these provinces, still, it is true, retains his attachment to us, and probably, while he has no other support, will continue to do so; but Mussulmans are so little influenced by gratitude, that should he ever think it his interest to break with us, the obligations he owes us would prove no restraint and this is very evident from his having lately removed his Prime Minister, and cut off two or three principal officers, all attached to our interest, and who had a share in his elevation. Moreover, he is advanced in years; and his son is so cruel, worthless a young fellow, and so apparently an enemy to the English, that it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the succession. So small a body as two thousand Europeans will secure us against any apprehensions from either the one or the other; and, in case of their daring to be troublesome, enable the Company to take the sovereignty upon themselves.

There will be the less difficulty in bringing about such an event, as the natives themselves have no attachment whatever to particular princes; and as, under the present Government, they have no security for their lives or properties, they would rejoice in so happy an exchange as that of a mild for a despotic Government and there is little room to doubt our easily obtaining the Mogul's sanad (or grant) in confirmation thereof, provided we agreed to pay him the stipulated allowance out of the revenues, viz., fifty lacs annually. This has, of late years, been very ill-paid, owing to the distractions in the heart of the Mogul Empire, which have disabled that court from attending to their concerns in the distant provinces; and the Vizier has actually wrote to me, desiring I would engage the Nawab to make the payments agreeable to the former usage; nay, further application has been made to me, from the Court of Delhi, to take charge of collecting this payment, the person entrusted with which is styled the King's Diwan, and is the next person both in dignity and power to the Suba.1 But this high office I have been obliged to decline for the present, as I am unwilling to occasion any jealousy on the part of the Suba; especially as I see no likelihood of the Company's providing us with a sufficient force to support properly so considerable an employ, and which would open a way for securing the Subaship for ourselves. That this would be agreeable to the Mogul can hardly be questioned, as it would be so much to his interest to have these countries under the dominion of a nation famed for their good faith, 1 This is an anticipation of the change made in 1765, see below, No. 26.

rather than in the hands of people who, a long experience has convinced him, never will pay him his proportion of the revenues, unless awed into it by the fear of the Imperial army marching to force them thereto.

But so large a sovereignty may possibly be an object too extensive for a mercantile Company; and it is to be feared they are not of themselves able, without the nation's assistance, to maintain so wide a dominion. I have therefore presumed, Sir, to represent this matter to you, and submit it to your consideration, whether the execution of a design, that may hereafter be still carried to greater lengths, be worthy of the Government's taking it into hand. I flatter myself I have made it pretty clear to you, that there will be little or no difficulty in obtaining the absolute possession of these rich kingdoms and that with the Mogul's own consent on condition of paying him less than a fifth of the revenues thereof. Now I leave you to judge, whether an income yearly of two millions sterling, with the possession of three provinces abounding in the most valuable productions of nature and of art, be an object deserving the public attention; and whether it be worth the nation's while to take the proper measures to secure such an acquisition-an acquisition which, under the management of so able and disinterested a minister, would prove a source of immense wealth to the kingdom, and might in time be appropriated in part as a fund towards diminishing the heavy load of debt under which we at present labour. Add to these advantages the influence we shall thereby acquire over the several European nations engaged in the commerce here, which these could no longer carry on but through our indulgence, and under such limitations as we should think fit to prescribe. It is well worthy consideration, that this project may be brought about without draining the mother country, as has been too much the case with our possessions in America. A small force from home will be sufficient, as we always make sure of any number we please of black troops, who, being both much better paid and treated by us than by the country powers, will very readily enter into our service. Mr. Walsh, who will have the honour of delivering you this, having been my Secretary during the late fortunate expedition, is a thorough master of the subject, and will be able to explain to you the whole design, and the facility with which it may be executed, much more to your satisfaction, and with greater perspicuity, than can possibly be done in a letter. I shall

therefore only further remark that I have communicated it to no other person but yourself; nor should I have troubled you, Sir, but from a conviction that you will give a favourable reception to any proposal intended for the public good.

The greatest part of the troops belonging to this establishment are now employed in an expedition against the French in the Deccan; and, by the accounts lately received from thence, I have great hopes we shall succeed in extirpating them from the province of Golconda,1 where they have reigned lords paramount so long, and from whence they have drawn their principal resources during the troubles upon the coast.

Notwithstanding the extraordinary effort made by the French in sending out M. Lally with a considerable force the last year, I am confident, before the end of this, they will be near their last gasp in the Carnatic, unless some very unforeseen event interpose in their favour. The superiority of our squadron, and the plenty of money and supplies of all kinds which our friends on the coast will be furnished with from this province, while the enemy are in total want of every thing, without any visible means of redress, are such advantages as, if properly attended to, cannot fail of wholly effecting their ruin in that as well as in every other part of India.

May the zeal and the vigorous measures, projected for the service of the nation, which have so eminently distinguished your ministry, be crowned with all the success they deserve, is the most fervent wish of him who is, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most devoted humble servant,

CALCUTTA, January 7, 1759.

(Signed) ROBT. CLIVE. (Malcolm, Life of Clive, ii. 119.)

15. THE FAILURE OF MIR JAFAR'S GOVERNMENT

(The government of Mir Jafar was from the first a failure, and Bengal fell into a state of anarchy. The only persons who profited from these conditions were the individual servants of the Company, who found no check or control exercised over their high-handed pursuit of private profit. Naturally the Nawab and his principal officers resented this state of things, and futile and nerveless intrigues took place. Bengal was bankrupt, disorganised, and subject to invasion both by the Shahzada (son of the Mogul) on the north-east, and by the Mahrattas on the southeast. The official English view of these evils is expressed in the following excerpt from a memorial by Holwell, who acted temporarily as governor

1 I.e. Hyderabad, occupied by the French army under Bussy.

between the return of Clive and the arrival of his successor, Henry Vansittart. The memorial was meant to give guidance to Vansittart.)

From a Memorial by J. Z. Holwell, 1760.

A short space of time fully proved how unworthy the family thus raised !1 The conditions of the treaty could not be obtained from the Nawab without being in a manner extorted from him, and by a thousand shifts and evasions it was plain to the world not a single article would ever have been complied with, had the Nawab been invested with power sufficient to have prevented it, or could he have divested himself of his own fears and apprehensions from our resentment. A party was soon raised at the Durbar . . . who were daily planning schemes to shake off their dependence on the English; and continually urging to the Nawab that till this was effected his government was a name only. . . . The first step taken to accomplish this measure of independence, was to assassinate and take off under one pretence or other, every minister and officer at the Durbar who they knew were attached to the English. . . . The next project of the Durbar appeared, by every concurring subsequent circumstance, to be a secret negotiation with the Dutch, for transporting troops from Batavia, that with their united force a stop might be put to the power of the English. . . . This scheme was conducted . . . about October or November 1758. Soon after the provinces were invaded by the Shahzada on the side of Patna, and Colonel Clive with our military and sepoys joined the Nawab and his troops and arrived just in time to save that city and province. The prince more than once wrote to the Colonel, offering any terms for the company and himself, on condition the English would quit the Nawab, and join his army; but the Colonel thinking it incompatible with our treaty of alliance with the Nawab, gave the prince no encouragement.

3

...

2

The Nawabs, thinking themselves now better established in the government . . . began to set no bounds to their cruelties, oppressions and exactions, from those who had anything to be plundered of; and this barely received a check from the severe and frequent remonstrances of the Colonel. . . . His (Mir Jafar's) troops, [were] clamorous at the same time for their pay, whilst the Nawab, in place of appropriating the sums he had acquired by repeated assassinations to the just demands

1 I.e. Mir Jafar and his son, known as the Chota Nawab, or little Nawab. 2 Son of the Great Mogul. S Mir Jafar and his son.

F

of his jamadars and troops, lavished the same in boundless extravagances.

In the beginning of the year 1760 the Shahzada invaded the provinces again . . . ; the Nawab by this time having made himself so universally hated, that we may justly say, there was hardly a man in the province that did not wish success to the prince.. In February 1760. . . the Mahrattas entered the province from the southward. . . . The Nawab demanded a body of our troops . . . for the defence of this country, to join his . . . which was granted; but their use was frustrated by the Nawab's pusillanimous, irregular and contradictory orders. Three morally sure and important opportunities were lost by the cowardice of both the Nawabs. ... Had the most been made of either of those favourable occasions, the stroke had, in all human probability, been decisive; as it is, it only proves that we continue to draw our swords in support of a family, most unworthy the government they have by our assistance usurped, and this to the manifest hazard and ruin of the Company's trade and concerns.

(Vansittart's Narrative of the Transactions in Bengal, 176064, i. 46.)

16. MIR JAFAR REPLACED BY MIR KASIM

(Vansittart resolved that a change must be made in the government of Bengal; and in an interview with Mir Jafar, persuaded him to devolve the actual functions of government on a deputy. His son, the Chota Nawab, having been killed by a stroke of lightning, his son-in-law, Mir Kasim, was fixed upon for this office; before long Mir Jafar retired and Mir Kasim became Nawab. A new treaty was made with Mir Kasim, of which the principal articles are printed below. The most important of these articles is the fifth, whereby three large districts of Bengal were ceded to the Company, to pay the cost of maintaining the army required for the defence of Bengal; the pay of this army due from the Nawab having fallen into hopeless arrears. These new provinces must not be confused with the 24 parganas already ceded in 1757; the latter were directly administered by the Company, which paid a fixed sum annuallý in composition for land-revenue; the new provinces were not directly administered, but their zemindars or revenue-collectors paid the revenues to the Company. This arrangement is the first instance of a method of providing revenue for the maintenance of military forces which is much used in the future, and which is to develop into the system of "subsidiary alliance." Clauses 8 and 9 show that the Company's territories are now treated as a practically independent state.)

Treaty between Mir Kasim and the Company, September 27, 1760. 3. Betwixt us and Mir Mahomed Kasim Khan Bahadur,