. And, notwithstanding the
temptations to enrich himself, by which he was surrounded, Clive adhered
to this resolution of self-abnegation. The servants of the company would
have enabled him to treble his wealth, if he would have consented to
connive at their misdoings; and the princes of India offered him money,
and jewels, and diamonds in abundance, as the price of his assistance
on their behalf; but, steady to his purpose, he refused the tempting
offers. He returned a poorer man than when he went to India. And yet,
notwithstanding his integrity of purpose, and although on his arrival he
was hailed with acclamations by the court of directors, and was received
with unusual regard by George III. and his consort Queen Charlotte, at
a subsequent date, he was charged in the house of commons with
mal-administration; and when this failed, his enemies brought him to
trial before that tribunal for the events and deeds of his early life.
So persecuted was he, and so maligned, that, though finally acquitted by
the commons, his spirits sunk under it, and he died by his own hand in
the forty-ninth year of his age.

The court of directors had left the abolition or confirmation of the
select committee to Lord Clive's discretion, and before he returned to
England he declared for its continuance; naming as members, Mr. Verelst,
Mr. Cartier, Colonel Smyth, Mr. Sykes, and Mr. Beecher. Shortly after
his return the court of directors resolved to send out to Calcutta
three supervisors, to complete the work of reformation, and to put
the revenues of Bengal under better management. These supervisors were
Messrs. Vansittart, and Scrafton, and Colonel Forde, who took their
departure in the Aurora, which is supposed to have foundered at sea with
every soul on board, for it was never heard of after leaving the Cape of
Good Hope. Subsequently the government of Bengal was left in the hands
of Mr. Cartier; but in less than two years it was notified, by the court
of directors, to Mr. Warren Hastings, who had long been rising in their
estimation, that he was nominated to the second council at Calcutta, and
that as soon as Mr. Cartier retired, it was their wish that he should
take upon himself the charge of the government of that presidency.

In the meantime the flames of war had been rekindled in the Carnatic
by Hyder Ali, who became one of the most formidable opponents of the
English in all India. Since his expedition to the neighbourhood of
Pondich