In a subsequent part of the same letter, anticipating success as certain, he enters into particulars as to the share he proposed to take in the affairs of the Company, and the arrangements he hoped to be able to carry into effect. It is a relief, when accompanying him into such scenes, to have the proof which this letter affords, that the expectation of being better able to promote the interests and strengthen the empire of India, was the leading motive which induced him to seek a station, which he may deem it most fortunate for himself and the interest of his country that he failed in attaining. "If we should succeed," he adds in the letter before quoted, "I have no thought of ever accepting the Chair; I have neither application, knowledge, nor time, to undertake so laborious an employ. I shall confine myself to the political and military operations; and I think I may promise, you shall have a very large military force in India, such a force as will leave little to apprehend from our enemies in those parts. I propose having all the troops regimented; that there shall be kept up at Bengal three battalions of infantry, consisting of seven hundred and eighty men each battalion, and three companies of artillery, and four battalions of sepoys; the same at Fort St. George. A much less number will serve for Bombay. But more of this by the latter ships, when we see the event of the thing." From letters addressed to his friends in India, during the first two years of his residence in England, it may be inferred that Clive, on his return to his native country, had no intention whatever of involving himself so deeply with the parties at the India House, and for some time he had little intercourse with any of the Directors. "The situation I am in at present," he observes in a letter to Mr. Lushington[175], "and the part of the town where I now reside, seldom gives me an opportunity of seeing any of the Directors, to whom I have been very sparing of applications, since I do not like refusals."