Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive embarked with his bride for England.  He returned a very different person from the poor slighted boy who had been sent out ten years before to seek his fortune.  He was only twenty-seven; yet his country already respected him as one of her first soldiers.  There was then general peace in Europe.  The Carnatic was the only part of the world where the English and French were in arms against each other.  The vast schemes of Dupleix had excited no small uneasiness in the city of London; and the rapid turn of fortune, which was chiefly owing to the courage and talents of Clive, had been hailed with great delight.  The young captain was known at the India House by the honourable nickname of General Clive, and was toasted by that appellation at the feasts of the Directors.  On his arrival in England, he found himself an object of general interest and admiration.  The East India Company thanked him for his services in the warmest terms, and bestowed on him a sword set with diamonds.  With rare delicacy, he refused to receive this token of gratitude, unless a similar compliment were paid to his friend and commander, Lawrence.

It may easily be supposed that Clive was most cordially welcomed home by his family, who were delighted by his success, though they seem to have been hardly able to comprehend how their naughty idle Bobby had become so great a man.  His father had been singularly hard of belief.  Not until the news of the defence of Arcot arrived in England was the old gentleman heard to growl out that, after all, the booby had something in him.  His expressions of approbation became stronger and stronger as news arrived of one brilliant exploit after another; and he was at length immoderately fond and proud of his son.

Clive’s relations had very substantial reasons for rejoicing at his return.  Considerable sums of prize money had fallen to his share; and he had brought home a moderate fortune, part of which he expended in extricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, and in redeeming the family estate.  The remainder he appears to have dissipated in the course of about two years.  He lived splendidly, dressed gaily even for those times, kept a carriage and saddle-horses, and, not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election followed by a petition.

At the time of the general election of 1754, the Government was in a very singular state.  There was scarcely any formal opposition.  The Jacobites had been cowed by the issue of the last rebellion.  The Tory party had fallen into utter contempt.  It had been deserted by all the men of talents who had belonged to it, and had scarcely given a symptom of life during some years.  The small faction which had been held together by the influence and promises of Prince Frederic, had been dispersed by his death.  Almost every public man of distinguished talents in