Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/686

 652

HISTORY (W INDIA.

[Book HI.

AT). 17:^8.

Complaint of Olive againiit Meenin.

New foiin of government tor Bengal presidency.

were deserted, the shops shut, many of the princiiud families were preparing to send away their effects, and signs of trepidation were everywhere apparent. On in(|uiry, he learned that Meernn, who w?i.s still more impatient than his father for the removal of Ramnarain and Roydulluh, had no .sooner learned that the latter was accompanying Clive in his return Uj the capital, than he quitted it with great precipitation, giving out that he had reason to saspect designs against his own life, and had therefore resolved to join his father. His conduct struck terror into the inhabitants, who .saw nothing before them but the devastation and bloodshed of a new revolution. Clive might well be angry, for the charge of treasonable designs was levelled at him a.s well as Roydullub, and he therefore wrote the nabob, complaining in the sharpest terms of Meerun's conduct, and declaring that he would no longer remain in Bengal .sacrificing zeal to distrust. This decided course broujjht both the nabob and Meemn to their senses, and they both apologized in the most submissive terms. The nabob, even abandoning his sports and intended pilgrimage, hastened home ; but Clive, still too much offended to desire an interview, had preA^ously set out for Cal- cutta, ordering 2000 of the sepoys to follow, and the rest, together with all the Europeans, to remain at Cossimbazar.

On the 20th of June, the Company's ship Hardwicke arrived from Eng- land, bringing accounts of the arrangements which the directors had made in consequence of the loss of Calcutta. By their first arrangement, made in August, 1757, they committed the government to a select committee of five, of whom Clive was to be pi-e.sident; but in the following November, they appointed a council of ten, in which the four senior members were to preside alternately each for three months. Intelligence of both aiTangements reached Calcutta for the first time by the Hardivicke, another vessel, though prexdously despatched with the August arrangement, not ha^^ng yet arrived The direc- tors had been legislating in the dark, and far from wisely. A rotatory govern- ment would have been, under any circumstances, a clumsy device, and the revolution which had recently taken place, but of which the directors were not cognizant, made it wholly impracticable. In this new and strangely constituted council, Clive had no place. It has been said that no slight was intended, as the directors had assumed, on wdiat must have appeared good groiuids, that he had returned to Madras. It would, however, have been at least more courteous to have acted on the supposition that cu-cumstances might have occurred to pre- vent his departure, and to have assigned him the place to which his past ser- vices entitled him. The appointment might have been made conditionally, on his being still in Bengal; and hence, even if his previous departure should have rendered the appointment ineffectual, it would stiU have been gratifying as a public testimony to his merit. It is certain that CHve himself felt aggrieved, and made no secret of it.

If Clive was indignant, the new members of council were above measure