I have been compelled to enter more at length upon this subject than I desired, from its being intimately connected with those disputes regarding the employment of officers in India in which Clive became involved on his return to England. Colonel Coote, when he revisited his native country after the campaign of 1757, was received with favour and distinction. He was possessed of a small fortune, his connections were respectable, and his manners and address manly and agreeable. He became more prominent from being the senior King's land officer employed on the expedition to Bengal; and, from the comparatively low estimation in which the Company's[[142]] officers were held at that period, his fame was advanced to detract from their pretensions. He was represented as a rising officer, of whom Clive was jealous; and it was believed by many (till contradicted several years afterwards by his own evidence), that it was through his advice and remonstrances that the army advanced to the field of Plassey. Besides the influence and popularity which those combined causes gave to this officer, he enjoyed the marked favour and friendship of Mr. Sulivan, the Chairman of the Court of Directors, whose subsequent rupture with Clive is in a great degree to be attributed to their difference in opinion with regard to the respective pretensions and merits of Colonels Coote and Forde.
Clive, at the period of his second visit to his native country, was thirty-five years of age. We collect from his private correspondence, that he retained much of that hilarity of disposition for which he had been remarkable in youth. He was fond of female society; and many of his letters show that he was by no means indifferent to those aids by which personal appearance is improved. It was the fashion of the period to dress in gayer apparel than we now do; and the European visiter at an Indian Durbar, or Court, always wore a rich dress. We find in a letter[[143]] to Clive, from his friend Captain Latham, a description of a Durbar suit he was preparing for him, in which he says he has preferred a fine scarlet coat with handsome gold lace, to the common wear of velvet. He has also made up, he writes, a fine brocade waistcoat; and he adds to this intelligence, that "it is his design to line the coat with parchment, that it may not wrinkle!"
In a commission which Clive sent to his friend Mr. Orme, there is an amusing instance of his attention to the most trifling parts of his dress.
"I must now trouble you," he observes[[144]], "with a few commissions concerning family affairs. Imprimis, what you can provide must be of the best and finest you can get for love or money; two hundred shirts, the wristbands worked, some of the ruffles worked with a border either in squares or points, and the rest plain; stocks, neckcloths, and handkerchiefs in proportion; three corge[[145]] of the finest stockings; several pieces of plain and spotted muslin, two yards wide, for aprons; book-muslins; cambrics; a few pieces of the finest dimity; and a complete set of table linen of Fort St. David's diaper made for the purpose."
In the list of packages which Mr. Richard Clive sent to his son in Bengal, one is a box of wigs! Whether Clive had resorted to this ornament from want of hair, or from deference to the fashion of the period, I know not; but there is[[146]] an authentic anecdote of his boyhood, which proves how essential a wig was considered to all who were full dressed. Clive had, when very young, been admitted by a relation, who was Captain of the Tower, to be one of the spectators when his Majesty George the Second happened to visit that fortress. Nothing was wanted in the boy's dress to prepare him for the honour of approaching majesty except a wig! To supply this want one of the old Captain's was put upon his head; and his appearance in this costume was so singular as to attract the notice and smiles of the King, who inquired who he was, and spoke to him in a very kind and gracious manner.[[147]]
In concluding this chapter on the private occurrences of Clive's life during a period so eventful to his fame and fortune, I shall estimate, as far as I have the means, the wealth he carried to England, as well as the amount which he had, before he left India, given to, or settled upon, his friends and relations. I have already shown, in the fullest manner, how his great riches were acquired; and it is a grateful task to record the generous manner in which a considerable portion of them was distributed.
Clive, from what has been stated, may be said, when he returned to India in 1755, to have been worth little or no money beyond what he had vested for redeeming the small family estate, and giving his parents an annuity. When he took possession of the government of Fort Saint David, he embarked in trade, like others who filled similar stations; but, to judge from his correspondence, he had not much success in his commercial pursuits. We read of nothing but bad markets, or the want of means of those who owed him money. He appears, before he embarked on the expedition to Bengal, to have made a large speculation in benjamin, which turned out badly. It is entertaining, when associated with the scenes in which he became engaged, to pursue his remarks upon his unprofitable adventure in this and other articles of trade.
After desiring his friend and agent, Mr. Orme, not to demand payment of the money owing to him by Messrs. Pybus and Roberts, and that the interest of the debt should be only 4 per cent., he observes[[148]], "You have given me a most curious account of my adventure in the Grampus. If I had not made better strokes in war than in trade, my money concerns would by this time be drawing to a conclusion."
The whole of Clive's money, when he returned to India in 1755, appears to have been in that country; for we find, from his correspondence, that he had hardly sufficient uninvested cash in England to pay for his annual supplies. He became anxious, however, after he attained great wealth, to remit it home; but this, owing to various causes, was very difficult. The public treasury was so rich from the successes in Bengal, that, for a period, no bills were drawn upon the Directors; Clive, therefore, had recourse to the Dutch Company, through whom he sent the greater part of his fortune; he also transmitted a considerable sum in diamonds[[149]] (a common mode at that time), and the rest in private bills; and, latterly, two on the Company.[[150]]
I have carefully examined his letters to his agents, from the 21st of August, 1755, when he advised them of his first remittance, till January, 1759, when he made one of his last; and the amount of property sent to England during that period is, as nearly as the difference of exchange and the loss[[151]] on bills enable us to judge, 280,000l. Of this I calculate that he received 210,000l. on the enthronement of Meer Jaffier; and the remaining 70,000l. is made up by part of his former fortune, his prize-money at Gheriah and Chandernagore, the receipts from the high stations[[152]] he held, and the accumulation of interest upon a considerable part of his property during the last five years of his residence in India.