me what I have.

They may, as

They may, as they think, make me poor, but I will be happy. I mean not this as my defence, though I have done for the present. My defence will be made at that bar, and before I sit down I have one request to make to the House, that when they come to decide upon my honour, they will not forget their own.

APPENDIX III

MR ELPHINSTONE'S ESTIMATE OF CLIVE

(Given in the Preface to his Rise and Progress of the British Power in the East,' p. 7.)

"THE only chance of success in this part of the history lies in stern impartiality, mixed with candour and indulgence, towards all the parties concerned. Measures must be discussed, serving no doubt to illustrate the characters of the leading men of the day, but more with a view to utility, and to pointing out what objects are to be attained and what are the sure means of ascertaining and promoting them.

'This is the key to the treatment of Clive's character, commanding respect and admiration from its great qualities, which feelings are painfully checked by instances of duplicity and meanness.

'The impression he leaves is that of force and grandeur; a masculine understanding; a fine judgment; an inflexible will; little moved by real dangers, and by arguments and menaces not at all. He exercised a supreme control over those who shared his counsels or executed his resolves. Men yielded to a pressure which they knew could not be turned

aside, and either partook of its impulse or were crushed by its progress.

"Where overmatched by his enemies, he appears in even greater grandeur. He meets the most formidable accusations with bold avowal and a confident justification. He makes no attempt to soften his enemies or conciliate the public, but stands on his merits and services with a pride which in other circumstances would have been arrogance.

I

After acknowledging his errors, history presents few great characters more blameless (?) than that of Clive. Though stern and imperious by nature, his temper was proof against a thousand trials, and in a life spent amidst scenes of blood and suffering he has never been accused of a single act of cruelty. He coveted money as an instrument of ambition, but never acquired it in any manner that he did not openly avow, and he scorned to preserve it by swerving a hair's-breadth from his duty. His few political offences he was led into by zeal for the public, and for the same object he sacrificed the peace of his last years and risked his accumulations of wealth and glory. He possessed undaunted courage, a strong understanding, sagacity and soundness of judgment, and unrivalled vigour in action. A mind so endowed rises high above ordinary imperfections. At worst it is a rough-hewn Colossus, where the irregularities of the surface are lost in the grandeur of the whole.

The mark of interrogation is by the author, Mr Elphinstone.

"Though naturally bold, open and direct, Clive did not despise the use of artifice when his purposes required it, and it is this propensity that casts a shade of meanness over his great qualities that prevents that unmixed respect which so powerful a character must otherwise have commanded.

'Though Clive had a natural sense of honour, his independent and even reckless character made him indifferent to the opinion of others and regardless of form and propriety. The society in which he lived in India was not likely to promote refinement; the agitated scene in which he was soon engaged, the eagerness for success, the calamities and disgrace attendant on failure, left little time for reflection or hesitation. The practice of the natives, the example of the French, and the maxims current among his brother officers, led him to rate boldness and vigour far above scrupulous correctness, and the result was a high sense of honour, with but little delicacy of sentiment. He could sacrifice his life to his duty, but not his interest to his moderation; he was generous to his friends, but barely just to his enemies. He would have rejected praise he had not earned, but neither forgot, nor allowed others to forget, the extent of his real deserts.

'Clive's estimate of his own services, great as they were, by no means fell short of their actual value. This does not arise from any indulgence of vanity on his part, but there is no occasion on which they

can promote his views or interest where they are not brought forward in an exaggerated form, with a boldness and consciousness of worth that command our respect, and overcome our dislike to self praise. Hence arose a marked peculiarity of Clive's character. After the enormous extent to which he had profited by his situation, he delights to dwell on his integrity and moderation, and speaks of greed and rapacity in others with scorn and indignation. Convinced that the bounty of Mir Jafar fell short of his claims. on the Company, he inveighs against his successors who received presents which they had not earned, and speaks of them with disgust as the most criminal, as well as the meanest of mankind. Nor are these sentiments assumed to impose upon the public; they are most strongly expressed in his most confidential letters, and appear to be drawn forth by the strength of his feelings. In no stage of his life did Clive appear with more dignity than during his persecution. His boasts of merit and service now appear as a proud resistance to calumny and oppression; the spirit with which he avowed and gloried in the acts which excited the most clamour and odium, his independence towards his judges, his defiance of his powerful enemies, excite our interest, while they command our respect and admiration.

'Clive's views were clear within the circle of his vision, but they were not extensive. His political plans were founded on the existing relations without