bring himself to recognize the fact
that Clive was not only an officer of the East India Company, but had
been granted a royal commission. In this he showed himself both stupid
and headstrong. Notwithstanding this petty jealousy of the company's
service, a jealousy in which he was by no means singular, he was an
honorable man, desirous, according to his lights, to serve his King and
country; and in the important transactions which afterward took place,
his cooperation with Clive appears to have been fairly cordial.

It was otherwise with the council at Calcutta, who greatly resented the
independent powers which had been conferred upon Clive by the Madras
authorities. At that early period those presidential jealousies which
have so often interfered with the efficient administration of Indian
affairs, and even now are not entirely extinguished, appear to have
existed in full force. The select committee at Calcutta, as the
Governor's council was then designated, called upon Clive to surrender
the powers with which he had been invested, and to place himself under
them. His reply was a decided refusal. "I do not," he wrote, "intend to
make use of my power for acting separately from you, without you reduce
me to the necessity of so doing; but as far as concerns the means of
executing these powers, you will excuse me, gentlemen, if I refuse to
give them up. I cannot do it without forfeiting the trust reposed in me
by the select committee of Fort St. George. It does not become me, as an
individual, to give my opinion whether the conduct of the gentlemen of
Fort St. George has been faulty or not. That point must be determined by
our superiors."

The attitude of the Calcutta committee was described by Clive in a
letter to his friend Pigot in the following terms: "I am sorry to say
that the loss of private property and the means of recovering it seem to
be the only objects which take up the thoughts of the Bengal gentlemen.
Believe me, they are bad subjects and rotten at heart, and will stick at
nothing to prejudice you and the gentlemen of the committee. Indeed, how
should they do otherwise when they have not spared one another? I shall
only add, their conduct at Calcutta finds no excuse even among
themselves, and that the riches of Peru and Mexico should not induce me
to dwell among them."

Immediately after the recapture of Calcutta, Clive, in conjunction with
Watson, moved up the river to Hugli, and captured that place with