they did not endanger its stability. [Sidenote: _REVOLT IN BENGAL._] When parliament rose in December Chatham went to Bath for the sake of his health. In February, 1767, he had a severe attack of gout, and in March the disease began to affect his mental powers. For the next two years he was unable to take any part in politics. His effacement left the ministry without a head. Before his retirement a difference arose in the cabinet on the affairs of the East India Company. From a simple trading company it had been raised by the victories of Clive and his generals to the position of a territorial power. Its affairs were managed by a court of directors elected annually, and consequently under the control of the court of proprietors in which every holder of L500 stock had a vote. It proved itself unequal to its new position. Clive returned to England in 1760, the possessor of a princely fortune, and in 1762 was created Baron Clive of Plassey in the Irish peerage. He was opposed in the court of directors by a party headed by Sullivan. In India he was succeeded by Vansittart, and there troubles soon arose, chiefly from the greed of the company's servants. Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal, a self-indulgent and unpopular ruler, was deposed by the council in 1761, and his son-in-law, Mir Kasim, was made nawab in his place. It was a profitable business, for Mir Kasim spent L200,000 in presents to the council and ceded to the company the revenues of three districts, amounting to some L500,000 a year. Yet the exchange of nawabs proved an unwise step, for Mir Kasim was able and active. He moved his court from Murshidabad to Monghyr, at a greater distance from Calcutta, organised an army, and showed that he was ready to resist oppression.