Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/32

 8 BENGALI LITERATURE of undying military renown, was not directly productive of any fresh privilege to the English power; nor did it, in itself, affect the political destiny of Position of the Eng- the country. Clive himself did not না a soa ee perhaps know what he had won, century. although later on his tendeney to exaggerate the value of his services led him to magnify his achievements ; nor did the servants of the Company, at that time, attach much importance to this incident ; still less were they aware of any definite act of conquest usually associated with this battle. “The general idea” writes Luke Scrafton, who had intimate knowledge of the English affairs in 1757, ‘‘at this time entertained by the servants of the Company was that the battle of Plassey did only restore us to the same situation we were in before the capture of Calcutta; the Subah was conceived to be as independent as ever, and the English returned into their commercial character.” No fresh commercial privileges were asked of Mir Ja‘far nor were any wanted by the Company who were content with the terms granted to them in 1716.2 As yet there was hardly any important acquisition of territory by the Company who, more mind- ful of their commercial interests than anything else, chose to seek umbrage under the shadow of the Moham- medan power, itself declining. Even in 1765, Clive flattered himself that he had “ revived the power of the Great Mughal,’*® and for a long time after Plassey, 1 Luke Scrafton, Observations on Mr. Vansittart’s Narrative, p. 2, 2 Vansittart, A Narrative of the Transactions in Bengal, vol. i, p. 24. The treaty with Mir Ja‘far is given in Aichison, Collection of Treaties etc. Vol. I, p. 186; also Verelst, View of the Rise and Progress etc. of English Government of Bengal, p. 148-44. 3 Letter of the Governor and Select Committee to the Court, Sep. 30, 1765, quoted in Firminger, op. cit, p. Vill. ;