Clive had been only a few months in the army when intelligence arrived that peace had been concluded between Great Britain and France.  Dupleix was in consequence compelled to restore Madras to the English Company; and the young ensign was at liberty to resume his former business.  He did indeed return for a short time to his desk.  He again quitted it in order to assist Major Lawrence in some petty hostilities with the natives, and then again returned to it.  While he was thus wavering between a military and a commercial life, events took place which decided his choice.  The politics of India assumed a new aspect.  There was peace between the English and French Crowns; but there arose between the English and French Companies trading to the East a war most eventful and important, a war in which the prize was nothing less than the magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane.

The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive and splendid in the world.  In no European kingdom was so large a population subject to a single prince, or so large a revenue poured into the treasury.  The beauty and magnificence of the buildings erected by the sovereigns of Hindostan amazed even travellers who had seen St. Peter’s.  The innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp of Versailles.  Some of the great viceroys who held their posts by virtue of commissions from the Mogul ruled as many subjects as the King of France or the Emperor of Germany.  Even the deputies of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, or the Elector of Saxony.

There can be little doubt that this great empire, powerful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed than the worst governed parts of Europe now are.  The administration was tainted with all the vices of Oriental despotism, and with all the vices inseparable from the domination of race over race.  The conflicting pretensions of the princes of the royal house produced a long series of crimes and public disasters.  Ambitious lieutenants of the sovereign sometimes aspired to independence.  Fierce tribes Of Hindoos, impatient of a foreign yoke, frequently withheld tribute, repelled the armies of the government from the mountain fastnesses, and poured down in arms on the cultivated plains.  In spite, however, of much constant maladministration, in spite of occasional convulsions which shook the whole frame of society, this great monarchy, on the whole, retained, during some generations, an outward appearance of unity, majesty, and energy.  But, throughout the long reign of Aurungzebe, the state, notwithstanding all that the vigour and policy of the prince could effect, was hastening to dissolution.  After his death, which took place in the year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid.  Violent shocks from without co-operated with an incurable decay which was fast proceeding within; and in a few years the empire had undergone utter decomposition.