SIR JOHN MALCOLM'S LIFE OF LORD CLIVE.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW FOR January, 1840.]

guage, has never been very popular, and is now scarcely ever read.

ing our gratitude to the noble family to which the public owes so much useful and curious information.

We have always thought it strange that, while the history of the Spanish empire in America is so familiarly known to all the na- We fear that Sir John Malcolm's volumes tions of Europe, the great actions of our own will not much attract those readers whom countrymen in the East should, even among Orme and Mill have repe The materials ourselves, excite little interest. Every school- placed at his disposal by the late Lord Powis boy knows who imprisoned Montezuma, and were indeed of great value. But we cannot who strangled Atabalipa. But we doubt whe- say that they have been very skilfully worked ther one in ten, even among English gentlemen | up. It would, however, be unjust to criticise of highly cultivated minds, can tell who won with severity a work which, if the author had the battle of Buxar, who perpetrated the mas- lived to complete and revise it, would proba sacre of Patna, whether Surajah Dowlah ruled bly have been improved by condensation and in Oude or in Travancore, or whether Holkar by a better arrangement. We are more dis was a Hindoo or a Mussulman. Yet the vic-posed to perform the pleasing duty of expresstories of Cortes were gained over savages who had no letters, who were ignorant of the use of metals, who had not broken in a single animal to labour, who wielded no better weapons than those which could be made out of sticks, flints, and fish-bones, who regarded a horsesoldier as a monster, half man and half beast, who took a harquebusier for a sorcerer able to scatter the thunder and lightning of the skies. The people of India when we subdued them were ten times as numerous as the vanquished Americans, and were at the same time quite as highly civilized as the victorious Spaniards. They had reared cities larger and fairer than Saragossa or Toledo, and buildings more beautiful and costly than the cathedral of Seville. They could show bankers richer than the rich-work. Clive, like most men who are born with est firms of Barcelona or Cadiz; viceroys whose splendour far surpassed that of Ferdinand the Catholic; myriads of cavalry and long trains of artillery which would have astonished the Great Captain. It might have been expected that every Englishman who takes any interest in any part of history would be curious to know how a handful of his countrymen, separated from their home by an immense ocean, subjugated, in the course of a few years, one of the greatest empires in the world. Yet, unless we greatly err, this subject is to most readers not only insipid, but positively distasteful.

Perhaps the fault lies partly with the historians. Mr. Mill's book, though it has undoubt edly great and rare merit, is not sufficiently animated and picturesque to attract those who read for amusement. Orme, inferior to no English historian in style and power of painting, is minute even to tediousness. In one volume he allots, on an average, a closely printed quarto page to the events of every forty-eight hours. The consequence is that his narrative, though one of the most authentic and one of the most finely written in our lan

The Life of Robert Lord Clive; collected from the Family Papers, communicated by the Earl of Powis. By Major-General Sir JOHN MALCOLM, K. C. B. 3 vols. 8vo. London. 1836.

The effect of the book, even when we make the largest allowance for the partiality of those who have furnished and of those who have digested the materials, is, on the whole, greatly to raise the character of Lord Clive. We are far indeed from sympathizing with Sir John Malcolm, whose love passes the love of biographers, and who can see nothing but wisdom and justice in the actions of his idol. But we are at least equally far from concurring in the severe judgment of Mr. Mill, who seems to us to show less discrimination in his account of Clive than in any other part of his valuable

strong passions, and tried by strong tempta tions, committed great faults. But every person who takes a fair and enlightened view of his whole career must admit that our island, so fertile in heroes and statesmen, has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great either in arms or in council.

The Clives had been settled ever since the twelfth century on an estate of no great value near Market-Drayton, in Shropshire. In the reign of George the First this moderate but ancient inheritance was possessed by Mr. Richard Clive, who seems to have been a plain man of no great tact or capacity. He had been bred to the law, and divided his time between professional business and the avocations of a small proprietor. He married a lady from Manchester of the name of Gaskill and became the father of a very numerous family. His eldest son, Robert, the founder of the British empire in India, was born at the old seat of his ancestors on the 29th of September, 1725.

Some lineaments of the character of the man were early discerned in the child. There re main letters written by his relations when he was in his seventh year; and from these it ap pears that, even at that early age, his strong will and his fiery passions, sustained by a con stitutional intrepidity which sometimes seemed

hardly compatible with soundness of mind, haded 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 tem- breeze which springs up at sunset from the per such a fierceness and imperiousness that Bay of Bengal. The habits of these mercan he flies out on every trifling occasion." The tile grandees appear to have been more proold people of the neighbourhood still remem- fuse, luxurious, and ostentatious, than those ber to have heard from their parents how Bob of the high judicial and political functionaries Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of who have succeeded them. But comfort was Market-Drayton, and with what terror the inha- far less understood. Many devices which now bitants saw him seated on a stone spout near mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve the summit. They also relate how he formed health, and prolong life, were unknown. all the good-for-nothing lads of the town into a There was far less intercourse with Europe kind of predatory army, and compelled the than at present. The voyage by the Cape, shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples which in our time has often been performed and halfpence, in consideration of which he within three months, was then very seldom guarantied the security of their windows. He accomplished in six, and was sometimes prowas sent from school to school, making very tracted to more than a year. Consequently the little progress in his learning, and gaining for Anglo-Indian was then much more estranged himself everywhere the character of an ex- from his country, much more an oriental in ceedingly naughty boy. One of his masters, his tastes and habits, and much less fitted to it is said, was sagacious enough to prophesy mix in society after his return to Europe, than that the idle lad would make a great figure in the Anglo-Indian of the present day. the world. But the general opinion seems to have been that poor Robert was a dunce, if not a reprobate. His family expected nothing good from 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.

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 Deccan, 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 adventure Company was not, as now, to conduct the ju- picked up some knowledge of Portuguese, and dicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a spent all his pocket-money. He did not arrive great country, but to take stock, to make ad-in India till more than a year after he had left vances 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.

Madras, to which Clive had been appointed, was, at this time, perhaps, the first in importance of the Company's settlements. In the preceding century, Fort St. George had arisen on a barren spot, beaten by a raging surf; and in the neighbourhood of a town, inhabited by many thousands of natives, had sprung up, as towns spring up in the East, with the rapidity of the prophet's gourd. There were already in the suburbs many white villas, each surround

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 cli mate which can be rendered tolerable to a European only by spacious, and well-placed apartments. He had been furnished with let ters of recommendation to a gentleman who might have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. George he found that this gentleman had sailed for England. His shy and haughty disposition withheld him from introducing himself. He was several months in India before he became acquainted with a single family. The climate affected his health and spirits. His duties were of a kind ill suited to his ar dent and daring character. He pined for his home, and in his letters to his relations ex pressed his feelings in language softer and

more pensive than we should have expected, from the waywardness of his boyhood, or from the inflexible sternness of his later years. "I have not enjoyed," says he, "one happy day since I left my native country." And again, "I must confess, at intervals, when I think of my dear native England, it affects me in a very particular manner. . . . . If I should be so far blest as to revisit again my own country, but more especially Manchester, the centre of all my wishes, all that I could hope or desire for would be presented before me in one view."

One solace he found of the most respectable kind. The Governor possessed a good library, and permitted Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever possessed. As a boy he had been too idle, as a man he soon became too busy, for literary pursuits.

Madras to the English was by no means com patible. He declared that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his powers; that conquests made by the French arms on the continent of India were at the disposal of the Governor of Pondi cherry alone; and that Madras should be rased to the ground. Labourdonnais was forced to yield. The anger which the breach of the capitulation excited among the English was increased by the ungenerous manner in which Dupleix treated the principal servants of the company. The Governor and several of the 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 I 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 behaved to his schoolmasters, and was several times in danger of losing his situation. Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he attempted to destroy himself; and twice the pistol which he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This circumstance, it is said, affected him as a similar escape affected Wallenstein. After satisfying himself that the pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an exclamation, that surely he was reserved for some-proof by a desperate duel with a military bully thing great.

The circumstances in which he was now placed naturally led him to adopt a profession better suited to his restless and intrepid spirit than the business of examining packages and casting accounts. He solicited and obtained an ensign's commission in the service of the Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military career. His personal courage, of which he had, while still a writer, given signal

who was the terror of Fort St. David, speedily 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, as she has since become, more than a match He had been only a few months in the army on the sea for all the nations of the world to when intelligence arrived that peace had beer 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 shor 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 stipuated 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.

But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened the jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix, Governor of Pondicherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun to revolve giganic schemes, with which the restoration of

time to his desk. He again quitted it in orde, 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 pupu. 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 travellers 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 Cam. pania, 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 nistory, 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 Aurangzebe. separable from the domination of race over A series of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indorace. The conflicting pretensions of the lence and debauchery, sauntered away life in princes of the royal house produced a long secluded palaces, chewing bang, fondling conseries of crimes and public disasters. Ambi- cubines, and listening to buffoons. A series tious lieutenants of the sovereign sometimes of ferocious invaders had descended through aspired to independence. Fierce tribes of Hin- the western passes, to prey on the defenceless doos, impatient of a foreign yoke, frequently wealth of Hindostan. A Persian conqueror withheld tribute, repelled the armies of the go- crossed the Indus, marched through the gates vernment from their mountain fastnesses, and of Delhi, and bore away in triumph those trea poured down in arms on the cultivated plains. sures of which the magnificence had astounded In spite, however, of much constant misadmi- Roe and Bernier;-the Peacock Throne on nistration, in spite of occasional convulsions which the richest jewels of Golconda had been which shook the whole frame of society, this disposed by the most skilful hands of Europe, great monarchy, on the whole, retained, during and the inestimable Mountain of Light, which, some generations, an outward appearance of after many strange vicissitudes, lately shone in unity, majesty, and energy. But, throughout the bracelet of Runjeet Sing, and is now des the long reign of Aurungzebe, the state, not- tined to adorn the hideous idol of Orissa. The withstanding all that the vigour and policy of Afghan soon followed to complete the work of the prince could effect, was hastening to disso- devastation which the Persian had begun. The lution. After his death, which took place in warlike tribes of Rajpoots threw off the Musthe year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid. sulman yoke. A band of mercenary soldiers Violent shocks from without co-operated with occupied Rohilcund. The Seiks ruled on the an incurable decay which was fast proceeding Indus. The Jauts spread terror along the Jumwithin; and in a few years the empire had un-nah. The high lands which border on the gone utter decomposition. western seacoast of India poured forth a yet The history of the successors of Theodosius more formidable race;-a race which was bears no small analogy to that of the succes-long the terror of every native power, and 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

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 dominicas stretched across the Peninsula from sea t 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 sub ject to their rule was wasted by their incur sions. 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 redeeme.