but remained stationary and concentrated within itself, while
all surrounding nature was in motion and in progress.

ROBERT, LORD CLIVE

By W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D.

(1725-1774)

[Illustration: Lord Clive. [TN]]

The history of British India is without a parallel in the annals of
mankind. It is little over a hundred years ago since "the company of
British merchants trading with the East Indies" possessed nothing more
than a few ports favorably situated for commerce, held at the will, or
rather the caprice, of the native princes, and defended against
commercial rivals by miserable fortifications, which could not have
resisted any serious attack. Now British sovereignty in India extends
over an empire greater than that possessed by Alexander or the Caesars,
and probably superior to both in the amount of its wealth and
population. The chief agent in raising the East India Company from a
trading association to a sovereign power was Lord Clive, whose own
elevation was scarcely less marvellous than that of the empire which
he founded.

Robert Clive was born September 29, 1725; his father was a country
gentleman, of moderate fortune and still more moderate capacity, who
cultivated his own estate in Shropshire. When a boy, the future hero
of India distinguished himself chiefly by wild deeds of daring and
courage, neglecting the opportunities of storing his mind with
information, the want of which he bitterly felt in after-life. His
violent temper, and his neglect of study, led his family to despair of
his success at home, and, in his eighteenth year, he was sent out as a
"writer," in the service of the East India Company, to the Presidency
of Madras. In our day such an appointment would be considered a fair
provision for a young man, holding out, besides, a reasonable prospect
of obtaining competency, if not fortune; but when Clive went to the
East the younger "writers," or clerks, were so badly paid, that they
could scarcely subsist without getting into debt, while their seniors
enriched themselves by trading on their own account. The voyage out,
from England to Madras, which is now effected in three or four weeks,
occupied, at that time, from six months to a year. Clive's voyage was
more than usually tedious; the ship was detained for a considerable
period at the Brazils, where he picked up some knowledge of
Portuguese, and contracted some heavy debts. This apparent misfortune
had the good effect of compelling him