A word as to the history of our Indian Empire is required to carry it on from the point where we left it, after Clive's conquest of Bengal and the final rout of the French at Wandewash (1760).
Indian politics.
It was impossible for the English to halt in the position which they had then reached. Most especially was it unlikely that they would long bear with the unsatisfactory state of affairs in Bengal and the Carnatic, where the East India Company had taken the nawabs under their protection and made vassals of them, but had not thought out any scheme for making those princes govern in accordance with English interests and ideas. It was intolerable that we should be responsible for the misrule of effete oriental despots, while keeping no real control over them; for, except in the suburbs of Madras and Calcutta, we made no pretence to territorial sovereignty.
Battle of Buxar.
The feeble Mohammed Ali in the Carnatic did no worse than pile up mountains of debt, and quibble with the Governor of Madras. But Mir Kasim, the Nawab of Bengal, was made of sterner stuff. Resenting all interference of his suzerains in the governance of his realm, he rebelled against the Company, and sealed his own fate by massacring 150 English merchants of the factory of Patna. This brought down prompt chastisement. He was driven out of Bengal, and forced to take refuge with his neighbour Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the Nawab of Oude, who consented to espouse his cause. But at Buxar, Major Munro, with a handful of sepoys, defeated the united armies of the two Mohammedan princes (1763). This important victory gave England the control of all North-Eastern India: she enthroned a new nawab in Bengal, but made him a mere puppet and tool, with no real authority. For the future the Company administered Bengal and Bahar in its own name, under the authority of a grant from Shah Alum, the powerless Grand Mogul of the day. At the same time Oude came within the sphere of British influence, for Suraj-ud-Dowlah was forced to become our ally and to pay us a subsidy.
Clive's reforms.
Shortly after this pacification, Lord Clive came out again to India, to act as Governor of Bengal. His second tenure of power lasted two years (1765-1767), and was notable for great improvements which he introduced into the governance of the land. Hitherto the English officials and military commanders had received very low pay, while placed in positions where money-making was easy. Many succumbed to the temptation, and accumulated fortunes by blackmailing the natives, by selling their patronage, or by engaging in private trade. Clive wisely stopped these sources of corruption, by raising the salaries of his subordinates, but forbidding them to trade with the country or to receive gifts from natives. His reforms were much resented, and almost led to sedition among the military; but he carried them through with a strong hand, and left the army and civil service much improved and purified. Ill-health forced him to return to England in 1767, where some years after he put an end to himself in a fit of depression.
Warren Hastings, Governor-General.
For the next six years our Indian possessions were ruled by men of lesser fame, and were unvexed by foreign wars. But in 1773 a new era began. In that year a Governor-General was for the first time appointed, and entrusted with the command of all the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. The first man placed in this office was the greatest who has ever held it—the able and undaunted Warren Hastings. For twelve years this stern ruler maintained the prestige of the English name in India, though he had to face the fearful storm of the American war, which shook the foundations of the British empire in every part of the world. Not the least of his achievements was that he asserted his own will in every crisis against the strenuous opposition of his factious council, who, headed by Philip Francis—the virulent writer of the "Letters of Junius"—did their best to thwart every scheme that he took in hand.
Execution of Nandukumar.