[85] Mr. Mill, by his quotation from Seir Mutaquerin, and his observations upon the former state of prisons in England and India, appears desirous not only of palliating the guilt of the Nabob and his servants, but of throwing a share of the blame upon the unhappy sufferers: "Some search," he observes, "was made for a convenient apartment, but none was found; upon which, information was obtained of a place which the English themselves had employed as a prison, and into this, without further inquiry, they were impelled. It was unhappily a small ill-aired and unwholesome dungeon called the Black Hole; and the English had their own practice to thank, for suggesting it to the officers of the subadar as a fit place of confinement."--Mill, vol. iii. p. 149. Though I refrain from commenting on the tone in which the author quoted treats this memorable catastrophe, I must directly question the justice of the conclusions he has drawn from his own premises. Assuredly the use of a room of twenty feet square, with two small windows, as a prison for one, two, three, or ten prisoners, can be no justification for forcing, at the point of the sword, 146 captives into this inadequate space; much less for keeping them there, when their sufferings became so dreadful, and the death of almost all certain. [86] The "Cumberland" seventy-four had Sir G. Pocock's flag on board. [87] The "Marlborough" Indiaman carried a large proportion of the troops and stores. [88] A village on the left bank of the river Hooghly, twenty miles in a straight direction below Calcutta, but more than double that distance by water. [89] Situated on the left bank of the river Hooghly, ten miles below Calcutta in a straight line, but double that number by the windings of the river. [90] This officer (afterwards the celebrated Sir Eyre Coote) commanded a company of H. M. 49th on board the flag ship. [91] The grenadier volunteers and sepoys had been pushed as near the fort as they could be, under cover, to be ready for an assault. The remainder had been halted in a hollow plain, to intercept the garrison in the event of an attempt at retreat. No enemy was believed to be near, except in the fort of Budge-Budge. The consequence was a surprise, the bad effects of which were only remedied by Clive's presence of mind and courage. He has been censured for not using more precaution; but having only landed seven days, and being ill, he must have depended upon others for intelligence, and he justly complains of their want of it. The nature of the country, however, is such, as to offer to almost any numbers the power of concealing their advance.