Little by little public interest was now being centred on India. The desperate efforts of France to gain an ascendancy in the Peninsula of Hindoostan, and the gallant endeavour of the servants of the East India Company to thwart those efforts, had at last aroused our Ministers to the value of Indian commerce, and to the necessity of affording military assistance in the shape of trained regiments to the "Honourable Company of Merchants trading to the East." In 1754 a first step was made in this direction, and in that year the 39th Regiment (now the 1st Dorsets) landed in Madras, and, in memory of their connection with our early struggles in India, have been permitted to bear on their colours the legend "Primus in Indis." The following year a truce was signed between France and England, thus putting an end to active hostilities. No steps, however, were neglected by either party in order to secure a paramount influence with native rulers. In this, however, we were less successful than our rivals.
Plassey, June 23, 1757.
The following regiments are entitled to bear this battle honour:
The Dorsetshire Regiment.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Just as in the South of India the rulers of the Carnatic and of Mysore were the bitter foes of the English settlement at Madras, so at Calcutta we had against us Surajah Dowlah, the ruler of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa—a nominal Viceroy of the Mogul Emperor—straining every nerve to wrest from us the territories on which our factories were built. The tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta is familiar to every schoolboy. Fortunate indeed for England was it that, when the news of the fall of Calcutta reached Fort St. George an English fleet, under Admiral Watson, was lying in Madras Roads, and that men of action sat in the Madras Council. Two hundred Europeans were at once despatched to the Hooghly, and a force of 2,500 men hastily organized, consisting of 250 men of the 39th Regiment (1st Dorsets), 700 Madras Europeans, and 1,500 sepoys, for their support. This force was under the joint command of Admiral Watson and Robert Clive. Calcutta was relieved; and as war with France had again broken out, it was determined—now that all pressure on the part of Surajah Dowlah was removed—to attack the French settlement at Chandernagore. The fleet sailed up the Hooghly, and on March 23 the British flag was flying over the French fortress. I have been unable to ascertain the losses of Clive's troops on this occasion. Those of the Royal Navy amounted to 4 officers and 46 men killed, 9 officers and 156 men wounded. In the burial-ground of St. John's Church, Calcutta, may yet be seen two monuments recording thus daring feat of arms and of superb seamanship—the one raised in memory of the Admiral, the other of a midshipman. The former reads:
Here lies interred the Body of
CHARLES WATSON, Esq.,
Vice-Admiral of the White,
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's
Naval Forces in the East Indies,
Who departed this Life the 16th Day of August, 1757,
In the 44th Year of his Age.
Gheria taken, February 13th, 1756.
Calcutta freed, January 11th, 1757.
Chandernagore taken, March 23rd, 1757.
Exegit monumentum ore perennius.
On the boy's tomb is inscribed:
Here lyes the Body of
WILLIAM SPEKE,
Aged 16, Son of Henry Speke, Esq.,
Captain of His Majesty's Ship Kent.
He lost his Leg and Life in that Ship
At the Capture of Fort Orleans,
The 24th March, Anno 1757.
Having punished the French for their refusal to afford assistance to our beleaguered countrymen and countrywomen in Calcutta, Clive now determined to march against the Nawab Surajah Dowlah. On June 13, having received fresh reinforcements on this occasion from Bombay, he left Chandernagore at the head of 3,000 men, with ten guns. Of these about 1,000 were English—the 39th Foot, under Major Eyre Coote, some gunners of the Royal Artillery who had accompanied the 39th from England, and detachments of the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay European regiments. The Englishmen were conveyed in boats up the Hooghly; the sepoys marched along the banks. On June 23 Clive found himself face to face with Surajah Dowlah's army at Plassey, a town on the River Hooghly, about 100 miles due north of Calcutta. The odds were hopelessly unequal—Clive with 3,000 men and ten light field-guns on the one side; Surajah Dowlah with 55,000 men, of whom 15,000 were cavalry, and fifty guns of all calibres on the other. Had Englishmen ever been in the habit of counting the odds, the Indian Empire would never have been ours. Neither Clive nor Coote were men to quail before difficulties. From eight until eleven our infantry lay motionless, the field-guns only maintaining an unequal duel with the more numerous artillery of the enemy, which were being served—and very badly served—by some Frenchmen in the service of the Nawab. Plassey was the foundation-stone of British supremacy in Bengal, as Arcot was in Madras; yet the fight was, from the soldier's standpoint, a very hollow one. Dawn broke with the odds immeasurably in favour of the Mogul host. At sunset that host was in full retreat, and yet our total losses were but 11 English and 13 sepoys killed, the wounded being 22 and 21 respectively. Such was the price we paid for the establishment of British rule over what is known as the Province of Bengal.
Casualties at Plassey.