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the late divisions, and restore the former good understanding between them.

The admiral and Clive now resolved to attack the French settlements in Bengal. Their chief object was the reduction of Chandernagore, situated higher up the river than Calcutta. Colonel Clive began his march to Chandernagore, at the head of 700 Europeans and 1600 Indians. On his first arrival he took possession of all the outposts, except one redoubt mounted with eight pieces of cannon, which he left to be silenced by the admiral. On the 18th of March, Admirals Watson and Pocock arrived within two miles of the French settlement, with the Kent, Tiger, and Salisbury men-of-war, and found their passage obstructed by booms laid across the river, and several vessels sunk in the channel. These difficulties being removed, they advanced and drew up in a line before the fort, which they battered with great fury for three hours, while Colonel Clive was making his approaches on the land-side, and playing vigorously from the batteries he had raised. Their united efforts soon obliged the enemy to submission. A flag of truce was waved over the walls, and the place surrendered by capitulation. The keys were delivered to Captain Latham of the Tiger; and in the afternoon Colonel Clive, with the king's troops, took possession.

Success had hitherto attended all the operations of the British commanders. But however specious the nabob's promises were, they found him extremely dilatory in the execution of several articles of the treaty. The company's goods were still loaded with high duties, and several other infractions of the peace committed, upon such pretences as evidently demonstrated that he sought to come to an open rupture as soon as his projects were ripe for execution. Mr Watts, from time to time, sent intelligence of every transaction in the surajah's cabinet; and although that prince publicly declared he would cause him to be impaled as soon as the English troops should be put in motion within the kingdom of Bengal, he bravely sacrificed his own safety to the interest of the company, and exhorted them to proceed with vigour in their military operations. During these deliberations, an incident occurred that soon determined the council to come to an open rupture. The leading persons in the viceroy's court found themselves oppressed by his naughtiness and insolence. The same spirit of discontent appeared among the principal officers of his army; they were well-acquainted with his perfidy,-saw his preparations for war,—and were sensible that the peace of the country could never be restored, unless either the English were expelled, or the nabob deposed. In consequence, a plan was concerted for divesting him of all his power; and the conspiracy was conducted by Meer Jaffier, his prime minister,—a nobleman of great influence and authority in the province. The project was communicated to Mr Watts, and so improved by the address of that gentleman as to insure success. A treaty was actually concluded between Meer Jaffier Ali Khan, and the English company; and a plan concerted with this nobleman and the other malcontents for their defection from the viceroy.' These previous measures being taken, Colonel

ence.

'A Gentoo merchant, named Omichund, was employed to conduct the correspondHis recompense had already been stipulated; but when the negotiation was so far advanced, that Watts, the British resident, as well as Meer Jaffier, were completely compromised and in his power, the rapacious traitor insisted on an enormous additional

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Clive took the field with his little army. Admiral Watson undertook the defence of Chandernagore; and Mr Watts, deceiving the surajah's spies, by whom he was surrounded, withdrew himself from Muxadavad, and reached the English camp in safety. Clive crossed the river, and marched to Plassey, where he encamped. On the 23d of June, 1757, at day-break, the surajah advanced to attack him at the head of 15,000 horse, and nearly 30,000 infantry, with about 40 pieces of heavy cannon, conducted and managed by French gunners. They began to cannonade the English camp about six in the morning; but a severe shower falling at noon, they withdrew their artillery, and Colonel Clive seized this opportunity to take possession of a tank and two other posts of consequence, which they in vain endeavoured to retake. He then stormed an angle of their camp, covered with a double breast work, together with an eminence which they occupied. At the beginning of this attack some of their chiefs were slain, and the men were so dispirited that they soon gave way; but Meer Jaffier, who commanded the left wing, still forbore declaring himself openly. After a short contest, the enemy were put to flight, the nabob's camp, baggage, and fifty pieces of cannon, taken, and a most complete victory obtained. The colonel, pursuing his advantage, marched to Muxadavad, the capital of the province, and was there joined by Ali Khan and the malcontents. It was before concerted that this nobleman should be invested with the dignity of nabob; accordingly, the colonel proceeded solemnly to depose Surajah Dowlah, and, with the same ceremony, to substitute Ali Khan in his room, who was publicly acknowledged by the people, viceroy of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Soon after the late viceroy was taken, and put to death by his successor, who readily complied with all the conditions of his elevation. He conferred on his allies very liberal rewards, and granted the company such extraordinary privileges as fully demonstrated how justly he merited their assistance. By this alliance, and the reduction of Chandernagore, the French were entirely excluded the commerce of Bengal and its dependencies; the trade of the English company was restored, and increased beyond their most sanguine hopes; a new ally was acquired, whose interest obliged him to remain firm to his engagements; a vast sum was paid to the company and the sufferers at Calcutta, to indemnify them for their losses; the soldiers and seamen were gratified with £600,000, as a reward for the courage and intrepidity they exerted; and a variety of other advantages gained which we cannot here enumerate. In a word, in the space of fourteen days, a great revolution was effected, and the government of a vast country, superior to most European kingdoms,

sum being effectually secured to him. He, however, had to deal with a man, who, in such a transaction, felt no scruple at defeating villany by fraud. Clive caused two treaties to be drawn up between Meer Jaffier and the English agents, in one of which the exorbitant demand of Omichund was guaranteed, while, in the other, it was totally omitted. The former only was shown to Omichund, who duly performed the part that was allotted to him in this iniquitous scheme. But the transaction being discountenanced by Admiral Watson, his signature to the fictitious treaty was, it is said, forged. On the success of the plot, the merchant Omichund applied for bis expected reward, but was informed that he had nothing to receive, the treaty which he had seen having been framed expressly to cheat him. This information drove him mad, and he continued in a state of idiotcy up to the day of his death, which took place about eighteen months afterwards.

transferred by a handful of troops, conducted by an officer untutored in the art of war, and a general rather by intuition than instruction and experience. How far the conduct of Clive, with respect to his encouragement of Meer Jaffier's treachery, and the subsequent deposition and death of the nabob, was justifiable, we shall not take upon us to determine. It is certain that the immense acquisition of territory, which was made by the English East India company, was chiefly owing to the courage and the conduct of Clive. It has been observed, "that whoever contemplates the forlorn situation of the company, when Clive first arrived at Calcutta in the year 1756, and then considers the degree of opulence and power they possessed when he finally left that place, will be convinced that the history of the world has seldom afforded an instance of so rapid and improbable a change. At the first period they were merely an association of merchants struggling for existence. One of their factories was in ruins; their agents were murdered, and an army of 50,000 men, to which they had nothing to oppose, threatened the immediate destruction of their principal settlement. At the last period, distant from the first but ten years they were become powerful princes possessed of vast revenues, and ruling over fifteen millions of people."

It appears that Meer Jaffier, after the former nabob had been deposed, made Clive a present of £210,000. He also prevailed on the mogul, who at that time was a prisoner of state in Delhi, but who was still considered as the fountain of honours, to confer on Clive the dignity of Omrah, or noble of the empire, and also bestowed on him for the support of his title, a grant of an ample revenue. This revenue, which amounted to £28,000 per annum, consisted of the quit-rents paid by the company for the lands they held in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. Colonel Clive returned to England in 1760, where his conduct and exploits received the warmest commendations from the East India company; and the following year the king conferred on him the title of Baron in the kingdom of Ireland, by the title of Lord Clive, Baron Plassey, in the county of Clare.

Some time after the return of Clive to England, the English deposed the nabob, Meer Jaffier, and transferred the government to his son-in law, Cossim Ali Khan. But the new nabob making some opposition to the various kinds of injustice and oppression practised by the servants of the English East India company, they deposed Cossim Ali Khan, and reinstated Meer Jaffier in the nabobship. The misconduct of the company's servants at length occasioned such disorders and confusions, and such hostilities in India, that Lord Clive and four of his friends were commissioned by the East India directors, to go to India to adjust all disputes with the country powers, and to reform the many abuses which prevailed among the company's servants, both in the military and civil departments. Lord Clive and his fellow-commissioners arrived at Calcutta in May, 1765. They made a treaty with the native princes of India, and established some regulations beneficial to the East India company; but the natives of the country still suffered great injustice and oppression from the servants of the company.

Lord Clive returned to England in July, 1767, and was made a knight of the Bath in 1769. It should also be observed, that he represented the borough of Shrewsbury in parliament, from the year 1760

to the time of his decease. On the 21st of February, 1773, a motion was made in the house of commons, and supported by the minister,— “That in the acquisition of his wealth, Lord Clive had abused the powers with which he was intrusted." With the assistance of Wedderburne, he defended himself, if not satisfactorily, at least with great ability. His defence concluded in the following terms:-" If the reso lution proposed shall receive the assent of the house, I shall have nothing left that I can call my own, except my paternal income of £500 a year, which has been in the family for ages past. But upon this I am content to live; and perhaps I shall find more real content of mind and happiness than in the trembling affluence of an unsettled fortune. But to be called, after sixteen years have elapsed, to account for my conduct in this manner,—and after an uninterrupted enjoyment of my property, to be questioned and considered as obtaining it unwarrantably, is hard indeed, and a treatment of which I should not think the British senate capable. Yet if this should be the case, I have a conscious innocence within me, that tells me my conduct is irreproachable. Frangas, non flectes'-they may take from me what I have; they may, as they think, make me poor; but I will be happy. Before I sit down, I have one request to make to the house; that when they come to decide upon my honour, they will not forget their own." The house rejected the motion against him, and resolved that "Lord Clive had rendered great and meritorious services to his country."

Lord Clive was a striking instance of the inefficacy of honours and wealth to confer happiness. After his return to England, though in possession of a splendid fortune and of accumulated honours, he often discovered great uneasiness of mind, and could not endure to be alone. His friends represented this as the result of a depression of spirits occasioned by a nervous fever; but by others it was attributed to causes of a very different kind. He put an end to his own life on the 22d of November, 1774, when he was not quite fifty years of age. Clive was unquestionably a man of great genius: his military skill was displayed to great advantage in all his campaigns, and he had that happy talent of inspiring confidence in those who acted under him, which is of such value to a general. In parliament he seldom spoke; but when he did he was always listened to with respect. His eldest son, Edward, having married the heir-general of the then lately extinct earl of Powis, was, in 1804, clevated to that dignity.

Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

BORN A. D. 1708.-Died A. D. 1778.

THIS celebrated statesman was born in November, 1708. His grandfather was that governor of Madras who acquired by means unknown the celebrated diamond which the regent, Orleans, bought for three millions of livres, and which still exists among the erown jewels of France. His father, Robert Pitt of Boconnock in Cornwall, was at one time representative for Old Sarum, and at another for Oakhampton. William Pitt was educated at Eton and Trinity college, Oxford. His biographer, Mr Thackeray, has preserved some Latin verses which

the young collegian composed, according to academic custom, on the death of George I. They are by no means of first-rate quality, and contain some false quantities. He matriculated in January, 1726; but left the university without taking a degree, having found it necessary to travel for his health before his studies were completed. He made the tour of France and Italy, during which, says Chesterfield, he acquired "a great fund of premature and useful knowledge." On the death of his father, being a younger son, it was necessary that he should choose a profession; he decided for the army, and obtained a cornet's commission in the Blues.

In 1734 his elder brother caused him to be returned for Old Sarum. He attached himself to the prince of Wales's party; and addressed the house for the first time in support of Pulteney's motion for an address to the king on occasion of the prince's marriage to the princess of Saxe Gotha, in April, 1736. His debut was very successful, and placed him at once amongst the rising men in the house; and he soon became so annoying to Walpole, that he deprived him of the commission which he held in the army. The prince, however, made him his groom of the bed-chamber, and he continued to oppose ministers with increasing vigour and ability. Horatio Walpole happening to throw out a taunting remark in the house on the youth and inexperience of the new ally of the opposition, Pitt rose and overwhelmed his antagonist with his indignant eloquence: "I will not attempt," he said, "to determine whether youth can justly be imputed to any man as a reproach; but I will affirm, that the wretch who, after having seen the consequences of repeated errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his grey head should secure him from insults. Much more is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced in age, has seceded from virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country."

When the unfavourable result of the elections of 1741, compelled Walpole to resign, and the duke of Newcastle attempted to form an administration on a whig basis, the 'boy patriots'-as Walpole used to call them—namely, the Grenvilles, Lyttleton, and Pitt, secretly offered, through Colonel Selwyn, to use their influence to secure the minister from prosecution. Walpole coolly declined the proposal; and an arrangement was ultimately effected in which the boys' were overlooked altogether. Pitt was now the fiercest and most implacable of Walpole's enemies; night after night he launched forth invectives against the man with whom he had so lately proposed to treat, and called upon the house to appoint a secret committee for investigating the conduct of the late first lord of the treasury. We have elsewhere related the result of this measure; but we find ourselves unable to offer any apology here for the subject of this article. His conduct was in this instance incon ceivably base, and forms a deep stain on his character. Walpole and Pulteney having both been removed from the lower house, Carteret became the next object of attack to Pitt. He assailed him chiefly on the subject of the king's attachment to his Hanoverian dominions, and

Lord John Russell.

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