Meer Jaffier could be upheld on the throne only by the hand which had placed him on it.  He was not, indeed, a mere boy; nor had he been so unfortunate as to be born in the purple.  He was not therefore quite so imbecile or quite so depraved as his predecessor had been.  But he had none of the talents or virtues which his post required; and his son and heir, Meeran, was another Surajah Dowlah.  The recent revolution had unsettled the minds of men.  Many chiefs were in open insurrection against the new Nabob.  The viceroy of the rich and powerful province of Oude, who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul was now in truth an independent sovereign, menaced Bengal with invasion.  Nothing but the talents and authority of Clive could support the tottering government.  While things were in this state, a ship arrived with despatches which had been written at the India House before the news of the battle of Plassey had reached London.  The Directors had determined to place the English settlements in Bengal under a government constituted in the most cumbrous and absurd manner; and to make the matter worse, no place in the arrangement was assigned to Clive.  The persons who were selected to form this new government, greatly to their honour, took on themselves the responsibility of disobeying these preposterous orders, and invited Clive to exercise the supreme authority.  He consented; and it soon appeared that the servants of the Company had only anticipated the wishes of their employers.  The Directors, on receiving news of Clive’s brilliant success, instantly appointed him governor of their possessions in Bengal, with the highest marks of gratitude and esteem.  His power was now boundless, and far surpassed even that which Dupleix had attained in the south of India.  Meer Jaffier regarded him with slavish awe.  On one occasion, the Nabob spoke with severity to a native chief of high rank, whose followers had been engaged in a brawl with some of the Company’s sepoys.  “Are you yet to learn,” he said, “who that Colonel Clive is, and in what station God has placed him?” The chief, who, as a famous jester and an old friend of Meer Jaffier, could venture to take liberties, answered, “I affront the Colonel!  I, who never get up in the morning without making three low bows to his jackass!” This was hardly an exaggeration.  Europeans and natives were alike at Clive’s feet.  The English regarded him as the only man who could force Meer Jaffier to keep his engagements with them.  Meer Jaffier regarded him as the only man who could protect the new dynasty against turbulent subjects and encroaching neighbours.

It is but justice to say that Clive used his power ably and vigorously for the advantage of his country.  He sent forth an expedition against the tract lying to the north of the Carnatic.  In this tract the French still had the ascendency; and it was important to dislodge them.  The conduct of the enterprise was intrusted to an officer of the name of Forde, who was then little known, but in whom the keen eye of the governor had detected military talents of a high order.  The success of the expedition was rapid and splendid.