Rulers of India: Lord Clive by George Bruce Malleson (ebook offline reader .txt) 📖

question. Finally, at five o'clock in the morning, the House passed the following resolution, which consummated the defeat of Burgoyne: 'That Robert, Lord Clive, did, at the same time, render great and meritorious services to his country.' On this conclusion to the violent attacks on Clive, Lord Stanhope, well versed in Parliamentary procedure, thus wrote: 'Such a vote might be deemed almost a verdict of acquittal. Certainly, at least, it showed a wise reluctance to condemn. It closed the whole case, and Clive had no further Parliamentary attack to fear.'

But though the victory was gained, the struggle affecting the personal honour and fortune of a proud and sensitive man had made deep inroads upon the constitution of one who had been long suffering from the acute agony caused by the malady contracted in India. Freed from the attack of his enemies, he might, had his health been only tolerable, have looked forward to a high command in the war just about to break out with the colonists of North America. There he would have been in his place; there, under the influence of constant action, he would have forgotten his troubles; even his oft-recurring spasms might have disappeared. But, after the Parliamentary contest was over, with the waning of the ever-present excitement, his health became worse. In vain did he repair to Bath to try the effect of its waters. In vain, finding that for him the virtues of the Bath waters had departed, did he proceed to the Continent for travel. Rest came not. A complication of disorders prevented sleep, and travel failed to remedy the evil. His mind had no longer the sustaining power which in former days had enabled him to meet with tranquillity the frowns of Fortune. He returned to England in 1774, and shortly afterwards, in November of that year, when apparently thoroughly conscious,7 fell by his own hand. 'To the last,' wrote Lord Stanhope, 'he appears to have retained his serene demeanour and stern dominion of his will.' It is difficult for us who have followed his career to realise the terrible upsetting of the balance of the great brain which had brought such an act within the bounds of possibility.

7 Lord Stanhope relates a story regarding the manner of Clive's death, told by the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards the first Marquis of Lansdowne, to the person from whom he (Lord Stanhope) received it. 'It so chanced, that a young lady, an attached friend of his (Clive's) family, was then upon a visit at his house in Berkeley Square, and sat writing a letter, in one of its apartments. Seeing Lord Clive walk through, she called him to come and mend her pen. Lord Clive obeyed her summons, and taking out his penknife fulfilled her request; after which, passing on to another chamber, he turned the same knife against himself.'

'Such was the end,' says a French writer, 'of one of the men who did the most for the greatness of England.' That foreign verdict is at least incontestable. Caesar conquered Gaul for his country; Hannibal caused unrest to Rome for nearly a quarter of a century; Wellington drove the French from Portugal and Spain. The achievement of Clive was more splendid than any one of these. He founded for this little island in the Atlantic a magnificent empire; an empire famous in antiquity, renowned since the time of Alexander, whose greatest sovereign had been the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, more enlightened than any of her predecessors, more tolerant, a more far-sighted statesman even than she. He was, according to Lord Stanhope, emphatically 'a great man.' But he was more than a great man. Like Caius Julius, he united two personalities; he was a great statesman and a great soldier. He was a man of thought as well as a man of action. No administration surpasses, in the strength of will of the administrator, in excellence of design, in thoroughness of purpose, and, as far as his masters would permit, in thoroughness of action, his second administration of Bengal. No general who ever fought displayed greater calmness in danger, more coolness of brain, than did Clive at Káveripák, at Samiáveram, at Calcutta, when, on the fog rising, he found himself enveloped by the Súbahdár's army, 40,000 strong. Nothing daunted him; nothing clouded his judgement; his decision, the decision of the moment, was always right. In a word, he was a born master of men.

But, says the moralist, he committed faults, and at once the false treaty made with Aminchand is thrown into the face of the historian. Yes, he did do it; and not only that, he stated in his evidence before the House of Commons that if he were again under the same circumstances he would do it again. None of his detractors had had the opportunity of judging of the terrible issues which the threatened treachery of Aminchand had opened to his vision. Upon the decision of Clive rested the lives of thousands. To save those lives there appeared to him but one sure method available, and that was to deceive the deceiver. I think his decision was a wrong one, but it should always be remembered that, as Clive stated before the Committee, he had no interested motive in doing what he did do; he did it with the design of disappointing a rapacious man and of preventing the consequences of his treachery. He was in a position of terrible responsibility, and he acted to save others. Let the stern moralist stand in the same position as that in which Clive stood, and it is just possible he might think as Clive thought. At all events, this one fault, for fault it was, cannot or ought not to be set up as a counterweight against services which have given this island the highest position amongst all the nations of the earth. The House of Commons, after a long debate, condoned it. Might not Posterity, the Posterity which has profited by that very fault, be content to follow the lead of the House of Commons? With all his faults, Clive was 'one of the men who did the most for the greatness of England.' That fact is before us every day. His one fault hastened his death, from the handle it gave to the envious and the revengeful, and took from him the chance of gaining fresh laurels in America. May not the ever-living fact of his services induce us to overlook, to blot out from the memory, that one mistake, which he so bitterly expiated in his lifetime?

INDEX

ADAMS, Major John, defeated Mír Kásim at Kátwá, 156:
        at Gheriá, 156:
    stormed strong position of Undwá Nala, 157:
    his death, 157:
    fought against Mír Kásim, 180.

AHMAD SHÁH, succeeded on the death of his father, Muhammad Sháh, 44.

AIN-Í-AKBARÍ, Blochmann's, quoted, 118n.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, Peace of, 40 and n., 42.

AKBAR, mentioned, 17, 85, 118n.

ALÍ VARDI KHÁN, Governor of Bihár, 85:
    battle of Gheriá, 85:
    proclaimed himself Súbahdár, 85:
    died, 85:
    succeeded by his grandson, Siráj-ud-daulá, 85.

ALLAHÁBÁD, occupied by the English, 157, 174:
    conference at, 174:
    clauses of Clive's demand at, 174.

AMBÚR, Anwar-ud-dín defeated and slain at, 45.

AMERICA, war with colonists of North, 209.

AMINCHAND, Calcutta merchant, 86:
    negotiated for Clive and his allies, 86:
    betrayed Siráj-ud-daulá's confidence, 87:
    demanded 20 lakhs of rupees, 87:
    his name omitted from false document by Clive, 87, 134, 135, 193, 202, 204, 211:
    informed by Mr. Scrafton that he was to receive nothing, 113:
    his pilgrimage to Malda, 113, 193:
    returned to his business in Calcutta, 113, 193.

ANGRIA, pirate chief at Gheriá, 77:
    his plunderings, 77:
    Commodore Jones sent to attack, 77:
    defeated by Watson and Clive, 78.

ANWAR-UD-DÍN, suspected poisoner of Khojá Abdullah, 28:
    appointed provisionally Nawáb, a guardian of the young prince, Saiyud Muhammad, 28:
    suspected murderer of the young prince, 30:
    Nawáb of Arcot, 31:
    appealed to by Dupleix, 33:
    attempted to prevent hostilities, 34:
    capture of Madras took him by surprise, 36:
    tried to regain Madras, but failed, 39:
    finally regained Madras, 41:
    slain, 45.

ARCOLA, story of the bridge of, compared to the battle of Arni, 57.

ARCOT, Dost Alí at, 24:
    Safdar Alí proclaimed Nawáb at, 25:
    Murtizá Alí declared himself Nawáb at, 27:
    Nizám-ul-Múlk with his army entered, 28:
    Saiyud Muhammad murdered at, 29:
    left almost undefended, 52:
    taken by Clive, 53:
    attacked by the French, 54:
    French dispersed by Clive at, 54:
    siege of, 55:
    strong garrison placed in, 59:
    Arcot mentioned, 183.

ARMAGON, English Settlement on the Coromandel Coast, 18.

ARMSTRONG, Captain, at Council of War, 93:
    arrested by Clive, 114:
    acquitted by court-martial, 114.

ARMY ADMINISTRATION, 179-90.

ARNI, battle of, 56-58:
    French defeated at, 58:
    its ruler declared for Muhammad Alí, 58.

ASAF JÁH, title granted to the family of Chin Kílich Khán, 17.

Asiatic Annual Register, quoted, 39n.

AURANGZEB, died in 1707, 16:
    placed the Súbahs he had conquered under a Súbahdár, or chief, 17:
    mentioned, 85, 172.

Aurora, frigate, in which Supervisors sailed, lost, 199.


BAJ-BAJ, fort near Maiápur, taken by Clive, 82.

BAKAR ALÍ, Governor of Vellore, 23.

BAKHSHÍ, Siráj-ud-daulá's Commander-in-chief, 86.

BAKSAR, battle of, 157, 181.

BÁNKÍPUR, military cantonment of Patná, 185:
    Sir R. Barker commandant at, 185:
    ringleaders arrested at, 186.

BAPTÁ, Clive encamped at, 111.

BARDWÁN, revenue of, granted money to Clive, 117.

BÁRH, Clive and Mír Jafar marched to, 118.

BARKER, Sir R., commandant at Bánkípur, 185:
    arrested ringleaders at Bánkípur, 186.

BARNETT, Commodore, in command of squadron, 33:
    died, 34.

BATH, Clive went to take the waters at, 209.

BATTA, 179:
    Mír Jafar's double batta, 179:
    discontinued, 180, 181:
    double batta at Allahábád, 181:
    single batta, 182.

BAYLEY, Mr., Robert Clive's uncle at Manchester, 9.

BEECHER, Mr., Member of Select Committee, 191.

BENARES, occupied by the English, 157:
    interview between Clive, General Carnac, and Nawáb-Wazír of Oudh at, 173:
    Zamíndár of, 175.

BENGAL, Clive in, 85:
    state of affairs in, 132:
    Clive's achievements in, 133-6:
    position of Bengal, 173.

BHÁGÍRATHÍ, 92.

BIDERRA, Dutch defeated by Forde and Knox at, 131.

BIHÁR, Alí Vardi Khán, Governor of, 85:
    Governor of, rebelled against Mír Jafar, 115:
    Clive and Mír Jafar at, 117:
    seat of saltpetre manufacture, 117:
    Mír Jafar yields it to East India Company, 118.

BÍJAPUR, king of, sold Puducheri to the French in 1672, named afterwards Pondicherry, 20:
    Muzaffar Jang, Governor of, 44.

BISNAGAR, Rájá of, granted a small portion of land,