"The letter I send to the Governor and Council, I am persuaded, you will look upon as an act of necessity, in order to save my undoubted property from the worst of enemies,—a combination of ungrateful Directors."
From the sentiments entertained and expressed by Mr. Vansittart and Lord Clive's other friends in Bengal, and the result of communications with the Nabob and Emperor[[181]], there is no doubt that every step would have been taken, and every document obtained, that could have confirmed his right to the jaghire; but an arrangement which took place in the ensuing year at the India House rendered all further proceedings unnecessary.
The violent animosities of parties in Bengal, which spread to England, were brought to a crisis, in that country, by intelligence of the dreadful massacre at Patna, and the murder of Mr. Amyatt, and those by whom he was accompanied, at Moorshedabad. These events will be fully noticed in the next chapter. Suffice it here to say, that they produced the greatest alarm in the mind of every one connected with India.
The proprietors now turned all their attention to the state of Bengal; where, besides what had occurred with the native government, the recriminations of the opposed parties among their own servants had brought to light a scene of corruption, division, and distraction in their internal rule, which, if not early remedied, threatened to bring complete ruin upon their affairs, and to disappoint all the golden dreams of profit from their possessions in that quarter of India.
Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the eyes of almost all should have been turned on Clive, as the only person fitted to remedy the mismanagement and misrule of their Indian empire. At a very full General Court he was unanimously solicited to return to India.
At the same time, the proprietors proposed to the Directors the instant restitution of his jaghire; nor can there be a doubt (according to the narrative[[182]] now before me) that this vote would have been carried by a great majority; but Lord Clive, who was in Court, not thinking it strictly honourable to take advantage of this sudden spirit of generosity, and to carry, merely by his popularity, a case which was depending at law, rose, and requested they would desist from their liberal intentions; adding, that from being sensible of the impropriety of going abroad whilst so valuable a part of his property remained in dispute, he would make some proposals to the Court of Directors, which would, he trusted, end in an amicable adjustment of this affair.
Lord Clive had now thrown off all disguise with Mr. Sulivan; they were open and irreconcilable opponents. His Lordship, on this occasion, pursued a course quite suited to the boldness and decision of his character. After stating what he had done about the jaghire, he concluded by observing, "There was another and more weighty obstacle to his undertaking the management of the affairs in Bengal, without the removal of which he thought it incumbent upon him to apprise them of his positive determination to decline entering again into their service: that he differed so much from Mr. Sulivan in opinion of the measures necessary to be taken for the good of the Company, that he could not consider that gentleman as a proper Chairman of the Court of Directors; that it would be in vain for him to exert himself as he ought, in the office of Governor and Commander in Chief of their forces, if his measures were to be thwarted and condemned at home, as they probably would be, by a Court of Directors under the influence of a Chairman, whose conduct, upon many occasions, had evinced his ignorance of East India affairs, and who was also known to be his personal and inveterate enemy; that it was a matter totally indifferent to him, who filled the chair, if Mr. Sulivan did not; but that he could not, consistently with the regard he had for his own reputation, and the advantages he should be emulous of establishing for the Company, proceed in the appointments with which they had honoured him, if that gentleman continued to have the lead at home."[[183]]
Mr. Sulivan, fearing he might fall a sacrifice to the resolution which he saw the Court entertain of possessing on any terms the services of Lord Clive, and knowing too well the frame of his Lordship's mind to expect any change in sentiments he had so decidedly avowed, rose, and expressed his concurrence in the opinion of the General Court as to the talents of Lord Clive, with whom he could conceive no reason why he should be at variance, it having been his desire to live in friendship with him. After these professions, and some general observations of the same tendency, Mr. Sulivan proceeded to represent the impropriety of superseding (by the civil and military powers proposed to be granted to Lord Clive) Mr. Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, and Major-General Lawrence, who had lately been induced to return to Madras. He also stated the disappointment which the nomination of Lord Clive would create to Mr. Spencer, a Bombay servant lately nominated to the head of affairs at Bengal. But the General Court were in no temper to listen to such reasoning, and with one voice insisted upon the Directors making the appointment. The Directors, as a last resource, desired to try the question by ballot; but the bye-laws of the Company establish that no ballot shall take place except by a requisition of nine proprietors. Though upwards of three hundred were present, this number could not be found to sign their names to such a requisition; and the Court, in consequence, adjourned.
The Court of Directors, thus compelled to attend to the wish of the Court of Proprietors, nominated Lord Clive Governor and Commander in Chief of Bengal. There was some hesitation about the military commission interfering with that of Major-General Lawrence, who, though advanced in years, and infirm, had accompanied his near relation Mr. Palk, when that gentleman was appointed Governor of Madras. But Clive intimated, that it was far from his wish to supersede his old commander: all he required was, that neither Major-General Lawrence nor any other officer should have the power of interfering with his command in Bengal.
Lord Clive received his appointment[[184]] within a month of the general election; and the Directors hurried their preparations for his departure, from a desire that he should leave England before that took place; conceiving, no doubt, that his doing so would evince a confidence in their support, and prevent that opposition which several of them expected, on the ground of their known hostility to the popular Governor. A letter was, in consequence, written to Lord Clive by the Secretary, informing him that a ship was ready to receive him. He replied, that, for reasons he had assigned at the General Court, he could not think of embarking, till he knew the result of the election of Directors, which was to take place in the ensuing month. The Directors, when they received this answer, declared that they considered it as a resignation of the government. They therefore summoned a General Court, at which one of the proprietors in their interest moved, that, as Lord Clive declined the government of Bengal, they should proceed to a new nomination; but his Lordship's declaration at the late Court had made too deep an impression to be easily erased. The proprietors saw nothing in his conduct but manly consistency with the sentiments he had before so decidedly avowed; and, on the other hand, viewing the conduct of the Directors as an unworthy artifice to evade compliance with their wishes, they threw out the proposition with violence and clamour.