He enters fully upon this subject in his correspondence, both with Mr. Pigot and Mr. Vansittart; but his letters contain merely a repetition of his opinions as to Colonel Coote's unfitness for the general command of the forces in Bengal, while he recognises the benefits to be derived from his services in the mere military operations on the coast of Coromandel. The success of Clive's efforts on this occasion proved fortunate for the reputation of Colonel Coote, who, during the subsequent year, established a high military character by the battle of Wandewash and the capture of Pondicherry. I have been compelled to enter more at length upon this subject than I desired, from its being intimately connected with those disputes regarding the employment of officers in India in which Clive became involved on his return to England. Colonel Coote, when he revisited his native country after the campaign of 1757, was received with favour and distinction. He was possessed of a small fortune, his connections were respectable, and his manners and address manly and agreeable. He became more prominent from being the senior King's land officer employed on the expedition to Bengal; and, from the comparatively low estimation in which the Company's[142] officers were held at that period, his fame was advanced to detract from their pretensions. He was represented as a rising officer, of whom Clive was jealous; and it was believed by many (till contradicted several years afterwards by his own evidence), that it was through his advice and remonstrances that the army advanced to the field of Plassey. Besides the influence and popularity which those combined causes gave to this officer, he enjoyed the marked favour and friendship of Mr. Sulivan, the Chairman of the Court of Directors, whose subsequent rupture with Clive is in a great degree to be attributed to their difference in opinion with regard to the respective pretensions and merits of Colonels Coote and Forde. Clive, at the period of his second visit to his native country, was thirty-five years of age. We collect from his private correspondence, that he retained much of that hilarity of disposition for which he had been remarkable in youth. He was fond of female society; and many of his letters show that he was by no means indifferent to those aids by which personal appearance is improved. It was the fashion of the period to dress in gayer apparel than we now do; and the European visiter at an Indian Durbar, or Court, always wore a rich dress. We find in a letter[143] to Clive, from his friend Captain Latham, a description of a Durbar suit he was preparing for him, in which he says he has preferred a fine scarlet coat with handsome gold lace, to the common wear of velvet. He has also made up, he writes, a fine brocade waistcoat; and he adds to this intelligence, that "it is his design to line the coat with parchment, that it may not wrinkle!"