Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/740

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HISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book IIJ.

A.D. 17G7.

Clive's tenure of tlie j;ighire extended.

Power and

activity of his enemies

Important results of Clive's achieve- ments.

directors, took the initiative in recommending that the possession of the jaghire should be extended to him and his representatives ten years beyond the period which had been previously fixed, and a resolution to this effect was ultimately carried by the unanimous vote of a general court.

It is necessary to add, that this magnificent grant was accompanied with cir- cumstances which diminished the gratification derived from it. Clive had left India in miserable health, and had very imperfectly recovered on the homeward voyage. While he was thus suffering, fame and emolument were comparatively indifferent to him, and he appears to have been more offended at the hostility or lukewarmness of some on whose friendship he had calculated, than delighted at the universal recognition of his merit. The grant of the dewannee had rai.sed extravagant hopes in the proprietors, who had begun in consequence to clamour for a largely increased dividend. The directors, better acquainted with the actual position of the Company's affairs, were anxious for delay. The additional revenue confidently predicted had not yet been realized, and extraordinary expenses had been incurred which would more than absorb it for some time to come. The directors being thus opposed to the wishes of the proprietors, natur- ally endeavoured to justify their opposition by giving an unfavourable view of their finances. Some of them even, in order to justify this view, .spoke some- what disparagingly of their new territorial acqui.sitions, and objected to the extended grant of the jaghire as extravagant. Clive felt indignant, and hesi- tated not to say that the directors in thus acting were endeavouring to gain their own ends at his expense. This misunderstanding cooled some of his sup- porter.s, and made it more easy for his enemies to mature their meditated attack upon him. Not a few of those whose malversations he had punished in Bengal had returned to England with their ill-gotten gains, and become large pm'chasers of India stock. The influence which they acquired in this way was so great, that after an action had been raised for the pm'pose of obliging some of the greatest delinquents to disgorge the sums which they had illegally received in the name of presents, they succeeded in inducing the general court to recommend the with- drawal of the action, and guarantee them from future proceedings by a vote of indemnity. The sympathy with notorious delinquency manifested by this vote was ominous, and Clive, shattered in health and depressed in spirits, retired into the country, not without a strong presentiment of the harsh scrutiny to which, through the relentlessness of enemies and the lukewarmness of friends, his whole public life was soon to be subjected.

In consequence of the revolution effected by Clive's achievements in Bengal, a new era in the history of India commenced. On their original character of merchants the Company had engrafted that of conquerors, and were henceforth to rule with absolute sway over myriads who had previously known or heard of them only as traders. Hitherto, while the relation with the natives was of a less intimate and more precarious nature, they have occupied a very subordi-