Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/345

CLIVE 325 Drayton, when aged 1 1 ; (3) Merchant Taylors, London, when aged 1 2 ; and (4) at Hemel Hempstead, Herts. When aged 19, in 1744, he arrived at Madras, having been, in 1743, appointed a Writer in the service of the East India Company. In 1747, however, he obtained an Ensign's com- mission, and fought at the siege of Pondicherry, and, as Lieut., commanded the forlorn hope that stormed Devikota. In 1751 he took the city of Arcot, but returned to England for 3 years in 1753, and was M.P. (Whig) for St. Michaels, 1754-55. In 1756, as Lieut. Col., he was made Lieut. Gov. of Fort St. David, of which he took charge 19 June 1756, and finally, 23 June 1757, gained a glorious victory at Plassey, where, being Commander of the British forces in India, he, with 3,200 men, routed 50,000 foot and 18,000 horse, and put to death Surajah Dowlah; thus avenging the outrage perpetrated by him known as "the black hole of Calcutta." In Surajah's room Mir Jaffier was made Nabob of Calcutta, Clive himself being made Governor of the Company's possessions, 1758, when he defeated a Dutch force, near Chinsura, and compelled them to sue for peace. He resigned in 1760, when he visited England. Here he was received enthusiastically, was elected M.P. for Shrewsbury 1761 (a seat he retained till his death), and cr. D.C.L. of Oxford 2 Sep. 1760. On 15 Mar. 1762, he was cr. BARON CLIVE OF PLASSEY,^ co. Clare [I.]; nom. and inv. K.B. 24 Apr. 1764, but not installed till 15 June 1772. Major Gen. 1 764, when for the second time, he was made Governor and Com. in Chief of the English forces in Bengal, to which he returned next year, quelling a most dangerous mutiny, and finally obtaining from the Emperor of Delhi 2i firman empowering the East India Company to collect the revenue in Bengal, Behar and Orissa. He resigned 20 Jan. 1767, and returned finally to England, where " his stern repression of abuses and inflexible enforcement of orders "C") had made him many enemies, both in the civil service and in the army. A parliamentary enquiry ensued, lasting two sessions and ending in May 1773, wherein, though Clive was censured for the large sums he had obtained from Mir Jaffier, his " great and meritorious services " were acknowledged. ("=) The anxiety and worry of these pro- (*) For remarks on this and similar titles chosen to commemorate foreign achievements, see Appendix E to this volume. V.G. C") See " Clive " by Sir A. J. Arbuthnot, in Diet. Nat. Biog., where the writer points out the extraordinary fact of how few years it took to lay the foundations of the British Indian Empire. Six years from 1747 to Feb. 1753 (during which period Clive twice reverted to civil employment), about four years from Nov. 1755 to Feb. 1760, and finally but 22 months to 1767, so that " Clive's real work in India occupied a little less than twelve years." {^) His chief opponents in Pari, were Burgoyne and Thurlow, his chief supporters Wedderburn (whom he brought into Pari, for his pocket-borough of Bishop's Castle), Conway, and Lord George Germaine. Of his speech in his own defence, Horace Walpole, who regarded him as guilty, wrote that he "shone eminently as a real great man." By the elder Pitt he was spoken of as " that Heaven-born General." Macaulay says of his appearance, " Though his person was ungraceful, and though his harsh features were redeemed from vulgar ugliness only