Clive's force was at this period greatly reduced from sickness: he could not bring into the field more than five hundred and fifty Europeans, and fifteen hundred natives. He complains, in all his letters, of the bad effects the prize-money had produced, both on the health and discipline of those under his command. He had applied for, and obtained leave of the Admiral, Sir George Pocock, to employ the detachment of His Majesty's troops in Bengal; but the conduct of the officers (with two exceptions) made him decline accepting their unwilling services.
"Notwithstanding your offer," he observes in his reply[193] to the Admiral, "of putting the King's detachment under my command on this expedition, I am sorry to inform you I cannot accept it, without prejudicing the service; for all the officers (Captain Weller[194] and Captain Coote excepted) have expressed by letter a disinclination to go upon it. Under these circumstances, I think it is better for the Company to be served by those who are willing, and may be attached to their service, than by persons who seem to have lost all remembrance of what they owe to them! For my own part, though I have before represented to you the many disadvantages I must labour under, during the present expedition, I shall endeavour to surmount them, and be ready to render the Company all the service, which every wellwisher to his country is bound to do."
The rising talents of Major Coote were already employed in the command of a detachment. The death of Major Kilpatrick, an officer who had been highly distinguished throughout the scenes above described, occasioning a vacancy in the command of the military at Bengal, Clive recommended that the station should be offered to Colonel Forde[195], an officer of whom he entertained the highest opinion. The terms, in which this offer was conveyed, are honourable to the reputation of him to whom it was made, and reflect great credit on Clive's discernment; for no opportunities had been yet afforded to Colonel Forde of developing those talents as a soldier, which soon afterwards rendered him so distinguished. Notwithstanding the encouragement offered, from the distinction obtained by Coote and Forde, when Adlercron's regiment went to England a short time after, none of the other officers belonging to it availed themselves of the option given them, of remaining in the Company's service, except Captain Carnac, who joined Clive, by whom he was early noticed; and his subsequent career in Bengal did ample credit to the judgment of his penetrating commander.
I have deemed it of importance to dwell on these particulars. In nothing does the power of genius more strikingly display itself than in the selection of persons most fit to be employed, and in the application of their peculiar talents to the work for which they are suited. The personal efforts of one man can do little; but aided by the power of creating and employing subordinate instruments, can effect every thing. The sphere of Clive's selection, however, was very limited; and there are, in his private letters of this period, continual complaints of his being forced, from want of aid, to make personal efforts injurious to his health[196], which had never been good, and which he now represents as declining from the effects of a nervous complaint, to which he had been subject from his youth.
Affairs at Moorshedabad had, from the moment Clive left that city, become worse. Besides other evils, the Nabob had hitherto evaded compliance with several of the most important articles of the treaty; and he every day showed less disposition to comply with the reiterated demands made for its speedy fulfilment. Mr. Scrafton, who was at this period acting as political resident at his Court, urged Clive to hasten to Moorshedabad, with or without his force; as his presence appeared the only means of averting confusion and ruin.
"I shall march," said Clive, in answer[197] to several of Mr. Scrafton's letters[198], "with the whole army. I have wrote to the Nabob and Ram Narrain, of which copies are enclosed you. Do not suffer yourself to be unquieted beyond reason at the situation of affairs, but consider them coolly, and give me daily accounts of what is passing. The march of the army is absolutely necessary, as well to support the Nabob against his enemies, as to see justice done ourselves."
After Clive had joined the Nabob at Rajahmahul, he received a letter from the Select Committee, stating that as Sir G. Pocock was about to leave the river, were he to proceed to Patna the safety of Calcutta might be endangered. Clive observes in reply; "Without a foreknowledge of events, we cannot be at any certainty, whether the steps we take may or may not be for the advantage of the Company. By accompanying the Nabob to Patna, it is very possible, though I think not probable, for a French squadron to push up the river, and endanger Calcutta, and in consequence all of the Company's possessions in these parts; and by refusing to lend the Nabob our assistance, we must lose that influence with him which seems essentially necessary to obtain his fulfilling the rest of the treaty, and his continuing to us our valuable possessions.