Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/120

 hundred Europeans and eight hundred sepoys. The nawab then made overtures for peace, which, in opposition to the advice of Admiral Watson, Clive accepted, being anxious to withdraw his troops to the Carnatic, which was again threatened by the French. Before, however, leaving Bengal, he determined to attack Chandernagore, a French settlement near Calcutta, the capture of which had been urged upon him from Madras, on the ground that its retention by the French endangered the safety of Calcutta. This object was speedily and successfully accomplished by a joint military and naval operation ; but other circumstances occurred which delayed indefinitely the return of Clive and his troops to Madras. The nawáb, crafty as he was cruel, although he had outwardly assented to the attack upon Chandernagore, was found to be intriguing with the French, and by advancing a part of his army to Plassey again threatened Calcutta. Clive speedily came to the conclusion that there was no chance of permanent peace or safety for the English in Bengal as long as Suráj ud Dowlah continued on the throne. Taking advantage of an intrigue which had been set on foot by some of the nawab's principal officers who had been alienated from him by his vices, Clive resolved to dethrone him, and to replace him by Mir Jaffier, the commander of the nawab's troops, from whom he had received overtures. The events which followed included the most brilliant and the most questionable incidents in Clive's career. While his military reputation, already established, rose higher than ever, and while he developed a capacity for civil and political administration of the highest order, the fame of his exploits was tarnished by a breach of faith which it is impossible to justify, and by the acceptance of large sums of money from a native prince which afterwards formed the subject of damaging charges against him. The negotiations with Mir Jaffier were principally conducted through the agency of a Hindu named Omichand, who, after having entered into solemn engagements to support the English cause, threatened to divulge the intrigue to Suráj ud Dowlah, demanding thirty lakhs of rupees as the price of his silence. Clive met the demand by a fraud. It had been settled that a treaty should be drawn up embodying the terms upon which Mir Jaffier should be placed upon the throne, and Omichand had demanded that the payment to be made to him should be inserted in the treaty. In order to defeat the latter demand Clive had two treaties drawn up, one on white paper and the other on red paper. In the white treaty, which was the real one, no mention was made of the agreement with Omichand. In the red treaty, which was shown to Omichand, but which was not the document given to Mir Jaffier, the payment to be made to Omichand was set forth in full. It appears that Admiral Watson, who in all the operations in Bengal up to that time had been associated with Clive, declined to sign the red treaty, and that his signature was attached to it by another person by Clive himself according to Macaulay, but at all events by Clive's orders. On the strength of evidence subsequently given by Clive, Sir John Malcolm, who defends the transaction as a pious and necessary fraud, represents that Watson, while unwilling to affix his signature to the fictitious treaty, did not object to its being done for him. Having thus secured the silence of Omichand, and having arranged with Mir Jaffier that he should separate himself with a considerable body of troops from the nawab's army and join the English on their advance, Clive, on 12 June 1757, commenced the campaign, sending at the same time a letter to the nawab in which he arraigned him for his breach of treaty, and stated that he should 'wait upon him to demand satisfaction.' Clive's force, consisting of three thousand men, of whom less than a thousand were Europeans, reached Plassey on 23 June and found itself confronted by an army numbering forty thousand infantry, fifteen thousand cavalry, and fifty guns. Clive had previously been disquieted by apprehensions of treachery on the part of Mir Jaffier, who had not joined him as agreed, and on the 21st, on reaching the Hǘgli river a few miles distant from Plassey, he had called a council of war to discuss the question of an immediate attack. A majority of the council, including Clive, voted against the attack, but shortly afterwards Clive changed his mind and ordered the troops to cross the river on the following morning. Clive's small army had only time to take a few hours' rest in a grove which they occupied, when the battle commenced by a cannonade from the nawáb's artillery. Clive remained for some hours on the defensive, taking advantage of the grove in which his small force was posted, and which, by its trees and the mudbanks enclosing it, afforded an excellent position. His original intention was to delay his advance until night, and then to attack the enemy's camp ; but about noon they drew off their artillery, and Clive at once took possession of some eminences, from one of which a few guns, managed by Frenchmen, had caused considerable annoyance to his force. This movement brought out the enemy a second time ; but their heavy