y soon after the marriage, and the two
children she bore him both died young, and so that episode came to an
end. The more momentous meeting was with Clive. When the Madras
expedition appeared in the Hughli, Warren Hastings volunteered to serve
in the ranks, shouldered his gun, and took his part in the fighting
round Calcutta. But Clive's keen eyes discerned stuff for better
things than the sieging of Indian forts in the young volunteer. When
Suraj ud Dowlah's defeat ended in Suraj ud Dowlah's death, and the
traitorous Mir Jaffier sat on the throne in his stead, Warren Hastings
was sent to the court of the new prince at Murshidabad, originally as
second to the Company's representative, Mr. Scratton, and afterwards as
sole representative.

[Sidenote: 1762--Clive and the East India Company]

At Murshidabad Warren Hastings had every opportunity to justify Clive's
acumen in singling him out for distinction. The post he held was one
of exceptional difficulty and delicacy. Mir Jaffier was not altogether
an agreeable person to get on with. The English in India were taking
their first lessons in Oriental intrigue. They were learning that if
it was not particularly difficult to upset one tyrant and place another
on his throne, it was not always easy to keep that other on the throne,
or at all safe to rely upon his loyalty to the men who had brought
about his exaltation. Mir Jaffier was surrounded by enemies. His
court, like every other Oriental court, was honeycombed with intrigues
against him. His English patrons, or rather his English masters,
proved to have an itching palm. They were always wanting money, and
Mir Jaffier {251} had not always got enough money in his treasury to
content their desires. So he began to intrigue against the English
with the Dutch, and the English found him out and promptly knocked him
off his throne, and set up a new puppet in his stead. By this time
Clive had returned to England, and the direction of the destinies of
the East India Company was in the hands of the Governor, Mr.
Vansittart, a well-meaning man whose views were not the views of Clive.
Clive objected very much to the course which the East India Company
were pursuing. He wrote a letter to the London Board rebuking in no
measured language the defects and evils of the Indian Administration.
Once again Clive was the cause of Warren Hastings's advancement. The
London Board ordered the instant dismissal of all the officials