"Mr. Watts and Omichund[111] are at Moorshedabad, and have many meetings with the great men. The last letter I received from Mr. Watts, he desires that our proposals may be sent, and that they only wait for them to put every thing in execution; so that you may very shortly expect to hear of a revolution which will put an end to all French expectations of ever settling in this country again. The Patans, who were coming this way, have been pacified by a sum of money, and are returning to their own country. Had they approached near, every thing would have been overset in this country, from three fourths of the Nabob's army being against him. It is a most disagreeable circumstance, to find that the troubles are likely to commence again: but the opinion here is universal, that there can be neither peace nor trade without a change of government."
When Chandernagore was taken, Clive's next object was to root out the French from this quarter of India. This appears from all his letters, public and private. It was, as he repeatedly states, his confirmed opinion, that the English and their European rivals could not have coexistence, as political powers, in India; and both had gone too far to be able to recede. The superiority was, therefore, to be decided by the sword; and on this ground, he deemed it to be his duty to follow up the success which had attended the British arms, by the pursuit and capture of such of the European enemy as yet remained in Bengal.
The corps under the command of M. Law, when joined by the deserters and French officers, and men who had broken their parole, or escaped from Chandernagore, amounted to only a hundred Europeans and sixty sepoys; but they were, notwithstanding his protestations to the contrary, protected by the Nabob, who evidently looked to them as auxiliaries in a war which he anticipated with the English.
The hopes with which the French continued to feed him, and in which they themselves probably indulged, of receiving reinforcements from Bussy through Cuttack, were not of a nature to be treated with neglect. The great plan formed by Dupleix, and executed by Bussy, of establishing a paramount power and influence in the Deckan, had, to a great degree, succeeded; and though commercial considerations had, during the short interval of peace in Europe, led to an opposite policy, which condemned the whole system pursued by the French governor as one of irrational ambition, and irreconcileable with the interests of the French company, the moment war with England occurred, prudential resolutions were forgotten, and every preparation was made to establish the French supremacy in India. Godeheu, who succeeded Dupleix, and who, at first, appeared only anxious to abandon all his predecessor had gained, now sought to preserve and improve every advantage which yet remained, as the result of former measures. Bussy was promised early support, and directed to maintain the possessions ceded to France, which extended six hundred miles along the coast of Coromandel, and Orissa, from Moodappely south, to the pagoda of Juggernaut, north.
Under such circumstances, nothing appeared more likely, than that this able and enterprising officer should have reinforced his countrymen in Bengal: and the probable consequences of a party of any strength co-operating with the Nabob, were of a character that justified all the jealousy and alarm which Admiral Watson and Clive entertained upon this subject; and quite authorised them in those decided measures they adopted for the permanent security of the British factories and territories in Bengal and Bahar. To have stopped short—much more to have left the country—before this important object was accomplished, would have been to cast away the fruits of their success, and to have uselessly wasted all the blood and treasure that had been already expended in this memorable expedition.
That these were the sentiments of Clive at this period, is proved by the purport of all his letters, public and private; and these afford strong evidence that he by no means contemplated success as certain. In a letter (dated the 11th of March) to Mr. Orme, who was his agent at Madras, he requests him to remit his money to Calcutta, to be sent to England, as "the times were dangerous." Such facts are important, as they prove, that the measures he found himself compelled at this period to adopt originated in a sense of duty, and not in that spirit of ambition, and desire of wealth and personal aggrandizement, which have been stated by some as the chief, if not sole, motives of his conduct at this remarkable epoch of his life.
I have already spoken of the designs of the French, and the means they had of carrying them into execution. I shall now examine how far they were likely to be aided by Suraj-u-Dowlah.
Aliverdi Khan, the grand-uncle and predecessor of the reigning Nabob, had protected those European factories which he found established under the authority of firmans, or mandates, from the emperors of Delhi. He gained an increase of revenue by the duties on that commerce which the enterprise of these foreign merchants encouraged; and he taxed the wealth they accumulated, by making them give to him or his officers occasional presents, and by compelling them to contribute their portion of the sums he had so frequently to pay the Mahrattas, to purchase either exemption from attack, or the retreat of their predatory bands from Bengal. The sums thus levied were, during Aliverdi's government, not immoderate; and the policy of that able prince made him so vary the time of his demands, that they came at distinct periods, and under different pretexts, upon the different factories: for though, no doubt, fearful of the union of the Europeans settled in his country, he was sufficiently acquainted with their national jealousies to know, that nothing but a dread of ruin, operating at the same moment upon them all, could lead them to combine in any effort to oppose his demands.
His grand-nephew, Suraj-u-Dowlah, was of a very different character from Aliverdi Khan. The latter, trained amid the vicissitudes of fortune, showed, in every measure he adopted, that he merited the throne which he had usurped. His successor, cradled in prosperity, came into power without an effort, and evinced, in every action, a weak and feeble mind, that had no objects but those of self-gratification, which he sought by means that were usually as cruel and unjust, as they were arbitrary and violent. This prince early showed that he owned no check upon such dispositions but that of personal fear: his cowardice fully equalled his presumption, and both were excessive. In looking round for objects of plunder after he ascended the musnud, or throne, the English settlements at Cossimbazar and Calcutta attracted his peculiar attention, on account of the reputed wealth, not only of the Europeans, but of the natives who had settled under their protection. The injuries and cruelties he had, in the prosecution of this object, inflicted upon the nation and upon the individuals whom he had wantonly attacked, were of a nature which a mind like his could not believe would ever be forgotten or forgiven. The disgrace he had sustained, in being obliged to fly before the British arms, and to purchase peace by concessions and a partial restitution of plunder, rankled in his breast; and, alarmed at a power he had hitherto contemned, he sought the alliance of the French, whose co-operation he now regretted he had not earlier obtained.