The twenty-four Directors were at this period elected annually; and they had no sooner taken their seats than they were obliged to commence an active canvass to maintain them. Their patronage was the great means by which this was effected; and as that extended to almost every office in India, the value of which rose in proportion to the undue exercise of local authority, the Directors, generally speaking, might be said to derive strength from the continuance of those abuses which, as managers of the Company's concerns, it was their duty to correct. At the period of which I am writing, a great change had taken place in this body. Within the last ten years a number of the servants of the Company had returned to England with large fortunes; all of those bought India stock, to give them weight as proprietors; and many sought the direction, either to support their own interest, or that of their friends. Their efforts to influence elections brought them sometimes into violent collision with each other, but oftener with those classes of individuals who, before this change, had almost wholly monopolised the management of the affairs of the East India Company. To judge from the papers and pamphlets written by the different parties concerned in the general elections, and the means taken to create and influence the votes by ballot, we should pronounce that the India House, at this period, presented, annually, a scene in which there was little more of temper, and decorum of language, than at any popular election in the kingdom. No person better knew the nature of these contests than Lord Clive; and no one could be more anxious to avoid them. The resolution he took and declared, of preserving himself personally clear of them, was communicated to all his friends; and there can be no doubt that he was sincere in desiring to abstain from mixing in a scene where he might lose, but could not gain, reputation. But England is a country where men who require support must give it. Lord Clive had grounds, from his first landing in his native country, to dread an attack upon his fortune. He ascribes (and no doubt justly) the forbearance of his opponents to their dread of his influence, particularly with ministers and at court; but that was now at an end, when his attachment to Mr. Pitt and Mr. Grenville, and his disapprobation of the peace, led him, as we have stated, to reject the overtures of Lord Bute, when that nobleman added to his power, as the court favourite, that attached to the station of Prime Minister of his country.