a born master of men.

But, says the moralist, he committed faults, and at once the false
treaty made with Aminchand is thrown into the face of the historian.
Yes, he did do it; and not only that, he stated in his evidence
before the House of Commons that if he were again under the same
circumstances he would do it again. None of his detractors had had
the opportunity of judging of {212}the terrible issues which the
threatened treachery of Aminchand had opened to his vision. Upon the
decision of Clive rested the lives of thousands. To save those lives
there appeared to him but one sure method available, and that was to
deceive the deceiver. I think his decision was a wrong one, but it
should always be remembered that, as Clive stated before the
Committee, he had no interested motive in doing what he did do; he
did it with the design of disappointing a rapacious man and of
preventing the consequences of his treachery. He was in a position of
terrible responsibility, and he acted to save others. Let the stern
moralist stand in the same position as that in which Clive stood, and
it is just possible he might think as Clive thought. At all events,
this one fault, for fault it was, cannot or ought not to be set up as
a counterweight against services which have given this island the
highest position amongst all the nations of the earth. The House of
Commons, after a long debate, condoned it. Might not Posterity, the
Posterity which has profited by that very fault, be content to follow
the lead of the House of Commons? With all his faults, Clive was 'one
of the men who did the most for the greatness of England.' That fact
is before us every day. His one fault hastened his death, from the
handle it gave to the envious and the revengeful, and took from him
the chance of gaining fresh laurels in America. May not the
ever-living fact of his services induce us to overlook, to blot out
from the memory, that one mistake, which he so bitterly expiated in
his lifetime?

{213}

INDEX

ADAMS, Major John, defeated Mir Kasim at Katwa, 156:
at Gheria, 156:
stormed strong position of Undwa Nala, 157:
his death, 157:
fought against Mir Kasim, 180.

AHMAD SHAH, succeeded on the death of his father, Muhammad Shah, 44.

AIN-I-AKBARI, Blochmann's, quoted, 118_n_.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, Peace of, 40 and _n_., 42.

AKBAR, mentioned, 17, 85, 118_n_.

ALI VARDI KHAN, Governor of Bihar, 85:
battle of Gheria, 85:
proclaime