failure of the search had not shaken his faith one iota, or altered one atom of his confidence of the proximity of the treasure to the loved spot. He believed that if he could hit off the exact hour and moment of time when the shadow of the rocky hill, which impeded the Frenchmen's exertions, extended to a particular eminence on the opposite side of the little intervening valley, and that if an excavation were made for about a quarter of a mile in a direction due east from the centre of such shadow, the secret spot where lay the hoped-for treasure would be disclosed. Many similar instances of the prevalence of the custom of burying the wealth of the family to save it from the government despoiler have come under my own observation. C CHAPTER II. The foundation of British power in India dates from the battle of Plassey Rapacity of British adventurers-The Honourable East India Company's disregard of solemn treatiesIntegrity of the Bengal civil service-Inexplicable laws and regulations-Constitution of the Bengal army-Eurasians -The motley character of the inhabitants of CalcuttaVariety of dress and costumes. "Homo homini aut Deus aut lupus."-Erasmus. THERE can be little doubt that the foundation of British power in India was laid by Lord Clive's victory at Plassey, more correctly Palasi, which involved a loss to the British of only twenty-four killed and forty-eight wounded. The war * was undertaken against Siraj-ud-Daula the Subadar of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, who advanced from Moorshedābād, his seat of government, against Calcutta and the English factories; sacking, burning, and utterly destroying all their *See note B, Appendix. RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF PLASSE Y. 19 commercial establishments, and consigning such of the English as fell into his hands to all the horrors of incarceration in the black-hole prison, from which so few escaped, in 1756 a.d. The history of that dreadful tragedy and of the subsequent death and defeat of the tyrant is sufficiently well known. At the time I am speaking of, the British adventurers were a rapacious corrupt and disorganised set of men, little caring what means they adopted to amass individual and private wealth, and equally indifferent to the general weal of the Company which they professed to represent. Their proceedings in establishing themselves, their factories, and warehouses, as in all other cases, were marked by the usual characteristics, and were carried on and achieved entirely by superior tact, cunning, bribery, promises, and personal humiliation of the native power. In all these particulars they showed themselves to possess as little regard as to what means they used to accomplish their wishes as any of the oppressors of India between 326 B.C., the date of Alexander's invasion, and 1757 A.D., the date of Siraj-ud-Daula's defeat. The histories of those times will fully bear out these remarks, which for truth's sake can neither be disguised, forgotten, nor silently passed over. Little or no attention was ever paid to treaties entered into in times of peril; for when the danger disappeared, the Honourable Company either disregarded the letter and spirit of them, or else proceeded to enlarge and alter them. I much fear that no line of argument can ever be brought forward to justify the actions which these men committed from the time when they practised that consummate piece of deception on the arch, wily Hindoo, Omichund of Cossim-bazaar, down to the last grand farce of justice performed by them at Lucknow. When it suited the purpose of the Company's functionaries, they placed Meer Jaffier on the throne at Moorshedābād, when it equally suited their purpose they deposed him, and, in the most undignified manner they tumbled him and his wives into a budgero, and packed them off to Calcutta; placing his son-in-law Meer Cossim on the throne for a consideration, which consisted in his paying to eight members of the Council upwards of £200,000. Of this sum Mr. Vansittart, the Governor, took special care of £58,000. As with the higher functionaries, so with the subordinates in office, the same character marks all their actions, which were alike false, grasping, hollow and perfidious. They had but one object in view, and to accomplish it, certain prohibitions of the Decalogue were reversed when occasion required, and the advice in the two following lines of Horace was most religiously pursued : "Rem facias; rem Recte si possis; si non, quocumque modo rem." "Get wealth and power, if possible with grace; In my days a new arrival was termed a "griffin.” What sort of animal that may be I do not know, not being versed in heraldic zoology. At all events, he was not credited with knowing his head from his elbow, and was regarded as utterly incapable of managing either his own affairs or those of others. Men were evidently differently constituted at the period I am speaking of. They must have been giants in intellect in those days. Lord Clive says, "Fortunes of £100,000 have been acquired in the space of two years, and individuals very young in the Service are returning home with a million and a half." What consideration the Honourable (?) East India Company showed for the interests and welfare of the people of India will appear but too obvious to any one who has given their system of revenue a moment's thought; and the respect with which they have treated the rights of the original landowners and proprietors of the soil needs no further comment. Lord Macaulay accurately describes the then state of Bengal, and I may add that his picture was correct for a long subsequent period. |