Lord Clive

late Colonel Malleson, while doing ample justice to Clive's genius and services, dwells unduly, as I think, upon what he describes as Clive's baser nature, and upon the defects of his early training and the disastrous influence on his subsequent career, of his idleness and wildness as a schoolboy. That Clive as a schoolboy was idle and somewhat wild may be freely admitted, but it must not be forgotten that one of his masters predicted with remarkable foresight that he would rise to eminence, and that the use which he made of the Governor's library at Madras is hardly consistent with the theory that when he attained to manhood his mind was in the absolutely uncultured condition which Colonel Malleson attributed to him. The adjective base' is the last that should be used in reference to Clive. He was doubtless at times unscrupulous, but what he did he never attempted to conceal, nor was there anything in his conduct or his character to which the term 'base' could fitly be applied. I believe that most students of Clive's life would greatly prefer the opinion of Sir Charles Wilson, who, writing eight years later than Colonel Malleson, ends a memoir, of which the interest is only

equalled by the care and accuracy which have been brought to bear upon it, by affirming that among the many illustrious men whom India has produced, none is greater than the first of her soldier-statesmen, whose successful career marks an era in the history of England and of the world.'

There is one question in connection with this biography which perhaps may not unreasonably be asked. While so many Lives of Clive have been published, the last only eight years ago, what is the need of another? It certainly cannot be said that any new facts have been discovered which would justify the publication of another Life of Clive. The answer is, and I think it is a sufficient answer, that a series which deals with the Builders of Greater Britain would be obviously incomplete if it did not include a memoir of the man who gave to England her greatest dependency.

It should be mentioned that at some points the present memoir closely follows the comparatively brief article on Clive which I contributed eleven years ago to the Dictionary of National Biography, although a very large portion of it consists of entirely new matter,

The two principal speeches made by Clive during the Parliamentary enquiry, which are no longer available in a form accessible to the public, have been reprinted in this volume.

The best acknowledgments of the Editor and myself are due to the Earl of Powis for his permission to reproduce the portrait of Lord Clive at Powis Castle as a frontispiece, to Mr Lionel Cust, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, for his advice in connection therewith, and to Mr A. Story-Maskelyne of the Public Record Office, for assistance kindly rendered with regard to the two pedigrees which form Appendices IV. and V., and have been carefully compiled from printed sources. In preparing the maps, which are founded upon two of those by Juland Danvers, appended to Vol. VI. of Thornton's History of the British Empire in India, valuable help has been given by Mr Thomas, Assistant Librarian, and Mr Foster of the Registry and Record Department, at the India Office.

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