[238]. 1764.
[239]. Captain Williams' Memoir of the Bengal Native Army.
[240]. This letter is dated 27th April, 1764.
[241]. Clive's clear and practical mind here puts the question on its real basis. There is no other alternative.
[242]. "For the good of the Company," Clive observes in the letter already quoted, "I would propose that you should always have, in Bengal, four, or at least three, thousand Europeans; to consist of three battalions of seven hundred each; four companies of artillery of one hundred each; and five hundred light horse."
[243]. This select committee was composed of Lord Clive, General Carnac, Mr. Verelst, Mr. Sumner, and Mr. Sykes. The two latter accompanied Lord Clive from England.
CHAP. XIV.
We have already adverted to the state of confusion in which affairs were at Bengal when Lord Clive landed.
Never had an individual a more arduous task of reform; but he came to it with great local knowledge, with a full acquaintance with the characters of those by whom he was likely to be aided or thwarted, and with a mind determined at all hazards to execute the great work to which he had been called, almost by acclamation.