The co-operation of Meer Jaffier appearing doubtful at this period, made Lieut.-Colonel Clive hesitate as to crossing into the island of Cossimbuzar, and at all risks attack the Nabob Surajee Dowlah. A council of war consisting of sixteen officers was summoned; and contrary to the usual practice of taking the voice of the youngest officer first, and ascending from this to that of the president, Lieut.-Colonel Clive at once declared for remaining at Cutwah, and to continue there during the rainy season. Eight other officers were of the same opinion, and only seven voted for immediate action. Captain Eyre Coote, of the THIRTY-NINTH, was one of the latter, and argued, “that the soldiers were at present confident of success, and that a stop so near the enemy would naturally quell this ardour, which it would be difficult to restore; that the arrival of the French troops with Mr. Law would add strength to the Nabob’s force and vigour to his councils; that they would surround the English army, and cut off its communication with Calcutta, when distresses, not yet foreseen, might ruin it as effectually as the loss of a battle. He therefore advised that they should either advance and at once decide the contest, or immediately return to Calcutta.” Lieut.-Colonel Clive’s anxieties were not alleviated by the sanction of the majority. He retired into the adjoining grove, and remained for nearly an hour in deep meditation; the result was that he determined to act on the opinion of Captain Coote and the minority, by giving orders for the passage of the river of Cossimbuzar, a branch of the Ganges. At sunrise on the 22nd of June, the British troops commenced to pass the river, and all were landed on the opposite shore by four in the afternoon. After a march of fifteen miles they arrived at one o’clock on the following morning at _Plassey_, and immediately occupied the adjoining grove. The guards being stationed, the remainder of the wearied soldiers were allowed a short interval of repose, which was broke at daybreak, when the Nabob’s hosts issued from their entrenched camp, amounting to about fifteen thousand cavalry, thirty-five thousand infantry, and upwards of forty pieces of cannon.[11] This was a fearful disparity of numbers when contrasted with the small army under Lieut.-Colonel Clive, which consisted of two thousand one hundred Sepoys, one hundred Topasses[12], one hundred Malabar Portuguese, six hundred and fifty European infantry, and one hundred and fifty artillerymen, including fifty seamen, together with eight six-pounders and one howitzer.