Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/628

 o94i

HlSTOilY OF INDIA.

[booK IJI.

A.D. 1757.

Advantages gained by Company.

a delicate subject, which it wfjuld be imprxident to mention incidentally, and which it was then judged premature U> attempt to justify. The whole sum paid by Meer Jaffier to individuals, including the stij^ulation Uj the army and navy, but exclusive of that to the Comjtany, amounted — taking the rupee at the rate of exchange which it bcjre at the time to £1,238,575. Of this Clive received in his capacities as member of the select committee and commander- in-chief, and in the form of an unstipulated gratuitous donation, £234,000.

It is not easy to overrate the advantages which tlie revolution in Beiigal secured to the Company. The money mast have been sufficient to compen.saUj them for all their losses. All the land within the Mahratta Ditch, and for a circuit of 600 yards without it, granted them in absolute property, must have been, from its position, of great and increasing value, and the zeminflary, very vaguely described as including the countiy lying south of Calcutta, be- tween the lake and the river, as far as Culpee, must, notwithstanding the reservation of the customary payments, have added largely to their revenue, and still more largely to their power. The freedom of navigation was, moreover, secured by the stipulation that no forts should be erected on the banks of the river, from Hooghly downwards ; while the internal tiade was set free from all exactions and annoyances by the certainty that the Company's dustuks or passports would no longer be Hable to question, at least on frivolous ground.s. Instead of existing merely on tolerance as traders, the victory of Plassey had made them a great political power. They had unmade one nabob and made another ; and imless they were voluntarily to recede from the high position thus won for them, the three great provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa must henceforth acknowledge them as, to all intents, their lords paramount. Before proceeding to trace the further progress of this gi'eat revolution, it will be necessary to return to the Carnatic, which was likewise about to become the theatre of important events.

CHAPTER XI.

Affairs in the Carnatic.

Position of affairs in the Carnatic — Desultory warfare — Arrival of a French squadron — Lally, com- mander-in-chief of French forces — Naval action — Siege and capture of Fort St. David — Siege o! Tanjore — Siege of Madras — French reverses — Forde in the Northern Circars — Battle of Wandiwash — Siege and capture of Pondicherry — Destruction of French interests in the Deccan.

HE presidency of Madi-as, when they fitted out the expedition to Bengal, anticipated its return before the impending rupture between Great Britain and France should be actually declared, or at least in time to enable them to ward off the dangers with which they would in consequence be threatened. In this expectation, owing to the course of events in Bengal, they were disappointed.