ng defeats ever inflicted on a people, and Clive had no
power of divining that the genius of a young member of one of their
ruling families, who escaped wounded from the field, would, in a few
years, raise the Maratha power to more than its pristine greatness.
As for the Mughal, his power was gone for ever; the representative
prince was at the very moment a fugitive at Allahabad, not possessed
of a stiver. What was there to be feared from him or from his family?
In the {174}three provinces the English possessed the richest parts
of India. It was surely good policy, he argued, if he could by treaty
with his neighbours, and by occupying the salient points which
covered them, render them unassailable.

After some preliminary conversation with the Nawab-Wazir, Clive found
that it would be necessary to proceed to Allahabad to confer there
with the titular emperor, Shah Alim. He found that prince full of
ideas as to the possibility of recovering with the aid of Clive his
lost possessions in the north-west. Nothing was further from Clive's
mind than an enterprise of that character, and, with his accustomed
tact he soon convinced the two princes that it was necessary first to
settle the English frontier before discussing any other subject. He
then proceeded to develop his plan. He demanded the cession of the
fortress of Chanar to the English; the provinces of Karra and
Allahabad to the Emperor, to be held, on his behalf, by the English;
the payment by the Nawab-Wazir of fifty lakhs, for the expenses of
the war just concluded; an engagement from him never to employ or
give protection to Mir Kasim or to Samru; permission to the East
India Company to trade throughout his dominions, and to establish
factories within them. The Nawab-Wazir agreed to every clause except
to that regarding the factories. He had observed, he stated, that
whenever the English established a footing in a country, even though
it were only by means of a commercial {175}factory, they never budged
from it; their countrymen followed them; and in the end they became
masters of the place. He then pointed out how, in nine years, the
small factory of Calcutta had absorbed the three provinces, and was
now engaged in swallowing up places beyond their border. He would
not, he finally declared, submit his dominions to the same chance.
Recognizing his earnestness, and having really no desire to plant
factories in Oudh, Clive wisely gave way on that one point. He
carried