ould
accept, he proceeded to declare that it would be impossible for him
to proceed to India leaving behind him a hostile Court and a hostile
chairman; that at least the existing chairman must be changed. He
carried the Proprietors with him, and measures were taken for a fresh
election.

This election took place on the 25th of April, 1764. At it one-half
of the candidates proposed by Sulivan were defeated, he himself being
returned by a majority of one only. The chairman and deputy-chairman
elected were both supporters of Clive. In the interval (March, 1764)
Clive had been nominated Governor-General and Commander-in-chief of
Bengal. To draw the fangs of the Council in Calcutta, four gentlemen
were nominated to form with him a Select Committee authorized to act
on their own authority, without reference to the Council.

One word, before the great man returns to the scenes of his triumphs,
clothed with the fullest authority, regarding the instrument used by
Mr. Sulivan and his friends to torture him. No sooner had the new
Court been elected than Clive made to it his suggestion regarding the
jagir. He proposed, and the Court agreed, that for a period of ten
years, the company should pay to him the full amount of the jagir
rents, unless he should die before, when the {148}payments would
cease; the ultimate disposal of the jagir to be made when the
occasion should arise.

These matters having been settled, the officers to serve under him
having been selected by himself, Clive, attended by two of the four
members who had been appointed by the Court to accompany him, Messrs.
Sumner and Sykes, embarked for Calcutta the 4th of June, 1764. Lady
Clive did not go with him. She had to remain in England to
superintend the education of her children.

{149}

CHAPTER XII
THE REIGN OF MISRULE IN BENGAL

Clive had chosen Mr. Vansittart to succeed him as President of the
Council in Bengal because he believed he had recognized in him a man
who would do all in his power to put down the growing system of
venality and corruption. I have already shown how he had written to
him before he quitted India. The words he had used were: 'The
expected reinforcements will, in my opinion, put Bengal out of all
danger but that of venality and corruption.' But Clive had not
sufficiently considered that the very fact that the new President had
been selected from Madras instead of from amongst the men who had
served under his immediate orders w