been assisted by one officer of eminent merit, the celebrated Bussy. But Bussy had marched northward with the Nizam, and was fully employed in looking after his own interests, and those of France, at the court of that prince. Among the officers who remained with Dupleix, there was not a single man of talent; and many of them were boys, at whose ignorance and folly the common soldiers laughed.

one of the strongest in India, made a breach, and was on the point of storming, when the French commandant capitulated and retired with his men.

Clive returned to Madras victorious, but in a state of health which rendered it impossible for him to remain there long. He married at this time a young lady of the name of Maskelyne, sister of the eminent mathematician who long held the post of Astronomer-Royal. She is described as handsome and accomplished, and her husband's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he was devotedly attached to her.

The English triumphed everywhere. The besiegers of Trichinopoly were themselves besieged and compelled to capitulate. Chunda Sahib fell into the hands of the Mahrattas, and was put to death, at the instigation probably of his competitor, Mohammed Ali. The spirit of Almost immediately after the marriage, Dupleix, however, was unconquerable, and his Clive embarked with his bride for England. resources inexhaustible. From his employers He returned a very different person from the in Europe he no longer received help or coun- poor, slighted boy who had been sent out ten tenance. They condemned his policy. They years before to seek his fortune. He was only allowed him no pecuniary assistance. They twenty-seven; yet his country already respectsent him for troops only the sweepings of the ed him as one of her first soldiers. There was galleys. Yet still he persisted, intrigued, then general peace in Europe. The Carnatic bribed, promised;-lavished his private for- was the only part of the world where the Engtune, strained his credit, procured new diplo-lish and French were in arms against each mas from Delhi, raised up new enemies to the government of Madras on every side, and even among the allies of the English Company. But all was in vain. Slowly, but steadily, the power of Britain continued to increase, and that of France to decline.

other. The vast schemes of Dupleix had excited no small uneasiness in the city of London; and the rapid turn of fortune which was chiefly owing to the courage and talents of Clive, had been hailed with great delight. The young captain was known at the India House by the honourable nick-name of General Clive, and was toasted by that appellation at the feasts of the Directors. On his arrival in England he found himself an object of general interest and admiration. The East India Company thanked him for his services in the warmest terms, and presented him with a sword set with diamonds. With rare delicacy, he declined to receive this token of gratitude, unless a similar compliment was paid to his friend and commander, Lawrence.

The health of Clive had never been good during his residence in India, and his constitution was now so much impaired that he determined to return to England. Before his departure he undertook a service of considerable difficulty, and performed it with his usual vigour and dexterity. The Forts of Covelong and Chingleput were occupied by French garrisons. It was determined to send a force against them. But the only force available for this purpose was of such a description, that no officer but Clive would risk his reputation It may easily be supposed that Clive was by commanding it. It consisted of five hun- most cordially welcomed home by his family, dred newly-levied sepoys and two hundred re- who were delighted by his success, though cruits who had just landed from England, and they seem to have been hardly able to comprewho were the worst and lowest wretches that hend how their naughty, idle Bobby had bethe Company's crimps could pick up in the come so great a man. His father had been flash-houses in London. Clive, ill and ex- singularly hard of belief. Not until the news hausted as he was, undertook to make an army of the defence of Arcot arrived in England of this undisciplined rabble, and marched with was the old gentleman heard to growl out, them to Covelong. A shot from the fort killed that after all the booby had something in him. one of these extraordinary soldiers; on which His expressions of approbation became strongall the rest faced about and ran away, and iter and stronger as news arrived of one brilwas with the greatest difficulty that Clive ral-liant exploit after another; and he was at lied them. On another occasion the noise of length immoderately fond and proud of his a gun terrified the sentinels so much that one of them was found, some hours later, at the bottom of a well. Clive gradually accustomed them to danger, and by exposing himself constantly in the most periious situations, shamed them into courage. He at length succeeded in forming a respectable force out of his unpromising materials. Covelong fell. Clive learned that a strong detachment was marching to relieve it from Chingleput. He took measures to prevent the enemy from learning that they were too late, laid an ambuscade for them on the road, killed a hundred of them with one fire, took three hundred prisoners, pursued the fugitives to the gates of Chingleput, laid siege instantly to that fastness, reputed

son.

Clive's relations had very substantial reasons for rejoicing at his return. Considerable sums of prize-money had fallen to his share, and he had brought home several thousands, some of which he expended in extricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, and in redeeming the family estate. The remainder he appears to have dissipated in the course of about two years. He lived splendidly, dressed gayly even for those times, kept a carriage and saddled horses, and, not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election followed by a petition.

they hated, as the boldest and most subtle poli tician, and the ablest debater among the Whigs; as the steady friend of Walpole, as the devoted adherent of the Duke of Cumberland. After wavering until the last moment, they determined to vote in a body with the prime minister's friends. The consequence was, that the House, by a small minority, rescinded the decision of the committee, and Clive was unseated.

Ejected from Parliament, and straitened in his means, he naturally began to look again towards India. The Company and the government were eager to avail themselves of his services. A treaty favourable to England had indeed been concluded in the Carnatic. Dupleix had been superseded, and had return

At the time of the general election of 1754, the government was in a very singular state. There was scarcely any formal opposition. The Jacobites had been cowed by the issue of the last rebellion. The Tory party had fallen into utter contempt. It had been deserted by all the men of talents who had belonged to it, and had scarcely given a symptom of life during some years. The small faction which had been held together by the influence and promises of Prince Frederick had been dispersed by his death. Almost every public inan of distinguished talents in the kingdom, whatever his early connections had been, was in office, and called himself a Whig. But this extraordinary appearance of concord was quite delusive. The administration itself was distracted by bitter enmities and conflicting pre-ed with the wreck of his immense fortune to tensions. The chief object of its members was to depress and supplant each other. The prime minister, Newcastle, weak, timid, jealous, and perfidious, was at once detested and despised by the most important members of his government, and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secretary at War. This able, daring, and ambitious man seized every opportunity of crossing the First Lord of the Treasury, from whom he well knew that he had little to dread and little to hope; for Newcastle was through life equally afraid of breaking with men of parts and of promoting them.

Newcastle had set his heart on returning two members for St. Michael, one of those wretched Cornish boroughs which were swept away by the Reform Act in 1832. He was opposed by Lord Sandwich, whose influence had long been paramount there; and Fox exerted himself strenuously in Sandwich's behalf. Clive, who had been introduced to Fox, and very kindly received by him, was brought forward on the Sandwich interest, and was returned. But a petition was presented against the return, and was backed by the whole interest of the Duke of Newcastle.

Europe, where calumny and chicanery soon hunted him to his grave. But many signs indicated that a war between France and Great Britain was at hand, and it was therefore thought desirable to send an able commander to the Company's settlements in India. The Directors appointed Clive Governor of Fort St. David. The king gave him the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, and in 1755 he again sailed for Asia.

The first service in which he was employed after his return to the East, was the reduction of the stronghold of Gheriah. This fortress, built on a craggy promontory, and almost surrounded by the ocean, was the den of a pirate named Angria, whose barks had long been the terror of the Arabian Gulf. Admiral Watson, who commanded the English squadron in the Eastern seas, burned Angria's fleet, while Clive attacked the fastness by land. place soon fell, and a booty of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling was divided among the conquerors.

The

After this exploit Clive proceeded to his government of Fort St. David. Before he had been there two months, he received intelligence which called forth all the energy of his bold and active mind.

The case was heard, according to the usage of that time, before a committee of the whole House. Questions respecting elections were Of the provinces which had been subject to then considered merely as party questions. the house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Judicial impartiality was not even affected. Bengal. No part of India possessed such naSir Robert Walpole was in the habit of saying tural advantages, both for agriculture and comopenly, that in election battles there ought to merce. The Ganges, rushing through a hunbe no quarter. On the present occasion the dred channels to the sea, has formed a vast excitement was great. The matter really at plain of rich mould, which, even under the issue was, not whether Clive had been proper- tropical sky, rivals the verdure of an English ly or improperly returned; but whether New-April. The rice fields yield an increase such castle or Fox was to be master of the new House as is elsewhere unknown. Spices, sugar, vegeof Commons, and consequently first minister. The contest was long and obstinate, and success seemed to lean sometimes to one side and sometimes to the other. Fox put forth all his rare powers of debate, beat half the lawyers in the House at their own weapons, and carried division after division against the whole influence of the Treasury. The committee decided in Clive's favour. But when the resolution was reported to the House, things took a different course. The remnant of the Tory Opposition, contemptible as it was, had yet sufficient weignt to turn the scale between the nicely balanced parties of Newcastle and Fox. wcastle the Tories could only despise. Fox

table oils, are produced with similar exuberance. The rivers afford an inexhaustible supply of fish. The desolate islands along the sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, and swarming with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated districts with abundance of salt. The great stream which fertilizes the soil is at the same time the chief highway of Eastern commerce. On its banks, and on those of its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, the most splendid capitals, and the most sacred shrines of India. The tyranny of man had for ages struggled in vain against the overflowing bounty of nature. In spite of the Mussulman despot and of the Mahratta freebooter, Bengal

was known through the East as the garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied exceedingly. Other provinces were nourished from the overflowing of its granaries; and the ladies of London and Paris were clothed in the delicate produce of its looms. The race by whom this rich tract was peopled, enervated by a soft climate and accustomed to peaceful avocations, bore the same relation to other Asiatics which the Asiatics generally bear to the bold and energetic children of Europe. The Castilians have a proverb, that in Valencia the earth is water and the men women; and the description is at least equally applicable to the vast plain of the Lower Ganges. Whatever the Bengalee does he does languidly. His favourite pursuits are sedentary. He shrinks from bodily exercise; and, though voluble in dispute and singularly pertinacious in the war of chicane, he seldom engages in a personal conflict, and scarcely ever enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether there be a hundred genuine Bengalees in the whole army of the East India Company. There never, perhaps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature and by habit for a foreign yoke.

use of ardent spirits, which inflamed his weak brain almost to madness. His chosen companions were flatterers, sprung from the dregs of the people, and recommended by nothing but buffoonery and servility. It is said that he had arrived at that last stage of human depravity when cruelty becomes pleasing for its own sake-when the sight of pain as pain, where no advantage is to be gained, no offence punished, no danger averted, is an agreeable excitement. It had early been his amusement to torture beasts and birds; and when he grew up, he enjoyed with still keener relish the misery of his fellow-creatures.

permission from the Nabob. A rich native whom he longed to plunder had taken refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered up. On such grounds as these Surajah Dowlah marched with a great army against Fort Wil

From a child Surajah Dowlah had hated the English. It was his whim to do so; and his whims were never opposed. He had also formed a very exaggerated notion of the wealth which might be obtained by plundering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had they been even greater than he imagined, would not compensate him for what he must lose if the European trade, of which Bengal was a chief seat, should be driven by his violence to some other quarter. Pretexts for The great commercial companies of Europe a quarrel were readily found. The English, had long possessed factories in Bengal. The in expectation of a war with France, had beFrench were settled, as they still are, at Chan-gun to fortify their settlement without a special dernagore, on the Hoogley. Lower down the stream the English had built Fort William. A church and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors of the East India Company, lined the banks of the river; and in the neigh-liam. bourhood had sprung up a large and busy na- The servants of the Company at Madras had tive town, where some Hindoo merchants of been forced by Dupleix to become statesmen great opulence had fixed their abode. But the and soldiers. Those in Bengal were still mere tract now covered by the palaces of Chow-traders, and were terrified and bewildered by the ringhee contained only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A jungle, abandoned to water-fowls and alligators, covered the site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which is now daily crowded at sunset with the gayest equipages of Calcutta. For the ground on which the settlement stood, the English, like other great landholders, paid rent to the government; and they were, like other great landholders, permitted to exercise a certain jurisdiction within their domain.

approaching danger. The governor, who had heard much of Surajah Dowlah's cruelty, was frightened out of his wits, jumped into a boat, and took refuge in the nearest ship. The military commandant thought that he could not do better than follow so good an example. The fort was taken after a feeble resistance, and great numbers of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Nabob seated himself with regal pomp in the principal hall of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in rank among the prisoners, to be brought before him. He abused the insolence of the English, and grumbled at the smallness of the treasure he had found, but promised to spare their lives, and retired to rest.

The great province of Bengal, together with Orissa and Bahar, had long been governed by a viceroy whom the English called Aliverdy Khan, and who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become virtually independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty descended to Then was committed that great crime, mehis grandson, a youth under twenty, who bore morable for its singular atrocity, memorable the name of Surajah Dowlah. Oriental des- for the tremendous retribution by which it was pots are perhaps the worst class of human be- followed. The English captives were left at ings; and this unhappy boy was one of the the mercy of the guards, and the guards deterworst specimens of his class. His under-mined to secure them for the night in the standing was naturally feeble, and his temper naturally unamiable. His education had been such as would have enervated even a vigorous intellect, and perverted even a generous disposition. He was unreasonable, because nobody ever dared to reason with him; and selfish, because he had never been made to feel himself dependent on the good-will of others. Early debauchery had unnerved his body and his mind. He indulged immoderately in the

prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and ob. structed. It was the summer solstice-the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and the constant waving of fans.

The number of the prisoners was one hundred | She was placed in the harem of the prince, at and forty-six. When they were ordered to enter Moorshedabad. the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated; but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon them.

Surajah Dowlah, in the mean time, sen letters to his nominal sovereign at Delhi, de scribing the late conquest in the most pompous language. He placed a garrison in Fort William, forbade any Englishman to dwell in the neighbourhood, and directed that, in memory of his great actions, Calcutta should thenceforward be called Alinagore, that is to say, the Port of God.

In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resentment. The cry of the whole settlement was for vengeance. Within fortyeight hours after the arrival of the intelligence, it was determined that an expedition should be sent to the Hoogley, and that Clive should be at the head of the land forces. The naval armament was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine hundred English infantryfine troops and full of spirit-and fifteen hundred sepoys, composed the army which sailed to punish a prince who had more subjects and larger revenues than the King of Prussia or the Empress Maria Theresa. In October the expedition sailed; but it had to make its way against adverse winds, and did not reach Ben gal till December.

Nothing in history or fiction-not even the story which Ugolino told in the sea of everlasting ice, after he had wiped his bloody lips on the scalp of his murderer-approaches the horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. They strove to burst the door. Holwell, who, even in that extremity, retained some presence of mind, offered large bribes to the jailers. But the answer was that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody awoke him. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They trampled each other down, fought for the places at the windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies-raved, prayed, blasphemed-ty implored the guards to fire among them. The jailers in the mean time held lights to the bars, and shouted with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At length the tumult died away in low gasps and moanings. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted the door to be opened. But it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on each side the heaps of corpses, on which the burning climate had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of the charnel-house. A pit was instantly dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and twenty-three in number, were flung into it promiscuously, and covered up.

But these things, which, after the lapse of more than eighty years, cannot be told or read without horror, awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom of the savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on the murderers. He showed no tenderness to the survivors. Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing was to be got, were suffered to depart; but those from whom it was thought that any thing could be extorted, were treated with execrable cruelty. Holwell, unable to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached him; threatened him, and sent him up the country in irons; together with some other gentlemen who were suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell about the treasures of the Company. These persons, still bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain and water, till at length the intercessions of the female relations of the Nabob procured their release. One Englishwoman had survived that night.

The Nabob was revelling in fancied securi at Moorshedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the state of foreign countries, that he often used to say that there were not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it had never occurred to him as possible, that the English would dare to invade his dominions. But, though undisturbed by any fear of their military power, he began to miss them greatly. His revenues fell off; and his ministers succeeded in making him understand that a ruler may sometimes find it more profitable to protect traders in the open enjoyment of their gains than to put them to the torture for the purpose of discovering hidden chests of gold and jewels. He was already disposed to permit the Company to resume its mercantile operations in his country, when he received the news that an English armament was in the Hoogley. He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at Moorshedabad, and marched towards Calcutta.

Clive had commenced operations with his usual vigour. He took Budgebudge, routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered Calcutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. The Nabob, already disposed to make some con cessions to the English, was confirmed in his pacific disposition by these proofs of their power and spirit. He accordingly made overtures to the chiefs of the invading armament, and offered to restore the factory, and to give compensation to those whom he had despoiled.

Clive's profession was war; and he felt that there was something discreditable in an accommodation with Surajah Dowlah. But his power was limited. A committee, chiefly composed of servants of the Company who had fled from Calcutta, had the principal direction of affairs; and these persons were eager to be restored to their posts, and compensated for their losses. The government of Madras, ap

prized that war had commenced in Europe, | and apprehensive of an attack from the French, became impatient for the return of the armament. The promises of the Nabob were large, the chances of a contest doubtful; and Clive consented to treat-though he expressed his regret that things should not be concluded in so glorious a manner as he could have wished. With this negotiation commences a new chapter in the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier, carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valour, the plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly regarded as a statesman; and his military movements are to be considered as subordinate to his political-quick observation, tact, dexterity, persevedesigns. That in his new capacity he dis- rance--and the Hindoo vices-servility, greediplayed great talents, and obtained great suc- ness, and treachery. cess, is undeniable. But it is also undeniable, that the transactions in which he now began to take a part, have left a stain on his moral character.

The negotiations beween the English and the Nabob were carried on chiefly by two agents-Mr. Watts, a servant of the Company, and a Bengalee of the name of Omichund. This Omichund had been one of the wealthiest native merchants resident at Calcutta, and had sustained great losses in consequence of the Nabob's expedition against that place. In the course of his commercial transactions, he had seen much of the English, and was peculiarly qualified to serve as a medium of communication between them and a native court. possessed great influence with his own race, and had in large measure the Hindoo talents

He

with the French authorities at Chandernagore. He invited Bussy to march from the Deccan to the Hoogley, and to drive the English out of Bengal. All this was well known to Clive and Watson. They determined accordingly to strike a decisive blow, and to attack Chandernagore, before the force there could be strengthened by new arrivals, either from the south of India or from Europe. Watson directed the expedition by water, Clive by land. The success of the combined movements was rapid and complete. The fort, the garrison, the artillery, the military stores, all fell into the hands of the English. Nearly five hundred European troops were among the prisoners.

The Nabob behaved with all the faithless. ness of an Indian statesman, and all the levity of a boy whose mind has been enfeebled by power and self-indulgence. He promised, We can by no means agree with Sir John retracted, hesitated, evaded. At one time he Malcolm, who is obstinately resolved to see advanced with his army in a threatening mannothing but honour and integrity in the con- ner towards Calcutta; but when he saw the duct of his hero. But we can as little agree resolute front which the English presented, he with Mr. Mill, who has gone so far as to say fell back in alarm, and consented to make that Clive was a man "to whom deception, peace with them on their own terms. The when it suited his purpose, never cost a pang." treaty was no sooner concluded, than he form Clive seems to us to have been constitutionally ed new designs against them. He intrigued the very opposite of a knave-bold even to temerity sincere even to indiscretion-hearty in friendship-open in enmity. Neither in his private life, nor in those parts of his public life in which he had to do with his countrymen, do we find any signs of a propensity to cunning. On the contrary, in all the disputes in which he was engaged as an Englishman against Englishmen-from his boxing-matches at school to the stormy altercations at the India House and in Parliament, amidst which his latter years were passed-his very faults were those of a high and magnanimous spirit. The truth seems to have been, that he considered Oriental politics as a game in which nothing was unfair. He knew that the standard of The Nabob had feared and hated the Engmorality among the natives of India differed lish, even while he was still able to oppose to widely from that established in England. He them their French rivals. The French were knew that he had to deal with men destitute of now vanquished; and he began to regard the what in Europe is called honour-with men English with still greater fear and still greater who would give any promise without hesita- hatred. His weak and unprincipled mind tion, and break any promise without shame--oscillated between servility and insolence. One with men who would unscrupulously employ day he sent a large sum to Calcutta, as part of corruption, perjury, forgery, to compass their the compensation due for the wrongs which he ends. His letters show that the great differ- had committed. The next day he sent a present ence between Asiatic and European morality of jewels to Bussy, exhorting that distinguished was constantly in his thoughts. He seems officer to hasten to protect Bengal "against to have imagined-most erroneously in our Clive, the daring in war, on whom," says his opinion that he could effect nothing against highness, "may all bad fortune attend." He such adversaries, if he was content to be bound ordered his army to march against the Engby ties from which they were free-if he went lish. He countermanded his orders. He on telling truth, and hearing none--if he ful- tore Clive's letters. He then sent answers in filled, to his own hurt, all his engagements the most florid language of compliment. He with confederates who never kept an engage- ordered Watts out of his presence, and threatment that was not to their advantage. Accord- ened to impale him. He again sent for him, ingly this man, in all the other parts of his life an and begged pardon for his intemperance. In honourable English gentleman and soldier, was the mean time, his wretched maladministra no sooner matched against an Indian intriguer | tion, his folly, his dissolute manners, and his than he became himself an Indian intriguer; love of the lowest company, had disgusted al: and descended, without scruple, to falsehood, classes of his subjects-soldiers, traders, civi. to hypocritical caresses, to the substitution of functionaries, the proud and ostentatious Modocuments, and to the counterfeiting of hands. hammedans, the timid, supple, and parsimonj