“to oppose the passage of the English past Chandernagore....  It was merely engaging to defend ourselves against the maritime force of the English ... because Chandernagore was the only place on this coast against which they could undertake any enterprise by water. This engagement was signed and sent to the Nawab three days after he had made peace with the English.  The Council received in reply two privileges, the one to coin money with the King’s stamp at Chandernagore, the other liberty of trade for individual Frenchmen on the same footing as the Company, and 100,000 rupees on account of the 300,000 which he had extorted the previous year.”

It does not matter whether this engagement was signed or not.[32] As a Frenchman thus mentions it, the rumour of its signature must have been very strong.  It is probable that the English heard of it, and believed it to be conclusive proof of the secret understanding between the Nawab and the French.  The privilege of individual trade was particularly likely to excite their commercial jealousy, for it was to this very privilege in their own case that the wealth and strength of Calcutta were due.  Such a rumour, therefore, was not likely to facilitate negotiations.  Nevertheless, Renault sent MM.  Fournier and Nicolas, the latter of whom had many friends amongst the English, to Calcutta, to re-open the negotiations for a neutrality.  These negotiations seemed to be endless.  The most striking feature was Admiral Watson’s apparent vacillation.  When the Council proposed war he wanted peace, when they urged neutrality he wanted war.  Clive went so far as to present a memorial to the Council, saying it was unfair to continue the negotiations if the Admiral was determined not to agree to a treaty.  It seems as if the Council wanted war, but wished to throw the responsibility upon the Admiral.  On the other hand the Admiral was only too eager to fight, but hesitated to involve the Company in a war with the French and the Nawab combined, at a moment when the British land forces were so weakened by disease that success might be considered doubtful.  He had also to remember the fact that the Council at Chandernagore was subordinate to the Council at Pondicherry, and the latter might, whenever convenient to the French, repudiate the treaty.  However, in spite of all difficulties, the terms were agreed to, the draft was prepared, and only the signatures were wanting, when a large reinforcement of Europeans arrived from Bombay, and the Admiral received formal notification of the declaration of war, and orders from the Admiralty to attack the French.[33] This put an immediate end to negotiations, and the envoys were instructed to return to Chandernagore.  At the same time the English determined to try and prevent the Nawab from joining the French.