Orme states, that Suraj-u-Dowlah was exasperated at the capture of Hooghley (as, no doubt, such a despot would be at any operation which implied a defiance of his power by a nation he had contemned and injured); but that clear and able historian, to whom his country is so deeply indebted for a minute narration of the facts connected with the early establishment of her power in India, has not one word in his page that can justify the opinions Mr. Mill expresses as to the motives of their attack.
I have the sincerest personal respect for Mr. Mill: I admire his accuracy, his industry, and indefatigable research; but our conclusions from the same premises often differ most widely. In this work, I shall have frequent occasion to claim that liberty of a free expression of my sentiments, which he so properly uses towards those who have written on the same subjects as himself. This will oblige me to question some of his assertions and opinions, which, however positive and unqualified, appear to me neither supported by arguments nor borne out by facts. I am aware of my own defects, and have laboured to amend them; I also acknowledge that early impressions, and the occupations of my life, may give a bias to my judgment: but no human mind is free from prejudices, and those of the closet author are not the fewest in number, or the easiest to be subdued. With a full sense of my own disadvantages, I confess that I am not convinced, by the laboured and metaphysical preface to Mr. Mill's History, that local knowledge, and an acquaintance with the languages, habits, and characters of the nations of whom I, and others similarly circumstanced, have treated on this and other occasions, are disqualifications for the tasks we have attempted. At all events, our efforts may be useful in collecting facts for more critical and philosophical historians. Though we do not withhold those opinions which our experience has led us to adopt, our chief purpose is to inform—theirs to speculate. We are satisfied if we can lay before our readers a true picture of the scenes we describe. They have what they deem a higher object; and the facts of their volumes are often rendered subservient to the propagation of their general principles and abstract theories.
[98] Mill's British India, vol. ii. p. 128.
[99] Letter to the Hon. G. Pigot, Esq. and Select Committee of Fort St. George, dated Camp, Barnague Plain, January 28. 1757.
[100] Dated Camp, on Barnague Plain, 1st February, 1757.
[101] Jugget Seit, here alluded to, was at the head of a great banking-house, and, from his immense wealth and credit, had much influence in the country.
CHAP. IV.
The attack of Chandernagore had been strongly recommended to Clive's attention (A. D. 1757) by the government of Madras; and it was evident that, while the French kept so strong a force at that settlement, the safety of Calcutta must be endangered whenever its garrison was weak, or the Nabob of Bengal chose to contract an intimate alliance with our European enemy. This danger was at the moment much increased by the success of Bussy. That leader, alike remarkable for his sagacity and courage, after rendering the greatest services to the Subadar of the Deckan, Salabut Jung, and obtaining in reward a large grant of territory, had become an object of such jealousy to the prince whom he had placed on the throne, that an effort was made to destroy him and his party.