Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/193

Book VII rowers or tackle; and, nevertheless, were not ready before the 6th of July, when they left Muxadavad; by which time the French party had got half-way to Patna.

The news of the battle of Plassy was brought to Calcutta on the 25th of June in a letter from Colonel Clive to Mr. Drake, the governor, who immediately communicated it to the council. The victory was deemed decisive; and all restraints of secrecy being now removed, the purport of the treaties were revealed by the members of the council to all they met. In a few minutes all the inhabitants of the town, impatient to hear or tell, were in the streets. The restitution of public and private property; the donations to the squadron, the army, and individuals; the grants to the company; the privileges to the English commerce; the comparison of the prosperity of this day with the calamities in which the colony was overwhelmed at this very season in the preceding year: in a word, this sudden reverse and profusion of good fortune intoxicated the steadiest minds, and hurried every one into the excesses of intemperate joy; even envy and hatred forgot their energies, and were reconciled, at least for a while, to familiarity and good-will; for every one saw that his own portion of advantages was intimately and inseparably blended with that of every other person in the settlement.

The Presidency immediately prepared a vessel to carry these welcome tidings to England. Mr. Maningham, who had been deputed from Fulta to Madrass, chancing to return at this time to Calcutta, was sent to Muxadavad, where Colonel Clive, Mr. Watts, and himself, were appointed to act as a committee in the management of all public affairs. Their first care was to get the money stipulated by the treaties. Roydoolub persisted in his assertions of the scantiness of Surajah Dowlah's treasury, and endeavoured to prove them by facts which were not true. At length, after a variety of discussions and equivocations, the committee by the 6th of July received, in coined silver, 7,271,666 rupees. This treasure was packed up in 700 chests, and laden in 100 boats, which proceeded under the care of soldiers to Nudiah; from whence they