cial policy, as soon as he became Governor of Bengal, that it was as successful in India as that of another great finance minister's (the late Sir Robert Peel) was seventy years later, by his introduction of free trade in England,

CHAPTER XVII.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT AT CALCUTTA, TO THE DEATH OF NUND COMAR.

B

A.D. 1774-5.

EFORE continuing the history of Warren Hastings' rule in Bengal, it may be well to take a survey of the causes which led to the change in the administration of the presidency, and which resulted in the introduction of his unwearied foes into the Supreme Council of Calcutta, where for four years their conduct was such as to render it almost impossible for Hastings to continue in the presidential chair,

At the opening of the session of Parliament in 1772, when Hastings had been appointed to the presidency, the speech from the throne had recommended that some notice should be taken of Indian affairs. About two months later, Clive's old antagonist, Mr. Sullivan, then chairman of the Court of Directors, moved in the House of Commons for leave to bring in a bill "for the better regulation of the affairs of the East India Company and of their servants in India, and for the due administration of justice in Bengal." Sullivan's principal object was to shift all blame from the Court of Directors, and to throw it wholly and solely upon the servants of the

Company. With the unforgiving rancour of little minds, he could not forget the stigma with which Clive had marked his conduct as chairman (then an annual office) seven years before. It will be remembered that some years after Clive had quitted India on his first government of Bengal, the affairs of the Company had fallen into such confusion, through the incompetency of his successors in office, that, notwithstanding the iniquitous behaviour of the directors in endeavouring to rob Clive of the property which he had so fairly won by his brilliant services in India, and which compelled Clive to bring an action against the directors in order to recover his rights, they were forced to seek his aid as the only person competent to deal with the matter and to preserve the empire which he had so gloriously won to the British nation.

Clive, with the nobleness of his nature, at once acceded to their urgent request, generously offered to give up the estate of £30,000 per annum to the Company after a prescribed term of years, while at the same time he stated his resolute determination not to return to India so long as his enemy Sullivan held the office of chairman of the Company. Sullivan was infuriated at this open rebuke, and endeavoured to resist; but though he had a large party of adherents amongst the proprietors of Indian stock, not one could be found to back him in his insane project. Consequently Sullivan had to retire; Clive sailed for Calcutta, and our Indian Empire was saved. The time had now arrived when Sullivan hoped to obtain his revenge; and after using every means in his power to blacken Clive's reputation, Sullivan publicly

Clive as an Orator.

155

declared in the House of Commons that he was the fountain-head of all the mischief. Clive, who was then a member of the House, rose to speak in his own defence, and his speech astonished every one by its strong sense and high spirit. He had rarely addressed the House before, and then only in a negligent and off-hand manner. But now that his honour and property were aimed at, the victor of Plassey convinced the most distinguished speakers in that illustrious assembly that one who had become so great in arms was no less great in the art of oratory. The elder William Pitt, then Earl of Chatham, was that night under the gallery of the House of Commons, and he expressed his opinion. of the speech by declaring that it was "one of the most finished pieces of eloquence he had ever heard."

Although Clive was subjected by a Committee of the House of Commons to the most unsparing scrutiny of all the acts and motives by which he had effected the great revolution in Bengal, and thus laid the foundation of the British Empire in India, his foes were not permitted to triumph over him. The proceedings of the British House of Commons afforded an admirable foil to the wretched government of Louis XV., which, as Macaulay truly remarks, "had murdered directly or indirectly almost every Frenchman who had served his country with distinction in the East;" as when it was moved that Lord Clive had abused his powers and set an evil example to the servants of the public, the previous question was put and carried; while the motion that Lord Clive had rendered great and meritorious services to his

country was carried without opposition. And thus the malignant attack of Sullivan and his adherents completely broke down.

The embarrassments of the East India Company, through the desire of the directors to pay much higher dividends than they were fairly earning, just as certain bank directors have of late been endeavouring to do in this speculative age, and which has brought such distress and ruin on so many innocent families and individuals, had increased exceedingly after failing to obtain assistance from the Bank of England, as heretofore. Mr. Sullivan, as chairman of the Company, was compelled to announce to Lord North, then Prime Minister, that the insolvency and the ruin of the Company was inevitable if they were not allowed to borrow a million more from the confiding public. Thus it happened to the East India Company, as it has happened to others, both before and since, when reduced to the condition of borrowers, those from whom they asked money thought proper to give advice and to interfere in their affairs. Lord North received the application with cold reserve, and referred the directors to Parliament for the aid and assistance which they wanted.

After reducing their dividend from 12 to 6 per cent., the directors were compelled most unwillingly to apply to Parliament, which resulted in the Government agreeing to lend the Company £1,400,000 on the most severely just conditions, one of them being that the Company should never pay a dividend higher than 6 per cent. until the whole of the debt was discharged. Nor did Lord North cease his interference here. Clive and others had represented