[176]. The extract here quoted is part of a larger paper in defence of Lord Clive's conduct, and believed to be written by the late Sir Henry Strachey.
[177]. The contents of this private letter to the President of the Council at Bengal were as follows:—"That all cordiality being at an end with Lord Clive, the Court of Directors had stopped payment of his jaghire; a measure which would have taken place years ago, had it not been for him (Mr. Sulivan); and that, on this head, the said President was to obey every order which he might receive from the Court of Directors; and that more was not, nor must be expected of him."
[178]. Lord Clive, in his address to the proprietors in 1764, answers all these objections in a very full and conclusive manner. In treating of the supposed claims of the Emperor and the want of power in the Nabob to grant a jaghire, he remarks, that the arguments used against him by the Directors are exactly those which the Dutch government had recently brought against them, in the affair of the destruction of their armament in 1760; and he refers the Court, in answer to their present plea, to the memorial they lately submitted to his Majesty; in which, after justly describing the Emperor of Delhi as possessing, beyond very narrow limits, only a nominal power, they observe; "The Nabob makes war or peace, without the privity of the Moghul; that there appears still some remains of the old constitution in the succession to the state of Nabob; yet, in fact, that the succession is never regulated by the Moghul's appointment: the Nabob in possession is desirous of fortifying his title by the Moghul's confirmation, which the court of Delhi, conscious of its inability to interpose, readily grants. The Nabob of Bengal is, therefore, de facto, whatever he may be de jure, a sovereign prince."
[179]. Mr. Amphlett (a connection of Lord Clive) was a civil servant of Bengal; but his abilities as an engineer had led to his being employed in improving the works at Fort William.
[180]. 28th April, 1763.
[181]. The Shah-Zada (Shah Alum) had, before Clive's letters arrived, succeeded to the throne of Delhi.
[182]. MSS. of Sir Henry Strachey.
[183]. I have extracted this summary of what Lord Clive said upon this subject from the MSS. before quoted.
[184]. March, 1764.
[185]. This agreement between the Company and Lord Clive is as follows:—