Though Clive had been restrained by many considerations, as well as by the rapidity of events, from taking personally any decided part in the disputes in Bengal, he had not been an unconcerned observer of those scenes. Each party had addressed him with an equal solicitude that he should approve and support them; but we do not meet in his private correspondence with any full expression of his sentiments. He regretted, it appears from his letters, the removal of Meer Jaffier from the throne; but uninformed of the minute circumstances that had produced that measure, he did not withdraw his confidence in the wisdom of the administration of one, whom he so highly valued as Mr. Vansittart, till he saw him depart step by step from all those maxims of policy he had laid down as the rules of his own conduct, both in regard to native princes and other men of rank and consequence in India. The opposition of his views to those of his successor, as well as his own difficulties, are clearly expressed in a letter he wrote to the Court of Directors immediately before his embarkation. "In obedience to your commands," Lord Clive observes[240], "I now transmit the purport of what I had the honour to represent to you by word of mouth at the last Court of Directors, with some other particulars which slipped my memory at that time. "Having taken into consideration your letter sent me by the Secretary, as also the request of the General Court of Proprietors, I think myself bound in honour to accept the charge of your affairs in Bengal, provided you will co-operate with, and assist me in such a manner that I may be able to answer the expectations and intentions of the General Court. "As an individual, I can have no temptation to undertake this arduous task, and nothing but the desire I have to be useful to my country, and to manifest my gratitude to this Company, could make me embark in this service, attended as it is with so many inconveniences to myself and my family. I cannot avoid acknowledging that I quit my native country with some degree of regret and diffidence, on leaving behind me (as I certainly do) a very divided and distracted Direction, at a time, too, when unanimity is more than ever requisite for the carrying into execution such plans as are absolutely necessary to the well-being of the Company.