venues an annual payment of twenty-six Lacs of Rupees. On the other hand, he obtained from the fallen Emperor a DEWANNEE or public Deed, conferring on the English Company the sole right of administration throughout the provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. In this transaction, as in almost every other in India during the same period, it is striking how wide was the interval between nominal authority and effective power. Here we find the heir of Aurungzebe treated with as though still supreme, as though able at his pleasure to bestow upon the Europeans, or to withhold from them, the exercise of sovereignty in three great provinces. Yet at this very time, so low had his fortunes fallen, as to leave him destitute of even the common trappings or appurtenances of high state. During the solemn ceremony of the investiture, it was an English dining-table, covered over, that formed the Imperial Throne!* Such was the prince, of whom the English in India continued to call themselves the vassals, whose coin they struck at their mint, whose titles they bore upon their public Seal. In this transaction, though it manifestly set aside the authority of the Musnud at Moorshedabad, there was no objection raised by the young Nabob. With him, as with most Asiatic despots, the contingent future was but an empty name; and his desire to obtain a fixed and regular income, no longer to be embezzled or diverted by his Ministers, overbalanced every other consideration in his feeble mind. As Lord Clive writes to Mr. Verelst: "He received the proposal of having a sum of money for "himself and his household at his will with infinite "pleasure, and the only reflection he made upon leaving me was: "Thank God! I shall now have as many "dancing girls as I please!'"+ The sagacious views of Clive, on the contrary, went far beyond his treaty or his time. As he writes to the Directors, we find him urge proposals, all of which have since been carried into effect, but several not until a long course (which his foresight would have spared them) of *Malcolm's Life of Clive, vol. ii. p. 338. INDIA.] MAHOMED REZA KHAN. 223 discord and confusion. We find him recommend that the Governor of Bengal should have a larger salary, but be restrained from trade-that Calcutta should be made the chief seat of the government of India-that a Governor-General should be nominated with the power, in cases of emergency, to take his decision independent of the Council. In a private letter to the Deputy-Chairman, he combats the anxiety resulting from such vast provinces to govern beyond so many thousand miles of sea: "With regard to the magnitude of our possessions "be not staggered. Assure yourself that the Company "must either be what they are or be annihilated." But even without any view as to the future, and looking solely at the present, Lord Clive might boast, that by his treaty he had secured to his countrymen a net revenue annually of 2,000,000l. He might boast, that he had freed them from any further dependence on the character or the conduct, the intrigues or the cabals, of the successive heirs of Meer Jaffier, whom he reduced, in fact, to little more than high pensioners of state. Nevertheless, it formed a part of the policy of Clive, that the whole detail of the revenue department should still, for some time at least, be directed by a native Prime Minister, resident at Moorshedabad but responsible only to Calcutta. Two competitors appeared for this great office- Nuncomar at the head of the Brahmins Mahomed Reza Khan at the head of the Mussulmans. There seemed a manifest advantage in preferring the former, as representing by far the greater numbers in race and in religion. Such was also the desire of Clive. But on full examination it appeared that the character of Nuncomar was stained by more than one act of fraud and even forgery. Moreover, at this very time, as Clive complains, he was seeking to establish a most pernicious influence on the mind of the young Nabob. "It is really shocking," writes the hero of Plassey, "what a set of miserable and mean wretches Nuncomar has placed "about him; men who the other day were horse-keepers." On the whole, therefore, after great deliberation, the choice of Clive fell upon Mahomed Reza Khan. 66 Having thus dealt with the Hindoos, Clive applied himself to the Europeans. He exacted from the civil servants of the Company a written covenant, pledging them to accept no future presents from the native princes. Many murmured, some resigned, but no one dared to disobey. Another measure which Clive considered most essential, and found most difficult, but which he succeeded in enforcing, was, to debar the men in high places from private trade, granting them, as some compensation, a share in the salt monopoly. With respect to the military officers, Clive announced his intention to deprive them of the large dole or additional allowance, which, under the name of DOUBLE BATTA, had been granted them by Meer Jaffier after the battle of Plassey, but which, as Clive had always explained to them, could not, in all probability, be continued by the Company. In fact, the Court of Directors had issued the most positive orders that the Double Batta should be discontinued. These orders had been several times repeated, but the remonstrances of the army had hitherto prevented the Governor and Council from giving them effect. For, according to the bitter sarcasm hurled against them at a later period, the military could not behold without a "virtuous emulation" the "moderate gains" of the civil service.* In abolishing their Double Batta, Clive had to encounter, not remonstrances merely, nor dissatisfaction, but even mutiny. Nearly two hundred officers, combining together, bound themselves by an oath of secrecy, and undertook to fling up their Commissions on one and the same day. It added not a little to the dangers of the league that it was, though in private, instigated by no less a man than Sir Robert Fletcher, the second in command to Clive, who had headed the troops, and with success, in the last campaign. Each officer separately pledged himself under a bond of 500l. not to resume his Commission, unless the Double Batta was first restored. In support of those who might be cashiered, a subscription was begun in camp, to which subscription, it is said, that no less than 16,000l. were added from the angry civilians at Calcutta. The idea of the conspirators (for surely they deserve no milder name) was that in a country like India, — held *Speech of Burke on Mr. Fox's East India Bill, December 1. INDIA.] MUTINY QUELLED BY CLIVE. 225 solely by the sword,-Clive could not dispense with their services even for a single day, and must succumb to their demands. Far from daunted, however, Clive set off in person for the camp at Monghir. The heavy rains and the stifling heat delayed his progress; and he was further weighed down by an illness, resulting from fatigue of body and anxiety of mind. But his spirit never for one instant quailed. On his arrival, he assembled and addressed the officers and men, pointing out to them the guilt of their course on public grounds. The points that merely touched himself he passed by with generous disdain. There were two officers accused of declaring that they would attempt to stab or shoot him dead; and words to that effect were certainly used, though as certainly proceeding only from the heat and folly of the moment. Clive declared most justly that he gave no belief whatever to any such design. He was well assured, he said, that he was speaking to Englishmen and not assassins. Several of the officers were touched and reclaimed by his manly firmness. Several others, though but few, had stood by him from the first. The Sepoys, who had ever looked up to him with especial reverence, and comprising some perhaps of the same men who had offered to give up for him their rice at Arcot, cried out that nothing should make them swerve from their English hero, Sabut Jung.* Clive, on his part, declared that nothing should make him swerve from his fixed purpose. If necessary, he would send for other officers from Madras. If necessary, he would summon clerks at their desks (such as in his outset he had been) to serve as soldiers. He would do all or any thing rather than yield to mutiny. Thus, while indulgent to the younger and less experienced officers, and willing to receive their tokens of contrition, he ordered the ringleaders into arrest, and sent them down the Ganges for trial at Calcutta. He did not shrink even from the bold measure of cashiering his second in command. His letters to the members of his Council at Calcutta breathe a no less determined tone. "I tell you again; "remember to act with the greatest spirit. If the ci *See vol. iv. p. 325. VOL. VII. 66 66 "vilians entertain the officers, dismiss them the service; "and if the latter behave with insolence or are refractory, make them all prisoners and confine them in the new fort. If you have any thing to apprehend, write me word, and I will come down instantly and bring "with me the Third Brigade, whose officers and men can "be depended upon."* 66 By such firmness was averted the shame of a successful mutiny,- a shame which, in Clive's own strong language, all the waters of the Ganges could never wash away. The privates showed no disposition to support their officers, and scarce any of the latter but displayed symptoms of repentance. Öf the chiefs of the mutiny at Monghir, who were sent away in boats for trial, many were seen to embark with tears in their eyes. The younger or less guilty officers, who at the outset had been threatened with death if they drew back, now pleaded with the greatest earnestness to be allowed to recall their resignations. In most cases, but always as an act of grace and favour, their humble supplications were allowed, while the remaining vacancies were filled by a judicious choice of subalterns, All this time the conduct of Clive was giving a lofty example of disregard to lucre. He did not spare his own personal resources, and was able some years afterwards to boast in the House of Commons, that this his second Indian command had left him poorer than it found him. His enemies might indeed observe, that the virtue of disinterestedness is not so hard to practise when a fortune of forty thousand pounds a year has been already gained. Yet still the fact remains, that when presents from one of the native Princes laid the foundations of his wealth the practice of receiving them was both usual and allowed, and that when it ceased to be at least the latter he stood firm against all temptation. In vain did the Rajah of Benares press upon him two diamonds of large size. In vain did the Nabob Visier produce a rich casket of jewels and offer a large sum of money. Lord Clive, thus wrote an officer by no means his friend from India, might then have added at least half a million to his fortune; and we Letter to Mr. Verelst, May 28. 1766. |