tense that he had for many years been obliged to have constant recourse to opium for relief. Toward the end of November, 1774, he had a very severe attack; he had recourse to large doses of laudanum, and in a paroxysm of pain he terminated his existence, on the 22nd of that month, having just completed the forty-ninth year of his age.

The name of Clive must ever stand prominent in British history, as that of the founder of an empire the most extraordinary that has ever appeared. As a military man, though he had not the opportunity of fighting great battles like Coote, his reputation stands high, for all the military virtues were united in him; he was, as his friend Lawrence declared, a born soldier. As a statesman, we think he has been underrated; his vision, it is said, was clear, but not extensive. It seems to us that it was nearly as extensive, as it was possible for that of a practical man to be at that time. It certainly did not penetrate vacancy, like that of Dupleix, and aim at the impossible; but his opinions on most questions of Indian policy were sound and judicious. In private life Clive was amiable, and strongly attached to his family and friends. That he was covetous of wealth is not to be denied ; but, like another eminent person, if "unsatisfied in getting, in bestowing he was most princely 6." He was untainted by the mean avarice that degraded Marlborough; if he loved wealth, it was not for itself, but for the dignity, power, and influence it bestowed. His example, no doubt, was injurious, and produced many mean imitators; but there was this essential difference, that Clive thought of the Company and his country first, and of himself last, and gave way, without a pang, where their interests were at variance; while the gentlemen at Calcutta and Madras seemed only concerned for their own gains, and heedless of all other interests.

CHAPTER XII.

Affairs in the Carnatic-Rajah of Tanjore-Mohammed Issoof-Mound of the Caveri-The Northern CircarsHyder Ally-His Early History-War with Hyder-Battle at Trinomalee-Siege of Amboor-Ill-success of the English-Conclusion of Peace-Affairs of Bengal.

WE now return to the coast of Coromandel, where, after the capture of Pondicherry, the English power had become supreme.

As the expenses of the war had been considerable, and it had ostensively been carried on for the advantage of Mohammed Ally, he was called on to repay them. Before the surrender of Pondicherry, he had made an offer to pay at the rate of twentyeight lacs of rupees a year; and, in case of that place being taken, if the Company would give him the aid of their forces, to make the renters and others pay up, he would discharge the whole in one year. Mr. Pigot wrote to him, agreeing to

6 Even before he got the jagheer he gave 50,000l., a sixth of his property, to his family and friends. A portion of it was devoted to the purchase of an annuity of 500l. a year for his old commander, Gen. Lawrence, and offered in so handsome a manner, that he could receive it without a blush.

these terms, and yet shortly after a demand was made on the Nabob for fifty lacs of rupees; and as no indulgence would be given, he was forced to borrow money at a most usurious rate, in order to discharge it. It was also stipulated that he should repay the expenses of the siege of Pondicherry, and to this he agreed, on condition of all the stores taken there being given up to him. These, however, the servants of the Company had appropriated to themselves; and on his complaint, they promised to allow him a certain sum for them in his account. But their masters no sooner heard that he had gotten credit for this sum in their books, than they ordered it to be recharged to him, and thus he lost the stores altogether.

The only way the Nabob saw of getting money, was by forcing it from those who were supposed to have it. As Mortiz Ally, of Vellore, was believed to have great treasure, he was the first object of attack. The English gave troops, and after a siege of three months the place was taken, but the wealth which it contained was far below what had been anticipated.

The conquest of Tanjore was what Mohammed Ally next proposed; but in this the English would not give him their aid. As the king of Tanjore was an independent prince, they offered their mediation, to which the Nabob yielded a most reluctant consent. It was arranged that the rajah should pay twenty-two lacs of rupees, in five instalments, as arrears; four lacs as a present; and four annually as tribute. When the Directors heard of this treaty, they expressed their opinion that the present of four lacs ought to have been given to the Company for their good offices, and directed that the twenty-two lacs should be paid to them, and credit given for them to the Nabob in his

account.

On the 10th February, 1763, peace was signed between France and England. By the eleventh article of the treaty, all the factories which the French possessed in India, in 1749, but not their subsequent acquisitions, were to be restored. They were not to keep troops, or erect fortifications in any part of the dominions of the Sûbahdâr of Bengal. Both crowns were to acknowledge Sala but Jung, as lawful Sûbahdâr of the Deckan, and Mohammed Ally, as lawful Nabob of the Carnatic.

As the English were able to dictate in the formation of this treaty, nothing could be more impolitic than the restoration of the French settleFrench government were guided by the judgment ments, in India. But while in this matter the of Bussy, the English ministry, as Lord Clive was in opposition, did not deign to ask his advice. He, however, wrote to Lord Bute, and it was on his inserted. It is a remarkable instance of the genesuggestion that the article relating to Bengal was ral ignorance, with respect to Indian affairs in Europe, that Salabut Jung is spoken of as Sûbahdâr of the Deckan, though in 1761, two years bebrother, Nizâm Ally. The effect of the treaty was fore, he had been dethroned and imprisoned by his to hasten his death; for Nizâm Ally, who had been hitherto restrained by dread of the French, seeing he had nothing to apprehend from them, caused him to be murdered.

The reader of Orme's interesting History must be familiar with the name of Mohammed Issoof. He had enlisted with Clive a little before the battle

A.D. 1765.

of Coverpauk, and he rose by his merit tili he came to be commander-in-chief of all the Sepoys in the service of the presidency. He was a cool resolute man, and eminently faithful to the Company. The chief scene of his exploits were Madura and Tinivelly, which countries, after the overthrow of the French, he offered to take as a renter. But from their wasted condition he was, it would seem, unable to raise any revenue; at least he had paid no rent. Accordingly, in August, 1763, the Nabob and Company sent a force to reduce him. But he was not a man to fall without a struggle; the month of October of the following year saw him still unsubdued, after causing his assailants great loss of men and treasure. Treachery, however, prevailed against him; a Frenchman named Marchand, who was in his service, betrayed him to the Nabob, who put him to death.

A dispute now arose between the Nabob and the rajah of Tanjore respecting the Mound of the Caveri. For the island of Seringham, as it is named, which is formed by the branches of the Caveri, runs very narrow toward its eastern extremity, and the long strip thus formed, and which is called the Mound, if not kept in constant repair, would be swept away, and the remaining waters of the Caveri be carried into the Coleroon or northern branch, and the lands of Tanjore thus be deprived of the waters necessary for their cultivation. The Nabob now asserted that the Mound belonged to him of right, as it really did, but the rajah insisted that he was bound to keep it in repair, and this it was not the Nabob's intention to do, as he plainly designed to let it be washed away. The English were obliged to interfere, and it was arranged that the Mound should be repaired by the rajah.

In 1765, Nizâm Ally, whom henceforth we shall call the Nizâm, invaded the Carnatic at the head of a large army, and committed great ravages; but he retired when he saw the forces of the English and the Nabob in the field. Clive, whose power over the emperor was absolute, easily procured a sunnud conferring the Carnatic on Mohammed Ally, independent of the Nizâm, and he also obtained a similar grant to the English of the four northern Circars. In March, 1766, General Calliaud was sent with a force to take possession of these provinces: but the Nizâm threatened to invade the Carnatic; and the government at Madras, who had an exaggerated idea of his power, agreed to pay him a large annual tribute, and as he had given one of the Circars as a jagheer to his brother Bazâlut Jung, not to claim it till after the death of that prince, and very unwisely, for it was well known that he was going to attack Mysore, they agreed to support him with their troops.

The person who now wielded the power of Mysore was one of those adventurers who, by dint of courage and capacity, joined with freedom from moral restraint, so frequently rise to empire in the East. His name was Hyder Ally Khân; he was the younger son of a man who, from the rank of a common peon, to which family misfortunes had reduced him, rose to that of a foujdar in the service of the Nabob of Sera. But misfortunes coming on his master, he lost his life in his defence, leaving a widow and two sons. Shabas, the elder of these sons, when he grew up, was recommended by his mother's brother to an officer in the service of

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the rajah of Mysore, and he soon rose to command. Hyder, the younger son, spent his time till he was seven-and-twenty between hunting and voluptuous living. He then joined his brother's corps as a volunteer in 1749, and distinguished himself so much at the siege of a Polygar's fort near Bangalore, that he drew on himself the notice of Nunjeraj, the commander, by whom he was speedily promoted.

The kingdom of Mysore was one of those Hindoo states which rose on the fall of Bejâyanugur in the 17th century. Its rajahs had consequently by this time sunk into imbecility, and as in the parallel case of the Marattas, their power had passed into the hands of their ministers. The holders of this power, at the present time, were two brothers named Deoraj and Nunjeraj, the latter of whom we have seen aiding the French at Trichinopoly, and in whose service Hyder Ally was engaged.

In 1755, Hyder was made foujdar of Dindigul, a fortress built on a high rock in the middle of a plain half-way between Madura and Trichinopoly. He had before this time organised a regular band of freebooters, "brave and faithful thieves," as Wilks styles them, who were bound to deliver up to him one-half of all the plunder they acquired 7, and with the aid of a wily brahman named Koonde Râo, he devised such a system of checks as made it almost impossible for them to defraud him. Having occasion to act against some refractory Polygars, he sent to court a flaming account of his successes, and of the difficulties he had surmounted, adding a formidable list of killed and wounded. A messenger was despatched with rich presents for the officers, and with money to give to each of the wounded men fourteen rupees a month till he should be cured. The actual number of these was sixty-seven, but on the inspection which took place Hyder mingled with them 700 men whose limbs were well swathed and bandaged. These passed muster with the rest, and Hyder drew the money for the whole, and he allowed the wounded men each seven rupees a month. Another trick which he played the government was, making what a native, who witnessed it, terms "a circular muster," that is, making 10,000 men be counted and passed as 18,000.

8

In this way Hyder went on augmenting his wealth, and increasing the number of his adherents. Meantime Deoraj retired from public cares, and left the whole burthen of them to Nunjeraj, Hyder's patron. In 1758, the troops, having mutinied for payment of their arrears, Hyder came to his aid, and by carefully going through the accounts (in which he was an adept), and thus reducing them, and by a partial payment he restored harmony. His rewards, in consequence, were ample; among others, Bangalore and its district were given to him as a jagheer. In the beginning of the following year the Marattas made an inroad, and when the army was ordered to march against them, most of the chiefs declared that they could not obey on account of the arrears due to the men. Hyder, who knew that the

7 Thus, in the confusion which ensued on the death of Nasir Jung, in 1750 (see p. 66), they contrived to carry off two camels laden with gold coin.

8 Though Hyder could neither read nor write, he had the power of making long arithmetical calculations in his mind, with great rapidity and correctness.

arrears were very small, offered to discharge them, He thus got the chief command, and most of the other commanders, who were of ancient families, then resigned. He soon brought the Marattas to terms, and, on his return to court, he was received with extraordinary honours, Nunjeraj, a thing unprecedented, even rising at his approach and embracing him.

Gratitude, of course, was not one of Hyder's virtues, and a scheme was soon concerted for the overthrow of his patron. The troops, as was arranged, came to Hyder and demanded their arrears of pay. He told them that he paid his own men regularly, and that it was not to him that the others were to look. They then requested that he would obtain payment from Nunjeraj; and several applications were made, but to no purpose, as there was really no money. They finally required that Hyder should go at their head and sit in dhurna at the house of Nunjeraj. With affected reluctance he complied; and the result was, that Nunjeraj, unable to satisfy them, told them that the rajah had taken the direction of his own affairs, and that he was retiring from public life. Some of the soldiers, as directed, then called out to remove the dhurna to the residence of the rajah. This was done, and the rajah having required Koonde Râo to be sent in to him, the brahmin returned with a promise that the demands of the troops should be satisfied, provided Hyder took an oath to renounce all connexion with the usurper Nunjeraj. With this hard condition, also, he was forced to comply, and he then was admitted to an audience. On coming out he tendered his personal security to the troops for their arrears, and it was cheerfully accepted, and thus ended the drama. Large assignments of revenue were made to him for that purpose, and thus more than half the rajah's dominions came under his control.

Beside the Brahmin, his chief coadjutor in this affair, had been a lady of the royal family, and she and Koonde Râo (who was now dewan) seeing that the power of Nunjeraj had fallen into the hands of a far abler man, conspired to overthrow him. Taking advantage of the absence of the greater part of his troops, while he was encamped with a small force under the walls of Seringapatam, the capital, the Brahmin caused a cannonade from all the works to be opened upon him. Hyder was sending for his friend the Brahmin, when he learned the truth. He then retired with his cavalry, leaving his family and his infantry behind. He was now thrown on the world, and having been defeated by some troops led by the Brahmin, he went unarmed and as a suppliant to the abode of Nunjeraj. Being admitted, he threw himself at his feet, imploring forgiveness, and ascribing all his misfortunes to his ingratitude to his benefactor, whom he entreated to resume his place at the head of the state. Nunjeraj, though he knew him, was deceived. He gave him his forces and the influence of his name; by means of forged letters Hyder frightened Koonde Râo away from his army, which he then attacked

9 That is, without tasting food, from which the person against whom it is done, is also expected to abstain. It is usual for creditors, who cannot obtain payment, to get a Brahmin to sit in dhurna at the door of the debtor for the guilt contracted; if the Brahmin should expire, it is of the deepest die,

and defeated. He was soon able to dictate terms to the rajah, one of which was, the surrender of Koonde Râo, whose life, however, he engaged to spare. Districts were then assigned for the support of the rajah and of Nunjeraj, and the fortunate Mussulman adventurer thus became in effect the sovereign of the Hindoo realm of Mysore. (1759.)

In 1761 Bazâlut Jung, for the sum of three lacs of rupees, made Hyder Nabob of Sera; and it was reduced by their united forces. Hyder continued to extend his conquests, and in 1763 he made himself master of the realm of Bednore, in whose capital he obtained a treasure which, he owned, chiefly led to his subsequent greatness. An invasion of the Marattas occupied him during the next year, and he was obliged to purchase their departure by the payment of thirty-two lacs of rupees, and the cession of some territory. In 1766 he made a descent on the western coast, and conquered Malabar. While he was there the rajah died; and he immediately sent orders for that prince's eldest son to succeed, and he resumed the districts which had been assigned for the support of the royal family, giving instead of them an annual pension.

In 1767 the Nizâm and the Marattas made war on Hyder Ally. The latter, with their usual celebrity, were the first to take the field. To impede their progress, Hyder laid waste the country in a fearful manner; but, unchecked by his measures, they still advanced, and reached Sera, where Hyder's brother-in-law surrendered to them the fort and district, without even a show of fighting. Hyder, now alarmed, made proposals to the Marattas, and they retired on being well paid.

The troops of the Nizâm, with an English force under Col. Joseph Smith, entered the territories of Mysore. Ere long, however, Smith saw reason to believe that their ally was playing the English false, and that he was actually in treaty with Hyder. He therefore kept his corps separate. As Col. Wood was advancing from Trichinopoly, he put his troops in motion to join him, and on the way (Sept. 3) he was attacked by Hyder with a large force. The action commenced at two, and ended at dusk, in the total defeat of the Mysoreans. As the British troops were in great want of provisions, and feared another attack, they made a forced march of twenty-seven hours for Trinomalee, not halting for either refreshment or repose. Here they had hoped to find abundance of provisions, but they were miserably disappointed; and leaving the sick and wounded in the town, Smith had to move his troops about in quest of supplies, while the country was scoured by 40,000 of the enemy's cavalry. Hyder and the Nizâm (for they were now allies) deferred making an attack, until the want of food should have reduced the strength of the English, but Smith was fortunate enough to discover some large hoards of grain, and thus his men were kept in a state of efficiency. On the 22nd the enemy commenced a distant cannonade on his left; in order to turn their left, he made a movement from his right round a hill; the enemy did the same, in order to intercept the English,

When the rajah and the ladies of the palace joined in entreaties for his life, Hyder replied, that he would not only spare it, but keep him like a parroquet. He kept his word, but not as they understood it, for he confined him in an iron cage.

A. D. 1767.

who they thought were retreating; and thus, to their mutual surprise, they encountered. The first struggle was for the hill, which Capt. Cooke secured for the English. The two armies were then drawn out in array of battle. The English had 1400 infantry and 30 cavalry, Europeans, 9000 Sepoys, and 1500 of Mohammed Ally's good-fornothing cavalry. The army of the allies is stated at 70,000, one half of which was cavalry. It was drawn up in a crescent, half-circling the British army. The English cannon having nearly silenced that of the enemy, was turned on the dense masses of their cavalry, who, having stood the fire for some minutes in the expectation of getting orders to charge, and receiving none, at length turned and fled. Hyder, who saw that all was lost, drew off his cannon, and advised the Nizâm to do the same; but he spurned at the idea, and declared that he would sooner perish. The approach of the English, however, abated his courage, and he soon was one of the most forward in flight. The victors captured 64 pieces of cannon; their loss was 150 men, that of the enemy was supposed to be 4000.

As the rains were approaching, the English went into cantonments. But the active Hyder continued his operations; and having reduced one or two small places, he proceeded to attack Amboor, which, seated on the summit of a granite mountain, was defended by Capt. Calvert, with a small garrison. Hyder having dismantled the lower fort, Calvert retired to the citadel. The Killidâr being discovered to be in correspondence with Hyder, he and his men were disarmed. Hyder, though disconcerted, continued to fire on the fort, and at length effected a breach, but in an inaccessible place. He made various attempts to surprise the fort, but in vain; and he offered Calvert a large sum of money and the command of half of his army, if he would surrender; but he was told to send no more such messages, if he respected the lives of his servants, as the bearers would be hanged in the breach 2. The siege had commenced on the 10th November; and on the 7th December, the troops of Col. Smith, marching to the relief of Amboor, were in sight. At their approach, Hyder retired, and ascending the Ghâts, quitted the Carnatic.

The Nizâm, weary of the war, had already entered into secret communication with Col. Smith. It came to the knowledge of Hyder, who affected not to be displeased regarding it, as being for their eventual advantage. The Nizâm, thus relieved from anxiety, speedily concluded a treaty, by which the revenues of the Carnatic Balagât, a country now held by Hyder, were transferred to the English, on their agreeing to pay the Nizâm seven lacs a year, and the Marattas their chout; and the tribute for the Circars was reduced from nine lacs perpetual to seven lacs a year for a term of six years.

While Hyder was engaged in the Carnatic, some of the Malabar chiefs resolved to make an effort to recover their independence. A force was sent by sea from Bombay to their aid. Mangalôr and some other places were taken; but an attempt on

2 It is lamentable to read that this gallant officer was afterwards tried by court-martial, and convicted, of defrauding the Company by false returns.

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Cananôr miscarried, with considerable loss. In May, 1768, Hyder suddenly appeared before Mangalôr, with an overwhelming force; and the English were obliged to quit the place with such precipitation, that they left behind them all their artillery and stores, and even their sick and wounded, consisting of 80 Europeans and 180 Sepoys. Hyder, declaring to the Malabar chiefs that he had found their country a source more of expense than profit, offered to give it up if paid his expenses; and he thus was enabled to retire with a large sum of money for the war against the English.

The war this year was adverse to the English, very much in consequence of the Presidency having imitated the practice of the jealous republics of Venice and the United Provinces, in sending two members of council to the army as fielddeputies, without whose consent no operations could be carried on. One of the first acts of these civilians was to cause the loss of the fort of Mulwâgul, by insisting on the European garrison being withdrawn, and their place supplied by some of the troops of Mohammed Ally. Col. Wood, in an attempt to recover it with a small force, fell in with the entire army of Hyder, and he was on the eve of being totally routed, when a stratagem of Capt. Brooke, who commanded the baggage-guard, turned the event of the contest. This officer, who had with him only four companies and two guns, drew these last by a circuitous and concealed route up to the summit of a flat rock, where they were to be served by the wounded artillerymen, while all the rest of the sick and wounded, who were able to move, were to swell the ranks on the summit. When all was ready, the guns opened a fire of grape on the enemy's left flank, and all, both sick and well, raised a shout of, "Hurra! Smith ! Smith!" Both sides thought Smith was arrived ; and Wood, taking advantage of the confusion it caused, drew up his men in such a manner that he was able to repel all Hyder's subsequent attacks, and force him to retire with loss 3.

Some time after, Col. Wood, by making an attempt to relieve Oosoor, which Hyder was besieging, left Bâglôr exposed to attack, of which the active enemy took advantage; and the consequence was, that two thousand persons lost their lives in the rush which they made to get into the fort when the Mysoreans entered the town. Wood, on his return from Oosoor, again fell in with Hyder's army, and would probably have been defeated, had not Major Fitzgerald, on hearing the firing, hastened to the spot with the other division of the English army; and Hyder retired at his approach. Wood, though brave even to temerity, was now in such a state of despondence that, on the representations of Fitzgerald, he was removed from the command, and ordered to proceed to Madras under arrest.

The forts held by the English were now falling everywhere into the hands of Hyder. In December he entered the district of Baramahâl; and, as he was advancing to the reduction of Eroad, he fell in with a party of 50 Europeans and 200 Sepoys, under Capt. Nixon. When the enemy advanced to the attack, the Europeans fired, and

3 The Romans defeated the Samnites by a similar stratagem. See our History of Rome, p. 157.

H

then rushed on with the bayonet. They perished, oppressed by numbers; the Sepoys were cut down in their ranks; and of the whole party no one escaped but Lieutenant Goreham, whose knowledge of the language enabled him to obtain quarter from one of Hyder's officers. Hyder then made Goreham translate into English a summons to Capt. Orton to surrender Eroad, inviting him at the same time to come in person to Hyder's tent, and assuring him of liberty to depart if a surrender could not be arranged. Strange to say, he came, and was of course detained; for, as Hyder alleged, and as we regret to say was the case, Capt. Robinson, the second in command, had been taken some time before, and was dismissed under parole not to serve again during the war. Hyder, however, offered Orton leave to depart, if he would write an order for the surrender of the place, the garrison having liberty to retire with their property to Trichinopoly. He at first refused, but finally consented; and Robinson actually obeyed the order! The garrison, as might have been expected, were marched prisoners to Seringapatam, and there Robinson ended his days in a dungeon. The same was the fate of the garrison of another fort, which surrendered on the condition of being allowed to depart on parole; Robinson's conduct, and that of the government who employed him, being in both cases Hyder's excuse.

Nearly all their previous acquisitions had now been wrested from the Company; and in the beginning of 1768, Hyder sent one of his generals to Madura and Tinnivelly, while he himself ravaged the country about the Caveri. The Presidency, partly to save the unfortunate peasantry from ruin, partly urged by want of money-for they had been obliged to suspend their investments for England, and even so they had not funds to carry on the war more than four months-made proposals for an accommodation. At Hyder's desire Capt. Brooke was sent to him, on whose report of his intentions, Mr. Andrews, a member of council, repaired to his camp, and returned with proposals to be submitted to the Council. These, however, being deemed inadmissible, hostilities were resumed. Col. Smith again took the command of the army; but no encounter of any moment occurred. In the latter end of March, when the two armies were about 140 miles south of Madras, Hyder, suddenly dismissing his infantry and the greater part of his cavalry, put himself at the head of 6000 horse, and, on the 29th, he appeared on Mount St. Thomas, near Madras, whence he despatched a letter to the governor, requesting that Mr. Dupré, a member of council, might be sent to him. As it was in Hy. der's power to plunder the town, ravage the country, and pillage and destroy the garden-houses of the president and council, before Smith's troops could arrive, his demand was complied with at once, and a treaty was concluded, of which the two principal articles were, a mutual restitution of conquests and mutual aid in defensive wars.

rectors threw much vague blame on them, especially for the very wisest part of their conduct, the conclusion of peace, which they said would tend to lower them in the eyes of the natives. The reply of the presidency was, that "they were compelled to make peace for want of money to wage war."

While such was the state of affairs in the Carnatic, Bengal was enjoying tranquillity. Clive had been succeeded by Mr. Verelst as chief governor; and at the close of the year 1769 this gentleman resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Cartier.

In 1767, the Dûranee Shah made the last of those expeditions with which India has been so often afflicted, from the mountains of Afghanistân. His march was directed for Delhi, in which case he would probably have encountered the troops of the English. But he did not come beyond the Punjâb, where he had some contests with the Sikhs. An expedition was soon after sent by the government of Calcutta to restore the rajah of Nepâl who had been expelled; but from the nature of the country it was unable to effect its purpose.

In 1768 came out a peremptory order to end the trade of the Company's servants in salt and the other articles, and to leave it entirely to the natives; the governor's one and one-eighth on the revenue was also to cease. To replace these, a commission of two and a half per cent. on the net produce of the dewannee revenues was granted, to be divided into one hundred equal shares, of which the governor was to have thirty-five, and others in proportion.

CHAPTER XIII.

Revenues of Bengal-Proceedings in England-Appointment of Supervisors-Distress of the Company - Bills regulating it-New Government of Bengal. WHEN Clive obtained the dewannee of Bengal for the Company, he expressed a decided opinion that, after paying all the expenses of government, it would leave a considerable annual surplus revenue. Had Clive remained in India, and had his plans and suggestions been acted on by the Directors at home, such might have been the result. But this, as we have seen, was not done; adequate salaries were not secured to the servants of the Company; the restrictions on private trade were withdrawn, and, moreover, a new mode of diverting to individuals a large share of the revenue sprang up. This was the civil and military charges for buildings, &c. "Every man now," says Clive," who is permitted to make a bill, makes a fortune."

The division of the powers of government between the Nabob and the Company was productive of mischief, and had its effect in diminishing the revenue, which was further reduced by the evasion of the payment of duties by the servants of the Company. Capital was continually going out of the country, for the investments to England and China, which now, instead of being purchased by goods and bullion sent from home, were to be fur

4 The President was Mr. Palk, a clergyman, and a relaive of Gen. Lawrence.

these revenues were every day more absorbed in the expenses of government, and checked or intercepted in the ways we have mentioned, the diffi