Clive was not induced by this advice to depart from the course he had determined to pursue. He anticipated that what had passed would dispose the Nabob to peace; and he dreaded that, by driving him to despair, he might hurry him into an alliance with the French at Chandernagore, whose European force was nearly equal to the English, and who had just heard of the breaking out of war between the two nations in Europe. The events proved he was not mistaken in his conclusion as to the probable conduct of Suraj-u-Dowlah. That prince no longer hesitated to sign a treaty, by which he restored the English at Calcutta to all the privileges they had formerly enjoyed under the imperial firman, or mandate, gave up the villages he had seized, permitted their merchandise to pass custom-free, agreed to their fortifying Calcutta, allowed them to establish a mint, and engaged that all goods taken from their factories should be restored, and that money compensation should be given for such as were damaged, plundered, or lost. This treaty was concluded on the 9th of February, and three days afterwards the Nabob entered into another agreement with Clive, by which the English engaged to look upon the Nabob's enemies as their own, and to grant him any aid in their power. Various opinions were formed of the policy of this peace. Clive, in a private letter to Mr. Payne, Chairman of the Court of Directors, points out, with great force, the grounds on which he acted. "If I had only consulted the interest and reputation of a soldier, the conclusion of this peace might easily have been suspended. I know, at the same time, there are many who think I have been too precipitate in the conclusion of it; but surely those who are of this opinion never knew, that the delay of a day or two might have ruined the Company's affairs, by the junction of the French with the Nabob, which was on the point of being carried into execution. They never considered the situation of affairs on the coast, and the positive orders sent me by the gentlemen there, to return with the major part of the forces at all events; they never considered that, with a war upon the coast, and in the province of Bengal at the same time, a trading company could not subsist without a great assistance from the government; and, last of all, they never considered, that a long war, attended through the whole course of it with success, and many great actions, ended at last with the expense of more than fifty lacs of rupees to the Company.