Writing to Mr. Verelst[39] a few days afterwards, he comments on the long silence of the General, and his feelings as a military man, in the following terms:-- "I have at last received a letter from Carnac, copy of which has been sent you. However, his silence upon particular subjects convinces me, he has too much given way to the warmth of his passions; and much I fear, he thinks too highly of the services, dignity, and authority of the military. "With regard to the first, although a soldier myself, I am of opinion that we imbibe such arbitrary notions, by the absolute power which we are obliged to exercise towards the officers and soldiers, in order to keep up subordination and military discipline, so essentially necessary for the good of the service, that we shall always be endeavouring to encroach upon the civil power, if they do not repeatedly make use of that authority with which they are invested; and I appeal to yourself, whether the commanding officers, whoever they were, since my departure from India, until my second arrival in this quarter, have not, by their conduct, endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the princes of the country, that the power was rather in the Commander-in-chief of the army, than in the Governor and Council. Indeed, a few months more of Mr. Spencer's government would have made them Lords paramount." Colonel Richard Smith, who was next in rank to General Carnac, and with whose decided conduct, during the combination of the officers, Lord Clive appears to have been fully satisfied, was evidently considered by his Lordship (with whom he had been a passenger in the same ship from England) as a person that required to be kept in as good order, as he was disposed to keep others. To preserve the means of doing this, Clive had acted towards him with a reserve that gave offence; and the Colonel, in the concluding paragraph of an able letter[40], upon the future arrangements of the army observes:-- "Your Lordship well knows what public-spirited motives influenced me to return to India; and by this time, I flatter myself, you are convinced, that I am determined religiously to observe the same uniform conduct which has been my principal object. Your late letters to me seem to breathe that same air of confidence, which only could first prevail on me to think of quitting England. Why there has been any interruption to it, your Lordship can only tell; for I declare myself an utter stranger to the cause. I have been induced to open myself thus frankly, from some conversations that passed with General Carnac on this subject. It remains now in your breast, whether my correspondence with your Lordship, in future, shall be simply from the Colonel to the Commander-in-chief, _or_, whether I shall go beyond that line, and offer my own sentiments on such matters regarding the public service, as from time to time may occur."