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destroying them. Clive was playing at cards in the evening when he received this letter, and without leaving the table he wrote an answer in pencil: "Dear Forde, "fight them immediately. I will send you the Order of "Council to-morrow."* Accordingly the Dutch were attacked both by land and water, and, notwithstanding their superiority of force in both, in both were they defeated. Of their seven ships every one fell into the hands of the English. At these tidings the chiefs of the settlement at Chinsura hastened to sue for peace, disavowing the acts of their naval commander, owning themselves the aggressors, and agreeing to reimburse the English Company for the charges of the war,-on which terms they obtained the restitution of their ships. Thus it happened that the news of their apology reached Europe nearly as soon as the news of the attack upon them, so as effectually to prevent any complaint or remonstrance on the part of the Government of Holland.†

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Only a few weeks after these events, in February, 1760, Clive, who was suffering from ill-health, embarked for England. "With him it appeared" (to use the strong language of a contemporary) "that the soul was departing from the body of the government of Bengal." At home he was rewarded with an Irish peerage, as Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey, and speedily obtained a seat in the English House of Commons. During his second residence in India, a period of less than five years, he had acquired a fortune amounting at the very lowest computation to 40,000l. a year. Several of the transactions in which he had engaged for the public advantage or his own seem to me, as I have elsewhere stated, repugnant to justice and good faith. Those who explore his character with minute attention may, perhaps, moreover detect, not merely some great faults, but some little foibles. Thus, although he was plain and free from all ostentation in the field, he might be thought in society

*Malcolm's Life of Clive, vol. ii. p. 97.

† See on this point a note to Favre's Memoir on Holland, in the Politique de tous les Cabinets de l'Europe (vol. ii. p. 154. ed. 1802). By a shortly subsequent treaty the Dutch at Chinsura further engaged to raise no fortification and maintain no troops in Bengal.

Malcolm's Life, vol. ii. p. 187.

INDIA.]

CLIVE RETURNS TO EUROPE.

fonder of fine clothes than becomes a hero.

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At one of

the busiest periods of his public career, the year of Plassey, he could find leisure to weigh the comparative merits for a Court suit of "a scarlet coat with handsome gold lace," or "the common wear of velvet," * and to instruct his friend Mr. Orme, the historian, to send him "two hundred shirts, the best and finest you can get "for love or money; some of the ruffles worked with a "border either in squares or points, and the rest plain." † But with every drawback or deduction which can fairly be made from his character, there will still remain very much to call forth praise and inspire admiration. He was indeed, as Chatham once called him, "a Heaven"born General,”—who, with no military training, had shown consummate military genius. With nearly as little study of politics he displayed nearly as great abilities for government. Energy, which, perhaps, of all human qualities, is the one most conducive to success, — energy and fearlessness, were peculiarly his own. Whatever gratitude Spain owes to her Cortes, or Portugal to her Albuquerque, this - and in its results more than thisis due from England to Clive. Had he never been born I do not believe that we should at least in that generation -have conquered Hindostan; had he lived longer I doubt if we should at least in that generation lost North America.

have

The narrative of the events that followed in Bengal, the misrule of Clive's successors, - the dethronement and the reinstatement of Meer Jaffier,-though occurring in part before the peace of 1763, belongs more properly to a later period, when producing Clive's third and final visit to India. I therefore pass at once to the important transactions of which the Carnatic had meanwhile been the scene. The Declaration of War between France and England found the chiefs both at Pondicherry and Madras ill-prepared for any expedition of importance, and engaging in none but desultory and feeble hostilities. The English set fire to Wandewash; the French, in re

* Letter from Captain Latham, August 5. 1757.
Letter, August 1. 1757.

This was in 1758 Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 276.

taliation, to Conjeveram. The latter, under M. d'Auteuil, besieged Trichinopoly; the former, under Captain Calliaud, relieved the place. But the attention of both parties was intently fixed on a great armament which France had announced the intention of despatching to the Indian seas; comprising nearly 1,200 regular troops, and commanded by Lieutenant General Comte de Lally. This officer was sprung from an Irish family which had followed James the Second into exile; his true name being Lally of Tully-dale, since Gallicised to Tollendal. soldier from his earliest years, he had highly distinguished himself both at Dettingen and Fontenoy; in December 1745 he had warmly pressed the expedition against England from Dunkirk, and had been appointed one of its chiefs. Brave, active, and zealous, he was well qualified for military service; but a hasty temper and a caustic wit too frequently offended his inferiors, and marred his

exertions.

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The armament of Lally was delayed by various causes, both in its departure and on its voyage, and it was not till near the close of April 1758 that it cast anchor before Pondicherry. Almost immediately on its arrival the French squadron, which was commanded by the Comte d'Aché, was engaged by the British under Admiral Pocock, but the battle proved indecisive, with little result to either party, beyond the loss of a few men and some damage to the ships. In August another naval engagement, equally indecisive, ensued. The Comte d'Aché, satisfied with this result, and with having landed the troops, then sailed back to the Mauritius.

His

Lally, who had brought out a commission as Governor General of the French in India, displayed from the first hour of his landing the impetuosity of his temper. instructions prescribed the siege of Fort St. David, and he sent forth a body of troops for that object on the very same night that he arrived. So much haste bodes little real speed; the troops thus in hurry despatched, without provisions or guides, arrived before Fort St. David wayworn and hungry, and ill-disposed for action. In a few days, however, they were quickened by large reinforcements, and by the presence of Lally. The works of the siege were now vigorously pushed forward; a part in

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them all being urged by compulsion on the reluctant and scrupulous natives. "In India," says Mr. Orme, 66 even "the lower Castes have their distinctions, insomuch that "the COOLIE, who carries a burden on his head, will not carry it on his shoulder. Distinctions likewise pre"vail amongst the soldiery, for the man who rides will "not cut the grass that is to feed his horse; nor at this "time would the Sepoy dig the trench which was to protect him from a cannon-ball."* Such prejudices, which a wise ruler will ever consult, until he is able to correct, were now derided and set at nought by Lally. Thus he carried his immediate object, but thus also he forfeited for ever all claim to the attachment and regard of the native population. According to another historian, "the consternation created by such an act was greater "than if he had set fire to the town, and butchered every man whom it contained." †

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At this juncture Fort St. David was the strongest that the East India Company possessed, and it held a sufficient garrison; but the commanding officer was far from able, and part of the men are represented as drunken and disorderly. So early as the 2d of June terms of surrender, by no means honourable to themselves, were proposed by the besieged, and on the evening of the same day were accepted by the besiegers. Lally, in pursuance of the instructions which he had brought from France, immediately razed the fortifications to the ground, nor have they ever since been rebuilt. Thus the name of Fort St. David,-up to that time so conspicuous in the annals of the Company,-henceforth no longer appears.

Elated with this conquest, Lally pursued his warfare; he failed in an expedition against Tanjore, but succeeded in an expedition against Arcot. His aspiring views extended to the siege of Madras, and to the extinction of the British name in the Carnatic. For this great object he mustered every man at his disposal, even recalling Bussy from the Deccan, which had so long been the scene

*Orme's Hist. vol. ii. p. 305. "Hence," he adds, "the numerous "train of followers and assistants which always accompanies a camp "in India."

† Mill's Hist. vol. iii. p. 193. ed. 1826.

of that officer's active and able exertions. His want of money was no small obstacle in the way of his designs; to supply it he again offended the natives by plundering a pagoda of its wealth; and in a more praiseworthy spirit subscribed largely from his own private funds, exhorting his subordinates to follow his example. But he had already made nearly all of them his personal enemies by his haughty reproaches and his bitter jests. Thus, for example, when he found his Council less alert than they might have been in providing the beasts of burthen he required, he exclaimed that he could not do better than harness to his waggons the Members of Council themselves! * All his letters at this period were filled with invectives of no common asperity.†

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In December 1758 Lally appeared before Madras, at the head of 2,700 European and 4,000 native troops. The English had already, in expectation of a siege, called in nearly all their garrisons and outposts, and could muster within their walls 4,000 soldiers, of whom 1,800 were of European race. Besides these there was a small body under Captain Calliaud, which had marched from Trichinopoly, and which hung upon the rear of the French, most effectually intercepting their supplies and harassing their detachments. They are like flies," said Lally himself, no sooner beaten off one place than they settle in "another!"-The French had no difficulty in making themselves masters of the Black Town; but this, from the large stores of arrack it contained, proved rather an obstacle to their further progress, as augmenting the insubordination of the men. On the other hand, the English steadily continued the defence of Fort St. George; they made on one occasion a most vigorous sally, under Colonel Draper; and their Governor, Mr. Pigot, displayed throughout the siege both spirit and judgment. Lally had, no doubt, many obstacles to encounter, but perhaps the greatest of all was his own unpopularity. ́He

* Voltaire, Siécle de Louis XV. ch. 34.

"L'Enfer m'a vomi dans ce pays d'iniquités, et j'attends comme "Jonas la baleine qui me recevra dans son ventre." (Lettre du Comte de Lally, le 27 Decembre 1758.) In another letter he says he would rather have to govern the Caffres in Madagascar than the Europeans in India.

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