This loyalty of the Sepoys, and his own skill and daring, enabled Clive to defeat the French, and to lay the foundations of the British rule in India.
Map of India
His next important battle was fought against the "Nabob" (or ruler) of Bengal, whom the French stirred up to seize Calcutta. With great cruelty, this Nabob shut up one hundred and forty-five Englishmen, and one English woman, in a close dungeon less than twenty feet square. When that dreadful summer night was past, only twenty-three of their number came out alive. The rest had perished, from lack of air, and crowding, in that terrible "Black Hole" of Calcutta. To punish the Nabob, Clive fought the battle of Plassey. With only one thousand Europeans and four thousand Sepoys, he defeated ten times their number of the Nabob's troops.
This, and other victories, completely destroyed the French influence in India, and laid the foundations of an English power that has lasted until the present day. The Company grew enormously wealthy. Many of its officers returned to England, after their service in India, with fortunes which enabled them to live in great luxury. It was some time, however, before the Company began to add the control of the governments of India to its control of the trade.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Frederick the Great was hard pressed. At first he won brilliant victories; but soon he was attacked by three countries at once, and his victories changed to defeats. Twice he was in despair, and thought that all was lost. Once Berlin, his capital, was captured. Each time he succeeded, somehow, in saving himself. But his resources were almost gone, and he was only able to continue the war because of the large sums of money which Pitt continued to send him, with the design of "conquering America in Germany."
Just at this time (1760), King George II. of England died, and his grandson, George III., came to the throne. George III. was an earnest and hardworking young man, but he was narrow-minded and obstinate. His mother had said to him, again and again, "George, be King"; and in order really to be King, he thought that he must throw off the influence of the great Whig families, and manage the government himself.
So, the chief power in the government was taken from Pitt, in spite of his great victories, and the payments to Frederick were stopped. Fortunately for Frederick, Russia made peace at this time; and he was thus able to hold out against Austria until she also gave up the struggle. He not merely saved his country from division among his enemies, be he succeeded in keeping the lands which he had taken in the former war. But he never forgave England for deserting him.
Peace between England and France was made, at Paris, in 1763. England did not gain all that Pitt had hoped for, but her gain was very great indeed. In America she received from France all of Canada, and a clear title to the country between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Spain was glad to buy back Havana and the Philippines by giving her Florida. In India, although the French retained a few trading points, the supremacy of the English was thenceforth recognized.
Largely as a result of Pitt's efforts, Great Britain thus became one of the most powerful countries of the world. Half of North America was subject to her, and she planted her power in India. Her warships controlled the seas, and her trading vessels passed to and fro to the ends of the earth. By exploration and settlement she added Australia, and the two great islands of New Zealand, to her dominions; and early in the nineteenth century she took South Africa from the Dutch, in war, and made the beginnings of another great group of colonies there.
Through good fortune, the enterprise and daring of her people, and the foresight of men like William Pitt, there were thus laid the foundations of the greatest dominions that the world has ever seen, under single rule—the modern British Empire, whose proud boast is, that "on its lands the sun never sets."
Topics for Thought and Search
Why was France England's chief enemy in the eighteenth century?
Tell the story of Braddock's defeat.
Write a brief account of William Pitt, of General James Wolfe, of Robert Clive.
Read a brief account of Frederick the Great and his wars.
Describe India as it was in the time of the Seven Years' War.
George III. and the American Revolution
George III. came to the throne in 1760, and reigned until 1820. His reign covered a period of sixty years, which is longer than any other English sovereign has ruled, except Queen Victoria. It was a very important reign because in it occurred many great changes.
George III
Unlike George I. and George II., who were more German than English, George III. took deep interest in British affairs. In his first speech to Parliament, he said:
"Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton."
Unfortunately, his mother and his teachers had filled his mind with the idea that he must really rule as well as reign—that is, that he must impose his own will upon the government, rather than be guided by the heads of the great Whig families who ruled Parliament. If he had been a strong and wise man, this might have been an improvement. But although he was a good man, he was rather dull, and stupid, and very obstinate; and during the latter part of his reign he was insane most of the time. The result was that, as a great historian of England says: "He inflicted more profound and enduring injuries upon his country than any modern English King. He spent a long life in obstinately resisting measures which are now almost universally admitted to have been good, and in supporting measures which are as universally admitted to have been bad."
When Pitt, who had won such victories for England against France, found that his advice was no longer followed, he resigned his office, saying:
"I will not be responsible for measures which I am no longer allowed to guide."
The Tories, who before had longed for a King of the Stuart line, gave their support to George III. The King also built up, in the House of Commons, a party of "the King's friends," upon whom they could rely. To those who promised to support him, and to their friends, he gave rich offices; Some members were bought by giving them profitable contracts for government supplies. Others were bribed outright, with gifts and money. In the elections to the House of Commons the King used all his influence, to see that persons who would support his measures were elected.
All this was according to the evil practice of that time; but it was a new thing for the King to build up support by this means. It enabled him to get a party in the House of Commons which was numerous enough to make its support necessary to any ministry. When it suited the King's pleasure, his "friends" in the Commons voted against his own ministers, so that he became their master in fact as well as in name. George III. was like Charles I., in his desire to rule according to his own will. Unlike Charles, however, he did not attempt to override Parliament, but controlled it by corrupting its members.
One of King George's great mistakes was in urging his ministers to prosecute a Whig member of Parliament named John Wilkes. In No. 45 of a magazine which he published, Wilkes had declared that a passage about the peace with France, in the King's speech to Parliament was false. Everyone knew that it was the practice for the ministers to write the speeches made by the King, but George III. took Wilkes's statement was an attack upon himself. Wilkes was accordingly arrested, but in such a way that the court released him, on the ground that the arrest was illegal.
At the next session of Parliament, the House of Commons expelled Wilkes, and caused a copy of No. 45 of his magazine to be burned by the hangman. Wilkes now fled from England, and for four years lived in France. When the next elections to Parliament took place he returned, and was elected from Middlesex, the county in which London is situated. The people showed that they were on his side by chalking the figures "45" everywhere—on street doors, on carriages, and even on the boot soles of the Austrian ambassador, whom they dragged from his carriage for that purpose. Benjamin Franklin, who was then in England, said that there was scarcely a house within fifteen miles of London that did not have this number marked upon it.