions of public bodies do not always appear in their public acts. To deprive their servants of their principal means of subsistence, without substituting any authorised allowance in its place, was bad policy in itself, and was reducing Lord Clive, in the midst of his exertions, to a very painful dilemma. Mr. Scrafton, in a letter[83] to Lord Clive, explains their secret reasons. The Proprietors had begun to clamour for an increase of dividend, which the Directors thought unsuitable to the situation of the Company's affairs. "This," says he, "has induced the Directors to defer the consideration of the gratification of the servants on abolishing the salt trade. Such consideration could not be but for a vast sum; and if it had got wind that such gratifications were ordered, the Proprietors would be outrageous for an increase of the dividend. Though we cannot open our minds upon it, yet it appears to me an increase of dividend must take place at the Quarterly Court in June; and then the Court will be under no restraint, but will give a per centage on the revenues, in which the Governor will have a great share, in lieu of trade; the rest among the Committee, Council, colonels, and ten below Council, but no lower."—"Your Lordship may be assured it will take place; for, when the last paragraph was added to the letter to you, the Committee declared it was their meaning and intention to do it by the next ship."
The letters of the Directors, the first which Clive had received in answer to his communication on the plan which he had formed, as directed by them, for carrying on the internal trade, reached him only in December, 1766, a month before he left India. He had for some weeks been confined to his chamber by a very severe illness, from which his life was in danger. He now felt himself placed in a most painful predicament, between the Court of Directors and the immediate difficulties of his situation with the civil and military servants. He believed that, with long attention and care, he had succeeded in disarming the salt trade of most of its evils, and by its means had secured to the Company's superior servants a lawful for an unlawful income. But the commands of the Directors were positive; and, though he was of opinion that they were founded on mistake, it was his wish to conform to them. The Company, though aware of the address and spirit of command with which he had checked the machinations of their civil servants in 1765, were still ignorant, when their orders were given, of his still more difficult triumph over the mutiny of their military officers. They had, most justly and wisely, deprived their servants of their means of illicit gain; they now rashly deprived them also of what had been substituted as a lawful provision; they referred these discontented and powerful men, who had vast wealth within their reach, to a future and uncertain time, when their masters should be at leisure to pay some attention to their immediate and urgent necessities. An inferior man would have hesitated and faltered: Clive saw that decision was necessary for the crisis. He could not undo his own work of pacification and reform. The affairs of the Society were too far advanced to be discontinued all at once. He therefore confirmed the grant to the Society, but declared that it was to terminate at the conclusion of the current year, the 1st of September, 1767.[84] At the same time, the Select Committee of Calcutta, by their letter of the 26th of January, 1767, while they mentioned that the orders for discontinuing the Society had been complied with, remonstrated strongly with the Court of Directors on the occasion; calling on them to review their opinion.
Such is an outline of the history of the Society of Trade during Clive's government. He formed a society in unison, as he supposed, with the spirit of the orders of the Court of Directors, which desired him, in the new plan of trade intended to be formed, to consult the benefit of three parties—the Nabob, the Company, and its servants. The Nabob's interest had merged in the Company's. The interest of the natives, however, the most important of all, was consulted by their restoration to the benefits of the trade, from which recently they had nearly been excluded; and by the exclusion of Europeans from any participation in the details of it. How the interests of the Company's servants were to be consulted by any plan that admitted them to the profits, yet excluded them in every shape from the trade, it is not easy to imagine. Lord Clive and the Committee did, therefore, what then, and in all succeeding times, it has been found necessary to do, in India, and in every distant possession, to form and execute a plan on their own responsibility, and to leave the future approbation or disapprobation to their distant masters. Inconvenient as this may be, it is an inconvenience inseparable from distant legislation.
A few words may here be said on the future history of the salt trade. The Court of Directors, after receiving the letters of the Select Committee, still persisted in their desire of abolishing the Society, and of removing Europeans from this and all other concern with the inland trade of the country. They therefore, by their letter of the 20th of November, 1767, written eighteen months after their former letter, ordered the Society of Trade to be abolished, and the salt-pans to be sold by public auction, excluding all Europeans from being bidders or owners, directly or indirectly. Instead of the benefits resulting to the senior servants from this trade, an allotment of 2½ per cent. on the net revenue of the dewannee was assigned to them in certain shares; and a small increase of pay to captains and subalterns.[85]
Meanwhile, in Bengal, when September, 1767, arrived, these last orders having not yet been received, nor indeed written, another year was allowed by Mr. Verelst, the new Governor, and his Council, to the Society of Trade, to collect their debts, and realise their capital. It was not till September, 1768, that it ceased; and the Court of Directors having, in December, 1769[86], by a sudden and singular departure from their opinions, so strongly announced, sent out instructions to lay open the inland trade to all persons, as well natives as Europeans, a proclamation to that effect was published at Calcutta, on the 12th of December, 1770. The effect of this essential change in the Company's plans on the future prosperity of the provinces, it is no part of the present Memoir to investigate; but it is very plain, that, by admitting Europeans into the inland trade, in the state in which the country then was, they really did away with all the benefit that could in any way have been expected to arise from abolishing the monopoly.
But whether Lord Clive's opinions regarding the trade in salt were sound or not, one thing at least is evident,—he was perfectly conscientious in the advice he gave, and on the measures he adopted, on that subject. This is plain from his whole conduct, and from his correspondence, public and private, with numerous persons, while in India. Nor did his anxiety on the subject cease, even after he had reached England, when all private interest in the subject, if he can be supposed ever to have had any, must have been over. Finding accidentally, some months after his arrival, that the plan of abolishing the Salt Society continued to be entertained, he explained his views on the subject to the Committee of Treasury and Correspondence of the Directors, in a detailed and laboured letter.[87] He pointed out the advantages of the trade as then regulated, as the best fund that the Company could appropriate for the payment, without grudging or envy, of their superior servants: that it enabled them to regulate the emoluments of their servants, according to their own wishes; that by it, their servants had the appearance of being paid, not by the Company, but by the profits of their own trade,—an advantage not attending any payment by a percentage on the revenue. "If you grant a commission upon the revenue," says he, "the sum will not only be large, but known to the world; the allowance being publicly ascertained, every man's proportion will at times be the occasion of much discourse, envy, and jealousy; the great will interfere in your appointments, and noblemen will perpetually solicit you to provide for the younger branches of their families." It is evident, that his views originated not in principles of political economy, but of policy, forced upon him by the circumstances in which India was placed. His efforts were directed to insure a desirable object, in what he deemed, not certainly the best, but the only practicable mode.
In spite of this remonstrance, the Committee came to the resolution of throwing the trade open, imposing only a duty of 10 rupees on the hundred maunds of salt. Lord Clive again addressed them[88], showing that they were in reality giving up 300,000l. per annum, for a tax of only 31,500l.; and pointed out that, even on their plan, the trade would continue in some degree a monopoly, and that the servants would still be concerned in it to what extent they pleased, under their banyans and black merchants. His expressions in writing the same day to Mr. Verelst, show how sincere and deep-rooted his opinions on the subject were. Sending him a copy of his letter to the Committee, he adds, "What attention they will pay to my representations I know not: but I have such confidence in your honour and zeal for the Company's welfare, that I cannot help hoping you will take care that the Company be not deprived of 300,000l. per annum, however peremptory the orders of the Directors may be."
The letter of the 20th of November, 1767, already mentioned, was written soon after. The only effect of this remonstrance was a change by which the duty was to be advanced to a sum not exceeding 120,000l. Lord Clive points out, in several confidential letters to Mr. Verelst, the want of information of the Directors on this occasion, and the pernicious consequences likely to result from the change. That he was sincere, admits not of a doubt. His opinions on the subject he maintained uniformly to the last hour of his life, and the events seem to have justified his foresight.
The tax, as regulated by him, certainly was a monopoly, and so far was exceptionable; but he might justly maintain that the real question was, Are the evils arising from this monopoly, or from the licentiousness of the rulers of the country, if penuriously paid, most to be dreaded? and of this he had no doubt. Even from the question of the comparative merits of a monopoly and free trade, political considerations, unfortunately, could not be altogether excluded. The society of trade was abolished under pretence of being a monopoly. This was not, however, the real cause. That society excluded from the salt trade a body of powerful and wealthy Europeans, who raised a clamour, in name of the natives, but solely for their own private views. On the plan, as reformed by Lord Clive, the natives were restored to their former employment, and Europeans excluded. But when the trade was thrown open to all indiscriminately, natives and Europeans, the change, though in form the result of sound principles of government and of political economy, was really, in substance, quite the reverse. The two parties did not come into the field on equal terms; the society of trade had a direct interest that no oppression should be exercised on the natives in their dealings over the country; and being composed of the leading men of the government, had the means of affording them protection. But when the trade was reduced to a scramble between Europeans having the whole authority of the country, and natives who had none; when redress was to be sought by the natives from their very rivals and competitors; their condition became hopeless; and that fact sufficiently accounts for the melancholy nature of the history of the inland trade in succeeding years.
Two charges connected with this transaction of the salt trade were afterwards brought against Lord Clive: the first, that he obstinately persisted in disobeying the orders of the Company for its abolition; the other, that by having a share in it as Governor, he in some measure deviated from his plan of not trading, and of deriving no pecuniary benefit to himself from his voyage to India.
As to the first, we have seen that several letters were certainly received from the Court of Directors, after his arrival in Bengal, declaring their decided hostility to their servants engaging in the inland trade at all, and especially in that of salt. But a comparison of dates has shown that these letters were directed, not against any measures of Lord Clive, which were not then known, but against the grossly unjust and pernicious proceedings which took place before his arrival. To the letter of the Select Committee of Calcutta, of the 30th of September, 1765, detailing the plan for the first society of trade, an answer, dated the 17th of May, 1766, was received on the 8th of December following: and so far was Lord Clive from obstinately persisting in continuing the trade, as has been asserted, that on the 24th of the following month, while hardly yet recovered from a dangerous illness, he declared the society abolished, at the close of the season. He had fixed so limited a period as one year for its duration, because it was only experimental, and to admit of any change suggested by the Directors.
The second charge was, that, as a sharer in this society of trade, he had deviated from his intention expressed in his letter to the Company, not to improve his fortune by his voyage to India.
His share as Governor in the society of trade (a concern, the details of which were entirely confided to a committee, and the operations of which he knew only from their result) was certainly very different in its nature from private trade on his own account. To his intention not to increase his private fortune by the emoluments of his office, or by trade in any shape, he religiously adhered. Of the allowances to the Governor, the honorary presents that could not be refused without giving offence, the proceeds of the Governor's share of the society of trade, with all other emoluments annexed to his office, he caused a distinct account to be kept. Out of it were defrayed his expenses as Governor, and by the surplus he did not benefit. He had taken with him to India three gentlemen: Mr. Maskelyne, his friend and near connection; Mr. Henry Strachey, his private secretary; and Mr. Ingham, his family physician;—no large establishment for a Governor leaving his family and going abroad in the circumstances Lord Clive did. The sums in question were employed in remunerating them, and some persons of his household; and by the account kept of these and of all other sums received by him from the time he left England till his return, which was communicated to the Company, and afterwards laid before Parliament, far from having added, in any respect, to his private fortune, as this charge supposes, it has never been disputed that there was a balance of 5816l. 16s. 9d. against it. If these gentlemen were remunerated, therefore, it was not at the Company's expense, by any extraordinary charges upon them; but at the expense of the Governor, who gave up to them the allowances which he might have retained to himself.[89] The charge was really as unfounded as it was ungracious, and, it is to be observed, was brought against him by men who had shown no such pecuniary delicacy.
Of another charge, also brought some years after, against Lord Clive's administration, that of having fixed an improper rate of exchange between the gold and silver coinage of Bengal, it is not necessary to say much. In India, gold and silver coin are articles of trade even more directly than in most countries in the world, and the variation in their relative value is often extremely great. In the year 1766, a scarcity of silver existed in Bengal, from the quantity exported to China, from decreased importation, and other causes. It was known that there was much gold in the country, in various shapes; and to inexperienced political economists it seemed a very reasonable expedient to give a premium for its being brought out. A favourable rate was therefore fixed on the new gold mohur then coined. This certainly had the effect of bringing gold to the mint; but, as might have been foreseen, only increased the evil, by causing still more silver coin to be withdrawn from circulation. The bankers and shroffs of the country, who are proficients in the science of exchange, naturally paid their demands in gold, and exported or hoarded the silver. The gold coin they were unwilling to receive at its legal value, without a large batta, or exchange, in reality to compensate its inferior intrinsic value as compared with silver, the ordinary circulation of the country. This necessary measure of self-defence was regarded as a trick or fraud in trade. The proclamation of 30th June, 1766, directing the coin to be taken at certain rates, was one of those ineffectual attempts to force circumstances, formerly so usual with politicians of every class and of every country. It was, of course, ineffectual; and necessarily occasioned no small inconvenience to merchants and retail traders. Its effects were chiefly felt after Clive had left India. The Court of Directors, from their correspondence, seems to have been nearly as much puzzled as the Council of Calcutta; though the fact, that the difference of market value between the gold and the silver coin rose to 17½ per cent., ought to have afforded an easy explanation of the difficulty.[90] Yet those who recollect the discussions, in our own times, in the British parliament, on the difference of value between the guinea and the bank note, and on the bullion question in general, will not be disposed to view with much surprise a similar difficulty that occurred in a distant country, half a century before.
Though these charges were brought against Lord Clive long afterwards, yet, as they all relate to India, it has been judged best to state them at this period of his career, when he was still engaged in his active services in that country.
Our attention has hitherto been too exclusively directed to Lord Clive's civil and military reforms, to admit of any connected view of the very important treaties which he negotiated with the native powers, and which really changed the face of India. We have seen that one of his first objects, after his arrival in Bengal, was to conclude a peace with Sujah-u-Dowlah, the Vizier, Nabob of Oude, and to make some arrangement with our ally, the King. The war, though successful, had long been carried on at an expense ruinous to the Company's finances. With these objects he resolved to combine a settlement with the young Nabob of Bengal (whose finances were in disorder), so as to place his and the Company's affairs on a definite and solid basis. Clive had left Calcutta on the afternoon of the 25th of June, 1765, and on the 9th of July writes to the Select Committee, that the business of Nujm-u-Dowlah's durbar was perfectly finished. By the arrangement then entered into, provision was made for the management of public affairs at the Nabob's court, and in the three provinces, the immediate administration of which was committed to Mahommed Reza Khan, Doolubram, and Jugget Seit, and regulations were signed by them and the Nabob for that purpose. A barrier was thus provided against the shifting policy and intrigues of a corrupt court, and a weak and ignorant prince. At the same time Lord Clive procured from the Nabob a sunnud for the reversion in perpetuity of his jaghire to the Company. But he now plainly saw that things could not stop where they were. The truth is, that it was now clear enough, that two independent governments could not exist in the country at the same time. The one must swallow up the other; and the Company having the sword in their hand, and not being disposed to recede, it was necessary to reduce the Nabob to a cipher. Two days afterwards[91] Clive writes to the Select Committee;—"We have often lamented that the gentlemen of the Council, by precipitating the late treaty, had lost the most glorious opportunity that could ever happen of settling matters upon that solid and advantageous footing for the Company, which no temporary invasion could endanger. The true and only security for our commerce and territorial possessions in this country is, in a manner, always to have it in our power to overawe the very Nabob we are bound by treaty to support. A maxim contrary to this has of late been much adopted; and from that fundamental error, as I may call it, have sprung the innumerable evils, or at least deficiencies, in our government, which, I have now the pleasure to inform you, are in a fair way of being perfectly removed.
"The Nabob, upon my representation of the great expense of such an army as will be necessary to support him in his government, the large sums due for restitution, and to the navy, together with an annual tribute, which he will be under a necessity of paying to the King, hath consented, and I have agreed, provided it should obtain your approbation, that all the revenues of the country shall be appropriated to those purposes, 50 lacs of rupees excepted. Out of this sum is to be defrayed all his expenses of every nature and denomination. Mahommed Reza Khan, however, being of a disposition extremely timorous, is desirous of having the payment of the cavalry and sepoys pass through his hands, though included in the said 50 lacs. This, I think, will be complied with.
"I am of opinion also, that certain stipends, out of the above mentioned sum, should be fixed for the Begum, for the Chuta Nabob, and for the rest of the Nabob's brothers and nephews, Miriam's son included; or else we must be subject to frequent complaints from those quarters; for I am persuaded that the dependents and parasites of the present Nabob will always keep him in distress, be his income what it may. Although the sum proposed to be stipulated for the Nabob, considering the present great expenses and demands, may appear large, yet, by what I now learn, his expense exceeds the sum to be allowed; and although it is certain that neither his education nor abilities will enable him to appear to any advantage at the head of these great and rich provinces, yet, I think, we are bound in honour to support the dignity of his station, so far as is consistent with the true interest of the Company.
"The particulars of this matter may be farther adjusted in my absence by Mr. Sykes, to whom I have communicated my ideas, if the plan be approved of by the Select Committee; and the whole may be finally concluded to our satisfaction, upon the Company's being appointed the King's Duan, who will be empowered, by the nature of their office, as well as by the King's consent, to settle every point."
Writing the same day to Mr. Verelst, Lord Clive sufficiently characterises the Nabob by a single trait. "He received the proposal of having a sum of money for himself and household at his will with infinite pleasure; and the only reflection he made, upon leaving me, was, 'Thank God! I shall now have as many dancing girls as I please.'"
It is not to be supposed that the Select Committee would object to a plan which threw the greater part of the revenue of Bengal into the hands of the Company, and the treaty was finally concluded in the course of the same month. The allowance made to the Nabob was raised to something more than 53 lacs of rupees.
Lord Clive, proceeding up the river, met the Vizier, as has been mentioned, at Benares. The fortune of war had been against him; his armies had been repeatedly defeated, and his capital, Lucknow, taken. He had given himself up to General Carnac, and was eager for peace. So early as the 2d of August, Lord Clive had an interview with him, and intimated his intention of restoring all his dominions, except Allahabad, worth 10 lacs yearly, and perhaps Corah, valued at 18. "His expressions of joy and gratitude upon this occasion," say Lord Clive and General Carnac, in a joint letter to the Select Committee[92], "were many and warm. Such an instance of generosity in a victorious enemy, exceeded his most sanguine expectations, and we doubt not will be the best foundation of that union and amity which we so earnestly wish to secure. He consents to pay to the Company 50 lacs for indemnification. These terms we think moderate and equitable, both for him and the Company."
This matter being arranged, Lord Clive hastened on to Allahabad, to meet the King: the first visit took place on the 9th of August. The King's demands were numerous, but Clive was steady to his purpose. The demand on the Nabob of Bengal for 32 lacs of rupees as arrears, and of 5½ lacs annually of jaghires, were refused, with several others. It was finally settled, on the 11th, that the King should receive annually, as revenue from Bengal, the sum of 26 lacs, with the countries of Allahabad and Corah, yielding a farther revenue of 28 lacs, from Sujah-u-Dowlah, as a royal demesne for supporting his dignity. "This last cession," says Lord Clive and General Carnac, writing to the Select Committee[93], "we very readily consented to, as Sujah-u-Dowlah made not the least objection, well knowing that, after our departure, he could easily settle this matter with the King, to the satisfaction of both parties." Lord Clive had, it seems, wished to restore Corah to the Vizier, making over Allahabad only to the King.
"We then presented the King with two arzies (petitions), desiring he would grant to Nujm-u-Dowlah the Nizamut of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to the Company, the Dewanny of the same provinces; to both of which His Majesty has signed his fiat, and the proper instruments for both are now drawing out."
The King, at the same time, granted firmans confirming to the Company for ever all the lands round Madras and elsewhere assigned to them by the Nabob of Arcot; as well as a free gift of the five northern Circars. This was the first formal grant or confirmation by the King to the Company, of these territories. The grant of Lord Clive's jaghire, to the Company, was likewise confirmed.
The King was eager to induce Clive to march to Delhi and replace him on the throne. But this was steadily refused. Clive's policy was to interpose a friendly native power between our territories and the Afghans, and as far as possible the Mahrattas. He saw that the King, from his weak character and large pretensions was quite unfit for such a purpose; and that none was so proper, both from character and power, as Sujah-u-Dowlah. This was one cause why he was anxious to have strengthened him, by restoring Corah. He wished to induce the King to reside quietly in the Company's territories; but finding this impracticable, gave him to understand that the Company could not join him as a party in any of his ambitious enterprises, beyond the limits of their own territories.
Such was the conclusion of these important negotiations, by which the English East India Company became the real sovereigns of Bengal, Bahar, Orissa, and other extensive territories. In these provinces they now stood in the place of the Nabobs, and had gained a right to levy and dispose of the whole revenues under some very moderate burthens. They were no longer dependent on the regularity of native princes for the payment of their troops, or support of their establishments. The Nabob of Bengal was become a puppet in their hands, of little use, but as a cover to their dealings with European powers. Clive estimates the annual clear gain to the Company, including their former possessions of Burdwan, &c., and after paying the King, the Nabob, and all other expenses, as not short of 122 lacs, or 1,650,000l.[94]
Clive had received from the King, in 1758, a sunnud appointing him to the high rank of a munsubdar of six thousand foot, and of five thousand horse, with the title of Zubdit-al-mulk, Nazir-ed-Dowla, Sabat Jung, Behader.[95] The title of Sabat Jung he had originally, as already mentioned, received from the Nabob of Arcot, for his gallant exploits in that prince's service, and by that title he always continued to be known in Bengal. He now received some augmentation of sounding titles, but what they were does not appear.
While Clive was engaged in these public duties he did not intermit in the regularity of his correspondence with his friends in England. Some extracts from his letters will show the light in which he considered his own situation and transactions.
[96][The following letter[97] to Mr. Salvadore, whom he employed as a man of business, merits to be preserved as a proof of Clive's disinterested conduct during this his last period of service in India:—
"I return you many thanks for your obliging letter, and for the very favourable opinion you are pleased to entertain of my abilities, as well as disposition to do my duty to the Company. It must be my own fault if I do not answer the expectations of all the real and disinterested proprietors; as for the occasional ones, and those who act from resentment and selfish principles, I hold them in too much contempt to cast away one thought about them.
"If I was to dwell upon the situation of the Company's affairs in Bengal, both civil and military, a volume would not be sufficient. However, I have the satisfaction of informing you, that I have already made a great progress towards reforming those enormous abuses of power, which cry aloud for redress. The inhabitants have been laid under contribution by both civil and military, their goods taken from them at an under price, and presents of money have either been extorted from them, or given for interfering in the affairs of government by insisting on men of high employments being turned out, and others appointed in their room. The gentlemen having the revenues of the country, amounting to upwards of 3,000,000l. per annum at their command, were making such hasty strides towards independency, that in two years' time I am persuaded the Company would not have had one servant upon this establishment above the rank of a writer. In short, if the Directors do not behave with spirit and integrity, and the Proprietors lay aside their animosities, they will become answerable to the nation and to Parliament, for being the cause of losing the greatest advantages which ever have happened to England since it has been a nation.
"As for myself, although tempted on all sides by offers of riches without bounds, I have refused every thing; and I am the greatest villain upon earth, if either I or any one dependent upon or belonging to me, with my knowledge, either directly or indirectly, benefit ourselves the value of one farthing, except what shall be specified in an account current which I intend laying before the Directors, upon my arrival in England. Indeed, if I suffered myself to be corrupted, I could not with any face undertake (in conjunction with the Committee who have heartily and unanimously joined me) the reformations which are essentially necessary for the Company's welfare.
"The King has granted to the Company for ever, with the approbation and consent of the Nabob, all the revenues which shall remain after paying him a certain tribute, and allowing a sum sufficient for the dignity and support of the Nabob. The Company's income exceeds 2,000,000l. sterling per annum, and their civil and military expenses in future never shall exceed 700,000l. per annum, in time of peace, and 1,000,000l. in time of war. For further particulars, let me refer you to Mr. Walsh. With regard to the French forces, I shall put those of the Company upon so respectable a footing, that all the powers of Europe can have no chance of succeeding, without first landing, and being supported by the powers of the country; and that appears very impracticable, since I have lately acquired a grant from the King of five northern provinces, those the French formerly possessed."
Clive's correspondence with his historian Orme appears at this period to have revived, and he evidently looks to him as the transmitter of his fame to posterity[98]:—
"I have wrote so many letters, and gone through such a scene of public business, that I cannot attempt describing to you any part of our proceedings in this part of the world. Scrafton, Walsh, and Colonel Smith will furnish you with abundant matter of surprize and astonishment. Let it suffice to say, that fortune seems determined to accompany me to the last; every object, every sanguine wish, is upon the point of being completely fulfilled, and I am arrived at the pinnacle of all I covet, by affirming the Company shall, in spite of all envy, malice, faction, and resentment, acknowledge they are become the most opulent company in the world, by the battle of Plassey; and Sir Hannibal Hotpot shall acknowledge the same.
"I am preparing plans in abundance for you. You shall have very exact charts of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and of the Mogul empire as far as Delhi at least. A map of the Ganges likewise, and all the other rivers of consequence."
The following letters to his cousin Harry and to his father are pleasing proofs that his important occupations never cooled his mind from his duties and feelings as a relation or a friend:—
"I have received[99] your letter of 22d of November, 1764, by which I find you are all in health, though not so happy as when I was among you. I make no doubt of once more contributing towards that happiness, though not quite so soon as I expected, when in England, owing to the length of our passage. I have pitched upon the beginning of December, 1766, for resigning this government; and nothing but my death shall prevent it. General Carnac, myself, and the rest of our family, propose coming most of the way overland; and shall, in all probability, be in London some time in April, 1767.
"I have been seven hundred miles up the country, and have established a firm and lasting peace, I hope, with the Great Mogul and his vizier, Shuja Dowlah. I have seen much of his Majesty, and he has appointed me one of his first omrahs, or nobles, of his empire, with an immense title, not worth sixpence in England. Touching all these matters, I must refer you to Mr. Walsh.
"I am glad you have put a stop to Stycke expenses: they became enormous, and it will be time enough to go on with them upon my arrival in England; but I approve greatly of your repairing Walcot, and making it fit for Lady Clive's reception. The only concern I feel arises from a conviction of what she must suffer from so long an absence.
"With regard to myself, I have full employment, and enjoy my health rather better than in England, though I find I cannot bear the heat so well as formerly, which makes me determined to quit the country as soon as possible."
"I rejoice," he writes[100] to his father, "to hear from others, though not from yourself, that, notwithstanding the accident which has happened to one of your eyes, you retain both your spirits, appetite, and health. It is impossible, without a miracle, to enjoy the blessings of life in that perfection in our latter days as in the days of youth; but I really think your temperance and the goodness of your constitution will carry you through life with ease and satisfaction to yourself to an age nearly equal to that of your aunt Judy.
"Although I enjoy better health than in England, India is by no means agreeable to me, separated as I am from my wife, children, and dearest relations. The length of our passage will make my absence one year more than I intended, but this you may be assured of, that nothing shall detain me in Bengal beyond the beginning of December, 1766; and I hope to see you all in good health and spirits, some time in April, 1767.
"I have been seven hundred miles up the country, and have been very conversant with His Majesty, the Great Mogul. He has made me one of the first omrahs, or nobles, of his empire. I have concluded a peace for the Company, which I hope will last, and obtained from the King a grant of a revenue of 2,000,000l. sterling per annum for them for ever; and, what is more, I have put them on a way of securing this immense revenue, in such a manner that it is almost impossible to deprive the Company of it, at least for some years to come.
"With regard to myself, I have not benefited, or added to my fortune one farthing, nor shall I; though I might, by this time, have received 500,000l. sterling. What trifling emoluments I cannot avoid receiving shall be bestowed on Maskelyne, Ingham, and Strachey, as a reward for their services and constant attention upon my person. I am much obliged to the Doctor for his care of my health: he is worth about 2000l. already. This ship, sent express, will bring the Company the most important news they ever received; and, if they are not satisfied with mine and the Committee's conduct, I will pronounce there is not one grain of honour or integrity remaining in England. The reformation I am making, in both the civil and military branches, will render the acquisition of fortunes not so sudden, or certain, as formerly. This, added to the shortness of my stay in India, induces me to think Captain Sempill had better stay in England, where we may serve him by our interest at home. Remember me in the most affectionate manner to my mother. She has acted a great part in life. The uniformity of her conduct with regard to her children must, at the same time it affords her the most pleasing reflections, influence them to entertain the highest respect and veneration for so deserving a parent. I will most certainly write to her, and to my brothers and sisters, who have my most affectionate wishes."
In numerous other private letters he dwells upon the same subject.][101]
Much of Clive's time was devoted to examining and improving the details and management of different branches of the public service. The increasing expense of the military establishment had been called to his notice by the Directors, before he went to Bengal; and he entered with great activity into the task of devising plans for reducing its expenditure. Besides the heavy charge for double batta, he found the charges for buildings and fortifications exhorbitantly high, and the work never completed. Of the surgeons' accounts, too, he repeatedly complains as enormous; and mentions that, on investigation, it was found that men had been charged for, as being in the hospital, months after they were dead. These abuses he attempted firmly and assiduously to correct; and his known experience in military matters, joined with the particular knowledge of commissariat concerns acquired while he served in that department, enabled him to place the whole on a better footing.
Though less conversant with revenue matters, he applied his powerful mind to that subject also. It was his uniform practice to promote the most intelligent and active men to the head of each line; and in the revenue department he seems to have been fortunate in having the co-operation of Mr. Verelst and Mr. Sykes. His plan, in revenue concerns was, to innovate as little as possible; to avoid all impositions burdensome to the cultivator, however productive; and to support the respectability and usefulness of the upper classes of natives, by maintaining them in as easy and opulent circumstances as was practicable. He saw the mischief of the frequent changes in the demands made upon the ryots, and proposed to introduce the system of leases for their protection. The revenue seems to have been very flourishing; and the ryots in easier circumstances in his time than they were some years afterwards. Writing to Mr. Verelst[102], he says, "The 20th of this month we hold the punah; and, by what I can learn, the kistabundy for next year will amount to 172 lacs, which is 12 lacs more than this year; to which, if you add 12 lacs of rupees which Mahommed Reza Cawn proposes cutting off from the Nabob's allowance, being for useless horse, elephants, buffaloes, camels, &c. the increase will be 24 lacs. If we mean to avoid giving umbrage to the European powers, and to keep up the appearance of the present form of government, we ought not to exact one farthing of revenue more from the province. For my own part, I think, after we have made this year's experiment, and, by the regular payment of the rents, find we have not over-rated the countries, that if Bengal was let out for five, six, or seven years, it would be for the advantage of the Company, of individuals, and add stability to our possessions by inspiring the inhabitants with just ideas of our justice and moderation." Writing, a few days after[103], to Mr. Palk, he touches on the same subject:—"Abundance of business, and a good deal of bad health arising from the heat of the weather, hath prevented me from being so punctual a correspondent as I promised to be when I took my leave of you at Madras. However, I will now acknowledge the receipt, as well as return you thanks for your last letters of the 24th March and 4th April. We have been already near a month at this place, in order to ascertain the revenues of Bengal for next year. Upon the whole, what with cutting off useless expenses and unnecessary kistabundy, the Company will receive an increase for Bengal only of 24 lacs. Here, in my opinion, we should hold our hands. To attempt farther increase will be drawing the knot too tight. It will neither be to the honour or advantage of the Company. In the end, it would be impolitic: individuals who are of good families, who have been used to live in state, and who have been intrusted with power, must have wherewithal to support some part of that dignity which has always been kept up in this country." In the course of the same year, in answering the letter of a public servant who had proposed a plan for increasing a particular branch of the revenue, he writes[104], "The Company's revenues are already immense; nor can I think of increasing them by the least oppressive mode. If, however, the abuses you mention be real, and can be remedied without distressing the ryots, they shall not escape unnoticed." He was decidedly hostile to the plan, which had been already introduced, of letting lands by auction; and was anxious that the ryot should labour in his fields at ease, free from the apprehension of change.[105]
It is quite unnecessary, as it would be painful, to enter into particulars regarding the corruption which prevailed at this time in every rank of the service: the fact is sufficiently known. Clive's efforts to check it made him many and powerful enemies. In a letter to Mr. Verelst, he mentions a member of council who, he found, had conditioned to receive 150,000 rupees from the Rajah of Burdwan: he desires that gentleman to ascertain the facts. "It may be necessary to have such anecdotes," says he[106], "to frighten people into their duty to the Company, if no other use be made of them. I hear a certain gentleman employs spies to watch all our actions, yours and Sykes's in particular; but we may serve him as Scipio did those sent by Hannibal, lead them at noonday through every department in which we are concerned, and then dismiss them, telling them they may go and tell their masters all they know." Writing, on another occasion[107], to Verelst and Sykes, when thwarted, from corrupt motives, by a man at the very head of affairs:—"If you think," says he, "that I am endeavouring to stem this torrent of corruption which threatens to overwhelm the whole settlement, and if you feel within your own breasts that pleasing satisfaction which I enjoy from a consciousness that I am acting upon principles of honour and integrity, I am persuaded you will support the measures we have so zealously adopted; and we shall at last triumph over bad hearts and bad heads."—"Our disinterested conduct," says he to another correspondent, when concluding the treaties with the King and Vizier[108], "must be admired and applauded by all virtuous and good men; and if there be men base enough to disapprove of what we are about, we may all retire to live happy, and upon the testimony of a good conscience." He frequently, in the midst of the opposition and annoyances to which he was exposed, seeks for consolation in this manly and honourable strain of thinking.
No man knew the sepoy force of India better, or employed it more successfully, than Clive; and it is interesting to ascertain his ideas, both on its composition, and the dangers that might be supposed eventually to attend its use. "You mention the number of sepoys as an alarming circumstance," says he, writing, after his return to England[109], to one of the committees of Directors, "and I allow that the Company's chief danger arises from thence, and from the discipline. But I am of opinion, that so long as they are regularly paid, treated with humanity, and not flattered with promises never meant to be performed, no danger is to be apprehended. Sepoys are the most faithful and attached people in the universe; and being also men of reason, they are thoroughly convinced, that they are upon a much better footing with us than they can be with any of the natives, be their rank what it may. Their attachment, as I have observed, is strong; but they know no other than to those who feed and clothe them. Much of the supposed danger is avoided by our having separated and divided our sepoys into three brigades, so that they can never make a revolution general, nor can they hold cabals of an alarming nature. The best additional security I can think of, is to have each battalion composed of an equal number of Gentoos and Mussulmen, and to encourage a rivalship of discipline between them."—"There is one step[110]," says he, on another occasion, "to be taken with regard to the sepoys, which, I think, will bring them to the greatest perfection sepoys can be brought to; viz. the officers commanding the sepoys to run in that corps only; by which means, all the officers will understand the language, without which it is impossible to bring the sepoys to that pitch of discipline which will make them truly formidable." It will be recollected that at this early period of the service, regiments were but recently formed and brigaded; and the officers were taken for the sepoy corps from the European infantry, and were not yet attached permanently to the former.
The fatigue, bodily and mental, which Clive underwent during the second year of his residence in India, when engaged in counter-acting the seditious movements of the civil and military services, had the unfavourable effects that might have been expected on a constitution so exhausted as his; yet the strong invitations which he then received from the Directors to remain another year in India, and his own desire to strengthen and confirm the government which he had saved from anarchy, and perhaps from ruin, induced him to revolve in his mind the possibility of complying with their request; and in some of his letters, written in the summer of 1766, he intimates a doubt whether he may not attempt to remain another year to complete his work.
But in the end of October he was attacked by a bilious disorder, which, increasing in severity, rendered him, early in November, incapable of attending to business. It is, indeed, surprising that this attack should have been so long delayed. From the moment he arrived in Bengal, his mind had been kept invariably on the stretch, by a succession of painful and trying exertions. He had travelled much in the midst of the monsoon, and in the hottest season. On one occasion, he writes to Mr. Verelst[111], "I have not had three hours' sleep any day or night, since I left Mootyjil," a fortnight before; and, even during the period when he thus travelled in a burning climate[112], he continued anxiously corresponding at every interval of his journey, on the subject of an alarming mutiny, which threatened destruction to all his plans of public improvement. He had difficulties to encounter on every side, reforms to be made, in which he was obliged to depend for success, more on the energy of his own mind, than on the support of the service, or of his coadjutors. He had the ungracious office of interfering at every step with the pecuniary emoluments of the majority of his countrymen of every class. Few constitutions could have supported the anxiety he endured. A less vigorous mind would have sunk under the fret and annoyance of nearly two years' warfare of this exhausting kind: his constitution only sank under the fatigue. The strongest proof how severe his illness became, is afforded by the total interruption of his correspondence from the 29th of November to the 27th of December, during which period no letter appears to have been written by himself, the correspondence being entirely conducted in his name by Mr. Strachey. It has already been remarked that his regularity and constancy in correspondence were quite exemplary. His letters of business were answered the moment they were received. This steady regularity, too often despised by inferior men, was one of the means by which he did so much. With him it was grown into a habit; but the habit was a proof of the energy of a mind eager to accomplish, in the most perfect way, the business in which it is engaged.
It was during this illness that the letter, already alluded to, from the Court of Directors, arrived[113], disapproving of the Society of Trade, but loading him with praises for his beneficial management of their affairs, entreating him to continue in the government for another year, and holding out the hope of ample remuneration for the sacrifice he was invited to make. It must be acknowledged, that the request of the Court of Directors was couched in terms sufficiently flattering. They approve of all that he had done. "When we consider," say they[114], "the penetration with which your Lordship at once discerned our true interest in every branch, the rapidity with which you restored peace, order, and tranquillity, and the unbiassed integrity that has governed all your actions, we must congratulate your Lordship on being the happy instrument of such extensive blessings to those countries; and you have our sincerest thanks for the great and important advantages thereby obtained for the Company."—"We have the most perfect sense of your Lordship's disinterestedness in every part of your conduct, and we shall not fail to represent this to the proprietors, and shall, at the same time, inform them of the many great advantages your Lordship has obtained for the Company; but we fear, my Lord, past experience will teach them, as it does us, that the permanency of those advantages will depend much on your Lordship's continuing in India till you have seen the regulations firmly established for the conducting those important affairs. Another year's experience, and peaceable enjoyment of our acquisitions, might fix them on a basis that might give hopes they may be as lasting as they are great; and there is no doubt, my Lord, but the general voice of the proprietors, indeed, we may say, of every man who wishes well to his country, will be to join in our request, that your Lordship will continue another year in India. We are very sensible of the sacrifice we ask your Lordship to make, in desiring your continuance another year in Bengal, after the great service you have rendered the Company, and the difficulties you have passed through in accomplishing them, under circumstances in which your own example has been the principal means of restraining the general rapaciousness and corruption which had brought our affairs so near the brink of ruin. These services, my Lord, deserve more than verbal acknowledgments; and we have no doubt that the proprietors will concur with us in opinion, that some solid and permanent retribution, adequate to your great merits, should crown your Lordship's labours and success."
Clive was not insensible to the voice of praise, and still less to the call of ambition; but no principle was stronger with him than a sense of duty. He had truly observed, some time before, in writing to Mr. Palk[115], "It seems I am strongly solicited to remain in India another year, and a promise is to be made me about perpetuating my jaghire. If I could render the Company more essential service by stopping than returning, and the situation of affairs made such a sacrifice necessary, I should not hesitate one moment about complying with their request, without being tempted by the bait of a jaghire. This does not appear to be the case at present; and, I think, all that depends on me will be effected in the space of two or three months; and, if the necessity of continuing another year does not appear in a stronger light than it does at present, I shall most certainly depart in January or February next." The letter of the Directors, just quoted, arrived on the 8th of December, after his complaint had made an alarming progress; and it appears, by a letter of Mr. Strachey, of the 13th, that Lord Clive had made up his mind, as a matter of necessity, to embark for England in about a month from that time. In a letter to his friend Mr. Palk, of the 30th of the same month, he says, "My state of health will not permit me more than to acknowledge the receipt of your several favours of the 20th, 27th, and 30th of September, and 7th, 11th, and 27th of October. The discussion of political points I cannot attempt at present, though I find myself recover daily. The Court of Directors have been very strenuous in soliciting me to continue another year in India. They have loaded me with compliments, and given me as much additional power as I could have wished. But the situation of the Company's affairs does not require that I should sacrifice another year in this climate; and even if it did call upon me to make such a sacrifice, it would be in vain. The very severe attack of bile that I have been struggling with for many weeks puts it beyond a doubt, that I could not survive, and be of use to the Company in India another year."
His constitution from his youth had been subject to nervous attacks. He now suffered from derangement of the biliary system, which affected his health to a degree from which it never fully recovered, and which may be considered as having finally hastened his end. It was occasionally attended with spasms, of which the violence endangered his life. In the intervals of comparative ease, however, he continued to direct the affairs of the government. He had used great exertions to improve the civil service, on which depended the prosperity of the country. Many of those then at the head of it, from various causes, were unfit to have any great share in conducting the administration of public affairs. Some were too exclusively devoted to self-interest, and were lax in their principles. The rapid fortunes that had been made of late years had sent home a considerable proportion of the most active of the older servants; others had been forced to resign, or had been dismissed for malversation in office; and many others had fallen in the massacre of Patna. Those next in succession were in general young men of no experience, of luxurious and dissipated habits, who, having been brought up in a bad school, were strangers to subordination and to the restraints of duty. Clive, sensible that to place such men near the head of a government, was to undo all that he had done, and that no government can be carried on without fit instruments, had asked from the Madras Government four of its ablest civil servants[116], who were accordingly sent, and placed in Council. This necessary act made him unpopular, and created many and powerful enemies. But Clive was not a man to shrink back from his course when supported by conscious rectitude, and by a firm persuasion that he was acting for the benefit of his employers and of the public. He supported the Madras servants against all the combinations formed to disgust and annoy them, and at his departure left them all high in office. By that, and similar acts of energy, he did all that one individual could do to remedy a vicious system; and had his plans been firmly executed by his successors, and supported instead of being opposed and tampered with by the Court of Directors, the history of India for the ensuing twenty years might have afforded a brighter and more pleasing retrospect than, unfortunately, it now does.
Clive was in particular most desirous that, after his departure, the Select Committee, the real engine of government, should be composed of the ablest and most upright men in the country. He left the chief direction of affairs with perfect confidence in the hands of Mr. Verelst, a man of honour and intelligence[117]; but he was anxious to add to his strength by placing about him other men of talent. Among these he was particularly desirous that Mr. Sykes, in whom he had great confidence, should reside in Calcutta, to be near the seat of government: but that gentleman preferred remaining in the situation he then held as resident at Moorshedabad. Clive's remonstrances on this occasion are very honourable to him:—"I have received your letter," says he[118], "urging many reasons against your residing at Calcutta, when Mr. Verelst came to the chair. Your intention of declining the government, I must confess, is the only one that seems to carry any weight. Your situation I believe, is a very agreeable one, and your conduct, I am persuaded, will bring advantage to the Company and honour to yourself. Yet let us not forget, Sykes, the principles upon which you and I have hitherto acted, of sacrificing private convenience to public good. To doubt my friendship, because I cannot carry it to such lengths, is not to know me. I have loved you as a brother; yet a brother cannot alter my sentiments of what is right and wrong. If you are fully convinced that your health will not permit you to live in Calcutta, and for that reason, among others, you mean to decline the government, there may be reasons given in abundance for remaining in your present station; and, among the rest, that of your being the most fit for such an employment. To conclude: this matter must be decided by my successor, Mr. Verelst, after my departure. I have given you my sentiments, which are consistent with my friendship for you, and my duty to the Company."
A letter to Mr. Cartier, one of the last he wrote in India, shows a similar anxiety for the public interest. Mr. Cartier, like Mr. Sykes, wished to take no active share in the general concerns of the government, but to remain, performing local duties, at an out station. Lord Clive, who had a favourable opinion of his qualifications, had urged him to conquer this repugnance; and Mr. Cartier finally gave his consent. "The receipt of your friendly letter[119]," says Lord Clive, "and your acceptance of being nominated one of the Select Committee, with so much cordiality, has afforded me more real satisfaction than I have felt for these many months. I can now leave India with satisfaction to myself, because I leave it in tranquillity, and the chief management of these important and extensive concerns in the hands of men of honour, and approved probity and abilities.
"Be assured, my good Sir, you will not have to encounter many of those disagreeable circumstances which you seem to apprehend in your letter to Mr. Verelst. That unthankful task has fallen to my lot. The Select Committee, and Committee of Inspection, have already made every regulation for the public good which can be desired or thought of; so that it only rests with you, gentlemen, to keep matters in the same channel, and not to relax in your authority, or let yourselves down, by declining to support the dignity of your station.
"A gentleman endowed, like Mr. Cartier, with a good capacity and solid judgment, of a generous and disinterested way of thinking, cannot fail of proving a very deserving servant to the Company, and of acquiring honour for himself, if he will but have a little more confidence in himself." After assuring him that, if he finds his new situation at Calcutta agreeable, he will use his interest to have him named Mr. Verelst's successor in the government, he continues:—"The state of my health is such, that I cannot continue in it (the government) another year, with any prospect of doing the Company service: indeed, I do not think I should survive another month; I have, therefore, determined to resign the government.
"The General, myself, and other friends, take our departure on Monday next.
"I remain, dear Sir,
"Your affectionate friend, ever,
"Clive."
Lord Clive had always intended to return home overland, and had arranged with several of his friends to accompany him; but the state of his health put an end to this long-cherished project.
When he was thus preparing to embark for his native country, broken as he was in health and constitution, and numerous as the enemies were whom his conduct had raised up against him, he might still look back with proud and generous satisfaction on the great sacrifice which he had made, and the splendid effects which it had produced. In the short space of twenty months he had quelled the opposition of the civil service, had dismissed the most culpable, and endeavoured to infuse a better spirit into those left; by his firmness, and, perhaps, still more by the magic influence of his name, he had subdued the dangerous spirit of mutiny among the military officers, after it had broken out in overt acts; had sent off the ringleaders without resistance; had introduced new officers in their room, pardoned the less guilty, and restored them to their rank and confidence; he had concluded an advantageous peace with the Nabob-Vizier, by which he secured a large contribution for the Company, to pay the expenses of the war, and gained two provinces for the emperor, our ally; he had farther secured for him an annual tribute out of Bengal; he had acquired for the Company a grant of the dewannee, or rather, in reality, of the revenues and government of the three great provinces; by means of which, and of an agreement with the Nabob, the whole political power came into the hands of the English, who, from that moment, were sovereigns, and the effective arbiters of India: for the names of Nabob and Emperor, unsupported by adequate military force, were but sounds. The Company's debts in India had been reduced, and nearly extinguished; their large investments provided, chiefly without drawing on home; the expenses of the various establishments had been examined and reduced with a liberal economy; the forces were never in a more efficient state, and never supported at so small an expense. His perfect knowledge of every part of the service, and his resolute determination, produced a silent acquiescence in reductions proposed by him, which, perhaps, would have excited the loudest murmurs had they come from any other quarter. And, after all reductions had been made, he might justly boast that he left the various services the best and most liberally paid in the world. He had checked the misrule which had desolated the provinces, and imposed fetters on the cupidity of the ruling caste, which were, unfortunately too soon removed after his departure: he had restored the course of justice to its original channel, and the natives to their wonted trade and commerce. Their political power was, indeed, gone; hardly a semblance of it remained; but the ordinary and daily aspect of society, which had been so rudely broken in upon for four or five years, by the interference of the English and their servants in the internal trade and concerns of the country, was once more restored. No man but Clive could have achieved such changes; and he derived his power to effect them from his own energetic character, and from the glory which his former exploits had diffused around him.
He held that the interest of England was best consulted by stopping the career of conquest, and by confining ourselves to Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; rich, compact, and defensible provinces, that, by good management, could be governed at little expense, and leave a large surplus revenue. His policy in regard to the native princes he himself explains. He never came into contact with the Mahrattas, the grand disturbers of India, but was strongly urged by the Emperor Shah Aulum to enter into an alliance with them, and accompany him to Delhi. This, we have seen, he obstinately declined. "As I proceed up the country," says he in a letter[120] to Mr. Palk, "if I find the Mahrattas discontented and disposed to be troublesome, I shall endeavour to form an alliance with the Jauts, Rohillas, and Suja Dowla, to keep the country on this side Delhi in tranquillity. This alliance is most earnestly wished for by the three above-mentioned powers, and will, if any thing can, intimidate the Mahrattas from committing ravages and disturbances in Hindostan; for certain it is, if we should all unite and attack their country, they could not stand one minute before us." He had also speculated on the possibility, if necessary, of setting up the Rajah of Nagpore (whose vakeels had waited on him at Calcutta to ask an alliance) in opposition to the Peshwa, with whom that Prince was then on bad terms, and in that way trusted to secure domestic peace by dividing the force of his enemy.[121] He did not, however, provoke hostilities; and his great military reputation probably preserved him safe from the attacks of these freebooters, as well as from all other foreign annoyance.
In his intercourse with the chiefs of the different European factories in Bengal, French, Dutch, and Danish, though he never yielded the minutest portion of the rights of his employers, he seems, from his correspondence, to have lived on the most friendly and courteous terms with them all, and to have conciliated them by his fairness and urbanity. But never did he allow any consideration of private interest to interfere with his public duty. We have already seen that, while nearly the whole of his large fortune was in the hands of the Dutch, he attacked and destroyed an armament of that nation, at a moment when he might, without reproach from his Government, have abstained from acting, and when, indeed, he hazarded the censure of his employers, and of the British Government, by the bold and decided measure. Another very characteristic instance of a similar nature occurs in his correspondence. M. Vernet, the Dutch chief of Chinsura, had applied to him to procure the release of some boats which had been stopped by the Nabob's officers, for some informality or evasion. "I have the honour," he says[122], "to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 7th and 9th instant. In consequence of the latter, I have spoken to Mahommed Reza Cawn, who will this day give orders for the release of such of the Dutch boats as are furnished with your dustucks, and contain no greater quantity of goods than are therein specified. But should any of the boats be found laden with merchandise not mentioned in the dustucks, you cannot but confess, from what I have already written you, that it would be highly improper for me to interfere." He immediately adds, "You favoured me, some time ago, with your promise for bills for the amount of two lacs of rupees by your second ship. I am now to request bills for one other lac, if you can conveniently grant them." With him the separation between his public duty and private interest was always complete: he never permitted the latter for a moment to influence his conduct in the other.
The same urbanity and consideration which he showed to foreign Europeans, secured to him the attachment and affection of most of the natives of rank with whom he had occasion to treat. He behaved to them uniformly with the deference and respect that were considered as their due, by the usages of the country. In writing to a friend concerning an increase which had been made to the revenues of Bengal, we have seen[123] that he urged the necessity of stopping, that we might not trench on the fund necessary for the support of the higher class of native families. He was anxious that the regular gradation of ranks should be preserved as it then was, that it should be exposed to no sudden disruption. It would have been well if such beneficent and politic maxims had always been acted upon in future years.
In his choice of men for public situations, he was guided by a regard to their talents, and their capacity of being useful. Though no man was more ready to attend to the recommendation of his friends, such recommendation with him held but the second place, and was listened to only in affairs of detail. All the higher offices, and such as required superior abilities, he, like every other man who has a mind made for command, filled from considerations of merit only. Even some men whom he personally disliked, as for example, Colonel Richard Smith, he constantly employed and encouraged from a sense of their useful qualities.
Among other eminent men whom he patronised, he found Rennell, then a lieutenant of engineers, employed in various surveys, encouraged him to complete the general survey and map of Bengal, communicated to him all such previous surveys as were to be found in the public offices, furnished him with a proper establishment, gave him every assistance in his power, and finally, young as he was, bestowed on him the office of surveyor-general, which seems to have been created for him. Clive's mode of treating officers in whom he could repose confidence, and his means of securing the speedy and effectual execution of the orders he gave, are illustrated by one of his letters[124] to Rennell. He had ordered a general map of the provinces to be completed. "If you have occasion for any assistants, name them, and I will order them to attend you."
He also directed an accurate survey to be made of every mouth of the Ganges, every channel, and every creek, ascertaining at the same time the soundings of each; a survey which, in his instructions, he justly remarks, was likely to afford many new and advantageous directions for our navigation.[125] Till then, our acquaintance with the mouths of the Ganges was very imperfect.
Among those who were introduced into the service by his interest, may be mentioned Mr. Gladwin, one of the first of the English in Bengal, who communicated to the public his acquirements in the eastern languages. He had gone out as a volunteer, in which situation he attracted the notice of Clive, who procured for him admission into the civil service. Clive's conduct, in this instance, is very characteristic of his friendly and energetic temper. Mr. Strachey writes Mr. Gladwin[126],—"His Lordship directs me to assure you, that if the recommendations he gave you, some time ago, should not procure you an appointment in the Company's service, he will further exert his interest in your behalf, nor desist till the point be attained."
Though a steady friend, he was not blind to the faults of those whom he patronised; and his correspondence contains many letters, in which he freely gives his opinions on their conduct, and his candid advice. An extract from a letter to Mr. Middleton[127] may be given as an example. "I have received your letter of the 19th of September," says he, "in which you express your concern at the censure passed upon you by the board, and imagine you may have done something to forfeit my friendship.
"To reason in this way, is to know but little of the duty of a governor in a public station. If the board were unanimous, which they really were, in thinking you and the other gentlemen had been wanting in diligence and attention to the Company's business, was it in my power to change or alter their sentiments? Or could I attempt such a thing consistently with my duty, or the principles upon which I have hitherto acted? The real truth of the matter is, that the relaxation of government for some years past, has introduced so much luxury, extravagance, independency, and indolence into Bengal, that every effort upon our part to reclaim this settlement is looked upon as a hardship, or an act of injustice; although it be absolutely necessary for the salvation of the whole." After some observations on the wrongheaded opposition which had been made by some of the younger servants, and the danger they thereby incurred, he adds:—
"To set aside the Governor, and speak as a friend, I entertain no doubt of the integrity of your intentions, and of your zeal for the service; but you are naturally of an indolent, good-natured, and hospitable disposition, which in private life may make you beloved by all that know you; yet, in a public station, these qualities may subject you to the greatest inconveniences. You become responsible, not only to the public for your want of attention, but for the want of attention of those acting under you, who will perpetually trespass on your good nature. The indulgence shown by you to the young gentlemen of the factory, which I myself was an eyewitness to, must have this consequence,—of their becoming very familiar, which in your present station they ought not to be, of being very supine and very neglectful of the Company's business, in which your own reputation is more immediately concerned. And I wish the mischief may only end here. After having led so luxurious, extravagant, and independent a life, there will be much to fear for themselves after your departure.
"The open manner in which you have expressed your sentiments and grievances, gives me a right to send you mine in return, which I do assure you proceeds from real friendship and regard for the interests of those who are acting under you. Perhaps they may not be looked upon in that light by said young men. If not, I wish future experience may not convince them to the contrary."
Such friendly remonstrances, from a man like Lord Clive, from one who had a right to command, should have had their effect; and, at all events, are creditable alike to his heart and understanding.
In the same spirit, and from a firm persuasion of the noxious effects of expensive habits in young men in the lower branches of the service, we find him refusing dustucks for the conveyance of a chariot and barouche to gentlemen who were only writers, as being quite unjustifiable.
Many of the imprudent and ill-advised officers who had been engaged in the mutinous proceedings, applied to him to be reinstated. This he peremptorily refused, as injurious to the public service: but, from his private letters we find that, in numerous instances, he advanced sums from his private purse, to enable them to subsist after their dismissal, and to convey them to their native country.
On the 16th of January, 1767, Lord Clive was well enough to attend, for the last time, a meeting of the Select Committee. On this occasion he laid before them a letter, in which, after mentioning that he had no prospect of recovering health, or even of preserving life, but by an immediate embarkation for his native country, and that this necessity would be most painful to him, did he not leave the country in peace and in a flourishing state, and in the hands of an upright and able government, he proceeds to exercise his authority for continuing the Select Committee, filled up the vacancies in its members, and laid down regulations for its guidance. He advises them not to be anxious to increase the revenues, especially where it could only be effected by oppressing the landholders and tenants, for that so long as the country remained in peace, the collections would exceed the demands. He points out some difficulties likely to result from the state of the currency, and strongly recommends that all Company's servants and free traders should be recalled from the interior; as, until that was done the natives could hardly be said to be masters of their own property: that the orders for the abolition of their salt trade being express, must be punctually obeyed.[128] "But, as I am of opinion," he continues, "that the trade upon its present footing is rather beneficial than injurious to the inhabitants of the country, and that a continuation of this indulgence, or some equivalent, is become absolutely necessary, and would be an honourable incitement to diligence and zeal in the Company's service, I flatter myself the Court of Directors will be induced to settle some plan that will prove agreeable to your wishes."
He evinced great apprehension (says Sir John Malcolm[129], speaking of Lord Clive's farewell letter,) of the danger to which the empire would be exposed by the revival of that spirit of corruption and insubordination which he had, with so much difficulty, subdued. "It has been too much the custom," he observes, "in this government to make orders and regulations, and thence to suppose the business done. To what end and purpose are they made, if they be not promulgated and enforced? No regulation can be carried into execution, no order obeyed, if you do not make rigorous examples of the disobedient. Upon this point I rest the welfare of the Company in Bengal. The servants are now brought to a proper sense of their duty. If you slacken the reins of government affairs will soon revert to their former channel; anarchy and corruption will again prevail, and, elate with a new victory, be too headstrong for any future efforts of government. Recall to your memories the many attempts that have been made in the civil and military departments to overcome our authority, and to set up a kind of independency against the Court of Directors. Reflect also on the resolute measures we have pursued, and their wholesome effects. Disobedience to legal power is the first step of sedition; and palliative measures effect no cure. Every tender compliance, every condescension on your parts, will only encourage more flagrant attacks, and will daily increase in strength, and be at last in vain resisted. Much of our time has been employed in correcting abuses. The important work has been prosecuted with zeal, diligence, and disinterestedness; and we have had the happiness to see our labours crowned with success. I leave the country in peace. I leave the civil and military departments under discipline and subordination: it is incumbent upon you to keep them so. You have power, you have abilities, you have integrity; let it not be said that you are deficient in resolution. I repeat that you must not fail to exact the most implicit obedience to your orders. Dismiss or suspend from the service any man who shall dare to dispute your authority. If you deviate from the principles upon which you have hitherto acted, and upon which you are conscious you ought to proceed; or if you do not make a proper use of that power with which you are invested, I shall hold myself acquitted, as I do now protest against the consequences."
"Such," continues Sir John, "was the parting advice which Lord Clive gave to his former colleagues: but the task of reform which he had commenced could have been completed by his own commanding talents alone, aided by the impression of his high personal character. It was far too great for the strength of those on whom it devolved."
On the 23d of January he wrote an additional letter to the Select Committee. It was for the purpose of recommending a measure which he had omitted to mention in his letter of the 16th, but which he considered as essentially necessary to the interest and honour of the Company. "The people of this country," says he, "have little or no idea of a divided power; they imagine all authority is vested in one man. The Governor of Bengal should always be looked upon by them in this light, as far as is consistent with the honour of the Committee and Council. In every vacant season, therefore, I think it expedient that he take a tour up the country, in the quality of a supervisor-general. Frauds and oppressions of every sort being by this means laid open to his view, will, in a great measure, be prevented, and the natives preserve a just opinion of the importance and dignity of our president, upon whose character and conduct much of the prosperity of the Company's affairs in Bengal must ever depend."
Lord Clive finally embarked for England in the Britannia, in the end of January, 1767. In the East all his endeavours had been crowned with brilliant success. His operations, from the moment he appeared on that theatre till he quitted it, formed a great era in the history of England, of India, and of the world. The rapidity and ease with which the richest provinces in India were subjugated, threw a new light on the nature of the intercourse between Europe and Asia. The veil which Bussy had in part lifted up, he removed. Men, who till now had appeared in the humble garb of merchants and suitors, henceforward assumed the reins of government, and took their place in the direction of nations and of states where they had lately been strangers. The power of the East was once more, as in the days of Alexander, brought into collision with that of the West, and once more quailed before it. The grand secret of oriental splendour and weakness was confirmed; and Clive had sufficient greatness of mind to forego the tempting occasion of being the conqueror of the Mogul empire, and to content himself with a more moderate and less brilliant, but to his country, infinitely more useful triumph. He had the rare, and, in a successful soldier and conqueror, almost unparalleled magnanimity, to place his ambition under the guidance of his judgment and his duty.