Outline Study of Macaulay's "Lord Clive" (THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, 1800-1859.) A. PREPARATORY WORK.-Character of the Essay; The Indian Empire of the British East India Company. B. FIRST READING.-Outline of the Essay; Study of the Text. C. SECOND READING.-Passages to Re-read in Class; Collateral Study Suggested by the Essay; Quoted Criticisms of the Essay. D. SUPPLEMENTARY WORK.-Test Questions; Theme Subjects. A. PREPARATORY WORK. CHARACTER OF THE ESSAY; THE INDIAN EMPIRE OF THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY. I. CHARACTER OF THE ESSAY. Note 1. Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive, the founder of British supremacy in India, was written in 1840 for the Edinburgh Review. The essay is nominally a review of "The Life of Robert Lord Clive," by Major-General Sir John Malcolm; but the brilliant review completely overshadows the book which suggested it. This is one of the greatest of Macaulay's essays, and is a remarkable example of the "fine writing" of the early Victorian period of letters. Every device known to the literary craftsman is used by the author to give color and emphasis to his paragraphs. The knowledge of East Indian history which he uses with such effect, was acquired by Macaulay during a four years' sojourn in the East as legal adviser to the Supreme Council in India. The essay is a perfect mine of information. Anyone who studies it attentively will find that he has acquired not a little knowledge of the rise of the Indian empire, and of what may be called the Constitutional History of English rule in the East. II. THE INDIAN EMPIRE. Note 2. The Indian Empire of the British East India Company, as founded by Clive and organized by him and his successor, Warren Hastings, lasted almost exactly one hundred years. It was essentially a government of conquest, more enlightened and less violently rapacious than the Asiatic dynasties which had preceded it, but constructed with a sole view to the profit of the company, its servants, and its supporters in Great Britain. This singularly constituted empire came to an end when its native soldiers conceived the idea of using the skill and discipline acquired in the Company's service for their own advantage. The great mutiny of the Bengal army in 1857 required the intervention of the British government for its suppression and aroused the British nation to a sense of responsibility in India. By act of Parliament in 1858, the rule of the East India company was swept away and with it the fiction of the Mogul Empire. Since that time India has been gov. erned as a "Crown Colony" of Great Britain, the title of Emperor of India, borne by the British sovereigns since 1877, being a title only. As a British colony, India has enjoyed internal peace and honest administration. B. FIRST READING. OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY; STUDY OF THE TEXT. I. OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY; STUDY OF THE Text. 1. Introduction. a. We have always thought it strange, that while the history of the Spanish empire in America is familiarly known to all the nations of Europe, the great actions of our countrymen in the East should, even among ourselves, excite little interest. (1) Concrete illustration of this topic sentence. (a) Conquests of India and Mexico compared. (2) Fault lies partly with the historians. Note 3. Montezuma, an Aztec war chief of Mexico when Suggestion 1. What does Macaulay say of the book of which 2. The Body of the Essay. Clive, like most men who are tried by strong temptations, committed grave faults; but every person must admit that England has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great either in arms or council. a. Clive's ancestry; his childhood and boyhood. The general opinion seems to be that poor Robert was a dunce, if not a reprobate. b. Clive as a clerk to the East India Company in Madras. (See c. II, 7.) (1) The East India Company. In 1743; in 1840. (2) Life of the Anglo-Indian. Describe Clive's position at Madras. (3) Description of Madras (Ma-drȧs'); Clive's position at Madras. (4) Government of the surrounding country; authority of the English within the fort. Note 4. The Deccan, The Carnatic, See Note 16. The Brazils in the plural used to be a common designation for Brazil. Suggestion 2. Study paragraphs seven and nine. Notice the effect produced by the use of short sentences. By what other device is paragraph nine made effective? c. Clive's Military Career (to 1754).-Founding a European Empire on the ruins of the Mogul monarchy. War between the English and the French companies trading in the East. (1) Labourdonnais, governor of Mauritius, compels Fort St. George to capitulate. (a) 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. (2) Dupleix (dü-plāks'), governor of Pondicherry (See Note 16), declares that conquests made by the French arms on the continent of India are at the disposal of the governor of Pondicherry alone. (a) Treatment of the officials of the East India Company. (b) Clive escapes in disguise; he obtains an ensign's commission in the service of the com pany; traits of character brought out by his new position. Note 5. Fort St. David is now a ruined town on the Coromandel coast of India, thirteen miles south of Pondicherry. (3) Dupleix is compelled to restore Madras to the English company. (4) The magnificence of the Mogul Empire under Baber; its government; its dissolution (The history of the forty years which followed the death of Aurungzebe). (a) Was the Mussulman or the Mahratta to be Lord of India? (b) But scarcely any man, however sagacious, Candahar. (Paragraph 22, last sen tence). Suggestion 3. What state of affairs in Europe made the capture of Madras possible? Give the location of Mauritia. Study paragraph 20. Notice the effect of the short sentences, of the cumulative enumeration of detail, of the wealth of allusion, of the forceful terminal sentence. Notice that in paragraph 22 the author anticipates his narrative and states the result of the struggle before he describes the events. Notice the grace and skill with which this paragraph is written. Consult your Atlas for the geographical names found in this portion of the text. Identify St. Peter's, Versailles, the Indus, Charlemagne. For the Indian names in these paragraphs, see c. II, 7. Macaulay compares the fall of the Moguls to the fall of what great European nation of earlier history? What interesting historical theory does Macaulay present in paragraph 17? Less than one hundred years ago marks what date? Note 6. The power of the Great Mogul had gradually fallen into the hands of his principal viceroys. The three greatest of these were the nawab of the Deccan, or south and central India, who ruled from Hyderabad, the nawab of Bengal, and the nawab of Oudh. The prize lay between Dupleix, who had the genius of an administrator, or rather an intriguer, but was no soldier, and Clive, the first of a century's brilliant succession of those "soldier-politicals," as they are called in the East, to whom Great Britain owes the conquest and consolidation of its greatest dependency.-Encyclopaedia Britannica. Note 7. Golconda, famous for its diamond mines; Inheritance of the house of Tamerlane, Persia, Central Asia, India; Was Mussulman or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India, i. e., Mohammedan or Hindoo; Bernier was court physician to Aurungzebe; Roe was ambassador to the court of the Great Mogul at Agra; Mountain of Light (The Kohinoor) was the name given to a famous diamond surrendered to the British crown on the annexation of the Punjab in 1849. It was found, according to Hindu tradition, in a Golconda mine, and has been the property of various Hindu and Persian rulers. It is said to have weighed more than 790 carets when found, and weighed 1861⁄2 carets when obtained by the British; but it has been reduced by cutting to 1064 carets. See Test Question 9. (5) The scheme of Dupleix. He was perfectly aware Nizam. (Par. 23.) (a) The arts both of war and policy. man. (Par. 23.) French (b) Opportunity presents itself in 1748 to make a nabob of the Carnatic, to make a viceroy of the Deccan, to rule under their names the whole of southern India. (c) The pretenders apply for assistance to the French. (d) Dupleix allies himself with the pretenders; the French win the battle; they become masters of almost every part of the Carnatic. Note 8. Eloquence of Burke. In his speech against Warren Hastings. (6) Dupleix is now the greatest potentate in India. (a) Exultation at Pondicherry; installation of the Nizam. (b) Dupleix is declared governor of India from the river Kristna to Cape Comorin: his powers. Suggestion 4. How large was the territory of which Dupleix was governor? Describe the festivities at Pondicherry. Give an example of the arrogant ostentation of Dupleix. |