Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

forward. A raft was launched on the water and profound policy. The town and its pom which filled one part of the ditch. Clive, perceiv-pous name, the pillar and its vaunting inscriping that his gunners at that post did not under- tions, were among the devices by which Dustand their business, took the management of pleix had laid the public mind of India under a piece of artillery himself, and cleared the raft a spell. This spell it was Clive's business to The natives had been taught that in a few minutes. Where the moat was dry, break. the assailants mounted with great boldness; France was confessedly the first power in EuNo measure could but they were received with a fire so heavy, rope, and that the English did not presume to and so well directed, that it soon quelled the dispute her supremacy. courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. be more effectual for the removing of this deThe rear ranks of the English kept the front lusion than the public and solemn demolition ranks supplied with a constant succession of of the French trophies. loaded muskets, and every shot told on the living mass below. After three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch. The struggle lasted about an hour. Four nundred of the assailants fell. The garrison The besieged passed lost only five or six men. an anxious night, looking for a renewal of the attack. But when day broke the enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, leaving to the English several guns and a large quantity of ammunition.

The news was received at Fort St. George with transports of joy and pride. Clive was justly regarded as a man equal to any command. Two hundred English soldiers and seven hundred sepoys were sent to him, and with this force he instantly commenced offensive operations. He took the fort of Timery, effected a junction with a division of Morari Row's army, and hastened by forced marches to attack Rajah Sahib, who was at the head of about five thousand men, of whom three hundred were French. The action was sharp; The but Clive gained a complete victory. military chest of Rajah Sahib fell into the hands of the conquerors. Six hundred sepoys who had served in the enemy's army, came over to Clive's quarters, and were taken into the British service. Conjeveram surrendered without a blow. The Governor of Arnee deserted Chunda Sahib, and recognised the title of Mohammed Ali.

Had the entire direction of the war been intrusted to Clive, it would probably have been brought to a speedy close. But the timidity and incapacity which appeared in all the movements of the English, except where he was personally present, protracted the struggle. The Mahrattas muttered that his soldiers were of a different race from the British whom they found elsewhere. The effect of this languor was that in no long time Rajah Sahib, at the head of a considerable army, in which were four hundred French troops, appeared almost under the guns of Fort St. George, and laid waste the villas and gardens of the gentlemen of the English settlement. But he was again encountered and defeated by Clive. More than a hundred of the French were killed or taken a loss more serious than that of thousands of natives. The victorious army marched from the field of battle to Fort St. David. On the road lay the City of the Victory of Dupleix, and the stately monument which was designed to commemorate the triumphs of France in the East. Clive ordered both the city and the monument to be rased to the ground. He was induced, we believe, to take this step, not by personal or national malevolence, but by a just

The government of Madras, encouraged by these events, determined to send a strong detachment, under Clive, to reinforce the garrison of Trichinopoly. But just at this conjunc ture, Major Lawrence arrived from England, and assumed the chief command. From the waywardness and impatience of control which had characterized Clive, both at school and in the counting-house, it might have been expected that he would not, after such achievements, act with zeal and good humour in a subordinate capacity.

But Lawrence had early treated him with kindness; and it is bare justice to Clive to say, that proud and overbearing as he was, kindness was never thrown away upon him. He cheerfully placed himself under the orders of his old friend, and exerted himself as strenuously in the second post as he could have done in the first. Lawrence well knew the value of such assistance. Though himself gifted with no intellectual faculty higher than plain good sense, he fully appreciated the powers of his brilliant coadjutor. Though he had made a methodical study of military tactics, and, like all men regularly bred to a profession, was disposed to look with disdain upon interlopers, he had yet liberality enough to acknowledge that Clive was an exception "Some people," he wrote, to common rules. "are pleased to term Captain Clive fortunate and lucky; but, in my opinion, from the knowledge I have of the gentleman, he deserved and might expect from his conduct every thing as it fell out;-a man of an undaunted resolution, of a cool temper, and a presence of mind which never left him in the greatest danger-born a soldier; for, without a military education of any sort, or much conversing with any of the profession, from his judgment and good sense, he led on an army like an experienced officer and a brave soldier, with a prudence that certainly warranted success.'

[ocr errors]

The French had no commander to oppose to the two friends. Dupleix, not inferior in talents for negotiation and intrigue to any European who has borne a part in the revolutions of India, was not qualified to direct in person military operations. He had not been bred a soldier, and had no inclination to become one. His enemies accused him of personal cowardice; and he defended himself in a strain wor thy of Captain Bobadil. He kept away from shot, he said, because silence and tranquillity were propitious to his genius, and he found it difficult to pursue his meditations amidst the noise of fire-arms. He was then under the ne cessity of intrusting to others the execution of his great warlike designs: and he bitterly complained that he was ill-served. He had indeed

Deen assisted by one officer of eminent merit, | one of the strongest in India, made a breach, the celebrated Bussy. But Bussy had marched and was on the point of storming, when the northward with the Nizam, and was fully em- French commandant capitulated and retired ployed in looking after his own interests, and with his men. those of France, at the court of that prince. Among the officers who remained with Dupleix, there was not a single man of talent; and many of them were boys, at whose ignorance and folly the common soldiers laughed.

The English triumphed everywhere. The besiegers of Trichinopoly were themselves besieged and compelled to capitulate. Churda Sahib fell into the hands of the Mahrattas, and was put to death, at the instigation probably of his competitor, Mohammed Ali. The spirit of Dupleix, however, was unconquerable, and his resources inexhaustible. From his employers in Europe he no longer received help or countenance. They condemned his policy. They allowed him no pecuniary assistance. They sent him for troops only the sweepings of the galleys. Yet still he persisted, intrigued, bribed, promised;-lavished his private fortune, strained his credit, procured new diplomas from Delhi, raised up new enemies to the government of Madras on every side, and even among the allies of the English Company. But all was in vain. Slowly, but steadily, the power of Britain continued to increase, and that of France to decline.

Clive returned to Madras victorious, but in a state of health which rendered it impossible for him to remain there long. He married at this time a young lady of the name of Maskelyne, sister of the eminent mathematician who long held the post of Astronomer-Royal. She is described as handsome and accomplished, and her husband's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he was devotedly attached to her.

Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive embarked with his bride for England. He returned a very different person from the poor, slighted boy who had been sent out ten years before to seek his fortune. He was only twenty-seven; yet his country already respected him as one of her first soldiers. There was then general peace in Europe. The Carnatic was the only part of the world where the English and French were in arms against each other. The vast schemes of Dupleix had excited no small uneasiness in the city of London; and the rapid turn of fortune which was chiefly owing to the courage and talents of Clive, had been hailed with great delight. The young captain was known at the India House by the honourable nick-name of General Clive, and was toasted by that appellation at the feasts of the Directors. On his arrival in England he found himself an object of general interest and admiration. The East India Company thanked him for his services in the warmest terms, and presented him with a sword set with diamonds. With rare delicacy, he declined to receive this token of gratitude, unless a similar compliment was paid to his friend and commander, Lawrence.

The health of Clive had never been good during his residence in India, and his constitution was now so much impaired that he determined to return to England. Before his departure he undertook a service of considerable difficulty, and performed it with his usual vigour and dexterity. The Forts of Covelong and Chingleput were occupied by French garrisons. It was determined to send a force against them. But the only force available for this purpose was of such a description, that no officer but Clive would risk his reputation It may easily be supposed that Clive was by commanding it. It consisted of five hun- most cordially welcomed home by his family, dred newly-levied sepoys and two hundred re- who were delighted by his success, though cruits who had just landed from England, and they seem to have been hardly able to comprewho were the worst and lowest wretches that hend how their naughty, idle Bobby had bethe Company's crimps could pick up in the come so great a man. His father had been flash-houses in London. Clive, ill and ex- singularly hard of belief. Not until the news hausted as he was, undertook to make an army of the defence of Arcot arrived in England of this undisciplined rabble, and marched with was the old gentleman heard to growl out, them to Covelong. A shot from the fort killed that after all the booby had something in him. one of these extraordinary soldiers; on which His expressions of approbation became strongail the rest faced about and ran away, and iter and stronger as news arrived of one brilwas with the greatest difficulty that Clive rallied them. On another occasion the noise of a gun terrified the sentinels so much that one of them was found, some hours later, at the bottom of a well. Clive gradually accustomed them to danger, and by exposing himself constantly in the most periious situations, shamed them into courage. He at length succeeded in forming a respectable force out of his unpromising materials. Covelong fell. Clive learned that a strong detachment was marching to relieve it from Chingleput. He took measures to prevent the enemy from learning that they were too late, laid an ambuscade for them on the road, killed a hundred of them with one fire, took three hundred prisoners, pursued the fugitives to the gates of Chingleput, laid siege instantly to that fastness, reputed

liant exploit after another; and he was at length immoderately fond and proud of his son.

Clive's relations had very substantial rea sons for rejoicing at his return. Considerable sums of prize-money had fallen to his share, and he had brought home several thousands, some of which he expended in extricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, and in re deeming the family estate. The remainder he appears to have dissipated in the course of about two years. He lived splendidly, dressed gayly even for those times, kept a carriage and saddled horses, and, not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election followed by a petition.

the

At the time of the general election of 1754, the government was in a very singular state. There was scarcely any formal opposition. The Jacobites had been cowed by the issue of the last rebellion. The Tory party had fallen into utter contempt. It had been deserted by all the men of talents who had belonged to it, and had scarcely given a symptom of life during some years. The small faction which had been held together by the influence and promises of Prince Frederick had been disAlmost every public persed by his death. man of distinguished talents in the kingdom, whatever his early connections had been, was in office, and called himself a Whig. But this extraordinary appearance of concord was quite delusive. The administration itself was distracted by bitter enmities and conflicting pre-ed with the wreck of his immense fortune to tensions. The chief object of its members was to depress and supplant each other. The prime minister, Newcastle, weak, timid, jealous, and perfidious, was at once detested and despised by the most important members of his government, and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secretary at War. This able, daring, and ambitious man seized every opportunity of crossing the First Lord of the Treasury, from whom he well knew that he had little to dread and little to hope; for Newcastle was through life equally afraid of breaking with men of parts and of promoting them.

they hated, as the boldest and most subtle poli
tician, and the ablest debater among
Whigs; as the steady friend of Walpole, as
the devoted adherent of the Duke of Cumber-
land. After wavering until the last moment,
The consequence
they determined to vote in a body with the
prime minister's friends.
was, that the House, by a small minority, re-
scinded the decision of the committee, and
Clive was unseated.

Newcastle had set his heart on returning two members for St. Michael, one of those wretched Cornish boroughs which were swept away by the Reform Act in 1832. He was opposed by Lord Sandwich, whose influence had long been paramount there; and Fox exerted himself strenuously in Sandwich's behalf. Clive, who had been introduced to Fox, and very kindly received by him, was brought forward on the Sandwich interest, and was returned. But a petition was presented against the return, and was backed by the whole interest of the Duke of Newcastle.

Ejected from Parliament, and straitened in his means, he naturally began to look again towards India. The Company and the government were eager to avail themselves of his services. A treaty favourable to England had indeed been concluded in the Carnatic. Dupleix had been superseded, and had returnEurope, where calumny and chicanery soon hunted him to his grave. But many signs indicated that a war between France and Great Britain was at hand, and it was therefore thought desirable to send an able commander to the Company's settlements in India. The Directors appointed Clive Governor of Fort St. David. The king gave him the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, and in 1755 he again sailed for Asia.

The first service in which he was employed after his return to the East, was the reduction of the stronghold of Gheriah. This fortress, built on a craggy promontory, and almost surrounded by the ocean, was the den of a pirate named Angria, whose barks had long been the terror of the Arabian Gulf. Admiral Watson, who commanded the English squadron in the Eastern seas, burned Angria's fleet, while Clive attacked the fastness by land. The place soon fell, and a booty of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling was divided among the conquerors.

After this exploit Clive proceeded to his government of Fort St. David. Before he had been there two months, he received intelligence which called forth all the energy of his bold and active mind.

The case was heard, according to the usage of that time, before a committee of the whole Of the provinces which had been subject to House. Questions respecting elections were then considered merely as party questions. the house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Judicial impartiality was not even affected. Bengal. No part of India possessed such na Sir Robert Walpole was in the habit of saying tural advantages, both for agriculture and comThe Ganges, rushing through a hunopenly, that in election battles there ought to merce. be no quarter. On the present occasion the dred channels to the sea, has formed a vast excitement was great. The matter really at plain of rich mould, which, even under the issue was, not whether Clive had been proper- tropical sky, rivals the verdure of an English ly or improperly returned; but whether New-April. The rice fields yield an increase such castle or Fox was to be master of the new House as is elsewhere unknown. Spices, sugar, vegeof Commons, and consequently first minister. table oils, are produced with similar exubeThe contest was long and obstinate, and suc- rance. The rivers afford an inexhaustible supThe desolate islands along the cess seemed to lean sometimes to one side and ply of fish. sometimes to the other. Fox put forth all his sea-coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, rare powers of debate, beat half the lawyers in and swarming with deer and tigers, supply the the House at their own weapons, and carried cultivated districts with abundance of salt. division after division against the whole in- The great stream which fertilizes the soil is at fluence of the Treasury. The committee de- the same time the chief highway of Eastern On its banks, and on those of its cided in Clive's favour. But when the reso- commerce. lution was reported to the House, things took tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, the a different course. The remnant of the Tory most splendid capitals, and the most sacred Opposition, contemptible as it was, had yet shrines of India. The tyranny of man had for sufficient weight to urn the scale between the ages struggled in vain against the overflowing In spite of the Mussulman nicely balanced parties of Newcastle and Fox. bounty of nature. wcastle the Tories could only despise. Fox despot and of the Mahratta freebooter, Bengal

was known through the East as the garden of Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied exceedingly. Other provinces were nourished from the overflowing of its granaries; and the ladies of London and Paris were clothed in the delicate produce of its looms. The race by whom this rich tract was peopled, enervated by a soft climate and accustomed to peaceful avocations, bore the same relation to other Asiatics which the Asiatics generally bear to the bold and energetic children of Europe. The Castilians have a proverb, that in Valencia the earth is water and the men women; and the description is at least equally applicable to the vast plain of the Lower Ganges. Whatever the Bengalee does he does languidly. His favourite pursuits are sedentary. He shrinks from bodily exercise; and, though voluble in dispute and singularly pertinacious in the war of chicane, he seldom engages in a personal conflict, and scarcely ever enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether there be a hundred genuine Bengalees in the whole army of the East India Company. There never, perhaps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature and by habit for a foreign yoke.

use of ardent spirits, which inflamed his weak brain almost to madness. His chosen compa nions were flatterers, sprung from the dregs of the people, and recominended by nothing but buffoonery and servility. It is said that he had arrived at that last stage of human depravity when cruelty becomes pleasing for its own sake-when the sight of pain as pain, where no advantage is to be gained, no offence punished, no danger averted, is an agreeable excitement. It had early been his amusement to torture beasts and birds; and when he grew up, he enjoyed with still keener relish the misery of his fellow-creatures.

permission from the Nabob. A rich native whom he longed to plunder had taken refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered up. On such grounds as these Surajah Dowlah marched with a great army against Fort William.

From a child Surajah Dowlah had hated the English. It was his whim to do so; and his whims were never opposed. He had also formed a very exaggerated notion of the wealth which might be obtained by plundering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had they been even greater than he ima gined, would not compensate him for what he must lose if the European trade, of which Bengal was a chief seat, should be driven by his violence to some other quarter. Pretexts for The great commercial companies of Europe a quarrel were readily found. The English, had long possessed factories in Bengal. The in expectation of a war with France, had beFrench were settled, as they still are, at Chan-gun to fortify their settlement without a special dernagore, on the Hoogley. Lower down the stream the English had built Fort William. A church and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors of the East India Company, lined the banks of the river; and in the neighbourhood had sprung up a large and busy native town, where some Hindoo merchants of great opulence had fixed their abode. But the tract now covered by the palaces of Chowringhee contained only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A jungle, abandoned to water-fowls and alligators, covered the site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which is now daily crowded at sunset with the gayest equipages of Calcutta. For the ground on which the settlement stood, the English, like other great landholders, paid rent to the government; and they were, like other great landholders, permitted to exercise a certain jurisdiction within their domain.

The servants of the Company at Madras had been forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers. Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were terrified and bewildered by the approaching danger. The governor, who had heard much of Surajah Dowlah's cruelty, was frightened out of his wits, jumped into a boat, and took refuge in the nearest ship. The mili tary commandant thought that he could not do better than follow so good an example. The fort was taken after a feeble resistance, and great numbers of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Nabob seated himself with regal pomp in the principal hall of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in rank among the prisoners, to be brought before him. He abused the insolence of the English, and grumbled at the smallness of the treasure he had found, but promised to spare their lives, and retired to rest.

The great province of Bengal, together with Orissa and Bahar, had long been governed by a viceroy whom the English called Aliverdy Khan, and who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become virtually independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty descended to Then was committed that great crime, mehis grandson, a youth under twenty, who bore morable for its singular atrocity, memorable the name of Surajah Dowlah. Oriental des- for the tremendous retribution by which it was pots are perhaps the worst class of human be- followed. The English captives were left at ings; and this unhappy boy was one of the the mercy of the guards, and the guards deter worst specimens of his class. His under-mined to secure them for the night in the standing was naturally feeble, and his temper naturally unamiable. His education had been such as would have enervated even a vigorous intellect, and perverted even a generous disposition. He was unreasonable, because nobody ever dared to reason with him; and selfish, because he had never been made to feel himself dependent on the good-will of others. Early debauchery had unnerved his body and his mind. He indulged immoderately in the

prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and oo. structed. It was the summer solstice-the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarce. ly be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and the constant waving of fans.

The number of the prisoners was one hundred | She was placed in the harem of the prince, at and forty-six. When they were ordered to enter Moorshedabad.

the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were Surajah Dowlah, in the mean time, sen joking; and, being in high spirits on account letters to his nominal sovereign at Delhi, deof the promise of the Nabob to spare their scribing the late conquest in the most pompous lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity language. He placed a garrison in Fort Wil of the notion. They soon discovered their mis- liam, forbade any Englishman to dwell in the take. They expostulated; they entreated; but neighbourhood, and directed that, in memory in vain. The guards threatened to cut down of his great actions, Calcutta should thence. all who hesitated. The captives were driven forward be called Alinagore, that is to say, the into the cell at the point of the sword, and Port of God. the door was instantly shut and locked upon In August the news of the fall of Calcutta them. reached Madras, and excited the fiercest and Nothing in history or fiction-not even the bitterest resentment. The cry of the whole story which Ugolino told in the sea of ever-settlement was for vengeance. Within fortylasting ice, after he had wiped his bloody lips eight hours after the arrival of the intelligence, on the scalp of his murderer-approaches the it was determined that an expedition should be horrors which were recounted by the few sur- sent to the Hoogley, and that Clive should be at vivors of that night. They cried for mercy. the head of the land forces. The naval armaThey strove to burst the door. Holwell, who, ment was under the command of Admiral even in that extremity, retained some presence Watson. Nine hundred English infantryof mind, offered large bribes to the jailers. fine troops and full of spirit-and fifteen hunBut the answer was that nothing could be done dred sepoys, composed the army which sailed without the Nabob's orders, that the Nabob to punish a prince who had more subjects and was asleep, and that he would be angry if any- larger revenues than the King of Prussia or body awoke him. Then the prisoners went the Empress Maria Theresa. In October the mad with despair. They trampled each other expedition sailed; but it had to make its way down, fought for the places at the windows, against adverse winds, and did not reach Ben fought for the pittance of water with which gal till December. the cruel mercy of the murderers mocked The Nabob was revelling in fancied securi their agonies-raved, prayed, blasphemed―ty at Moorshedabad. He was so profoundly implored the guards to fire among them. The ignorant of the state of foreign countries, that jailers in the mean time held lights to the he often used to say that there were not ten bars, and shouted with laughter at the frantic thousand men in all Europe; and it had never struggles of their victims. At length the tu-occurred to him as possible, that the English mult died away in low gasps and moanings. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted the door to be opened. But it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on each side the heaps of corpses, on which the burning climate had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of the charnel-house. A pit was instantly dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and twenty-three in number, were flung into it promiscuously, and covered up.

But these things, which, after the lapse of more than eighty years, cannot be told or read without horror, awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom of the savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on the murderers. He showed no tenderness to the survivors. Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing was to be got, were suffered to depart; but those from whom it was thought that any thing could be extorted, were treated with execrable cruelty. Holwell, unable to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached him; threatened him, and sent him up the country in irons; together with some other gentlemen who were suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell about the treasures of the Company. These persons, still bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain and water, till at length the intercessions of the female relations of the Nabob procured their release. One Englishwoman had survived that night.

would dare to invade his dominions. But, though undisturbed by any fear of their military power, he began to miss them greatly. His revenues fell off; and his ministers succeeded in making him understand that a ruler may sometimes find it more profitable to protect traders in the open enjoyment of their gains than to put them to the torture for the purpose of discovering hidden chests of gold and jewels. He was already disposed to permit the Company to resume its mercantile operations in his country, when he received the news that an English armament was in the Hoogley. He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at Moorshedabad, and marched towards Calcutta.

Clive had commenced operations with his usual vigour. He took Budgebudge, routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered Cal cutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. The Nabob, already disposed to make some concessions to the English, was confirmed in his pacific disposition by these proofs of their power and spirit. He accordingly made over tures to the chiefs of the invading armament, and offered to restore the factory, and to give compensation to those whom he had despoiled.

Clive's profession was war; and he felt that there was something discreditable in an accommodation with Surajah Dowlah. But his power was limited. A committee, chiefly com posed of servants of the Company who had fled from Calcutta, had the principal direction of affairs; and these persons were eager to be restored to their posts, and compensated for their losses. The government of Madras, ap.

« AnteriorContinuar »