Orme ascribes Clive's disobedience to his "being convinced that the Nabob would never fulfil the terms of the treaty." The situation of this writer[172] gave him the completest means of forming a correct judgment; and the events which we have detailed fully prove, that from the day on which Chandernagore fell Clive could at no period have quitted the scene of action without an abandonment of the public interests. The facts already stated will also show that, as long as a hope existed of its practicability, he laboured to effect such a settlement as would enable him to return to Fort St. George.[173]
The next point on which the character and conduct of Clive have been arraigned, is the treatment of Omichund. The charges which have been brought against him on this ground are of a nature that require a clear understanding of the subject, which I shall endeavour to convey to the reader, that he may form his own opinion upon the whole question.
Omichund, who was a wealthy Hindu merchant, residing at Calcutta, was employed for some period in providing the Company's investment, and at the same time carried on large dealings on his own account; and was much connected, not only with Hindu merchants, but with the ministers of that religion at the court of Moorshedabad. The latter connection led to his occasional employment by the heads of the English factory, as a medium of communication with the ministry of the Nabob of Bengal.
The pre-eminence Omichund obtained, no doubt excited envy; and some of the accusations brought against him might have been fabricated; but a deterioration in the quality, and an increase of the price of the articles furnished by him to the Company, gave sufficient grounds to suspect some dishonest proceedings.
A new system[174] of providing the investment was adopted, and Omichund lost the profitable employ he had hitherto monopolized. Though fond of display, and maintaining a large establishment of followers, his ruling passion was avarice. The loss he sustained by this change rankled in his mind, and was believed to have rendered him personally hostile to those entrusted with the Company's affairs at Calcutta. He appears, as he withdrew from intercourse with them, to have laboured to strengthen his connexion with the Nabob's court, and to have contracted a particular intimacy with the Rajah Dullub, whose son Kishendass, when he came to reside at Calcutta, was received and treated by Omichund with kindness and hospitality.