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 •'>70 HISTORY OF INI HA. | liooK ill.

A. 1). 1757, evidently contemplating. Tiiey were for giving assistance only "as soon a« tli" nabob is secured." la other words, they were not disposed to act as principals in the conspiracy, ]>ut had no objections to countenance it, and take advantag*i

Irii^bT *^^ ^^ ^^ ^^'® event of its success. Such appears to have been their first view.

comediica but any scruples they had were afterwards overcome, and in their letter to the

parties to.

thecou- secret committee at home they advocate direct co-operation, arguing that from si'iracj. ^j^g detestation in which Surajah Dowlah was held, the conspiracy, or, as the rather choose to call it, the confederacy, must succeed; but that if they with- held their aid they could expect no advantages from such success; whereas, if they took a prominent part, they might look for remuneration for past losse.-. and full security against any future misfortune, similar to that to which the!:- weakness had before exposed them. The "prominent part" had always been Olive's wish, and he immediately began to prepare for it with all his charac- teristic energy. The tirst thing deemed necessary was to dissipate any sas- picions which the nabob had felt, and convince him that he might calculate on the British as sincere and faithful allies. In playing this deceitful game, Clivv^ was greatly aided by a letter which he received about this time from the Peishwa Bajee Rao, who, after expressing indignation at the treatment the English haii received from Surajah Dowlah, and offering to avenge their wrongs, pro- posed to invade Bengal. On condition of Chve's co-operation with his troop.*- he would repay double the amount of the losses that had been sustained, ana vest the commerce of the Ganges exclusively in the East India Company I'roposai Clive knew the character of the Mahrattas too well to invite them into Bengal,

Irom the ^

Mahrattas. and the Only use which he made of the Peishwa's letter was to send it to tlit- nabob. If it was spurious, as some suspected, and had been written at the suggestion of the nabob himself, as a means of sounding the Company, and ascertaining how far they were actuated by ambitious ^'iews, the return of the letter would be equivalent to taking him in his own snare ; if it was genuine, how could there be a greater proof of good faith than in preferring his alliance to the tempting offers of the Mahratta? "The letter," says Sir John Malcolm, " was genuine ; and the nabob expressed himself much gratified by the conduc' of Clive, who, on this occasion and others, endeavom'ed to remove the suspicions that Surajah Dowlah entertained of the designs of the confederates." One of the other methods which Clive took of removing the nabob's suspicious, or. as his biographer calls it, 'of luUing him into security," was as foUows: — Having sent back the Company's troops to Calcutta, and ordered those undev his own independent control into garrison, he observed in a letter to the nabob, "that while the armies continued in the field their enemies would be endeavour- ing to interrupt that perfect harmony and friendship which subsisted between them ; that he had therefore put his army into quarters ; and though he had no reason to doubt his excellency's strict adherence to, and full compliance with all the articles of the treaty, yet, nevertheless, he wished he could dis-