He had not enjoyed himself two years in England, when the state of affairs in India made the Court of Directors anxious for his presence in that country. He was appointed Governor of Fort St. David, with a provisional commission to succeed to the government of Madras; and the appointment was accompanied with the expression of their anxious desire that he should return as soon as possible to a country in which they deemed his services of the greatest importance. To obviate the quarrels about rank between the King's and Company's officers, which had often been attended with much obstruction to the service, the Directors applied to His Majesty's government, and obtained for him the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel in the British army; a very honourable distinction, as he was then but a young man, and only a Captain in their service.
He left England in 1755; but, instead of sailing direct to his new government, he proceeded to Bombay, where he landed on the 27th of November, with three companies of Royal Artillery and three hundred infantry, destined to form, in conjunction with the Mahrattas, part of a force for the attack of the French and their allies in the Deckan. When the project was first formed, it had been intended that he should command this force; and he was at the time the only man in the service from whose knowledge and experience success in such a scheme could reasonably have been anticipated. But we have on this occasion an early instance of the character of that interference of the King's government, which, when dictated by narrow considerations of patronage, must defeat every measure it proposes to promote. Colonel Scott, who had sailed for India the preceding year, in the quality of Engineer-General, was, at the powerful recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland, nominated to the command of this expedition. Nevertheless, the Directors wished Clive to proceed to Bombay, in the hope that some event might occur to defeat an appointment in which they had found themselves compelled to concur. It so happened, that Colonel Scott died before the troops arrived: but a provisional treaty had been entered into[70] between Mr. Saunders, the Governor of Madras, and Mr. Godeheu, the Governor of Pondicherry, by which, among other articles, it had been agreed, that neither the French nor English companies should take part in any differences arising between the princes of the country. In consequence of this convention, the government of Bombay refused to adopt any proceeding that could disturb the general peace of India; so that Clive lost the opportunity of opposing the celebrated Bussy on the plains of the Deckan.