[204]. 14th October, 1764.
CHAP. XIII.
Before resuming the narrative of Clive's life, and accompanying him on his last visit to India, it will be necessary to take a general and concise view of the events which had occurred in that country during the short period of his absence. It would, indeed, be impossible, without such a review, to understand the nature of the scenes in which he became engaged, or the motives and grounds of the measures he adopted.
He was succeeded in the administration of the affairs of Bengal by Mr. Vansittart; who, as he owed his elevation to Clive, was disposed, we may conclude, to pursue the course of policy which Clive had marked out. But however easy it may be for a man of moderate talent to follow genius in a smooth and beaten track, it becomes impossible, where the road is rugged and indistinct, and where the slightest deviation leads inevitably to the widest separation from him who preceded.
This was the case with Mr. Vansittart. He had a clear perception between right and wrong, in the abstract; but his letters and minutes, soon after he was appointed governor, show that he was quite incompetent to take a comprehensive view of the great and conflicting interests committed to his charge, and still less to quell the violent passions that were in action. He found evils of much magnitude, and he conscientiously desired to remedy them; but he appears to have looked no further, and, consequently, to have often exchanged bad for worse. Volumes have been written for and against the measures he adopted: they will be here noticed only in a very cursory manner.
I have stated, in the tenth chapter, that at the period of time when Clive sailed for England, accounts had been received of the advance of the Shah-Zada towards Patna; and that Colonel Caillaud had been detached with a force to aid Ram Narrain in repelling the invasion. Alumgeer the Second had been murdered by his minister, Umad-ul-Moolk[[205]]; and the Shah-Zada[[206]], on becoming emperor, had assumed the title of Shah Alum[[207]]; nominating, at the same time, Sujah-u-Dowlah (the ruler of Oude) his vizier.
The young emperor was successful in his first action with Ram Narrain; but the latter being reinforced by Colonel Caillaud and Meeran, the invaders were, in their turn, defeated[[208]], and compelled to retire from before Patna. The Emperor, however, instead of retiring towards Benares, took the route of Moorshedabad, whither he was pursued, and obliged to retrace his steps; and, after another ineffectual attempt to take Patna, he retreated to Hindustan. The triumph of the Nabob's arms was completed by the defeat of the rebel Raja of Purneah, by Captain Knox; but, in the midst of these successes, an event occurred, which became the proximate cause of another revolution in Bengal. The Prince Meeran, who has occupied so conspicuous a part in this narrative, was killed[[209]] by lightning. This violent young man had been at once the support and dread of the less energetic Meer Jaffier. Though Meeran was sensible of the necessity of the aid of the English, he was impatient of the state of dependence and control in which the alliance with that nation had placed him; and the continual conflict of his interests and passions rendered him turbulent and dangerous. To Clive, alone, he was obedient; and a sentiment of attachment and respect for that commander appears, on many occasions, to have checked him in schemes that must have terminated fatally for himself, or his father. This prince, with all his vices and errors, was generous to his dependents and army; who, after his death, afraid of losing their arrears, surrounded the palace, and threatened the life of their sovereign, against whom many of his dependents took up arms; and, as if the misfortunes of the country were to be complete, it was visited by a predatory incursion of the Mahrattas.
Amid these scenes of war, mutiny, rebellion, and plunder, Mr. Vansittart assumed the government of Bengal.[[210]] Mr. Holwell, who had been in temporary charge, cherished the greatest prejudice against the reigning Nabob. Meer Jaffier was, according to him, the author of all these evils; and so entirely did he succeed in impressing the new governor with the same sentiments that, within two months[[211]] from Mr. Vansittart's arrival at Calcutta, a treaty was concluded with Meer Cossim Ali, son-in-law to the Nabob, the general of the army, engaging that the Nabob should invest him with full power as ruler of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; in return for which, he made over to the Company the fruitful provinces of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong.
The ostensible causes of this revolution are honestly, indeed, but not very satisfactorily, stated by the Governor himself in his narrative[[212]], and seem to have been chiefly the financial difficulties of the Company's affairs. The Nabob was to a certain extent in arrear, and other pressures were felt. "The season had now begun," says Mr. Vansittart, "when our forces were to take the field against a powerful enemy, whilst we had scarce a rupee in our treasury to enable us to put them in motion. The easy channel in which the Company's affairs ran, whilst the sums stipulated by the treaty (with Meer Jaffier) lasted, had diverted their attention from the distresses which must unavoidably fall on them, whenever that fund should be exhausted; and continuing to act on the same extensive plan in which they set out, they now found themselves surrounded by numerous difficulties, which were heightened by the particular circumstances of the country at this period, and weighed down with the very advantages which they had acquired; that is, an establishment which had lost the foundation on which it was built; a military force proportioned to their connections and influence in the country without the means of subsistence; a fortification begun upon the same extensive plan, at a vast expense; and an alliance with a power unable to support itself, and threatening to involve them in the same ruin."