lutions of a vague and general
character. The resolutions, then, were carried.

Burgoyne then proceeded, as he had promised, to follow up his
victory. On the 17th of May he brought forward the following
resolution: 'That it appears to this House that the Right Honourable
Robert, Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey, in the kingdom of Ireland,
about the time of the deposition of Siraj-ud-daula, and the
establishment of Mir Jafar on the _masnad_, through the influence of
the powers with which he was entrusted as member of the Select
Committee and Commander-in-chief of the British forces, did obtain
and possess himself of two lakhs of rupees as Commander-in-chief, a
further sum of two lakhs and eighty thousand rupees as member of the
Select {206}Committee, and a further sum of sixteen lakhs or more,
under the denomination of a private donation, which sums, amounting
together to twenty lakhs and eighty thousand rupees, were of value,
in English money, of two hundred and thirty-four thousand pounds; and
that in so doing the said Robert Clive abused the power with which he
was entrusted, to the evil example of the servants of the public, and
to the dishonour and detriment of the State.'

No one could say that these charges were not sufficiently pointed.
Clive met them with his accustomed resolution. He rejoiced that the
real issue had come at last; that the great jury of the nation, the
House of Commons, was, after so long an interval devoted to calumny,
to abuse, to vague and shadowy charges, to record its vote on the
real question. On their decision on this resolution he would stand or
fall. The alternative which his fiercest fights had presented to him,
the necessity to conquer or to be disgraced, was presented to him
here. He had won those fights by the exercise rather of his lofty
moral qualities than by his skill as a soldier, and by the exercise
of the same qualities he would win this one also. And he did win it.
After Burgoyne, introducing his resolution, had traversed the same
ground he had followed in the preceding resolutions, and had
concluded by calling upon the House, like the old Roman heroes, 'to
strike when the justice of the State requires it,' Clive rose to
defend himself. Recapitulating the services he had rendered, he
reminded the {207}House that the transactions in Bengal, upon which
Burgoyne relied for a conviction, had been known in their general
tenour to the Company and the Crown when they had thanked him,