"You say you were assembled at a council to give your opinion about a matter of property. Pray, Gentlemen, how comes it that a promise of a sum of money from the Nabob, entirely negotiated by me, can be deemed a matter of right and property? So very far from it, it is now in my power to return to the Nabob the money already advanced, and leave it to his option, whether he will perform his promise or not. You have stormed no town, and found the money there; neither did you find it in the plains of Plassey, after the defeat of the Nabob. In short, Gentlemen, it pains me to remind you, that what you are to receive is entirely owing to the care I took of your interest. Had I not interfered greatly in it, you had been left to the Company's generosity, who perhaps would have thought you sufficiently rewarded, in receiving a present of six months' pay; in return for which, I have been treated with the greatest disrespect and ingratitude, and, what is still worse, you have flown in the face of my authority, for over-ruling an opinion, which, if passed, would have been highly injurious to your own reputation, being attended with injustice to the navy, and been of the worst consequences to the cause of the nation and the Company. "I shall, therefore, send the money down to Calcutta, give directions to the agents of both parties to have it shroffed; and when the Nabob signifies his pleasure (on whom it solely depends) that the money be paid you, you shall then receive it, and not before. "Your behaviour has been such, that you cannot expect I should interest myself any further in your concerns. I therefore retract the promise I made the other day, of negotiating either the rest of the Nabob's promise, or the one third which was to be received in the same manner as the rest of the public money, at three yearly equal payments. "I am, Gentlemen, "Your most obedient, humble servant, (Signed) "ROB^T. CLIVE. "Moorshedabad, 5th July, 1757." The officers to whom this letter was addressed sent an acknowledgment of their error; to which Clive instantly replied in the following terms:-- "Gentlemen, "I have ever been desirous of the love and good opinion of my officers, and have often pursued their interest in preference of my own. What passed the other day is now forgotten, and I shall always be glad of an opportunity of convincing you how much "I am, Gentlemen, "Your most obedient, humble servant, (Signed) "ROB^T. CLIVE. "Moorshedabad, 9th July, 1757." On the 19th of July Clive wrote to Admiral Watson,--"Since my last letter, the officers of the army, sensible of their error, have thought proper to retract, and all is forgotten on my part."