INDIA.] BATTLE OF PLASSEY. 331 was returned by the English, and which continued during several hours. It was found that the cumbrous ordnance of the Indians did far less execution than the light fieldpieces of Clive. So careless, besides, were the former troops in carrying or handling ammunition, that several explosions were observed in their own ranks, and that about noon a passing shower damaged a great part of their powder, and compelled them to slacken their fire. At nearly the same time one of their most trusted leaders fell, and one of their divisions consequently showed some symptoms of disorder. This news came to the Nabob, who had remained in his tent beyond the reach of danger, surrounded by officers, one half of whom were parties to the conspiracy against him. He now received the perfidious or timid counsel, to which his own fears readily responded, of commanding a retreat towards his capital; the order was issued, and the army began to fall back. At such favourable indications, a charge upon the enemy was begun, without orders, by two companies under Major Kilpatrick *, and soon afterwards was renewed by Clive, at the head of his whole line. They met with faint resistance, except from the gallant little band of Frenchmen; drove the enemy from the advanced position; and became possessed of some rising ground near an angle of the Indian camp. Meer Jaffier, on his part, seeing to which side the fortune of the day was tending, drew off his body of troops. Before five o'clock the victory of Clive was not only certain but complete. It had cost him no more than twenty-two soldiers slain and fifty wounded, while the loss of the vanquished also did not exceed 500 men; but they were pursued for six miles, scattering in every direction, and leaving behind all their artillery and baggage. The field of Plassey, - on which with such slender loss the fate, not only of Bengal, but of India, was in truth decided,- continued for many years an object of interest 66 "Colonel Clive chanced at this time to be lying down in the "hunting-house. Some say he was asleep, which is not improbable, considering how little rest he had had for so many hours before; "but this is no imputation either against his courage or conduct." (Orme's Hist. vol. ii. p. 176.) and curiosity to the passing stranger. It was visited, amongst several other British officers, by the Duke of Wellington, whom I have heard describe it; but more recently it has become difficult, nay, almost impossible, to trace the scene of this great achievement. The river has here entirely changed its course, and encroached upon the plain; the Nabob's hunting-house, once the abode of Clive, has crumbled away, and even the celebrated mangoe-grove is no longer to be found.* Of this battle it may be said, that it was gained against a disparity of force nearly such as the Spaniards encountered in Mexico and Peru. But there is a difference highly honourable to the English. The natives of Mexico and Peru were wholly ignorant of gunpowder, and viewed the Spaniards with their fire-arms as demi-gods, wielding the lightning and thunder of the Heavens. The natives of India, on the contrary, were well acquainted with the natives of Europe; they looked on them with no superstitious awe; and, however unskilful in the use of artillery, they were at least not surprised at its effects. From the day of Plassey dates our supremacy above them. From that day they began to feel that none of the things on which they had heretofore relied, not their tenfold or twentyfold numbers, their blaze of rockets, - the long array of their elephants, the massy weight of their ordnance, their subterfuges and their wiles, would enable them to stand firm against the energy and discipline of the island-strangers. They began to feel that even their own strength would become an instrument to their subjugation; that even their own countrymen, when, under the name of Sepoys, trained in European discipline, and animated by European spirit, had been at Plassey, and would be again, the mainstay and right arm of the British power. From that day the British flag in Hindostan has never (and the Hindoos know it) been unfurled in vain; its very sight has more than once awed, without a blow, aggressors to submission, and ever inspired with undoubting confidence those who are ranged beneath it, and can claim it for their own. That feeling, now prevalent through the East, has in our day been forcibly * Hamilton's East India Gazetteer, article PLASSEY, ed. 1828. INDIA.] FLIGHT OF SURAJAH DOWLAH. 66 333 described by one of our naval officers, when beset with his boat's crew in a great city of China. — " I found," he writes, in words whose truth and earnestness are nearly akin, and perhaps superior, to eloquence," that the top"mast of the flag-staff had been struck since the exe66 cution; but I immediately desired that the boat's ensign "should be taken up, and made fast to the lower mast"head, for I well knew, my Lord, that there is a sense "of support in the sight of that honoured flag, fly where "it will, that none can feel but men who look upon it in 66 some such dismal strait as our's."* On the morning after the battle Meer Jaffier appeared at the English camp, far from confident of a good reception since his recent conduct. As he alighted from his elephant the guard drew out, and rested their arms to do him honour; but Meer Jaffier, not knowing the drift of this compliment, started back in great alarm. Clive, however, speedily came forward, embraced his trembling friend, and hailed him Nabob of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. It was agreed between them that Meer Jaffier should immediately push forward with his division to Moorshedabad, and that Clive and his English should follow more at leisure. But they neither expected nor found the slightest further resistance. Even before the day of Plassey was decided Surajah Dowlah had mounted a camel, and ignominiously fled from the field. He scarcely rested until he reached Moorshedabad. There he heard his councillors advise, some, surrender to the English,-others, perseverance in the war, others, again, a prolongation of his flight. To his own cowardly temper this last advice was by far the most congenial. In the evening he assumed a mean dress for a disguise, let himself down from a by-window of his palace, and embarked in a small boat, with the most precious of his jewels, and the favourite of his women. His design was to ascend the Ganges as far as Patna, and throw himself upon the protection of Law's detachment. Already had he reached the point where the blue hills of Rajmahal, - the first outposts of the * Captain Elliot to Lord Palmerston, March 30. 1839. Parliamentary Papers,- CHINA. Himalaya, — rise above the wide level of Bengal. At this place he landed to pass the night on shore, but was recognised by a peasant who had incurred his displeasure some months before, and whose ears he had caused to be cut off. The injured man now revealed the secret to some soldiers; and thus the Nabob was discovered and seized, and brought back in chains to the palace of Moorshedabad,-to the very presence chamber, once his own, now that of Meer Jaffier. The fallen prince, still more abject in spirit than in fortunes, flung himself down before his triumphant subject, and with an agony of tears implored his life. It is said that Meer Jaffier was touched with some compassion, and merely directed that his prisoner should be led away; but his son Meeran, a youth no less ferocious and cruel than Surajah Dowlah himself *, gave the guards orders that he should be despatched in his cell. Barely sufficient respite was granted him, at his own urgent entreaty, to make his ablutions, and to say his prayers. Next morning the mangled remains were exposed to the city on an elephant, and then carried to the tomb of Aliverdi, while Meer Jaffier excused himself to the English for the deed of blood committed without their knowledge and consent. The installation of Meer Jaffier, as Nabob of Bengal, was performed with great solemnity. Clive himself led his friend to the MUSNUD, or seat of honour, and, according to the Indian custom, presented him with a plate full of gold rupees; he then, through an interpreter, addressed the native chiefs, exhorting them to be joyful that Fortune had given them so good a Prince. Nor did the new Nabob fail to bestow on his allies marks as splendid and more substantial of his favour. It was agreed, according to the previous stipulation, that the English should have the entire property of the land within the Mahratta ditch, and for 600 yards beyond it, and also the ZEMINDARY, or feudal tenure on payment of rent, of all the country between * Of Meeran Clive writes, two years afterwards: "Sooner or later "I am persuaded that worthless young dog will attempt his father's "overthrow. How often have I advised the old fool against putting "too much power into the hands of his nearest relations!" To Warren Hastings, Resident at Moorshedabad, September 21. 1759. INDIA.] FATE OF OMICHUND. 335 Calcutta and the sea. The money granted them in compensation for their losses, and in donatives to the fleet, the army, and the Committee, amounted to no less than 2,750,000l.*, although, as the wealth of Surajah Dowlah proved far less than was expected, it was not found possible to pay the whole of this sum at once. Clive accepted for his own share a gift of above 200,000l. When, some years afterwards, before a Committee of the House of Commons, he was accused for taking so much, he defended himself by saying, that he might, if he had pleased, have taken much more. "When I recollect," he said, "entering the Nabob's treasury at Moorshedabad, "with heaps of gold and silver to the right and left, and "these crowned with jewels," - here he added an oath, and violently struck his hand to his head," at this mo"ment do I stand astonished at my own moderation!" † A painful office remained, to tell Omichund, that, notwithstanding the promise in his favour, he should have no share in all this wealth. As interpreter and spokesman for that purpose the British chief employed Mr. Scrafton, a civil servant of the Company. A meeting having been held at the house of one of the principal SOUCARS or bankers of Moorshedabad, Clive, at its conclusion, said to Mr. Scrafton: "It is now time to undeceive “Omichund.” Mr. Scrafton, as if ashamed of the task, performed it in the fewest and shortest words. "Omi"chund, the red paper is a trick; you are to have nothing."— At this announcement the unhappy dupe staggered back, as from a blow; he fainted away, and was borne by an attendant to his house, where, on recovering from his swoon, he remained for many hours silent and abstracted, and then began to show symptoms of imbecility. Some days afterwards he visited Clive, who received him kindly, advised him, for change of scene, to undertake a pilgrimage to some one of the Indian shrines, and was willing, on his return, to employ him again in public business. But the intellect of Omichund had been wholly unhinged, and he expired. *Orme's Hist., vol. ii. p. 180. |