with a mere handful of men against his enormous host. He set up Dowlah's general-in-chief, Meer Jaffier, and hailed him nabob of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. So far, the punishment of Dowlah for the atrocity committed on our countrymen in the Black Hole would have had an air of justice, had not this Black Hole been the English prison, where our countrymen in that hot climate had been in the habit of confining their prisoners. As Mr. Mill, their own historian, of the India House, very justly asks, "What had they to do with a Black Hole? Had no Black Hole existed, as none ought to exist anywhere, least of all in the sultry and unwholesome climate of Bengal, those who perished in the Black Hole of Calcutta would have experienced a different fate."
This was bad enough; but the means of accomplishing this whole treason were of the most infamous kind. Clive engaged one Omichund, a wealthy merchant, to betray Dowlah, for a reward of three hundred thousand pounds. Never intending to pay this reward, Clive had two treaties drawn up with Meer Jaffier—one on white paper, intended to be real, in which no mention was made of Omichund; and another on red paper, stating the reward to Omichund. All the members of the committee of the council of Calcutta, with Clive, signed both treaties, except admiral Watson, who,
MONUMENT ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE SUFFERERS IN THE BLACK HOLE, CALCUTTA.
with an Englishman's proper sense of honour, signed only the real one. But, lest the absence of the admiral's signature should excite Omichund's suspicion, the signature of the admiral was attached to the document without his consent. When the plot had succeeded, when the battle of Plassy was won, and Meer Jaffier acknowledged as nabob, or subadah, of Bengal, Omichund was coolly informed that the treaty which he had seen was a sham, and that he would not receive a single rupee! No more diabolical transaction ever took place in any country or in any age of the world, however dark and abandoned. Omichund, confounded at this example of monstrous treachery, sank down into idiotey and soon after expired.
Clive and his associates took care of themselves. They claimed from their tool, Meer Jaffier, two million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds as the claim of the company, the fleet, the army, and themselves for their services. Clive’s own share was two hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds, and the shares of the members of the committee from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand pounds each. They and
MEDAL STRUCK IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF PLASSY.
the officers of the army and navy shared amongst them for this job one million two hundred and sixty-one thousand and seventy-five pounds. Besides this, it was stipulated that the French factories and effects should be given up to the English, and the French never again allowed to enter Bengal. The territory surrounding Calcutta, to the distance of six hundred yards beyond the Mahratta ditch, and all the land lying south of Calcutta as far as Calpee, should be granted them on zemindary tenure, the company paying the rent, like the other zemindars. Thus the English, who were before merely the tenants of a factory, became, in reality, the rulers of Bengal, for Meer Jaffier was a mere tool in their hands, as they, ere long, showed by deposing him.
At this moment poor Meer Jaffier found it impossible to retain his seat without the support of the English. Shah Alum, the eldest son of the great mogul, was coming against him with a large army. Clive met and defeated him, and for this service he received from his puppet a jaghire, or domain worth twenty-seven thousand pounds a year.
Some years after, when Clive was called to account for these gifts before a committee of the house of commons, so far from admitting that he had shown any culpable cupidity, he expressed his astonishment at his own moderation. "When I recollect," he said, "entering the nabob's treasury at Moorshedabad, with heaps of gold and silver to the right and left, and those crowned with jewels, I am amazed at nothing but my own forbearance."
At the same time, Clive sent expeditions under colonel Forde to drive the French from the Northern Circars—a tract of country stretching from the mouth of the Kistna to the pagoda of Juggernaut. Bussey had invaded it from the Deccan, and left the marquis de Conflans to hold it. Forde defeated Conflans, and made himself master of Masulipatam against a very superior force.
Scarcely had colonel Forde returned from this expedition, towards the end of the year 1759, when the Dutch, envious of the English success, sent an armament of seven men-of-
