Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/617

 Chap. X.J OMICHUND'S CASE. 583

important part which he had played in the revolution. A suspicion that some- .vd. itot. thing was wrong must have passed through his mind when, instead of being- invited to the carpet at the conference with the Seats, he was left to find a place for himself in the outward part of the hall. The cause of this treatment must now be explained.

While the conspiracy for the overthrow of Surajah Dowlah was in progress, omicimnds Omichund naturally expected an ample compensation for his services. He had suffered heavy loss from the plunder of Calcutta, and great injustice from the servants of the Company, who had imprisoned him on sus])icions, which if not groundless were never substantiated, and yet he had voluntarily taken ip his residence at Moorshedabad, and bect)me the most active agent in a conspiracy, which, had it been discovered, would have cost him his life. When the term reward is used in its ordinary moral sense, to designate what is due to merit, it is impossible to say that he deserved anything. Conspiracy, whatever be the form which it assumes, is a crime ; and the conspiracy in which Omichund took so active a part was carried out with a very large amount of treachery and per- jury, and for the most part from mercenary motives. Still Omichund was no worse than his fellow-conspirators; and therefore, while the fugitive governor of Calcutta and the other members of the select committee were putting in claims for tens of thousands, on the ground, as one of them expressed it, that "they had set the machine in motion," why should he, who had been so instrumental in keeping it going till the work was finished, be blamed for setting an extravagant value on his services? He is .said to have iisked a com- mission of five per cent, on all the sums found in Sm'ajah Dowlahs treasury. When he made this claim, he gave a significant hint, or rather uttered a direct menace, that if it were not granted he would compensate himself by divulging the conspiracy. It is doubtful if he ever made the menace in the serious sense in which Mr. Watts interpreted it, and most improbable that he would ever have given effect to it, as he was too acute not to perceive that Surajah Dowlahs overthrow was inevitable, and that therefore the ultimate effect of breaking with the conspirators would be his own ruin. Be this as it may, when Mr. Watts returned the public treaty, as finally revised, and con- taining an article stipidating a payment of thirty lacs (£300,000) to Omichund, tik st.puiat- the select committee could scarcely find therms strong enough to express their abhorrence of his rapacity, and their virtuous indignation at his threatened treachery. It was dangerous to expunge the article altogether, as in that case Omichund might be tempted to do his worst; and it appeal's to have been suggested, that as a kind of compromise the sum should be reduced from thirty to twenty Uics. It was reserved for the mind of Clive, ever fertile in expedients, to suggest a plan which would at once keep Omichund faithful to the conspiracy, and punish him for his real or fancied treachery.

Besides the public and private treaties above explained, there was, as luis