n party, lately triumphant, was deprived of
power. Having been nominated governor-general and commander-in-chief
of the British possessions in Bengal he sailed for India, and reached
Calcutta in May, 1765. He at once assembled the council, and announced
his determination to enforce his two great reforms--the prohibition of
receiving presents from the natives, and the prohibition of private
trade by the servants of the Company. The whole settlement seemed to
be set, as one man, against these measures; but Clive declared that if
the functionaries in Calcutta refused obedience, he would send for
some civil servants from Madras to aid him in conducting the
administration. As he evinced the strength of his resolution by
dismissing the most factious of his opponents, the rest became alarmed
and submitted to what was inevitable.

Scarcely had the governor-general quelled the opposition of the civil
service when he had to encounter a formidable mutiny of the officers
of the army, occasioned by a diminution of their field allowances. Two
hundred English officers engaged in a conspiracy to resign their
commissions on the same day, believing that the governor-general would
submit to any terms rather than see the army, on which the safety of
the empire rested, left without commanders. They were mistaken in
their calculations; Clive supplied their places from the officers
round his person; he sent for others from Madras; he even gave
commissions to some mercantile agents who offered their support at
this time. Fortunately the soldiers, and particularly the Sepoys, over
whom Clive had unbounded influence, remained steadfast in their
allegiance. The leaders were arrested, tried, and dismissed from the
service; the others, completely humbled, besought permission to
withdraw their resignations, and Clive exhibited lenity to all, save
those whom he regarded as the contrivers of the plot.

In his foreign policy he was equally successful. The Nabob of Oude,
who had threatened invasion, sought for peace as soon as he heard of
Clive's arrival in India; and the Emperor of Delhi executed a formal
warrant, empowering the Company to collect and administer the revenues
of Bengal, Bahar, and Oussa; that is, in fact, to exercise direct
sovereignty over these provinces. Never had such a beneficial change
been wrought in the short space of eighteen months. The
governor-general set a noble example of obedience to his own
regulations; he refused the