"Upon the receipt of your letter," Lord Clive observes, "enclosing a copy of a paragraph from your brother, I can plainly perceive, that Mr. Vansittart, declining to comply with the request I made him, of purchasing and sending home, on my account, an elephant, to be presented to his Majesty by me, has taken that hint to send one home on his own. This unkind treatment I neither deserved nor expected from Mr. Vansittart. I am persuaded his Majesty will not think I am wanting in that respect which is due to him, if I decline presenting, in another person's name, an elephant which I intended to present in my own. At the same time, I shall take care his Majesty be informed of the cause of my desiring to be excused attending you to his Majesty, with Mr. Vansittart's presents."
An explanation took place upon this subject; and it appears by a letter[[201]] from Lord Clive to Mr. Vansittart in the following year, that some blame attached to the captain of the ship, who acted, according to Lord Clive's opinion, at the instigation of Mr. Sulivan. But it is a justice we owe to the memory of the latter gentleman to state, that Lord Clive was in such a frame of mind at the time he listened to this accusation, as readily to believe that every thing (whether public or private) which tended to annoy or injure him originated with or was aggravated by, his rival for supremacy at the India House.
Though several causes combined to interrupt that cordiality which had once subsisted between Lord Clive and Mr. Vansittart, no open rupture took place. The latter had left Calcutta before his successor arrived, and returned to his native country with a moderate fortune[[202]], and a character for integrity that was never impeached, even by those who censured most severely the weakness and impolicy of many measures of his government.
Lord Clive, in the hurry of leaving England, forgot to include Mr. Call, the chief engineer at Madras (with Mr. Campbell[[203]] and Mr. Preston), in his recommendation for a brevet commission as Colonel. He wrote[[204]] from Rio Janeiro to the Chairman, Mr. Rous, entreating he would rectify his mistake, and prevent so excellent an officer being hurt by neglect. In the same letter he called his attention, in a very forcible manner, to the merits of Colonel Forde.
"If Caillaud," he observes, "should not go to the coast of Coromandel, pray do not forget Colonel Forde, who is a brave, meritorious, and honest officer. He was offered a jaghire by the Subah of the Deckan, but declined taking it upon terms contrary to the interest of the Company. Lord Clive, General Lawrence, and Colonel Coote, have received marks of the Directors' approbation and esteem; Colonel Forde has received none. The two captains who fought and took the Dutch ships in the Ganges received each a piece of plate; but Colonel Forde, the conqueror of Masulipatam, who rendered the Company a much greater service by the total defeat of all the Dutch land forces in Bengal, has not been distinguished by any mark of the Company's favour."
I here close the account of Clive's second visit to his native country, in which he resided more than three years. I have been minute in relating the events of this period. They had, both as they related to the friendships he formed and improved, and the hostility which his open and warm temper provoked, a serious influence upon his future career; and a knowledge of them is quite essential, both to the developement of his character, and to the understanding of the subsequent part of these volumes.
FOOTNOTES: CHAPTER 12
[154]. 27th of February, 1762.
[155]. This fact he mentions in several letters. In one to Mr. Amyatt, after entreating that gentleman to remain a short time longer in Bengal, to succeed Mr. Vansittart in the government, he warns him against retiring till possessed of an ample fortune. He notices the disappointment experienced by many of their friends, by the discovery of their inadequate means, and adds, that he had already spent[] (in a period of eighteen months) upwards of 60,000l.
[b]. This letter is dated 27th of February, 1762. Clive could not have reached England before September or October, 1760, and had been a twelvemonth on a sick bed.