as a soldier, did Clive's character and his conduct stand higher than
when, in dealing out punishment for the {190}mutiny which he, and he
alone, had suppressed, he remembered the former services of the
soldiers who had been led away, and gave them all, a few
incorrigibles excepted, the opportunity to retrieve their characters
on future fields of battle.

The task of Clive in India had now been accomplished. Thoroughly had
he carried through the mission entrusted to him. He had cleansed, as
far as was possible, the Augean stable. He had given himself no
recreation: he was completely worn out. He had announced to the Court
of Directors so far back as 1765 his intention to resign as soon as
he could do so without inconvenience to the public interests. The
Court, in reply, whilst most handsomely acknowledging his services,
had begged him to devote yet one year to India. When that letter
reached him, December 1766, he had already accomplished all that,
with the means and powers at his disposal, it was possible to carry
through. He felt then that, broken in health, he might retire with
honour from the country he had won for England. Having penned a
valuable minute, laying down the principles which should guide the
policy of his successor, based upon his own action during the
preceding three years, he made over to one of his colleagues of the
Select Committee, Mr. Verelst,[4] the office of Governor, and
nominating Colonel Richard Smith, then on the frontier, to {191}be
Commander-in-chief, Mr. Sykes, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Beecher, to form,
with the Governor, the Select Committee, he bade farewell to his
friends, and, on the 29th of January, 1767, embarked on board the
good ship _Britannia_ for England.

[Footnote 4: Mr. Sumner, whose weak character I have described, and
who had been designated Lord Clive's successor, had been forced to
resign his seat on the Select Committee.]

{192}

CHAPTER XV
THE RETURN OF THE CONQUEROR-STATESMAN, AND THE RECEPTION ACCORDED TO
HIM BY HIS COUNTRYMEN: HIS STRUGGLES; AND HIS DEATH

One of the ablest and most impartial of English historians, the fifth
Earl Stanhope, has thus summed up his appreciation of the results of
the second administration of Clive in India: 'On the whole it may be
said that his second command was not less important for reform than
his first had been for conquest. By this the foundations, at least,
of good government were securely laid. And the results would ha