The departure of Clive was the most serious of all misfortunes to Meer Jaffier. He required the most liberal toleration that enlarged policy could give to his measures. He had, besides, a respect for the character and a dread of the displeasure of Clive, which operated as a check upon his excesses. Mr. Holwell (the temporary successor to Clive) could not succeed to his influence over the mind of the Nabob, whose want of personal deference must have aggravated the bad impressions the new governor appears to have previously entertained of his character. But, though Mr. Holwell has laboured to prove that Meer Jaffier, subsequent to his combination with the Dutch, carried on a correspondence with the Shah-Zada hostile to the English, the fact is not clearly established; and if it were, the sound principles that regulated the conduct of Clive would have led to its being passed over. The unhappy death of Meeran, however, was the event which tended most to accelerate the revolution. It threw, as has been shown, the army and country into equal confusion; and the step taken by the Nabob of elevating his nearest connection[224] and most efficient military leader, Cossim Ali, to the condition before held by his son, proved the proximate cause of his ruin. Cossim Ali's ambition was of too active a nature to render him content to await the death of his father-in-law and benefactor; and he found, in the distracted state of the Nabob's government, and in the prejudices of those intrusted with the administration of the Company's affairs in Bengal, ample grounds to proceed upon. He had also recourse to what he no doubt deemed more certain means of effecting his object. He promised (and the promise was afterwards made good[225]), large sums to those of the select committee who had favoured his elevation. He anxiously desired to extend his gifts to the members of the committee who were opposed to the measures of the Governor; but they rejected his offers, and made such rejection a strong ground of the sincerity of that protest[226] which they had entered against the proceedings of the Governor and his party on this memorable occasion. The letter written by the secret committee of Bengal to the Court of Directors, at the period of Clive's departure for England, has been already noticed. It was, of course, deemed most contumacious; and as a mark of their displeasure, the Court dismissed from their service the four civil councillors.[227] Three of those dismissed were zealous supporters of Mr. Vansittart; and their removal threw the power into the hands of a majority, whose violence, in their opposition to him and Cossim Ali, led to measures which precipitated the rupture with the latter, and all the horrid acts by which it was attended.