(Signed) "Robt. Clive.
"Calcutta,
"7th January, 1759."
The reader will, no doubt, be curious to learn Mr. Pitt's sentiments on this very remarkable letter, and fortunately the means are preserved of gratifying so natural a curiosity. Mr. Walsh, by whom the letter was sent, on the 26th of November, 1759, gives Clive an account of his interview with Mr. Pitt. That great minister, while he acknowledged the practicability of the plan, was aware of the difficulties that attended its principle and details. "It was not till six days ago that I had admittance to Mr. Pitt. He had made one or two appointments, but was obliged by business to postpone them, for certainly he has an infinite deal on his hands. He received me with the utmost politeness, and we had a tête-à-tête for an hour and a quarter, of which I will endeavour to sum up the particulars. He began by mentioning how much he was obliged to you, for the marks you had given him of your friendship; and then began on the subject of your letter. I said I was apprehensive, from my not having had the honour to speak with him before, that he looked upon the affair as chimerical: he assured me, not at all, but very practicable; but that it was of a very nice nature. He mentioned the Company's charter not expiring these twenty years; that upon some late transactions it had been inquired into, whether the Company's conquests and acquisitions belonged to them or the Crown, and the Judges seemed to think to the Company. He spoke this matter a little darkly, and I cannot write upon it with precision: he said the Company were not proper to have it, nor the Crown, for such a revenue would endanger our liberties; and that you had shown your good sense by the application of it to the public. He said the difficulty of effecting the affair was not great, under such a genius as Colonel Clive; but the sustaining it was the point: it was not probable he would be succeeded by persons equal to the task. He asked how long you proposed continuing there; that by your letter he might conclude you intended to carry the business into execution. I answered that no one's zeal for the public service was greater than yours; but that I believed your ill health would oblige you to return shortly. I then mentioned Van's abilities, and that he was upon the point of being made Governor of Bengal. I observed to him that it was necessary for him to determine whether it was an object for the Company or the State; for I was persuaded, that, if the State neglected it, the Company, in process of time, would secure it; that they would even find themselves under a necessity to do it for their greater quiet and safety, exclusive of gain. He seemed to weigh that; but, as far as I could judge by what passed then, it will be left to the Company to do what they please.
"I took an opportunity of mentioning that the French seemed to direct their views greatly towards India; spoke of Dupleix's designs, Bussy's letter, and Lally's armament, which, happily for us, had melted away to nothing, but that in time of peace, if not somehow restrained, they would certainly pour men into India, and be formidable in after times. He asked me about Mauritius; whether the reduction of that would not be laying the axe to the root, and how far it was practicable. I gave him what information I was capable of on the subject, and referred him, for further, to Speke, who I said was a clever officer, and, I believed, had revolved the matter in his breast for some time past. Before parting, he hinted to me a supply for this season of four men-of-war, and a thousand men: these generally are granted pretty late, and we must imagine they will be so this season, as an invasion has been seriously thought of, and we are still doubtful as to the destination of Brest fleet. I don't recollect any thing further, of any consequence, that passed in our conversation. I might, indeed, acquaint you, that he asked very particularly if I had any thoughts of returning to India."
The line of policy which subsequently marked our progress in India, is strongly depicted in this conversation. Mr. Pitt saw, in their infancy, the difficulties which have so long prevented the final settlement of that country; and Mr. Walsh, tutored in the school of Clive, already clearly discovered the future inevitable extension of our dominions and power.
Clive's letter was written a twelvemonth before he left Calcutta. Neither the events in India, nor those in England, were calculated to alter the sentiments it contained, regarding the necessity for the interference of the legislature of Great Britain in the administration of the interests of the nation in India. The despatches received from the Directors immediately before he resigned the Government, appear to have excited equal disgust in his mind, and in the minds of his ablest colleagues; and in the concluding paragraphs of a general letter to the Directors, the Bengal Government expressed their sentiments with a freedom, which, though becoming their high sense of the duty which they owed to themselves and to their country, was but little suited to the temper or constitution of their superiors.
The following are the observations made in this letter upon the conduct of the Court of Directors.
"Having fully spoken to every branch of your affairs at this Presidency, under their established heads, we cannot, consistently with the real anxiety we feel for the future welfare of that respectable body, for whom you and we are in trust, close this address without expostulating with freedom on the unprovoked and general asperity of your letter per the Prince Henry Packet. Our sentiments on this head will, we doubt not, acquire additional weight, from the consideration of their being subscribed by a majority of your Council; who are at this very period quitting your service, and consequently independent and disinterested. Permit us to say, that the diction of your letter is most unworthy yourselves and us, in whatever relation considered, either as masters to servants, or gentlemen to gentlemen. Mere inadvertencies and casual neglects arising from an unavoidable and most complicated confusion in the state of your affairs, have been treated in such language and sentiments, as nothing but the most glaring and premeditated faults could warrant. Groundless informations have, without further scrutiny, borne with you the stamp of truth, though proceeding from those who had therein obviously their own purpose to serve, no matter at whose expense. These have received from you such countenance and encouragement, as must assuredly tend to cool the warmest zeal of your servants here, and every where else, as they will appear to have been only the source of general reflections thrown out at random against your faithful servants of this Presidency, in various parts of your letter now before us—faithful to little purpose, if the breath of scandal, joined to private pique or private and personal attachments, have power to blow away in one hour the merits of many years' services, and deprive them of that rank and those rising benefits which are justly a spur to their integrity and application. The little attention shown to these considerations, in the indiscriminate favours heaped on some individuals, and undeserved censures on others, will, we apprehend, lessen that spirit of zeal so very essential to the well-being of your affairs, and consequently, in the end, if continued, prove the destruction of them. Private views may, it is much to be feared, take the lead here, from examples at home, and no gentlemen hold your service longer, nor exert themselves further in it, than their own exigencies require. This being the real state of your service, it becomes strictly our duty to represent it in the strongest light."[[95]]
This despatch was signed by Clive, and by Messrs. Holwell, Playdell, Sumner, and M'Guire, Members of Council. I shall only so far anticipate the narrative as to state, that it excited the utmost indignation and violence at the India House.[[96]]