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111ST(JRY OF INDIA.

[Book III.

Presents received by General Carnac.

A.D, 1765. Another present to a much larger amount, given him by Shah Alum, who.se necessitous circumstances must have made it verv inconvenient, was bestowed after he had received notice of the covenants. The sum was two lacs of rupees, equal, according to the rate of exchange at the time, to £23,333; making, with the previous present from Bulwant Sing, a total of £32,000, The latter present was so clearly illegal that Carnac accepted it, subject to the approval of the directors, and in the meantime lodged it in the treasury of the presidency To sanction such a present, at the very time when the signature of the cove- nants was enforced under the penalty of suspension from the service, was to establish a very extraordinary precedent ; and yet, in such different lights does the same thing appear, according as personal predilections are affected by it, that Clive strenuously supported the present in the following terms : — " I shall only say that Carnac has acted with such moderation and honour in the service of the Company, and with such good deference and attention towards his majesty the Great Mogul, that the directors must be the most ungrateful of men, if they do not by the return of this ship, or the first conveyance, order him this mone}', with a due encomium on his services, disinterestedness, and modesty." Truly, if Carnac, after pocketing one present, which was only saved from illegality by an accident, and hankering after another which was clearly illegal, and which the directors could not sanction without stultifying themselves, deserved such an encomium, Clive should not have boasted much of " cleansinor the Aucjean stable." In regard to the private trade, the regulations adopted were by no means such as might have been anticipated from the views which Clive had expressed before leaving .England. At that time he considered the abolition of it necessary in order "to strike at the root of the evil," whereas he fully sanc- tioned, if he did not actually originate a scheme by which the present trade, instead of being thrown open to all the inhabitants on equal teims, was con- verted, at least in three of its leading articles, into a rigorous monopoly in favour of the Company's servants. The scheme is said to have been rendered expedient in consequence of a most important change which took place at this time in the circumstances of the Company, and it is therefore only fair before judging of it to have this change fully in view. Treaty with The Empcror Shah Alum had, as we have seen, thrown himself on British the emperor projection, and entered into a treaty, in which the most important stipulations in his favour were that he should immediately be put in possession of Allahabad, and assisted in conquering all the territories which belonged to the Nabob of Oude. This was a very serious undertaking, though there seemed httle reason to doubt that the army which had already achieved so many successes would be able to accomplish it. The nabob, however, was determined not to yield with- out a struggle, and endeavoured to repair the disaster at Buxar, by forming alliances with Ghazi-u-din, the vizier (who, after murdering Alumgeer, usurped possession of the districts around Deliii), with certain of the Rohilla chiefs, and