In the April election which followed, Mr. Sulivan's party renewed their efforts to recover their seats and influence in the Direction. Immense efforts had long been making for that purpose. Many of their friends had purchased largely of India stock, and divided what they possessed, for the purpose of making new votes. The ships' husbands, as they are called, a body of great wealth and influence at the India House, who had quarrelled with the Directors, split 150,000_l._ of stock against them. Lord Shelburne was said to have split 100,000_l._ of stock to support his friend Sulivan. The Directors had alienated many of the Proprietors by opposing the increase of dividend, and they had violent differences among themselves, so that two of them refused to concur in the proposed House List. The consequence was, that Mr. Sulivan and his friends, who were also supported by the ministry, were brought into the Direction, and a very important change of system followed. The friendship that had long subsisted between Lord Clive and Mr. Vansittart, had been first shaken by the revolution effected in Bengal under Mr. Vansittart's government, when Meer Jaffier, whom Lord Clive had placed on the musnud, and protected, was dethroned: the coolness that followed was increased by Mr. Vansittart's connection with Mr. Sulivan, whom he joined in the politics of the India House; and an open rupture, the particulars of which it is unnecessary to detail, followed, soon after Lord Clive's return to England. Vansittart's great object was to return to Bengal as Governor, or even as Governor-General of India. The restoration of his friends to power was favourable to these views; and the two parties, each of which was able to impede the other, but not entirely to carry its own objects, found it expedient to come to a compromise. The state of India absolutely required that the public affairs there should be placed on a better footing. Instead of sending out an individual, it was finally arranged that a commission of supervisors should be appointed, with very ample powers to investigate on the spot into every department of affairs, and the conduct of the public officers; to suspend, if necessary, even the presidents and councils, and to frame regulations adapted to the exigency of circumstances. To this important trust Mr. Vansittart, Colonel Forde, and Mr. Scrafton, all of whom had distinguished themselves in the country, were appointed; the first by the influence of Mr. Sulivan, the two last by that of Lord Clive. It is well known that the Aurora frigate, in which they sailed, was never heard of after leaving the Cape of Good Hope, and is supposed to have foundered at sea. Lord Clive, writing to Mr. Verelst, in the end of this year, alludes to these transactions; "The public papers," says he[162], "and your friends, will explain to you the India politics. The severe blow given the old Directors last year, by the admission of Sulivan and so many of