While this expedition was in progress, the news of the war, which had been declared between Great Britain and France in May of the previous year, was received in India. The Nabob, Surajee Dowlah, exasperated by the attack of Hoogly, commenced his march towards Calcutta, and the British made every preparation to oppose his approach. On the 30th of January the Nabob’s forces commenced their passage of the river about ten miles above Hoogly, and arrived before Calcutta on the 3rd of February. In the afternoon of that day, a numerous body of the enemy commenced entrenching themselves in a large garden, within a mile and a half of the British camp. Upon this Lieut.-Colonel Clive immediately advanced with the greater portion of his troops, and six field-pieces. The attack of so numerous a force appeared extremely hazardous, and Lieut.-Colonel Clive restrained the action to a cannonade, which continued only for an hour, in order that the troops might be enabled to regain the camp before dark. Negotiations for peace had been proposed by Lieut.-Colonel Clive, and failed; it was therefore determined to attack the Nabob’s camp in the morning. At midnight five hundred and sixty-nine sailors, armed with firelocks, were landed from the ships of war: the Europeans amounted to six hundred and fifty, the artillerymen to one hundred, and the Sepoys to eight hundred. Shortly before dawn on the 5th of February, the British line came upon the advance-guards of the enemy, who fled after discharging their matchlocks and some rockets: one of the latter struck the cartouch-box of a Sepoy, set fire to the charges, which exploded, and communicated the mischief to several others: the dread of catching this fire threw the division into confusion, but fortunately none of the enemy were at hand to take advantage of this accidental circumstance, and Captain Coote, of the THIRTY-NINTH, who marched at the head of the grenadiers, in the rear of the Sepoys, rallied them, and restored the line of march. A desperate contest ensued, during which Ensign Martin Yorke, of the THIRTY-NINTH, with a platoon of the regiment, rescued one of the field-pieces which was on the point of being captured by the enemy. The British sustained a loss in killed of twenty-seven Europeans, twelve seamen, and eighteen Sepoys: seventy Europeans, twelve seamen, and thirty-five Sepoys were wounded. The Nabob lost twenty-two officers of distinction, six hundred men, four elephants, five hundred horses, some camels, and several bullocks. A treaty of peace was concluded between the Nabob and the East India Company on the 9th of February, and hostilities terminated.