action by
declaring (May 7) that the Select Committee[3] had been constituted.
He then, with that Committee, {162}assumed the whole powers of the
Government, took an oath of secrecy, and had a similar oath
administered to the only two of his colleagues who were present. He
then set himself to examine all the matters connected with the
succession to the office of Subahdar of the three provinces.

[Footnote 3: See Chapter XI.]

He had to deal with men whom a long course of corruption had rendered
absolutely shameless. Charged by Clive with having violated the
orders of their masters in accepting presents after such acceptance
had been prohibited, they replied that they had taken Clive himself
as their model, and referred to his dealings with Mir Jafar in 1757,
and afterwards at Patna, when he accepted the famous jagir. The reply
naturally was that such presents were then permitted, whereas now
they were forbidden. Clive added, among other reasoning, that then
there was a terrible crisis; that for the English and Mir Jafar it
was then victory or destruction, whereas now there was no crisis; the
times were peaceful, the succession required no interference. He
again charged the members of Council with having put up the Subahdar
for sale to the highest bidder, in order that they might put the
price of it into their own pockets, and with having used indecent
haste to complete the transaction before his arrival.

Clive could at the moment do no more than expose these men, now
practically powerless. He forced them, however, to sign the new
covenants. But his treatment of them rankled in their minds. They
{163}became his bitterest enemies, and from that time forward used
all the means at their disposal to harass, annoy, and thwart him.
When, finally, he drove them from the seats they had disgraced, in
the manner presently to be related, they carried their bitterness,
their reckless audacity, and their slanderous tongues to England,
there to vent their spleen on the great founder of British India.

Having silenced these corrupt men, Clive turned his attention to the
best means of regulating, on fair terms, commercial interests between
the native and the foreigner. He soon recognized that the task of
Hercules when he was set to cleanse the stables of King Augeas was
light in comparison with the task he had undertaken. In the first
place he was greatly hampered by the permission which the Court of
Directors had granted to their