Page:History of the French in India.djvu/453

 GREAT QUALITIES OP DUPLEIX. 427 moment when his schemes were abont to blossom into chap. • IX golden fruit. But the effect of those schemes survived him. The ground he had so well watered and fertilised, 1754,, the capabilities of which he had proved, was almost immediately after his departure occupied by his rivals, and occupied with the immense result which is one of the wonders of the present age. Nor can we doubt that if Dupleix had had but two years more to mature his great schemes, the rich heritage of Bengal would have fallen to him instead of to his rivals. The possession of the Sirkars gave him an excellent basis from which to operate with the Subadar of Bengal, Bihar, and Orisa. Who can doubt but that had Chandranagar been under his control in 1757, he would have hesitated to unite with Siraj-a-daola to crush the English settlement on the Huglf, or that he would have crushed it Clive acted then as Dupleix with the prior opportunity would have acted before him. In this as on many subsequent occasions the spirit of the great Frenchman ruled in the camp of his rivals and successors. It is impossible to deny to Dupleix the possession of some of the greatest qualities with which man has ever been endowed. He was a great administrator, a diplo- matist of the highest order, a splendid organiser, a man who possessed supremely the power of influencing others. He had an intellect quick and subtle, yet large and capable of grasping ; an energy that nothing could abate ; a persistence, a determination, that were proof against every shock of fortune. He possessed a noble, generous, and sympathising nature ; he was utterly incapable of envy or jealousy ; * and was endowed besides with that the real reason of the quarrel between without examining them. No one Dupleix and La Bourdonnais, and ever charged him with being jealous have vindicated the character of the of Bussy ; yet Bussy had a far former from all the charges which greater influence in India than La the hatred and prejudices of the hour Bourdonnais. had heaped against him, and which
 * We have placed in its true light subsequent writers had repeated,