256 LA BOURDONNAIS AND DUPLEIX. Ch. 21 celebrated Clive, then a clerk in a mercantile house. In the year 1746, he entered into the Company's service as an 1748 ensign, and soon found occasion to distinguish himself. A. D. to But Dupleix, master of Madras, now formed the scheme of 1751. founding an Indian empire, and of expelling the English from the Carnatic. India was in a state to favor his enterprises. The empire of the Great Mogul, whose capital was Delhi, was tottering from decay. It had been, in the sixteenth century, the most powerful empire in the world. The magnificence of Schemes its palaces then astonished even Europeans, accustomed to the splendor of Paris and Versailles. Its viceroys ruled over provinces larger and richer than either France or England. of Dupleix. Victo Clive. The Nabob of Arcot was one of these princes. He hated the French, and befriended the English. On the death of this Viceroy of the Deccan, in 1748, to whom he was subject, Dupleix conceived his gigantic scheme of conquest. To the throne of this Viceroy there were several claimants, two of whom applied to the French for assistance. This was what the Frenchman desired, and he allied himself with the pretenders. With the assistance of the French, Mirzappa Juy obtained the Viceroyalty. Dupleix was splendidly rewarded, was intrusted with the command of seven thousand Indian cavalry, and received a present of two hundred thousand pounds. The only place on the Carnatic which remained in possession of the rightful Viceroy was Trichinopoly, and this was soon invested by the French and Indian forces. To raise this siege, and so turn the tide of French conquest, ries of became the object of Clive, then twenty-five years of age. He represented to his superior the importance of this post, and also of striking a decisive blow. He suggested the plan of an attack on Arcot itself, the residence of the Nabob. His project was approved, and he was placed at the head of a force of three hundred sepoys and two hundred Englishmen. The city was taken by surprise, and its capture induced the Nabob to relinquish the siege of Trichinopoly in order to retake his capital. VICTORIES OF CLIVE. 257 But Clive so intrenched his followers, that they successfully Ch.21 defended the place, after exhibiting prodigies of valor. The A. D. fortune of war turned to the side of the gallant Englishman, 1751 and Dupleix, who was no general, retreated before the victors. to Clive obtained the command of Fort St. David, an important 1756. fortress near Madras, and soon controlled the Carnatic. ments dered. About this time, the settlements on the Hooghly were plun- English dered by Surajah Dowlah, Viceroy of Bengal. Bengal was settlethe most fertile and populous province of the empire of the plunGreat Mogul. It was watered by the Ganges, the sacred river of India, and its cities were surprisingly rich. its capital was Moorshedabad, a city nearly as large as London; and here the young Viceroy lived in luxury and effeminacy, and indulged in every species of cruelty and folly. He hated the English who were in Calcutta, and longed to plunder them. He accordingly, in 1756, seized the infant city, and shut up one hundred and forty of the colonists in a dungeon of the fort, a room twenty feet by fourteen, with only two small windows; and, in a few hours, one hundred and seventeen died. The horrors of that night have been awfully depicted by Macaulay in his Essay on Clive, and the place of torment, Black called the Black Hole of Calcutta, is synonymous with suf- Hole of fering and misery. Cal cutta. Clive resolved to averge this act of cruelty. An expedi tion was fitted out at Madras to punish the inhuman Nabob, consisting of nine hundred Europeans and fifteen hundred sepoys. It was a small force, but it proved sufficient. Calcutta was recovered, and the army of the Nabob was routed. Clive intrigued with the enemies of the despot in his own city; and, by means of unparalleled treachery, dissimulation, art, and violence, Surajah Dowlah was deposed, and Meer Jaffier, one of the conspirators, was made Nabob in his place. In return for the services of Clive, the new Viceroy splendidly rewarded him. A hundred boats conveyed the treasures of GreatBengal down the river to Calcutta. Clive himself, who had ness of walked between heaps of gold and silver, crowned with dia Clive. 258 ESTABLISHMENT OF ENGLISH POWER. Ch. 21 monds and rubies, condescended to receive a present of three hundred thousand pounds. His moderation has been com1757 mended by his biographers in not asking for a million. A. D. to The elevation of Meer Jaffier was, of course, displeasing to 1760. the imbecile ruler of India, and a large army was sent to dethrone him. The Nabob appealed, in his necessity, to the English; and, with the powerful assistance of the Europeans, the forces of the successor of the great Aurungzebe were signally routed. But the great sums he was obliged to bestow on his allies, and the encroaching spirit which they manifested, changed his friendship into enmity. He plotted with the Dutch and the French to overturn the power of the English. Clive divined his object, and, in 1760, Meer Jaffier was deposed in his turn. The Viceroy of Bengal was but the tool of his English protectors, and British power was firmly planted in the centre of India. Growth Calcutta was now the capital of a great empire; and the of the East India Company, a mere assemblage of merchants, beEnglish power. came the rulers and disposers of provinces which Alexander had coveted in vain. The career of Hastings, and the final conquest of India, belong to subsequent chapters, and to a time when East India affairs became mixed up with the contentions of rival statesmen, in the days of the younger Pitt. Before we consider these, we must again turn to the continental States, and review the seven years' war which Frederic had provoked. REFERENCES.-Bancroft's "History of the United States ;" Elphinstone's and Mills' "India;" Malcolm's "Life of Clive," and Macaulay's "Essay." FREDERIC THE GREAT OF PRUSSIA. 259 CHAPTER XXII. FREDERIC THE GREAT AND THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. A. D. to FREDERIC II. of Prussia has won a name which at once Ch.22 extorts admiration, and calls forth aversion. War was his absorbing passion and his highest glory. Peter the Great was 1740 half a barbarian, and Charles XII. half a madman; but Frederic was neither barbarous nor wild. Louis XIV. plunged his 1786. nation into war from sheer egotism, and William III. fought for the great cause of civil and religious liberty; but Frederic Fredindulged in that awful luxury for the excitement which war Great. produced, and from a restless ambition of taking what was not his own. eric the He was born in the royal palace of Berlin, in 1712-ten years after Prussia had become a kingdom, and in the lifetime of his grandfather, Frederic I. The fortunes of his family were made by his great-grandfather, called the Great Elector, His anof the house of Hohenzollern. He could not make Brandenburg a fertile province; so he turned it into a military state. He was wise, benignant, and universally beloved. cestors. eric But few of the amiable qualities of the Elector were inherited by his great-grandson. Frederic II. resembled more his whimsical and tyrannical father, Frederic William, who Fredbeat his children without a cause, and sent his subjects to William. prison from mere caprice. When his ambassador, in London, was allowed only one thousand pounds a year, he gave a bounty of thirteen hundred pounds to a tall Irishman, to join his famous body guard, a regiment of men who were all above six feet high. He would kick women in the streets, abuse 260 A. D. ACCESSION OF FREDERIC THE GREAT. Ch. 22 clergymen for looking on the soldiers, and insulted his son's tutor for teaching him Latin. But, abating his coarseness, his 1740. brutality, and his cruelty, he was a Christian after his own notions. He had respect for the institutions of religion, denounced all amusements as sinful, and read a sermon aloud, every afternoon, to his family. Tyranny of Frederic His son perceived his inconsistencies, and grew up an infidel. There was no sympathy between them; the father hated William. the heir of his house and throne. The young prince was kept on bread and water; his most moderate wishes were disregarded; he was surrounded with spies; he was cruelly beaten and imprisoned, and abused as a monster and a heathen. The cruel treatment which he received induced him to fly; his flight was discovered; he was brought back to Berlin, condemned to death as a deserter, and only saved from the fate of a malefactor by the intercession of half the crowned heads of Europe. A hollow reconciliation was effected; and the prince was permitted, at last, to retire to one of the royal palaces, where he amused himself with books, billiards, balls, and banquets. He opened a correspondence with Voltaire, and became an ardent admirer of his opinions. Acces Fred In 1740 the old King died, and Frederic II. mounted an absolute throne. He found a well filled treasury, and a splendidly disciplined army. His customary pleasures were abandoned, and dreams of glory filled his ambitious soul. Scarcely was he seated on his throne, before military agsion of grandizement became the animating principle of his life. Hi eric II. first war was the conquest, in 1741, of Silesia, one of the richest provinces of the Austrian empire. It belonged to Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, daughter of the late Emperor of Germany, whose succession was guaranteed by virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction—a law which the Emperor Charles passed respecting his daughter's claim, and which was recognized by the old King of Prussia, and ratified by all the leading powers of Europe. Without a declaration of war, without complaints, without a cause, almost without a pretext |