TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF POWIS,
&c. &c. &c.
My Lord,
This Life of your illustrious Father is dedicated
to your Lordship, in the conviction
that, had the Author been spared to complete
this, his last and favourite work, he
would have thus endeavoured to testify
his gratitude for your unvaried kindness,
and his affectionate esteem for your public
and private character.I remain,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's faithful Servant,
Charlotte Malcolm.Warfield, April, 1836.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The present work was commenced in consequence of the possession of a body of unpublished documents, which, having been preserved among the family records at Walcot, were thrown open to the author by the friendship of the Earl of Powis. These consisted chiefly of the whole correspondence of Lord Clive, containing the originals of nearly every letter which he had received from the time when he first filled a public situation in India, down to the period at which he finally quitted that country; with copies of answers to many of the most important of them. They contained also several memoirs regarding the chief enterprises in which he was engaged, and minutes of council on the leading measures of his government.
From these sources, aided by the Reports of the different Parliamentary Committees, and other authentic materials, published and unpublished, Sir John had completed the introduction, and the first thirteen chapters, before he left India, in 1830. The fourteenth and fifteenth he finished after his return, and was engaged with the sixteenth, when death put a close to his labours.
The author was accustomed to bestow his final revision upon each successive portion of his work before he advanced to that which was to follow it. He had, consequently, made no preparation beyond the point where his progress was arrested; nor had he sketched out or indicated the plan he meant to pursue.