The Life of Robert, Lord Clive, Vol. 3 (of 3): Collected from the Family Papers Communicated by the Earl of PowisMalcolm, John
History
The Life of Robert, Lord Clive, Vol. 3 (of 3): Collected from the Family Papers Communicated by the Earl of Powis
Malcolm, John
Clive, Robert Clive, Baron, 1725-1774; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947
Mr. Sulivan rose in his own vindication, and acknowledged the
circumstance to be true; but said, that as Lord Clive had taken
occasion in the House, last session, to impute the distresses of
the Company to the Directors, he thought he, as a Director, was
justified in endeavouring to turn the tables, and lay the blame upon
his Lordship, which he had been in hopes of doing fairly, with the
assistance of Mr. Hoole. He then expatiated upon the enmity which
had long been maintained against him by Lord Clive; and to show
that it had not been reciprocal, he would now, he said, divulge a
circumstance highly injurious to the noble Lord's honour, and which
he had industriously concealed from the Secret Committee: this was
the suppression of sixteen months' correspondence which had passed
during his first government of Bengal, and which, though repeatedly
called for by the Directors, had never been produced: that it was
believed that the letters so suppressed might set the business of the
jaghire in a different light from any in which it had yet appeared.
Lord Clive, immediately rising, stated the facts. The correspondence
with Indian Princes is always carried on by the Governor only; and
translations are kept in books transmitted to the Directors from time
to time. Some portion of it, written in the year 1759, by some accident
had been neglected to be sent home. In 1763, when Lord Clive filed a
bill against the Company for recovering his jaghire, the Directors
(suspecting that the missing letters might contain something of
importance, and had therefore been withheld) called on him to produce
them, as it was presumed that he had retained copies for himself of
his correspondence. In answer, he acquainted the Court that he had
delivered the sections in question to Mr. Campbell, a Scotch author,
in the year 1760, in order to prepare a memorial concerning the Dutch
affairs to be laid before Mr. Pitt, then Secretary of State: that since
then he had not seen them, though he had in vain made every inquiry
after them; but that, from his own knowledge, he could affirm they did
not contain any thing that could affect the matter in dispute between
him and the Company.
To this statement Mr. Sulivan, of course, might give only such credit
as he was disposed; but, as it happened, some account of the debate
having appeared in the public newspapers, Dr. Campbell wrote to inform
Lord Clive that he had found the sections mentioned by Mr. Sulivan,
and was ready to deliver them to his Lordship's order. They were
accordingly recovered next day, and immediately sent to the Court of
Directors, and were found not to have the smallest reference to the
jaghire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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