that the then Council of
Calcutta (1762), on receiving it, went thoroughly into the question,
and, in a despatch to the Court, submitted the case for the officers
in the strongest terms. The reply of the Court adds one proof to many
of the unfitness of men not belonging to the ruling class to exercise
supreme authority. The Directors refused the prayer of their servants
on grounds which, by no artifice of despatch-writing, could be made
to apply to the circumstances of the case.

That reply was dated the 9th of March, 1763. Just one month earlier
the Calcutta Council had appointed a Special Committee on the spot to
examine and report upon the question. But before the Committee could
complete its inquiries there broke out that war with Mir Kasim, which
called for the extraordinary exertions of the class whose claims were
under examination. The services of Majors Adams and Carnac, two of
the members of the Committee, were required in the field, and it was
by the splendid exertions of the former and his officers that the
Company was rescued from imminent peril. The inquiry dropped during
the war.

But although the splendid exertions of the officers saved British
interests in 1763, the Court of Directors did not the less persist in
resolving to curtail their {181}allowances. On the 1st of June, 1764,
whilst the army, having conquered Mir Kasim, stood opposed to the
forces of the Nawab-Wazir of Oudh, they despatched the most precise
orders that the allowance of double batta should be discontinued from
the date of the receipt of their order. Probably the Court of
Directors was the only ruling body in the world which would have
dared to issue an order greatly curtailing allowances to an army in
the field, opposed to greatly superior forces whose triumph would
mean destruction to the Company. But this is but one instance of the
dogged incapacity to rule with which the history of the Court of
Directors abounds.

When the despatch reached India the army had but just gained the
bloody and decisive battle of Baksar. The Calcutta Council dared not,
at such a moment, carry out the orders of the Court. There were other
reasons for delay. Lord Clive was on his way from England, and to
him, probably, special instructions had been given.

We have seen the course which Lord Clive pursued with reference to
the other branches of the administration. It was the end of the year
1765 before he touched the army. Then he issued instructions