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Chapter 11 – Bengal, 1761–1772

Condition of India after the battle of Paniput, 1781

The battle of Paniput forms an important epoch in the modern annals of India, and a brief notice of the position and strength of the various princes at that period will serve to elucidate its subsequent history. The great empire of the Moguls was dissolved, and the emperor was wandering about in Behar, accompanied by a small band of mercenaries. In the districts around Delhi, the Jauts on one side, and the Rohillas on the other, were consolidating the power they had usurped. The Rajpoot rajas had been humbled during the encroachments of the Mahrattas, and manifested little of their former energy. The Nabob vizier of Oude possessed a rich territory, and a large undisciplined army, but was deficient in every military

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quality, except courage. The Mahratta dream of universal empire in India, under a Hindoo sceptre, had been dissipated by the recent defeat, and although the Peshwa was still the head of the federation, its power was henceforth partitioned among the Guickwar, the raja of Nagpore, and Holkar and Sindia, who were seldom at peace with each other. The Nizam at Hyderabad, had been crippled by the surrender of some of his most valuable districts to the Mahrattas. The power of the French was completely broken. In the south of the peninsula, the Nabob of the Carnatic had been seated on the throne by the English, and was maintained solely by their arms, and Hyder Ali was on the point of grasping the supreme control in Mysore. The power destined eventually to bring these various principalities “under one umbrella,” had recently subdued its European rivals in the south, and established its predominance in the valley of the Ganges, but was contemplating nothing so little as the conquest of India.

Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, 1760–61

Clive had become so completely identified with the existence of British power in Bengal, that his departure appeared to those who remained, as if the soul was departing from the government. He was succeeded in the chair by Mr. Vansittart, a Madras civilian, a man of the greatest probity, but utterly incompetent to manage the complicated machinery of the government. The appointment, though recommended by Clive, proved in every respect disastrous. The members of the Bengal Council were irritated by his intrusion into a seat which they considered to belong to them of right, and set themselves to thwart his measures, at a period when the exigencies of a novel and foreign administration required the greatest unanimity. Soon after Mr. Vansittart’s appointment, moreover, an order from the Court of Directors reached Calcutta, summarily dismissing three of the ablest and most experienced members of Council, on account of a contumacious letter which had been provoked by their own arbitrary proceedings. The opponents of Mr. Vansittart thus obtained a majority in the Council, and

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this circumstance, combined with his imbecility, rendered the four years of his administration a period of extraordinary criminality.

Invasion of Behar by the Shah Zada, 1760

The Shah Zada, the son of the emperor, invaded Behar a second time at the beginning of 1760, with the rabble of troops he had collected around him. As already stated, the intelligence of his father’s death reached him after he had crossed the Curumnussa, and he immediately assumed the imperial dignity with the title of Shah Alum, which brought a large accession of troops to his standard. The Nabob of Oude was appointed vizier of this relic of an empire, and, in the hope of adding Behar to his territories, joined the emperor with a considerable force. Colonel Calliaud, one of the generals created by the wars on the coast, the comrade of Lawrence and Clive, of Coote and Forde, had been sent up from Madras to take the command of the army in Bengal, and had proceeded to Moorshedabad, where Clive, then on the eve of embarking for England, was making the necessary dispositions for repelling the invasion. Meer Jaffier contributed 15,000 horse to the expedition under the command of his son, Meerun, whose oppressions had made even Seraja Dowlah an object of regret. The united forces of the emperor and the vizier advanced towards Patna on one side, while Colonel Calliaud was moving up in an opposite direction to its succour. Ramnarayun, the Hindoo governor, had been strictly enjoined to await the arrival of these reinforcements, but he chose to march out and encounter the enemy alone, and was totally defeated. The city must have surrendered at discretion, if it had been immediately invested, but the emperor wasted the precious moments in plundering the district. On the 20th of February, Colonel Calliaud came up with the emperor, and, notwithstanding the misconduct of Meerun’s horse, completely routed his army.

The Emperor marches to Moorshedabad, 1760

The emperor had received the promise of assistance from the Mahrattas, and made a sudden and rapid march through the hills on Moorshedabad

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to meet them. Calliaud lost no time in following his steps. and the two armies confronted each other about thirty miles from that city. But the emperor, hearing nothing of his allies, abruptly broke up his camp and marched back to Patna, to which he laid close siege for nine days. All hope of prolonging the defence was fading away, when Captain Knox, who had advanced from Bengal by forced marches to its rescue, at the hottest season of the year, was descried approaching it with a small force. The following day the two armies met, and the emperor was defeated, and his force dispersed. The Nabob of Purneah, who had been for some time intriguing with the emperor, now advanced to his assistance with 30,000 men and thirty pieces of cannon. Captain Knox, to the utter amazement of the natives of Patna, immediately crossed the Ganges to oppose his progress, with a handful of men not exceeding a battalion of sepoys and 200 Europeans, and a small squadron of cavalry. The native historian of that period vividly describes the breathless anxiety with which the inhabitants crowded on the walls to watch the issue of this desperate encounter. It was one of those battles in the early career of the English which gave prestige to their arms, and bewildered the native princes. It lasted six hours, and ended in the total defeat of the enemy. The result of the conflict was rendered the more grateful to the natives by the extraordinary valour displayed by one of their own country, raja Shitabroy, and by the high encomium bestowed on him by the English commander, as they entered the city together covered with dust. Colonel Calliaud and Meerun soon after arrived at Patna, and proceeded across the river to follow up the victory.

Death of Meerun, July 2, 1760

But they had not marched far when Meerun, as he lay on his couch listening to a tale, was struck dead by a thunderbolt, and the country was rid of a monster, in whose cabinet was found a list of three hundred men of note whom he had doomed to destruction on his return.

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Meer Jaffier deposed, 1760

The vigour of Meerun, in spite of his profligacy, had been the mainstay of the government of Moorshedabad, and his death brought on an immediate crisis. Meer Jaffier lost the little reason he ever possessed, and the administration fell into a state of complete anarchy. The troops surrounded the palace, and demanded the arrears of their pay with loud menaces, when Meer Cassim, the Nabob’s son-in-law, came forward and offered to satisfy their claims from his own funds, on condition of being appointed the successor of Meerun. The Nabob accepted his terms and his services, but, in an evil hour, sent him to Calcutta, to make pecuniary arrangements, in his name, with the Council. They had an expensive war on their hands, without a rupee in their exchequer. The treasure accumulated at Moorshedabad had been exhausted, and, in the confusion and scramble of the times, no thought had been bestowed on the future. The imbecile Meer Jaffier was not the man to remove their embarrassments; on the other hand, Meer Cassim appeared to possess great talent and energy. Mr. Holwell, who had taken the command of Fort William when it was deserted by Mr. Drake, was the inveterate enemy of Meer Jaffier, and urged his colleagues at once to determine on deposing him, and elevating his son-in-law to the throne. After a show of hesitation, the members of the Council adopted his advice, and Mr. Vansittart was requested to proceed to Moorshedabad with 180 Europeans, 600 sepoys, and four guns, to persuade Meer Jaffier to resign the government of the three soobahs. The old man refused to abdicate, and threatened to appeal to Clive, his friend and protector; but the arguments of Mr. Vansittart were irresistible, and he was obliged to submit to his fate, only stipulating for a safe asylum in Calcutta, well knowing that in India deposition meant death.

Meer Cassim Nabob, 1760–1761

Meer Cassim became soobadar, and, as the price of his elevation, ceded to the Company the three districts of Midnapore, Chittagong, and Burdwan, which were then estimated to furnish a third of the

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revenue of Bengal. He agreed, moreover, to make good all arrears, and, above all, to bestow a gratuity of twenty lacs of rupees on his benefactors, of which Mr. Vansittart received five, and Mr. Holwell three lacs. The disorders of the times required a sharp remedy, but one might have been discovered without resorting to this odious breach of faith. Avarice was at the root of the transaction, and it ended in a fearful tragedy.

Meer Cassim’s vigorous administration, 1761–63

Meer Cassim met the difficulties of his position with great energy. He curtailed the extravagance of the court establishments. He abolished “the ram office, the antelope office, and the nightingale office,” and many other useless and costly appendages of the menagerie department. He subjected the public accounts to a severe scrutiny, and obliged the officers to disgorge the plunder they had acquired. He exacted all arrears of rent with unexampled rigour, revised the assessment of the land, and made an addition of a crore of rupees to the annual revenue of the three provinces. These measures gave him the means of discharging all the obligations he had contracted to the English, after which he gave his entire attention to the great object of emancipating himself from the pressure of their authority, and restoring freedom to the soobah. He removed the seat of government to Monghir, a distance of 320 miles from Calcutta, where, free from observation, he prosecuted his plans of independence with such earnestness, that in less than three years, he considered himself in a position to set their power at defiance. For this rapid progress, he was mainly indebted to the exertions of an Armenian, born at Ispahan, generally known by his orientalized name of Gurghin Khan. He was originally a cloth-seller at Hooghly, but when entrusted with the responsibilities of office, turned out to be a man of original genius and vast resources. In less than three years, he created a force of 15,000 cavalry, and 25,000 infantry, disciplined on the model of the Company’s army; he manufactured firelocks which were superior

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to the Tower proof muskets; he established a foundry for casting cannon, and trained up a corps of artillerymen who would have done credit to the Company’s service. Nothing was wanting to render Meer Cassim more powerful than Aliverdy Khan had ever been, but a few years of undisturbed leisure.

Transactions with the emperor, 1761

The emperor, Shah Alum, unable to regain his capital, lingered within the limits of Behar with a horde of troops, which wasted the districts like a flight of locusts. As soon, therefore, as the rains of 1761 had subsided, Colonel Carnac marched to Gya with an English force and dispersed them. Law, the French general, whose little band of Europeans had been the chief support of the prince, was taken prisoner on this occasion. The distinguished courtesy with which he was treated by the English commander, confounded the ideas of the natives, who expected that he would have been led out to immediate execution, in accordance with the practice of oriental warfare. “Nothing,” exclaims the native historian in his remark on this circumstance, “can be more modest and becoming than the behaviour of these strangers, whether in the heat of action, or in the pride of success.” After the action, Colonel Carnac sent raja Shitabroy with a conciliatory message to the emperor, which was cordially welcomed, and he was conducted with suitable honours to Patna. Meer Cassim felt no little alarm on hearing of this friendly intercourse between the English commander and his own liege sovereign, and hastened to the English camp, but sullenly refused to pay his respects to the emperor. Colonel Carnac obviated his objections by bringing the parties together in his own tent, when Shah Alum received the homage of the nabob, and conferred on him the office of soobadar of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and obtained in return the promise of an annual payment of twenty-four lacs of rupees. The emperor then proceeded on his route to Delhi, and, on taking leave of the colonel, made an infer to the Company of the dewanny of the three provinces.

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Spoliation of Ramnarayun, 1762

One of the earliest objects of Meer Cassim after his elevation was the spoliation of the great provincial officers, who had amassed wealth in their respective governments. Ramnarayun, the Governor of Patna, was destined to be the first victim, but the Council in Calcutta had pledged their honour to protect him from the designs of his enemies, and the Nabob was for a time baffled. But Mr. Vansittart yielded at length to his importunities; Colonels Coote and Carnac, who insisted on keeping faith with Ramnarayun, were removed from the province, and Meer Cassim was left to wreak his vengeance on him. The unfortunate governor was immediately seized and despoiled, while his subordinate officers were pursued with all the ardour of cupidity, and tortured to disclose their wealth. Of all the proceedings of the feeble Vansittart, this was considered the most baneful, inasmuch as it destroyed the confidence which the natives had hitherto reposed in the protection of the Company’s officers, and strengthened the hands of the Nabob, whose hostility to the English was daily becoming more palpable.

The transit duties, 1762

Meer Cassim had made great progress in consolidating his government, when a storm was raised by the unprincipled conduct of the Council board in Calcutta, which eventually swept him from the throne. From the days of Munoo, the duties levied on the transit of merchandise through the country had formed one of the principal sources of the public revenue, and the highways of commerce, both by land and by water, were obstructed by custom-houses. Under the old imperial firmans, the goods of the Company intended for export by sea were allowed to pass duty free, when protected by the dustuck, or permit of the President. But the battle of Plassy transferred the power of the state to the Company, that is, to their servants, and they rushed eagerly into the inland trade of the country, and claimed the same exemption from duty for their own goods, which had been conceded to the merchandise of their masters.

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Their servants and dependants soon came to demand the same privileges for their own adventures. The native merchants, moreover, anxious to pass their goods duty free, were led to purchase dustucks from some of the Company’s servants, even at a high premium, and the boys in the service, with less pay than fifty rupees a month, were enabled to realise an income of 15,000 or 20,000 rupees a year. To increase the confusion, any native trader who wished to evade the duties, had only to hoist the English nishan, or flag, on passing a customhouse. In every instance in which this symbol of impunity was not respected, sepoys were sent to drag the Nabob’s officers as culprits to the nearest factory, and they soon came to understand the danger of offering the slightest resistance to the most glaring frauds. The Nabob was deprived of his revenues; the entire trade of the country was disorganised, and nothing appeared on every side but the most perilous confusion.

Mr Vansittart’s convention, 1762

These encroachments were rare during Clive’s administration; but when his strong arm ceased to be felt, they increased to an indefinite degree. To provide a remedy for the disorders which thus threatened the peace of the country, Mr. Vansittart proceeded to Monghir, and, after a long conference with the Nabob, made an offer by way of compromise, which he at length accepted, that the trade of the Company’s servants should be subject to a duty of only nine per cent., though that of his subjects was, in many cases, saddled with twenty-five per cent. This convention necessarily required the sanction of the Council board, to whom Mr. Vansittart had intended to break it with great caution, but the Nabob imprudently directed his officers to carry it at once into execution, and they entered upon the duty with little delicacy. Numerous collisions ensued, and the breach was widened. On his return to Calcutta, Mr. Vansittart encountered the most ferocious opposition from his colleagues at the board. To men with their lofty pretensions, who considered

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themselves masters of the country, it appeared intolerable that their commercial agents should be subjected to the authority of one whom they had themselves raised to the throne, and to the insolence, as they deemed it, of his servants. All the members of Council at the out stations were called down to Calcutta, to overawe the President, and they declared that they would pay no higher duty than two-and-a-half per cent., and that on the article of salt alone.

The Nabob abolishes all duties, 1763

The Nabob, incensed by this declaration, determined to place his own subjects and the foreigners upon an equality by abolishing all transit duties throughout the country. The members of Council voted this measure a crime, and demanded, as a matter of right, that the native trade should be subject to the usual duties, while their own was exempted from them. It was in vain that Mr. Vansittart raised his voice against this iniquitous doctrine; he was supported only by Mr. Hastings. From words the Council at length came to blows, and Stanlake Batson, one of its most turbulent members, denounced Mr. Hastings as a partizan of the Nabob, and struck him a blow which led to a hostile challenge. After having passed this disgraceful resolution, the majority deputed Mr. Hay and Mr. Amyatt to announce it to the Nabob at Monghir.

Mr Ellis’s intemperate conduct, 1761

During these transactions a boat proceeding to Patna with concealed arms, was searched and detained by the Nabob’s officers. The affairs of the Company in that city were unfortunately at this juncture under the direction of Mr. Ellis, one of the most unscrupulous and headstrong of all the public servants. He had violently opposed the elevation of Meer Cassim, and seemed now to be anxious to precipitate a rupture with him. The boat was eventually released, but Mr. Ellis continued his hostile preparations with so little disguise, that Meer Cassim thought fit to detain Mr. Hay as a hostage for some of his own servants who had been seized; but Mr. Amyatt was allowed to return to Calcutta. Mr. Ellis waited for the day which

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had been fixed for their departure, and when he calculated that both of them were beyond the reach of the Nabob, seized on the city of Patna. The native commandant was obliged to retire, but on hearing that the European soldiers were confused with liquor, returned suddenly and recaptured the town. Mr. Ellis and the English gentlemen took refuge in their boats and proceeded up the river, but were overtaken and brought back prisoners to Patna. The Nabob, incensed at this outrage, ordered every Englishman throughout his dominions to be seized; and Mr. Amyatt, then on his way to Calcutta, having refused to surrender, was slain in the scuffle. The Setts, the great bankers of Moorshedabad, who were possessed of incredible wealth, and had manifested a favourable disposition to the English, were at the same time seized and conveyed to Monghir.

War with Meer Cassim Restoration of Meer Jaffier, 1763

Both parties now prepared for war. The Nabob augmented his army, and applied for assistance to the emperor and the Nabob vizier. The Governor and Council in Calcutta ordered their army into the field, and, at the same time, determined to reseat Meer Jaffier on the throne. The old man, seventy-two years of age, and scarcely able to move for the leprosy, was withdrawn from the obscurity to which he had retired, and required to confirm the cession of the three districts which had been made by his predecessor, to concede the flagrant exemption from duty claimed by the majority of the Council, and likewise to make large donations to them individually. The English army consisted of 650 Europeans, 1,200 sepoys, and a troop of native cavalry; and although the rains had set in, opened the campaign on the 2nd of July.

Actions of the 19th and 24th July, and the 2nd August, 1763

On the 19th, the troops of the Nabob were defeated at Cutwa; and on the 24th, Moorshedabad was occupied and Meer Jaffier, who had accompanied the army, was placed a second time on the throne. The army reached Gheriah on the 2nd of August, and found the Nabob’s well disciplined troops drawn up to dispute their advance. The battle lasted

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four hours, and, in the opinion of Clive, never did troops fight better than those of the Nabob. At one period of the action, indeed, they penetrated the English lines and captured two guns, and victory appeared, for a time, likely to incline to them, but the gallantry of the Europeans, and the steadiness of the sepoys bore down all opposition, and the Nabob’s troops were constrained to abandon all their guns and stores, and retreat to Oodwanulla.

Massacre of the English prisoners, 1763

This reverse threw Meer Cassim into a paroxysm of rage, and he gave way to the ferocity of his disposition. Ramnarayun, the deposed governor of Patna, was cast into the river with weights attached to his neck. Raja Rajbullub, the former governor of Dacca, was put to death, with all his sons. The Moorshedabad bankers were thrown into the Ganges from one of the bastions of the fort of Monghir. One of their favourite servants, the faithful Chunee, begged permission to share their fate, and when his request was denied, plunged into the river, determined not to survive them. Early in the month of November, the English army carried the entrenched camp at Oodwanulla, and the Nabob fled to Patna. But before his departure he ordered his officers to proceed to the house where his European prisoners were confined, and put them to death without distinction. They nobly replied that they were soldiers and not executioners. “Turn them out,” they said, “with arms in their hands, and we will fight them to the death.” But there was in the camp one Walter Raymond, who had been a sergeant in the French service, and now, under the name of Sumroo, held a commission in the Nabob’s army, who came forward and offered to do the bloody deed. The wretch proceeded to the house with a file of soldiers, and poured in volley after volley through the venetian windows upon the defenceless victims, till forty-eight gentlemen – among whom was Mr. Ellis – and 100 soldiers lay stretched on the floor. Patna was captured on the 6th of November, and the campaign ended in four months by the flight of Meer Cassim to the court of the

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Nabob vizier.

The Nabob vizier marches to Patna, 1764

The vizier had fought by the side of Ahmed Shah Abdalee at Paniput, and, in the language of the native historian, “considered himself a second Rustum.” He determined to take advantage of the confusion of the times, and, six months after the termination of the war with Meer Cassim, marched down to Patna with a large but ill-trained army. It was an act of wanton aggression on his part, dictated by ambition and avarice. The emperor and the disinherited Nabob of Bengal joined his camp with a small body of followers. The English army in the field was straitened for provisions, and retired to the city of Patna, which was vigorously attacked on the 3rd of May, 1764. The assailants were repulsed, but not without great difficulty, and not before the close of the day. The Nabob vizier, after hovering about Patna for four weeks, retired to Buxar to encamp for the rains.

The first sepoy mutiny, 1764

Major Munro, who now assumed the command of the Company’s army, found the sepoys in a state of open revolt. There is no instinct of obedience in native armies in India, as in those of Europe, and their normal condition under every dynasty, native or foreign, Hindoo or Mahomedan, and in every province, has from time immemorial been that of insubordination. The British army of sepoys was no exception to the general rule. During the seven years in which they had been embodied as mercenaries under the colours of a foreign power, they had been instrumental in defeating and deposing two Nabobs of Bengal. They became inflated with an idea of their own importance, and they now manifested it by the demand of a large donation and increased pay. Such a demand from men with arms in their hands was necessarily refused, and a whole battalion marched off to the enemy with their arms and accoutrements, Major Munro, an officer of undaunted resolution, determined to subdue this spirit at all hazards. The battalion was pursued and brought back. Twenty-four of the most active of the mutineers were selected, arraigned before a field court-martial,

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consisting of native officers, and found guilty. The Major ordered four of them to be blown away from the guns, when four noble looking grenadiers came forward, and demanded to be the first to suffer, as they had always been the foremost in danger. The European officers then reported that the sepoys had announced their firm resolution not to allow any further executions; but the unflinching commander loaded his guns with grape, placed his European soldiers in the intervals, and commanded the native battalions to ground arms, threatening to discharge the guns on them if a single man was seen to move. The sepoys were awed by his resolution; sixteen more were blown away; the mutiny was quenched in their blood, and discipline was restored. This was the first of that series of mutinies which broke out from time to time among the native sepoys – chiefly after a successful campaign, when they are least amenable to reason – and terminated in less than a century in the dissolution of the whole Bengal army. Major Munro shewed his masters how the insubordination of sepoys was to be dealt with, and there can be no doubt that if the same spirit and promptitude had been exhibited on every future emergency, the result would have been equally auspicious.

Battle of Buxar, October 23, 1764

This example of severity restored the discipline of the army so effectually that within four months of the mutiny, Major Munro did not hesitate to lead his troops against the Nabob vizier, who had been encamped for several months at Buxar with an army of 50,000 men. On the 23rd of October he was attacked and completely routed, and obliged to abandon his camp, with all its stores and 130 pieces of cannon The victory of Buxar was scarcely less important to the interests of the Company than that of Plassy. It demolished the power of the Vizier, Soojah-ood-dowlah, the only chief of any importance in the north. It made the English masters of the entire valley of the Ganges, from the Himalayu to the sea, and placed Hindostan at their feet. The Nabob sent off his women and his treasure to Bareilly, and

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opened negotiations with the victor, offering as the price of his forbearance, fifty lacs of rupees for the Company and the army, and eight lacs for himself. But the Council board demanded the surrender of Meer Cassim and Sumroo, as an indispensable preliminary. The former, who had been stripped of his wealth and imprisoned by his treacherous host, hastened to seek refuge among the Rohillas. With regard to Sumroo, the Vizier offered to invite him to an entertainment, and cause him to be assassinated in the presence of any English gentleman who might be deputed to witness and certify his death. The offer was indignantly rejected.

Arrangement with Meer Jaffier, 1764

Immediately after the battle of Buxar, the emperor joined the English camp, and commenced negotiations with the Council in Calcutta. They proposed that the forfeited territories of the Vizier should be partitioned between them, the Company receiving the zemindary of Benares, and the emperor the remainder, on condition of defraying all the expenses of the war. But the arrangement fell to the ground. Meanwhile, the government in Calcutta was on the verge of bankruptcy. The war was not only expensive, as all wars must be, but it was conducted on a system of profligate extravagance and peculation which completely exhausted the treasury. Meer Jaffier was, therefore, brought down to Calcutta to concert some means of relieving the pressing necessities of the Council. His position required a passive acquiescence in whatever they might chose to dictate, and they required him to contribute five lacs of rupees a month towards the expenses of the war, as long as it might last; but they did not forget themselves. He was also charged with the payment of what they had the impudence to call “compensation for losses,” that is, for losses, real or fictitious, sustained by them and their friends in the illicit monopoly of the necessaries of life. The demand was at first stated at ten lacs of rupees, but they soon dismissed all delicacy of feeling and raised it to thirty, and then to forty lacs, and did not pause till it had reached fifty-three lacs. It

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was, moreover, provided that this nefarious claim should be satisfied before any payment was made to the Company’s treasury for the expenses of the war; which were met by the ingenious device of lending to the Government at an exorbitant rate of interest, the sums paid to individuals by the Nabob. The effrontery exhibited during these five years’ of crime makes one blush for the honour of England; and the only relief to the mind is to be found in the consideration that it was an exceptional case.

Death of Meer Jaffier, Jan 1765

These importunities, combined with the age and infirmities of the Nabob, hastened his end, and he expired in January, 1765. Then came the question of appointing his successor. The making of Nabobs had been, for seven years, one of the most lucrative employments of the Council, and the fourth opportunity which was now presented, was not to be neglected. Mr. Vansittart had retired from the chair, and was succeeded by Mr. Spencer, a Bombay civilian, without either talent or probity. The Court of Directors, exasperated by the iniquity of their servants in Calcutta, had issued peremptory orders for the suppression of the inland trade, and for the execution of “covenants,” binding them not to receive presents from native princes. These injunctions reached Calcutta before the death of Meer Jaffier. Mr. Spencer and his colleagues, were, moreover, aware that Lord Clive was on the eve of embarking for India to root out abuses; no time was, therefore, to be lost in the appointment of another Nabob. The covenants were thrown aside, and Nujum-ood-dowlah, the son of Meer Jaffier, was raised to the throne, and required to make donations to the members of the Council to the extent of twenty lacs of rupees, as well as to sanction the inland trade, exempt from the payment of all duty.

Clive’s second administration, 1765

Clive, on his return to England in 1760, was received with great distinction by the king, the minister, Mr. Pitt, and the nation, and honoured with an Irish peerage. The India House, likewise, paid

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homage to his talents and his success; but the Court of Directors was scarcely less demoralized by intrigue and jobbery than the Council board in Calcutta by venality and rapacity, and Clive was speedily brought into collision with the leading faction, at the head of which was Mr. Sullivan. In 1757, Meer Jaffier had ceded to the Company certain lands lying to the south of Calcutta, of the annual value of ten lacs of rupees, reserving to himself the quit-rent of three lacs a year. Two years after, the Nabob manifested his gratitude for the services of Clive by making him a donation of the quit-rent, which he received for several years without interruption. But Mr. Sullivan and his party having gained the ascendancy in the Court of Directors in 1763, sent out orders to Calcutta, without any communication with Clive, to withhold the usual payment, assigning no other reason for this act of injustice than the cessation of all cordiality between him and the Court. Clive was, therefore, obliged to file a bill in chancery for the recovery of his rights. But while this contest was raging, intelligence was received in London of the war with Meer Cassim, the massacre of the European prisoners, and the total disorganization of the government in Calcutta. The proprietors of India stock saw with dismay the golden dreams of prosperity in which they had indulged vanishing away, and, in spite of the opposition of the Directors, resolved to send out the man to whom they owed all their greatness, to retrieve their affairs. They determined also to entrust the powers of government, which had hitherto been vested in a council of sixteen, to a select committee of five. Clive was surrounded by friends and admirers, and in the enjoyment of an income of four lacs of rupees a year; there was therefore no inducement for him to return to India, but he had been actuated throughout life by a high sense of duty, and he did not hesitate to accept the charge of a government which was justly described as “headstrong and corrupt, and lost to every sense of honour.”

Clive landed at Calcutta on the 3rd of May, and found

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that the political dangers had passed off.

Condition of Bengal, 1765

Meer Cassim had been expelled from Bengal, the Nabob vizier had been vanquished, and the emperor was a suppliant. But there were other and more alarming perils to be encountered. Vast fortunes had been amassed by “the most nefarious and oppressive conduct ever known in any age or country.” The power of the Company’s servants had been employed in levying contributions on every class, from the Nabob down to the lowest zemindar. Even the exaction of twenty lacs of rupees from the young Nabob on his elevation, in defiance of the express orders of the Court of Directors, was openly avowed without a blush. Luxury, corruption, and debauchery pervaded every rank of the service, and threatened the dissolution of all government. Clive found Spencer, the governor, “as deep in the mire as any other,” and he felt himself justified in affirming that “there were not five men of principle left at the Presidency.” The massacre of the English gentlemen by Sumroo had thinned the ranks of the civil service; many of the seniors had returned to England laden with plunder, and young men had thus been pushed forward to posts of importance, with little judgment or experience, but inflamed with the most extravagant expectations by the success of those who had preceded them. Clive’s first duty was to enforce the execution of the covenants which abolished the receipt of presents, but he was met on the threshold by an attempt to question the powers of the Select Committee, and an effort was made to browbeat him, but he soon reduced the refractory to silence by declaring that he would not allow his authority to be controverted for a moment, and that he would peremptorily dismiss from the service every officer who refused to sign the covenants.

Arrangement with the nabob, the vizier, and the emperor, 1765

On the 25th of June, Clive left Calcutta for the upper provinces, to dispose of the weighty questions which awaited his decision. He attributed the recent war with Meer Cassim to the imprudence

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of Mr. Vansittart, in advising him to form and discipline an army, and to render it efficient by just and punctual payment. To prevent the recurrence of this cause of anxiety, the Nabob of Moorshedabad was relieved of all responsibility for the military defence of the country, and of the management of the revenue. The sum of fifty-three lacs of rupees a year was assigned him for the expenses of his court and the administration of justice. He received the proposal with ecstasy. “Thank God,” he exclaimed, “I shall now have as many dancing-girls as I like.” With regard to the Nabob vizier, he had invaded Behar without the least provocation, on the mere impulse of cupidity, but his power had been irretrievably crushed by the battle of Buxar, the capture of Lucknow, and a second defeat at Corah. Seeing his fortunes desperate, he repaired to the camp of General Carnac, and threw himself on the consideration of the English authorities. His kingdom was forfeited by the laws of war and the usage of the country, but Clive evinced his moderation by restoring it to him, with the exception of the two districts of Corah and Allahabad, which were reserved for the emperor. Such an instance of generosity in a victorious enemy was unknown in India, and excited emotions of the deepest gratitude. The emperor, though he had appeared in arms against the English at the battle of Buxar, was gratified with the revenues of the two districts assigned to him, which, with the annual payment of twenty-six lacs of rupees from Bengal and Behar, for which he was likewise indebted to the kindness of the English chief, constituted his whole dependence.

The Dewanny, Aug 12, 1765

After the completion of these arrangements, Clive requested that the Dewanny of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, which the emperor had repeatedly offered to the Company, should be conferred on them by ten imperial firman. The act was completed on the 12th of August, 1765, a memorable day in the political and constitutional history of British India. As a substitute for a throne, two dining-tables were joined together in Clive’s tent, and covered with embroidery.

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The emperor took his seat on a chair planted on them, and transferred the government of twenty-five millions of people, and an annual revenue of four crores of rupees to Lord Clive, on behalf of the. Company. The Mahomedan historian of the time, scandalized by the simplicity which marked the completion of this grand transaction, exclaims with indignation that “a business of so much importance, which, at other times, would have required the sending of wise ministers and able envoys, was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up in the sale of a jackass.” This affair serves to exemplify that expansion of views which results from the progress of events in the East. On the eve of his departure from England, in April, 1764, Clive assured the Court of Directors that “nothing but extreme necessity ought to induce us to extend our ideas of territorial acquisitions beyond the three districts ceded by Meer Cassim, in his treaty with Mr. Vansittart.” Before sixteen months had elapsed, he congratulated the Court on the acquisition of three provinces, and a clear revenue of two crores of rupees a year. Yet with this pregnant proof of the fallacy of his judgment, he thought fit again to fix the limits of the British empire in India, and informed the Court that “it was his resolution and hope always to confine our possessions to these provinces, and he declared that to go farther was a scheme so extravagantly ambitious that no government in its senses would ever dream of it.” The Court of Directors, with all due modesty, concurred in the necessity of accepting the provinces. “When we consider,” they wrote, “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 Dewanny for the Company.”

The mutiny of the officers, 1766

In announcing this acquisition to the India House, Clive remarked, “we have established

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such a force that all the powers in Hindostan cannot deprive us of our possessions for many years,” little dreaming that within a few months, the existence of that power would be endangered by that very force. The military expenses had hitherto swallowed up the resources of the Company. The army considered itself the most important department of the state, and the commanders, in the pride of their position, had endeavoured to imbue the native princes with the conviction that the power of the British government was lodged with them rather than with the civil authorities in Calcutta. A few months more of Mr. Spencer’s servile administration would probably have rendered them masters of the country. The officers had been in the habit of receiving an allowance called batta when they took the field. Meer Jaffier, out of gratitude for his elevation, had increased this gratuity, and the army soon came to consider double batta as their right. When the Court of Directors became responsible for the finances of the country, they resolved to discontinue this extravagant allowance; but the officers resented any interference with their interests, and the Council board was deterred by their imperiousness from carrying the orders into execution. The abolition of the double batta was enjoined on Clive when he was leaving England, and he lost no time, after his arrival, in announcing that it would cease after the 1st of January, 1766. The officers were little disposed to submit to a measure which affected even a captain’s allowance to the extent of 1,000 rupees a month, and those in the higher grades in a larger proportion. The announcement of the order was the signal for mutiny, and a universal combination was formed to compel Clive to retract it. A committee of secrecy was organized in each of the three brigades, and a fund created to reimburse officers for any loss they might sustain; and to this fund the discontented and factious civilians in Calcutta contributed more than a lac and a half of rupees. It was agreed that two hundred officers should throw up their commissions on the same day; and, as an

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army of 50,000 Mahrattas was advancing for the invasion of Behar, it was calculated that the government would be under the necessity of giving way to retain their services.

Resolution of Clive, 1766

It was a crisis of singular peril, but exactly fitted to the daring genius of Clive. He felt that to yield to the demands of men with arms in their hands was to abandon the government to them, and he declared that he must see the soldiers’ bayonets levelled at his throat before he could be induced to give way. He directed the commandants to accept every commission that was tendered, and to send the offender under arrest to Calcutta; at the same time, he ordered up all the officers and cadets who could be spared from Madras. Taking with him the officers who yet remained faithful to their colours, he hastened to Monghir, arrested the ringleaders, and ordered them to be tried by court-martial. His undaunted resolution overawed the spirit of insubordination, and many of the officers who had been persuaded to join the malcontents, entreated permission to recall their resignations, and were allowed to return to their duty. He then proceeded to Benares, where the same energy produced the same beneficial results. In two instances the sepoys, who had themselves been in a state of mutiny two years before, were actively employed in coercing their European officers, and exhibited such fidelity and steadiness, that one battalion marched more than a hundred miles in fifty-four hours, and arrived at its destination in time to avert an outbreak. Thus was this formidable confederacy, which brought the affairs of the Company to the brink of destruction, dissolved in the brief period of a fortnight, by an energy which reflected not less credit on the name of Clive than the battle of Plassy.

Society for inland trade, 1766

It remained for Clive to deal with the difficult question of the trade of the public servants, to which the Court of Directors attributed all the anarchy and bloodshed of the preceding five years. From the earliest period, the East India Company had followed the

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example of all other commercial companies, in restricting their agents abroad to a mere pittance of salary, and allowing them to eke it out by private trade, and thus were the servants enriched at the expense of the masters. The same system was continued when the factory had expanded into a kingdom, and their servants entered on the government of provinces with unchecked power. The consequence was that from the governor to the youngest writer, from the general to the ensign, not excepting even the chaplains, all classes were busily engaged in commercial pursuits, which were rendered lucrative by the influence of their dominant position. In April, 1764, the Court of Directors thought that the evil might be remedied, simply by ordering that the trade should cease, without proposing any compensation to their officers; but in a subsequent despatch they had the wisdom to modify this order by directing Clive to devise some equitable plan which should be satisfactory both to the government and the service. Clive felt that it was indispensable to the peace and prosperity of the country that the servants of the state should not be allowed to compete with the native dealers in every market, and equally indispensable to the integrity and efficiency of the public service that the officers of the government should not be left to starve in the midst of wealth which their position enabled them to grasp. He, therefore, established a Society for conducting a traffic in salt, on the principle of a monopoly, the profits of which, after a reservation of ten lacs of rupees a-year to the Company, should be divided among the servants of the Company according to their rank; the member of Council and the colonel receiving 70,000 rupees a-year, and the subordinate officers, civil and military, in due proportion. The scheme continued in operation for two years, and was then abolished by orders from home, which substituted in its stead a commission of two-and-a-half per cent. on the gross revenue of the provinces.

Clive’s return to England, 1767

After a residence of twenty-two months in India, Clive was driven back to England by a

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severe attack of disease. In the large transactions in which he had been engaged, involving the fate of great kingdoms, and the disposal of crores of rupees, he might easily have added fifty lacs of rupees to his fortune, but he returned to his native land poorer than he had left it. It has fallen to the lot of few men to exercise so important and permanent an influence on the course of human affairs. When he landed in Calcutta in 1757, he found the Company’s factory in ruins, and their servants in exile. By 1767, he had made the Company the sovereigns of twenty-five millions of people, and masters of a revenue, little short of one-half that of England. He had laid the foundation of a great empire containing an irrepressible element of expansion. He had established the supremacy of Europe in Asia. His reception in England corresponded at first with his eminent merits, but it was not long before he was made to taste the bitterness of ingratitude. His greatness excited envy and censure. The members of the civil service, whose rapacity he had defeated abroad, made large purchases of India stock on their return to England, and became members of the corporation in Leadenhall-street, that they might more effectually wreak their vengeance on him. His rancorous enemy, Sullivan, endeavoured by garbled statements to persuade Parliament that all the difficulties of the Company were to be attributed to his measures. The Court of Directors restored almost every civil and military culprit whom he had cashiered for peculation or mutiny. The Attorney-General proposed to confiscate all the donations he had received from native princes in India, and the Prime Minister joined the hue and cry against him. In Parliament his conduct was described by his opponents “as a mass of the most unheard-of villanies and corruption.” But when a vote of censure was pressed on the House, the members shrunk from the scandal of fixing a brand of infamy on the man who had given England a kingdom larger than itself, and came to the resolution that he had rendered great and

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meritorious services to his country.

Death of Clive, 1774

But his lofty spirit could ill-brook the persecution he had been subjected to, and under the pressure of bodily and mental suffering, he put a period to his existence in November, 1774.

Wretched condition of Bengal, 1767–1772

Lord Clive was succeeded in the government by Mr. Verelst, a man of strict integrity, but without sufficient resolution to cope with the disorders of the times. Clive, with all his genius, had committed the great error of establishing the system of double government, which for five years proved to be the curse of Bengal. The administration was nominally vested in the Nabob, in whose name the revenue was collected and justice administered, by native officers, but the irresistible power of the rapacious servants of the Company paralysed the whole system of government, and introduced endless intrigue and oppression. Those whom Clive had constrained to sign the covenants against presents, treated them as waste paper as soon as his back was turned, and plunged with increased ardour and perfect impunity into the trade of the country. Every man who was permitted to make out a bill, made a fortune; and the nefarious charges of contractors, commissaries, engineers, and other officers drained the treasury. The Council was without the power, even if they had possessed the will, to check these abuses. The three natives who managed the revenues enriched themselves, and left the governor to borrow money for the public service. It was at this period, and through their connivance, that the great majority of rent-free tenures was created, and an annual revenue little short of forty lacs of rupees was alienated from the resources of the state. It was a period of transition between the dissolution of the old Mahomedan government and the vigorous development of British sovereignty, and it was, as usual, fruitful of anomalies, and not wanting in guilt. These evils were aggravated to a fearful extent by the great famine of 1770, which swept away one-third of the population of the lower provinces.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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