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 before his departure from Bengal, in which he urged upon that statesman the policy of extending British rule in Bengal as opportunities offered, and of taking the conquests under the guardianship of the crown (, Life of Clive, ii. 119-25). At an early period Clive perceived the importance of placing the company's possessions in India under the controlling influence of one head. This policy had been recognised by the court nearly seventy years before by the appointments of Sir John Child [q. v.] and Sir John Goldsborough successively as captains-general, with supreme authority over the company's possessions throughout India ; but the arrangement had been allowed to lapse, and Clive, on becoming governor of Bengal, speedily discerned the evils which were likely to result from the three presidencies continuing entirely independent of each other. Clive does not appear at that time to have raised this question officially ; nor did he at any time make a definite recommendation that the appointment of governor-general should be created ; but in one of his letters to the court, on the occasion of his second appointment to the government of Bengal, he expressed the opinion that 'if ever the appointment of such an officer as governor-general should become necessary,' 'he ought to be established in Bengal, as the greatest weight of your civil, commercial, political, and military affairs will always be in that province' (ib. ii. 315). Olive's opinion of the administrative capacity of the court of directors as a governing body was at no time favourable. During his first government of Bengal he resented extremely the language of some of their despatches, and in a letter addressed to them not long before his departure, which was signed by four other members of the council, he administered to the court a rating in terms which have seldom been used by subordinate officers, however high in rank, when addressing official superiors. The result was the recall of all the members of council still in India who had signed the letter.

Clive left India for the second time on 25 Feb. 1760. The reception which he met with on his arrival in England was even more enthusiastic than that which had greeted him on his return a few years before. He was received with distinction by the king and by his ministers, and also by the court of directors, notwithstanding the letter which had given so much offence. The court during his absence had placed a statue of him in the India House, and had struck a medal in his honour. The estimation in which he was held by the authorities was fully shared by the country. The reports of Clive's victories had come at a time when the nation was smarting under disasters in other quarters, and made, it is probable, a greater impression than, brilliant as they were, might otherwise have been the case. Mr. Pitt, in a speech on the Mutiny Bill, described Clive as 'a heaven-born general,' contrasting his achievements with the disgraces which had attended the British arms elsewhere. There was at the same time a delay in conferring upon him other honours, for which it is difficult to account, unless it was caused by a long and serious illness which attacked him shortly after his arrival, and disabled him from appearing in public for nearly twelve months. However, in 1762 he was raised to the Irish peerage, with the title of Baron Clive of Plassey, and in 1764 he was created a knight of the Bath. In the year of his return he was elected member for Shrewsbury, which seat he retained until his death. He appears to have cultivated parliamentary interest, and had a not inconsiderable number of followers in the House of Commons, but did not take a prominent part in English politics. Overtures made to him by Lord Bute to support the government of which he was the head, Clive rejected, entertaining the greatest admiration for the political principles of Mr. Pitt, but finally connecting himself in the closest manner with George Grenville. When, however, the peace of Paris was about to be concluded, Clive offered to Lord Bute, and procured the adoption of, various suggestions regarding those provisions of the treaty which related to India ; the chief one being that the French should be required to keep no troops in Bengal or in the northern sirkars. India, indeed, was the sphere to which Olive's attention was almost wholly devoted. At the India House he exercised considerable influence, having invested a large sum in East India stock, and being able thereby to command a large number of votes. During the greater part of Olive's stay in England the chairman of the court of directors was Lawrence Sulivan, a person with whom Clive had carried on a most friendly correspondence when last in India, and who had welcomed him on his return with profuse expressions of admiration and esteem. Owing, however, to various causes, one of which, it would seem, was jealousy on the part of Sulivan of dive's influence, an estrangement took place and increased to such an extent, that when Clive, in 1764, was requested again to undertake the government of Bengal, he stated publicly at a meeting of the court of proprietors that he could not accept the office if Sulivan, whom he denounced as his inveterate enemy, retained the