breeze which springs up at sunset from the Bay of Bengal. The habits of these mercantile grandees appear to have been more profuse, luxurious, and ostentatious, than those of the high judicial and political functionaries who have succeeded them. But comfort was far less understood. Many devices which now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, and prolong life, were unknown. There was far less intercourse with Europe than at present. The voyage by the Cape, which in our time has often been performed within three months, was then very seldom accomplished in six, and was sometimes protracted to more than a year. Consequently the Anglo-Indian was then much more estranged hardly compatible with soundness of mind, had | ed by its garden, whither the wealthy agents begun to cause great uneasiness to his family. of the Company retired, after the labours of Fighting," says one of his uncles, " to which the desk and the warehouse, to enjoy the cool he is out of measure addicted, gives his temper such a fierceness and imperiousness that he flies out on every trifling occasion." The old people of the neighbourhood still remember to have heard from their parents how Bob Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of Market-Drayton, and with what terror the inhabitants saw him seated on a stone spout near the summit. They also relate how he formed all the good-for-nothing lads of the town into a kind of predatory army, and compelled the shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples and halfpence, in consideration of which he guarantied the security of their windows. He was sent from school to school, making very little progress in his learning, and gaining for himself everywhere the character of an ex-from his country, much more an oriental in ceedingly naughty boy. One of his masters, it is said, was sagacious enough to prophesy that the idle lad would make a great figure in the world. But the general opinion seems to have been that poor Robert was a dunce, if not a reprobate. His family expected nothing goodfrom such slender parts and such a headstrong temper. It is not strange, therefore, that they gladly accepted for him, when he was in his eighteenth year, a writership in the service of the East India Company, and shipped him off to make a fortune or to die of a fever at Madras. his tastes and habits, and much less fitted to mix in society after his return to Europe, than the Anglo-Indian of the present day. Within the fort and its precincts, the English governors exercised, by permission of the native rulers, an extensive authority. But they had never dreamed of claiming independent power. The surrounding country was governed by the Nabob of the Carnatic, a deputy of the Viceroy of the Decean, commonly called the Nizam, who was himself only a deputy of the mighty prince designated by our ancestors as the Great Mogul. Those names, once so august and formidable, still remain. There is still a Nabob of the Carnatic, who lives on a pension allowed to him by the Company, out of the revenues of the province which his ancestors ruled. There is still a Nizam, whose capital is overawed by a British cantonment, and to whom a British resident gives, under the name of advice, commands which are not to be disputed. There is still a Mogul, who is permitted to play at holding courts and receiv ing petitions, but who has less power to help or hurt than the youngest civil servant of the Company. + Far different were the prospects of Clive from those of the youths whom the East India College now annually sends to the Presidencies of our Asiatic empire. The Company was then purely a trading corporation. Its territory consisted of a few square miles, for which rent was paid to the native governments. Its troops were scarcely numerous enough to man the batteries of three or four ill-constructed forts, which had been erected for the protection of the warehouses. The natives, who composed a considerable part of these little garrisons had not yet been trained in the discipline of Europe, and were armed, some with Clive's voyage was unusually tedious even swords and shields, some with bows and ar- for that age. The ship remained some months rows. The business of the servants of the at the Brazils, where the young adventurer Company was not, as now, to conduct the ju-picked up some knowledge of Portuguese, and dicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great country, but to take stock, to make advances to weavers, to ship cargoes, and to keep a sharp look-out for private traders who dared to infringe the monopoly. The younger clerks were so miserably paid that they could scarcely subsist without incurring debt; the elder enriched themselves by trading on their own account; and those who lived to rise to the top of the service, often accumulated considerable fortunes. spent all his pocket-money. He did not arrive in India till more than a year after he had left England. His situation at Madras was most painful. His funds were exhausted. His pay was small. He had contracted debts. He was wretchedly lodged-no small calamity in a climate which can be rendered tolerable to a European only by spacious, and well-placed apartments. He had been furnished with letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might have assisted him; but when he landed Madras, to which Clive had been appointed, at Fort St. George he found that this gentleman was, at this time, perhaps, the first in import- had sailed for England. His shy and haughty ance of the Company's settlements. In the disposition withheld him from introducing himpreceding century, Fort St. George had arisen self. He was several months in India before on a barren spot, beaten by a raging surf; and he became acquainted with a single family. in the neighbourhood of a town, inhabited by The climate affected his health and spirits. many thousands of natives, had sprung up, as His duties were of a kind ill suited to his artowns spring up in the East, with the rapidity dent and daring character. He pined for his of the prophet's gourd. There were already in home, and in his letters to his relations exthe suburbs many white villas, each surround-pressed his feelings in language softer and MALCOLM'S LIFE OF CLIVE. more pensive than we should have expected, | Madras to the English was by no means com. from the waywardness of his boyhood, or from patible. He declared that Labourdonnais had the inflexible sternness of his later years. "I gone beyond his powers; that conquests made have not enjoyed," says he, "one happy day by the French arms on the continent of India since I left my native country." And again, were at the disposal of the Governor of Pondi"I must confess, at intervals, when I think of cherry alone; and that Madras should be rased my dear native England, it affects me in a very to the ground. Labourdonnais was forced to particular manner. . . . . If I should be so far yield. The anger which the breach of the cablest as to revisit again my own country, but pitulation excited among the English was inmore especially Manchester, the centre of all creased by the ungenerous manner in which my wishes, all that I could hope or desire for Dupleix treated the principal servants of the company. The Governor and several of the would be presented before me in one view." first gentlemen of Fort St. George were carried under a guard to Pondicherry, and conducted through the town in a triumphal procession, under the eyes of fifty thousand spectators. It was with reason thought that this gross violation of public faith absolved the inhabitants of Madras from the engagements into which they had entered with Labourdonnais. Clive fled from the town by night, in the disguise of a Mussulman, and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of the small English settlements subordinate to Madras. But neither climate, nor poverty, nor study, nor the sorrows of a homesick exile, could tame the desperate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official superiors as he had beThe circumstances in which he was now haved to his schoolmasters, and was several times in danger of losing his situation. Twice, placed naturally led him to adopt a profession while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he at- better suited to his restless and intrepid spirit tempted to destroy himself; and twice the pis- than the business of examining packages and tol which he snapped at his own head failed to casting accounts. He solicited and obtained go off. This circumstance, it is said, affected an ensign's commission in the service of the him as a similar escape affected Wallenstein. Company, and at twenty-one entered on his His personal courage, of After satisfying himself that the pistol was military career. really well loaded, he burst forth into an excla- which he had, while still a writer, given signal mation, that surely he was reserved for some-proof by a desperate duel with a military bully who was the terror of Fort St. David, speedily thing great. made him conspicuous even among hundreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his new calling other qualities which had not be fore been discerned in him-judgment, sagacity, deference to legitimate authority. He distin guished himself highly in several operations against the French, and was particularly no ticed by Major Lawrence, who was then con sidered as the ablest British officer in India. About this time an event, which at first seemed likely to destroy all his hopes in life, suddenly opened before him a new path to eminence. Europe had been, during some years, distracted by the war of the Austrian succession. George II. was the steady ally of Maria Theresa. The house of Bourbon took the opposite side. Though England was even then the first of maritime powers, she was not, He had been only a few months in the army as she has since become, more than a match on the sea for all the nations of the world to- when intelligence arrived that peace had been gether; and she found it difficult to maintain a concluded between Great Britain and France contest against the united navies of France Dupleix was in consequence compelled to re and Spain. In the eastern seas France ob-store Madras to the English Company; and the tained the ascendency. Labourdonnais, Go-young ensign was at liberty to resume his for vernor of Mauritius, a man of eminent talents mer business. He did indeed return for a short and virtues, conducted an expedition to the continent of India, in spite of the opposition of the British fleet-landed; assembled an army, appeared before Madras, and compelled the town and fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up; the French colours were displayed on Fort St. George; and the contents of the Company's warehouses were seized as prize of war by the conquerors. It was stipulated by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should remain in the hands of the French till it should be ransomed. Labourdonnais pledged his honour that only a moderate ransom should be required. time to his desk. He again quitted it in order to assist Major Lawrence in some petty hosti lities with the native., and then again returned to it. While he was thus wavering between a military and a commercial life, events took place which decided his choice. The politics of India assumed a new aspect. There was peace between the English and French crowns; but there arose between the English and French companies trading to the East, a war most eventful and important-a war in which the prize was nothing less than the magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane. The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom was so large a popu lation subject to a single prince, or so large revenue poured into the treasury. The beauty and magnificence of the buildings erected by the sovereigns of Hindostan, amazed even traveliers who had seen St. Peter's. The innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi, dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp of Versailles. Some of the great viceroys, who held their posts by virtue of commissions from the Mogul, ruled as many subjects and enjoyed as large an income as the King of France or the Emperor of Germany. Even the deputies of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand-duke of Tuscany and the Elector of Saxony. of the Pannonian forests. The Saracen ruled in Sicily, desolated the fertile plains of Campania, and spread terror even to the walls of Rome. In the midst of these sufferings, a great internal change passed upon the empire. The corruption of death began to ferment into new forms of life. While the great body, as a whole, was torpid and passive, every separate member began to feel with a sense, and to move with an energy all its own. Just here, in the most barren and dreary tract of European history, all feudal privileges, all modern nobility, take their source. To this point we trace the power of those princes who, nominally vassals, but really independent, long governed, with the titles of dukes, marquesses, and counts, almost every part of the dominions which had obeyed Charlemagne. There can be little doubt that this great empire, powerful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed than the worst governed parts of Europe now are. The admi- Such or nearly such was the change which nistration was tainted with all the vices of passed on the Mogul empire during the forty Oriental despotism, and with all the vices in-years which followed the death of Aurungzebe. separable from the domination of race over race. The conflicting pretensions of the princes of the royal house produced a long series of crimes and public disasters. Ambitious lieutenants of the sovereign sometimes aspired to independence. Fierce tribes of Hindoos, impatient of a foreign yoke, frequently withheld tribute, repelled the armies of the government from their mountain fastnesses, and poured down in arms on the cultivated plains. In spite, however, of much constant misadministration, in spite of occasional convulsions which shook the whole frame of society, this great monarchy, on the whole, retained, during some generations, an outward appearance of unity, majesty, and energy. But, throughout the long reign of Aurungzebe, the state, notwithstanding all that the vigour and policy of the prince could effect, was hastening to dissolution. After his death, which took place in the year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid. Violent shocks from without co-operated with an incurable decay which was fast proceeding within; and in a few years the empire had ungone utter decomposition. A series of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered away life in secluded palaces, chewing bang, fondling concubines, and listening to buffoons. A series of ferocious invaders had descended through the western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of Hindostan. A Persian conqueror crossed the Indus, marched through the gates of Delhi, and bore away in triumph those treasures of which the magnificence had astounded Roe and Bernier ;-the Peacock Throne on which the richest jewels of Golconda had been disposed by the most skilful hands of Europe, and the inestimable Mountain of Light, which, after many strange vicissitudes, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet Sing, and is now destined to adorn the hideous idol of Orissa. The Afghan soon followed to complete the work of devastation which the Persian had begun. The warlike tribes of Rajpoots threw off the Mussulman yoke. A band of mercenary soldiers occupied Rohilcund. The Seiks ruled on the Indus. The Jauts spread terror along the Jumnah. The high lands which border on the western seacoast of India poured forth a yet more formidable race;-a race which was the terror of every native power, and which yielded only, after many desperate and doubtful struggles, to the fortune and genius of England. It was under the reign of Aurungzebe that this wild clan of plunderers first descended from the mountains; and soon after his death, every corner of his wide empire learned to tremble at the mighty name of the Mahrattas. Many fertile viceroyalties were entirely subdued by them. Their dominions stretched across the Peninsula from sea to sea. Their captains reigned at Poonah, at Gaulior, in Guzerat, in Berar, and in Tanjore. Nor did they, though they had become great sovereigns, therefore cease to be freebooters. They still retained the predatory habits of their forefathers. Every region which was not subject to their rule was wasted by their incursions. Wherever their kettledrums were heard, the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and children to the mountains or the jungles-to the milder neighbourhood of the hyæna and the tiger. Many provinces redeemed The history of the successors of Theodosius bears no small analogy to that of the succes-long sors of Aurungzebe. But perhaps the fall of the Carlovingians furnishes the nearest parallel to the fall of the Moguls. Charlemagne was scarcely interred when the imbecility and the disputes of his descendants began to bring contempt on themselves and destruction on their subjects. The wide dominion of the Franks was severed into a thousand pieces. Nothing more than a nominal dignity was left to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple. Fierce invaders, differing | from each other in race, language, and religion, flocked as if by concert from the furthest corners of the earth, to plunder provinces which the government could no longer defend. The pirates of the Baltic extended their ravages from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, and at length fixed their seat in the rich valley of the Seine. The Hungarian, in whom the trembling monks fancied that they recognised the Gog and Magog of prophecy, carried back the plunder of the cities of Lombardy to the depth their harvests by the payment of an annual ransom. Even the wretched phantom who still bore the imperial title, stooped to pay this ignominious "black mail." The camp-fires of one rapacious leader were seen from the walls of the palace of Delhi. Another, at the head of his innumerable cavalry, descended year after year on the rice-fields of Bengal. Even the European factors trembled for their magazines. Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of Berar; and the name of the Mahratta ditch still preserves the memory of the danger. Wherever the viceroys of the Mogul retained authority they became sovereigns. They might still acknowledge in words the superiority of the house of Tamerlane; as a Count of Flanders or a Duke of Burgundy would have acknowledged the superiority of the most hopeless driveller among the later Carlovingians. They might occasionally send their titular sovereign a complimentary present, or solicit from him a title of honour. But they were in truth no longer lieutenants removable at pleasure, but independent hereditary princes. In this way originated those great Mussulman houses which formerly ruled Bengal and the Carnatic, and those which still, though in a state of vassalage, exercise some of the powers of royalty at Lucknow and Hyderabad. In what was this confusion to end? Was the strife to continue during centuries? Was it to terminate in the rise of another great monarchy? Was the Mussulman or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India? Was another Baber to descend from the mountains, and lead the hardy tribes of Cabul and Chorasan against a wealthier and less warlike race? None of these events seemed improbable. But scarcely any man, however sagacious, would have thought it possible, that a trading company, separated from India by fifteen thousand miles of sea, and possessing in India only a few acres for purposes of commerce, would, in less than a hundred years, spread its empire from Cape Comorin to the eternal snow of the Himalayas-would compel Mahratta and Mohammedan to forget their mutual feuds in common subjection-would tame down even those wild races which had resisted the most powerful of the Moguls; and, having established a government far stronger than any ever known in those countries, would carry its victorious arms far to the east of the Burrampooter, and far to the west of the Hydaspes-dictate terms of peace at the gates of Ava, and seat its vassals on the throne of Candahar. The man who first saw that it was possible to found a European empire on the ruins of the Mogul monarchy was Dupleix. His restless, capacious, and inventive mind had formed this scheme, at a time when the ablest servants of the English Company were busied only about invoices and bills of lading. Nor had he only proposed to himself the end. He had also a just and distinct view of the means by which it was to be attained. He clearly saw that the greatest force which the princes of India could bring into the field would be no match for a small body of men trained in the discipline, and guided by the tactics, of the West. He 319 saw also that the natives of India might, under The state of India was such that scarcely In the year 1748, died one of the most powerful of the new masters of India--the great Nizam al Mulk, Viceroy of the Deccan. His authority descended to his son Nazir Jung, Of the provinces subject to this high echary, the Carnatic was the wealthiest an de most extensive. It was governed by an ancient Nabob, whose name the English corrupted into Anaverdy Khan. But there were pretenders to the government both of the viceroyalty and of the subordinate province. Mirzapha Jung, a grandson of Ni. zam al Mnlk, appeared as the competitor of Na zir Jung. Chunda Sahib, son-in-law of a former Nabob of the Carnatic, disputed the title of Anaverdy Khan. In the unsettled state of Indian law, it was easy for both Mirzapha Jung and Clr.nda Sahib to make out something like a claim of right. In a society aitogether disor ganized, they had no difficulty in finding greedy adventurers to follow their standards. They united their interests, invaded the Carnatic, and applied for assistance to the French, whose fame had been raised by their success agains the English in the recent war on the coast of Coromandel. Nothing could have happened more pleasing to the subtle and ambitious Dupleix. To make Nabob of the Carnatic--to make a Viceroy of the Deccan, to rule under their names the whole of southern India;-this was indeed an attractive prospect. He allied himself with the pretenders, and sent four hundred French soldiers, and two thousand sepoys, disciplined after the European fashion, to the assistance of his confederates. A battle was fought. The French distinguished themselves greatly. Anaverdy Khan was defeated and slain. His son Mohammed Ali, who was afterwards well known in England as the Nabob of Arcot, and who owes to the eloquence of Burke a most unenviable immortality, fled with a scanty remnant of his army to Trichinopoly; and the conquerors became at once masters of almost every part of the Carnatic. its greatest triumph, by the fall of Nazir Jung and the elevation of Mirzapha, he determined to erect a column, on the four sides of which four pompous inscriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his victory to all the nations of the East. Medals stamped with emblems of his success were buried beneath the foundations of this stately pillar, and round it arose a town bearing the haughty name of Dupleix Fatihabad; which is, being interpreted, the City of the Victory of Dupleix. The English had made some feeble and irresolute attempts to stop the rapid and brilliant career of the rival Company, and continued to recognise Mohammed Ali as Nabob of the Carnatic. But the dominions of Mohammed Ali consisted of Trichinopoly alone; and Trichinopoly was now invested by Chunda Sahib and the French auxiliaries. To raise the siege seemed imThis was but the beginning of the greatness possible. The small force which was then at of Dupleix. After some months of fighting, Madras had no commander. Major Lawrence negotiation, and intrigue, his ability and good had returned to England; and not a single offifortune seemed to have prevailed everywhere. cer of established character remained in the Nazir Jung perished by the hands of his own settlement. The natives had learned to look followers; Mirzapha Jung was master of the with contempt on the mighty nation which was Deccan; and the triumph of French arms and soon to conquer and to rule them. They had French policy was complete. At Pondicherry seen the French colours flying at Fort St. all was exultation and festivity. Salutes were George; they had seen the chiefs of the Engfired from batteries, and Te Deum sung in all | lish factory led in triumph through the streets the churches. The new Nizam came thither of Pondicherry; they had seen the arms and to visit his allies; and the ceremony of his in-counsels of Dupleix everywhere successful, stallation was performed there with great pomp. Dupleix, dressed in the garb worn by Mohammedans of the highest rank, entered the town in the same palanquin with the Nizam, and in the pageant which followed, took precedence of all the court. He was declared Governor of India, from the river Kristna to Cape Comorin, with authority superior even to that of Chunda Sahib. He was intrusted with the command of seven thousand cavalry. It was announced that no mint would be suffered to exist in the Carnatic except that at Pondicherry. A large portion of the treasures which former Viceroys of the Deccan had accumulated, found its way into the coffers of the French governor. It was rumoured that he had received two hundred thousand pounds sterling in money, besides many valuable jewels. In fact, there could scarcely be any limit to his gains. He now ruled thirty millions of people with almost absolute power. No honour or emolument could be obtained from the government but by his intervention. No petition, unless signed by him, was even perused by the Nizam. while the opposition which the authorities of Madras had made to his progress, had served only to expose their own weakness, and to heighten his glory. At this moment, the valour and genius of an obscure English youth suddenly turned the tide of fortune. Clive was now twenty-five years old. After hesitating for some time between a military and a commercial life, he had at length been placed in a post which partook of both characters-that of commissary to the troops, with the rank of captain. The present emergency called forth all his powers. He represented to his superiors, that unless some vigorous effort were made, Trichinopoly would fall, the house of Anaverdy Khan would perish, and the French would become the real masters of the whole peninsula of India. It was abso lutely necessary to strike some daring blow. If an attack were made on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, and the favourite residence of the Nabobs, it was not impossible that the siege of Trichinopoly would be raised. The heads of the English settlement, now thoroughly Mirzapha Jung survived his elevation only alarmed by the success of Dupleix, and appre a few months. But another prince of the same hensive that, in the event of a new war be house was raised to the throne by French in-tween France and Great Britain, Madras fluence, and ratified all the promises of his pre- would be instantly taken and destroyed, apdecessor. Dupleix was now the greatest po-proved of Clive's plan, and intrusted the exetentate in India. His countrymen boasted that cution of it to himself. The young captain his name was mentioned with awe even in the was put at the head of two hundred English chambers of the palace of Delhi. The native soldiers, and three hundred sepoys armed and population looked with amazement on the pro-disciplined after the European fashion. Of gress which, in the short space of four years, the eight officers who commanded this little a European adventurer had made towards force under him, not a single one had ever dominion in Asia. Nor was the vainglorious been in action, and four of the eight were facFrenchman content with reality of power. He tors of the Company, whom Clive's example loved to display it with arrogant ostentation had induced to offer their services. The weabefore the eyes of his subjects and his rivals. ther was stormy; but Clive pushed on, through Near the spot where his policy had obtained thunder, lighting, and rain, to the gates of Ar |