CHAPTER V.

Clive resigns the Government-Succeeded by Mr. Holwell and Mr. Vansittart-New Revolution, and appointment of Cosseim Alias Nabob—Mr. Vansittart an object of jealousy to his Council, and is in the minorityMr. Hastings a Member of Council-His negotiations with the NabobViolences on all sides-Rupture-Deposition of Meer Cosseim-Mr. Hastings returns to England.

It will be seen from the contents of the preceding chapter, that even under the superintendence of such a man as Clive, the affairs of India were, at this juncture, exceedingly hard to manage. The state of the Nabob's mind, not less than of his finances, was altogether unfavourable to order. He was at enmity with most of the leading men in the provinces; he was irritable, uneasy, chafed, and thoroughly discontented. His title, though at one time recognized at Delhi, was now again called in question; while of the English, on whose support the very existence of his government depended, he entertained a boundless jealousy. Clive alone appears to have commanded both his respect and his confidence, for Clive's was a master spirit which caused its superiority to be felt and acknowledged by all who came within the reach of its influence. Yet even Clive found, from time to time, that the task of managing and controlling elements so discordant was a difficult one. It was hardly to be expected that his successor in

office, be he whom he might, would succeed him also in his rare talent for command; and certainly the lot fell, at all events for a season, on one who was as little qualified as can well be imagined for the duties that were imposed upon him.

On the 25th of February, 1760, Clive sailed for England, leaving the temporary care of the government to Mr. Holwell, by whom it was to be handed over, so soon as he should arrive from Madras, to Mr. Vansittart. There is no denying that the difficulties which encountered Mr. Holwell at the outset were very great. The Shazada, Ali Gowher, the Mogul's eldest son, had again entered Bahar, and was busily employed collecting forces and raising contributions. Tikarra, the capital of the zemindarree of Gya, was his residence. His principal supporter was Camgar Cawn Alli, the Rajah of Herswa, whilst many of the jemetdars, and other military chiefs whom Meer Jaffier had dismissed, enlisted under his banner, and swelled his numbers. Moreover there was, on the part of Ramnarrain, the deputy or governor of Patna, a very culpable degree of negligence, if, indeed, no graver charge might be brought against him; for he took no pains to watch the movements of his own jematdars, not a few of whom were known to be disaffected. finally, advices being received of the assassination of Alemgeer, the Shazada caused himself to be

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claimed Emperor by the title of Shah Allum, appointing, at the same time, Sujah ud Dowlah the Nabob of Oude, to be his vizier, and sending summonses into all the provinces, to require that his authority should be acknowledged. Now though the power of the Mogul had long virtually ceased, there was a charm in the name which still went for something, more especially in cases where, like the present, men were looking round for a legitimate excuse to rebel. Not in Bahar, therefore, alone, but everywhere else, the young Emperor found many friends who gathered round him, not more out of respect for the ancient title which he had assumed, than because the yoke of Meer Jaffier sat heavy on their shoulders.

While such was the threatening aspect of affairs on one side, in other quarters dangers and grounds of embarrassment were not far to seek. Cauder Hossein Cawn, the Naib or Deputy of Purneah, assumed an attitude which was well calculated to create uneasiness. During the two years which he had held office, he had devoted all his energies to the accumulation of a treasure, and the organization of an army, and he now lay upon one of the branches of the Ganges, at the head of 10,000 good troops, without declaring either for Meer Jaffier or the Emperor. The Mahrattas, too, were moving upon Cuttack, of which the revenues had, in Alaverdi Cawn's time, been assigned to them; and

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the Dutch, by whom Jaffier's title had never been recognised, evinced symptoms of hostility. The province of Bengal alone wore somewhat of a peaceable appearance. The war was not yet sufficiently ripe to break out so near to the metropolis: yet even there many powerful individuals were suspected, whom it would be necessary to watch, and, on the first appearance of discontent, to put down.

If there had existed between Meer Jaffier and the Government at Fort William the same good understanding which used to exist,-in other words, had Mr. Holwell possessed, like his predecessor, such temper and firmness as the exigencies of the moment required, it is not impossible but that the clouds which obscured the political horizon might all have been dispersed by a process less violent than that which was adopted. But Mr. Holwell had neither temper nor firmness; he appears to have regarded the Nabob all along with an eye of extreme disfavour. His errors, and he committed many, were all exaggerated; his embarrassments, and they were abundant too, were all undervalued. No attempt was made to lead him into the right way; and his very frailties of temper were treated as offences against the dignity of the English name. His poverty, likewise, which was extreme, was treated as a crime. The subsidies which he had promised were in arrear,

and no excuse for their non-payment would be accepted. In a word, there was a prejudice against him on the part of Mr. Holwell, which soon excited a similar prejudice in him against both Mr. Holwell and his colleagues, of which the results were, after much intriguing on both sides, absolute ruin to the one party, and anything but an accession of honourable fame to the other.

With the detail of the military operations which went forward from the beginning of December, 1759, to the month of July, 1760, I have here very little concern. They were not, in any respect, controlled or directed by Mr. Hastings, whose position all the while was at the court of Meer Jaffier, where the confused state both of the Nabob's and the Company's accounts found him ample employment. Neither do I think that any good purpose would be served, were I to plunge myself and my reader into the troubled waters of fiscal detail and complicated accounts. Enough is done when I state that the Nabob was in every way the Company's debtor; that independently of the arrears of subsidy that were due, he had borrowed money at Calcutta, which, the treasury there being wholly exhausted, the authorities were urgent to have repaid; and that Mr. Hastings, finding how impossible it is to draw water from the rock, was glad to accept, in lieu of the ready cash, a tuncaw or bond over the revenues of Burd