700
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book III.
A.D. 1766,
Abolition of double batta.
Tlie officers of the army mutiny in consequence
Jlutual en- gagements between the conspirators
habad was beyond the limits of the Company's territory, and it might be con- sidered while watching the threatened invasion of a large body of Mahrattajs to be actually in the field. On returning into cantonrnents it was to be reduced to single batta, while the brigades at Bankipore and Monghir were to draw half batta only. Within the presidency, except during marching or actual service, no batta at all was allowed.
The abolition took place at the time appointed, and with the supposed acqui- escence of the officers, who appeared to have abandoned the opposition which they had often threatened. Clive, delighted with the result, left Calcutta in the end of March, 1766, and proceeded northward with General Carnac, for the pur- pose of regulating the collections of revenue for the ensuing year. He was thus employed at Moorshedabad, when he was startled by a letter from the council at Calcutta, dated 19th April, inclosing a remonstrance against the reduction of batta, signed by nine captains, twelve lieutenants, and twenty ensigns of the third brigade, stationed, as we have seen, at Bankipore, in the neighbourhood of Patna. This was alarming : but the extent of the danger was not suspected till the 28th of April, when a letter was received from Sir Robert Fletcher, in com- mand of the j&rst brigade, stationed at Monghir. He stated that the officers seemed determined to make another attempt for the recovery of batta, and had intimated their intention to resign their commissions at the end of the month, though they would continue to serve in May as volunteers. This letter inclosed another from Sir Robert Barker, which mentioned in more explicit terms his discovery of a serious combination, which there was reason to apprehend was not confined to his own brigade. On further inquiry, it appeared that the com- bination extended to the whole army, and had originated at Monghir, as early as December, 17G5. It was, in fact, a regularly organized plot. The officers belonging to it took an oath binding them to secrecy, and to preserve, at the hazard of their own lives, the life of any one of their associates whom a court- martial might condemn to death. Each, moreover, engaged under a penalty of £500, not only to resign his commission, but not again to accept of it till double batta was restored. As an additional security, a fund was formed for the indem- nification of those who might be cashiered, or the purchase of commissions for them in the king's service. To this fund civilians were said to have subscribed to the amount of £16,000. At first the second brigade, stationed at Allahabad, refused to join in the plot. As they were actually in the field, an exception had been made in their favour, and the reduction of batta was not to take place in their case till they should be placed in cantonments. On this ground they stood aloof for a time, but ultimately the influence of the officers in the other brigades prevailed, and they made common cause with them. The number of commissions collected for resignation amounted to nearly 200.
Clive was just the man to deal with such a crisis. The only case in which he appears to have ever thought of concession v/as in that of the second brigade.
