guard over the public peace, and the Company's servants controlled the management of the public finances. On the death of Mír Jafar in 1765, his son Najm-ud-daulá was placed on the mock throne by those who had just been plundering his helpless father. Spencer and his colleagues in the Council took care to fill their own purses at the new Nawáb's expense. Twenty lakhs of rupees was the sum paid out to them from the depleted treasury at Murshidábád.
Clive's reappearance in Bengal put an end to all such atrocities, so long as he remained at his post. But illness sent him home again in 1767, before his task was half finished. In those two years however he had done much to retrieve the fortunes and the fair fame of his half-hearted employers. He had won from a needy Mughal emperor the charter which placed a merchant company on the throne of Bengal. By restoring his forfeit kingdom to the ruler of Oudh, he had turned a dangerous foe into an obedient ally. His strong will and dauntless courage had quelled a widespread mutiny among his English officers and overborne all resistance within his own Council. In spite of cabals around him and a grudging support in England, he had cut down or swept away some crying abuses in the Company's service, had retrenched, some wasteful outlay, and done all in short that one man could do, under such conditions, to atone for the misrule, corruption, violence and financial blundering of the past five years.
During his voyage to Madras Hastings fell dan-
