Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/705

 Ohai>. XII.

DISSENSIONS IN THE COUNCIL

G7I

acceptable. He had Leen brought from a diti'erent presidency, and was thus viewed by several members of the council as an intruder, who, without any better qualification than the recommendation of Olive, had broken in upon the rotation which nmst, sooner or later, have put them in possession of the highest object of tiieir ambition. Tims at the very time when the unsettled state of Meer Jaffier's government was held a sufficient grouml i'ov dethroning him, the council chamber of Calcutta was itself the scene of acrimonious discussions and violent dissensions. The governor from the very first had a bare majority, and was ere long left in a minority by the dismissal of his })rincipal supportei's. They had signed the remonstrance which Clive drew up before he sailed, and in which he complained in no measured terms of the language employed in the general letter of the directors. They in their turn were equally offended with the remonstrance, and vindicated their dignity by ordering that any one of the subscribers still in their service should forthwith be dismissed, and not only dismissed, but sent home to England. In this way some of the most experienced members of comicil were lost to it, at the time when they could least be spared, and were supplied in some instances by men equally devoid of experience and temper.

The kind of internal administration which Meer Cossim, now installed as nabob, was about to pursue, remained for a short time uncertain. Shah Alvun was again hovering on the frontier, and it Avas necessary, before settling the home government, to be relieved from the expense and alarm of a foreign war. Accordingly, Major Carnac, who had assumed the command of the Briti.sh army in India, fixed his head-quai-ters at Patna in the beginning of January, 1701, and as soon as the rains ceased, commenced the campaign. Shah Alum was only at a short distance to the west, and being overtaken before he could muster an adequate force, was easily defeated. Law had joined him with his Frenchmen, and was taken prisoner. Caniac's instructions were rather to neo^otiate than fiirht. An ofier of the dewannee had, as we liave already seen, been made to Clive; and Mr. Yansittart, following out his views, was disposed to think that the time when it would no longer be advisable to decline it, might soon arrive. But, even apart from this considera- tion, it seemed important to form such a connection with the emperor as would secure the sanction of his name to whatever measm-es it mifjht be thoujrht necessar}"^ to adopt. Carnac accordingly, instead of following up his victory, solicited an interview, and after some demur was permitted to visit Shah Alum

.VI). 1701.

DisseiiBioiiH in the lieu gal cuuiK'il.

Shah Alvm. — Froraa Uinil>H> miniature, copied in FrmcckUa't Lif« of Siiah Alum.

NegDtiatiiiii: with Shah .'Mum.