//
bys
ilLSTOJiY Oh' INDIA.
[Book JIJ.
A.U. 1765.
Rflj;nl.'ition9 rcginliiig private tradint; and presents.
Olive's outward voyage.
His fir.st proceedings at Calcutta.
governor and council of Fort William, to regulate this important point in sudi a manner as may prevent all further disputes between the subaii and the Com- pany." In consequence of this recommendation, the previous orders of the directors were modified, and it was left to the governor and council, after " consulting the nabob, to form a jn-oper and equitable plan for carrying on the inland trade." On the subject of presents the orders of the directiji-s were more peremptory, and new covenants, dated May, 1704, were sent out to be executed by all servants, civil and military, of the Company, binding tiiem to pay to the Company all presents received from natives, if the amount exceeded 4000 rupees, and not to accept of any present exceeding 1000 rupees in value without the consent of the presidency.
Clive sailed from England on the 4th of June, 1704, and had so tedious a passage that he did not reach Madras till the 10th of April, 1765. Here he learned, for the first time, that the war in Bengal had been brought to a conclu- sion, and that the terms of peace were so completely in the power of the Com- pany, that it was "scarcely hyperbole to say, To-morrow the whole Mogul empire is in our power." In the same letter, written privately to Mr. Rous, chairman of the court, seven days after his arrival at Madras, he added, "We must become nabobs ourselves in fact, if not in name, perhaps totally so without di.sguise, but on this subject I cannot be certain tiU my arrival in Bengal." At this time, though he knew of Meer Jaffier's death, he was not aware of the steps which had been taken to appoint a successor ; but he was so satisfied thai the Company was about to enter on a new course of prosperity, which would greatly advance the value of its stock, that he wrote on the same day to his agent in London, desiring that whatever money he had in the public funds, or anywhere else, and as much as could be borrowed in his name, should be, " without loss of a minute, invested in East India stock."
Clive arrived in Calcutta on the 3d of May, and lost no time in commencing the exercise of his extraordinary powers. Some of the members of council, conscious of the awkward position in which they stood, were disposed to take advantage of some ambiguous expressions which occurred in the commission to the select committee, and to put their own interpretation upon them ; but Clive denied their right even to inquire, and gave them to understand that it would be full time to give their opinion when the select committee judged it necessary to ask it. By taking this high ground he intimidated the boldest of his opponents, though he at the same time provoked a hostility which afterwards followed him to England, and subjected him to imputations and insults which his proud spirit proved unable to endure. Difiiculties, however, so far from deterring him, only stimulated him to exertion. " I was determined," as he afterwards expressed it, " to do my duty to the public, though I should incur the odium of the whole settlement. The welfore of the Company required a vigorous exertion, and I took the resolution of cleansing the Augean stable."
