"With respect to the treaty with Nudjum-ul-Dowla, it is proper here to insert, at length, the fifth article, which runs in these words:—'I do ratify and confirm to the English the privilege granted them by their firman, and several husbulhookums, of carrying on their trade, by means of their own dustucks, free from all duties, taxes, or impositions, in all parts of the country, except in the article of salt, on which the duty of two and a half per cent. is to be levied on the Rowana or Haughley market price.' This fifth article is totally repugnant to our own order, contained in our general letter, by the Kent and Lapwing, dated the 1st June, 1764; in which we not only expressed our abhorrence of an article in the treaty with Meer Jaffier, literally corresponding with the present fifth article, but in positive terms directed you, in concert with the Nabob, to form an equitable plan for carrying on the inland trade, and transmit the same to us, accompanied by such explanations and remarks as might enable us to give our sentiments and directions thereupon. We must remind you, too, that in our said general letter we expressly directed, that our orders, in our letter of the 8th February preceding, which were to put a final and effectual end to the inland trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, and in all other articles produced and consumed in the country, should remain in force, until an equitable and satisfactory plan could be found and adopted. As, therefore, there is not the least latitude given you for concluding any treaty whatsoever respecting this inland trade, we must and do consider what you have done as an express breach and violation of our orders, and as a detrimental resolution to sacrifice the interest of the Company, and the peace of the country, to lucrative and selfish views.

"This unaccountable behaviour put an end to all confidence in those who made this treaty, and forces us to resolve on measures for the support of our authority, and the preservation of the Company. We do therefore pronounce, that every servant concerned in that trade stands guilty of a breach of his covenants with us and of our orders; and in consequence of this resolution, we positively direct, that if that treaty is now subsisting, you make a formal renunciation, by some solemn act to be entered on your records, of all right under the said treaty, or otherwise, to trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco; and that you transmit this renunciation of that part of the treaty, in form, to the Nabob, in the Persian language. Whatever government may be established, or whatever unforeseen occurrences may arise, it is our resolution to prohibit, and we do absolutely forbid, this trade of salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, and of all articles that are not for export and import, according to the spirit of the firman, which does not in the least give any latitude whatsoever for carrying on such an inland trade; and, moreover, we shall deem every European concerned therein, directly or indirectly, guilty of a breach of his covenants, and direct that he be forthwith sent to England, that we may proceed against him accordingly. And every native who shall avail himself of our protection to carry this trade on, without paying all the duties due to the government equally with the rest of the Nabob's subjects, shall forfeit that protection, and be banished the settlement; and we direct that these resolutions be signified publicly throughout the settlement."

These letters were meant to be in support of the measures Lord Clive was supposed to have adopted; but the opinions of the Court in regard to the salt trade differed essentially from those on which he had acted. This subject, however, will be noticed hereafter. In a subsequent letter, (May 17th, 1766,) after stating the earnest request they had made of Lord Clive to remain one more season in Bengal, and giving their sentiments on the importance of his services, they drew a strong and just contrast between the conduct of the Select Committee, of which he was president, and that of the Governor and Council, whose power it had superseded.

"The article in the treaty with Shuja Dowla, stipulating a trade duty-free, through his dominions, we direct to be confined solely to the Company's trade; and even in that sense of it, we mean only if his dominions produce any goods fit for the European markets, or if it can be made the means of extending our trade in the woollen manufactory, or any other European goods.

"We come now to consider the great and important affairs of the dewannee, on which we shall give our sentiments with every objection that occurs to us.

"When we consider that the barrier of the country government was entirely broken down, and every Englishman throughout the country armed with an authority that owned no superior, and exercising his power to the oppression of the helpless natives, who knew not whom to obey; at such a crisis, we cannot hesitate to approve your obtaining the dewannee for the Company.

"When we look back to the system that Lord Clive and the gentlemen of the Select Committee found established, it presents to us a subah disarmed, with a revenue of almost two millions sterling, (for so much seems to have been left, exclusive of our demands on him,) at the mercy of our servants, who had adopted an unheard-of ruinous principle, of an interest distinct from the Company. This principle showed itself in laying their hands upon every thing they did not deem the Company's property.

"In the province of Burdwan, the resident and his council took an annual stipend of near 80,000 rupees per annum from the Rajah, in addition to the Company's salary. This stands on the Burdwan accounts, and we fear was not the whole; for we apprehend it went further, and that they carried this pernicious principle even to the sharing with the Rajah of all he collected beyond the stipulated malguzary, or land revenue, overlooking the point of duty to the Company, to whom, properly, every thing belonged that was not necessary for the Rajah's support. It has been the principle, too, on which our servants have falsely endeavoured to gloss over the crime of their proceedings, on the accession of the present Subah; and we fear would have been soon extended to the grasping the greatest share of that part of the Nabob's revenues which was not allotted to the Company. In short, this principle was directly undermining the whole fabric; for whilst the Company were sinking under the burden of the war, our servants were enriching themselves from those very funds that ought to have supported the war. But to Lord Clive and our Select Committee we owe, that the Company are at last considered as principals in the advantages as well as dangers."

Clive had recommended, that the Governor of Bengal should have an adequate salary, and be restrained from trade. In one of his letters already quoted, he strongly urged that he should be vested with authority to take a resolution in cases of emergency entirely on himself. He subsequently not only pointed out the expediency of making Calcutta the chief seat of the government of India, but proposed, in any future arrangement, the nomination of a Governor-general, with the full powers he now enjoys. All these propositions have been adopted; but the most important were not carried into effect till thirty years of collision and confusion in the administration of the Indian Government, through the means of separate and independent presidencies, compelled the divided and jealous authorities in England to follow the wise counsel of one whose experience and foresight enabled him to predict the evils which must result from the weakness and distraction of their government abroad, and the necessity of forming one uniform system for the administration of our Indian territories, and placing them under one efficient general rule,—the individual at the head of which should be of a character that justified his being clothed with paramount power over the whole.

Such was the magnitude of the evils that now weighed down the government of Bengal. It was at this period of danger from external enemies aggravated by a system radically corrupt, and in the continuance of which the interests of almost the whole of the public servants, and of all the free traders, were involved, that Clive evinced all the energy of his extraordinary character. We trace that quality, however, more in his private than in his public letters; and some extracts from the former will exhibit, better than the most laboured detail, the nature of the obstacles he had to encounter, and the measures he took to surmount them, and to restore and fix, on a firmer foundation than ever, the interests of his country in India. He observes, in a letter to Mr. Palk, Governor of Madras, dated Calcutta, 4th May[[261]];—