Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/19

Rh encyaganist French influence in the three great provinces under these nawabs. But his merit lies especially in the ability and foresight with which he secured for his country, and for the good of the natives, the richest of the three, Bengal. First, as to Madras and the Deccan, Clive had hardly been able to commend himself to Major Stringer Lawrence, the commander of the British troops, by his courage and skill in several small engagements, when the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle forced him to return to his civil duties for a short time. An attack of the malady which so severely affected his spirits led him to visit Bengal, where he was soon to distinguish himself. On his return he found a contest going on between two s-jts of rival claimants for the position of viceroy of the Deccan, and for that of nawab of the Carnatic, the greatest of the subor dinate states under the Deccan. Dupleix, who took the part of the pretenders to power in both places, was carry ing all before him. The British had been weakened by the withdrawal of a large force under Admiral Boscawen, and by the return home, on leave, of Major Lawrence. But that officer had appointed Clive commissary for the supply of the troops with provisions, with the rank of captain. More than one disaster had taken place on a small scale, when Clive drew up a plan for dividing the enemy s forces, and offered to carry it out himself. The pretender, Chunda Sahib, had been made nawab of the Carnatic with Dupleix s assistance, while the British had taken up the cause of the more legitimate successor, Mahomed Ali. Chunda Sahib had left Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, to reduce Trichinopoly, then held by a weak English battalion. Clive offered to attack Arcot that he might force Chunda Sahib to raise the siege of Trichinopoly. But Madras and Fort St David could supply him with only 2^0 Europeans and 300 sepoys. Of the eight officers who led them, four were civilians like Clive himself, and six had never been in action. His force had but three field-pieces. The cir cumstance that Clive, at the head of this handful, had been seen marching during a storm of thunder and lightning, led the enemy to evacuate the fort, which the British at once began to strengthen against a siege. Clive treated the great population of the city with so much considera tion that they helped him, not only to fortify his position, but to make successful sallies against the enemy. As the days passed on, Chunda Sahib sent a large army under his son and his French supporters, who entered Arcot and closely besieged Clive in the citadel. An attempt to relieve him from Madras was defeated. Meanwhile the news of the marvellous defence of the English reached the Mahratta allies of Mahomed Ali, who advanced to dive s rescue. This led the enemy to redouble their exertions, but in vain. After for fifty days besieging the fort, and offering large sums to Clive to capitulate, they retired from Arcot. The brave garrison had been so reduced by the gradual failure of provisions that the sepoys offered to be content with the thin gruel which resulted from the boiling of the rice, leaving the grain to their European comrades. Of the 200 Europeans 45 had been killed, and of the 300 sepoys 30 had fallen, while few of the survivors had escaped wounds. In India, we might say in all history, there is no parallel to this exploit of 1751 till we come to the siege of Lucknow in 1857. Clive. now reinforced, followed up his advan tage, and Major Lawrence returned in time to carry the war to a successful issue. In 1754 the first of our Carnatic treaties was made provisionally, between Mr T. Saunders, the Company s resident at Madras, and M. Godeheu, the French commander, in which the English protege, Mahomed Ali, was virtually recognized as nawab, and both nations agreed to equalize their possessions. When war again broke out in 175G, and the French, during Clive s absence in Bengal, obtained successes in the northern districts, his efforts helped to drive them from their settlements. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 formally confirmed Mahomed Ali in the position which Clive had won for him. Two years after, the Madras work of Clive was completed by a firmaun from the emperor of Delhi, recognizing the British posses sions in Southern India. The siege of Arcot at once gave Clive a European reputa tion. Pitt pronounced the youth of twenty-seven who had done such deeds a &quot; heaven-born general,&quot; thus endorsing the generous appreciation of his early commander, Major Lawrence. When the Court of Directors voted him a sword worth 700, he refused to receive it unless Lawrence was similarly honoured. He left Madras for home, after ten years absence, early in 1753, but not before marrying Miss Margaret Maskelyne, the sister of a friend, and of one who was afterwards well known as astronomer royal. All his correspondence proves him to have been a good husband and father, at a time when society was far from pure, and scandal made havoc of the highest reputations. In after days, when Clive s uprightness and stern reform of the Company s civil and military services made him many enemies, a biography of him appeared under the assumed name of Charles Carradoli, Cent. All the evidence is against the probability of its scandalous stories being true. Clive s early life seems occasionally to have led him to yield to one of the vices of his time, loose or free talk among intimate friends, but beyond this nothing has been proved to his detriment. After he had been two years at home tie state of affairs in India made the directors anxious for his return. He was sent out, in 17 50, as governor of Fort St David, with the reversion of the government of Madra^, and he received the commission of lieutenant-colonel in the king s army. He took Bombay on his way, and there commanded the land force which captured Gheriah, the stronghold of the Mahratta pirate, Angria. In the distribu tion of prize money which followed this expedition he showed no little self-denial. He took his seat as goverm r of Fort St David on the day on which the nawab of Bengil captured Calcutta. Thither the Madras Government at once sent him, along with Admiral Watson. He entered on the second period of his career. Since, in August 1690, Job Charnock had landed at tlio village of Chuttanutti with a guard of one officer and 30 men, the infant capital of Calcutta had become a rich centre of trade. The successive nawabs or viceroys of Bengal had been friendly to it, till, in 1756, Suraj-ud-Dowlan succeeded his uncle at Moorshedabad. His predecessor s financial minister had fled to Calcutta to escape the extor tion of the new nawab, and the English governor refused to deliver up the refugee. Enraged at this, Suraj-ud- Dowlah captured the old fort of Calcutta on the 5t i August, and plundered it of more than two millions sterling. Many of the English fled to the ships and dropped down the river. The 146 who remained, were forced into &quot;the Black Hole&quot; in the stifling heat of the sultriest period of the year. Only 23 came out alive. The fleet was as strong, for those days, as the land force was weak. Disembarking his troops some miles below the city, Clive marched through the jungles, where he_lost his way owing to the treachery of his guides, but soon invested Fort William, while the fire of the ships reduced it, on the 2d January 1757. On the 4th February he defeated the whole army of the riawab, which had taken up a strong position just beyond what is now the most northerly suburb of Calcutta. The nawab hastened to conclude a treaty, under which favourable terms were conceded to the Company s trade, the factories and plundered property were restored, and an English mint was established. In the accompanying agreement, offensive and defensive, C appears under the name by which J.e was dwn; 