I have deemed it of importance to dwell on these particulars. In nothing does the power of genius more strikingly display itself than in the selection of persons most fit to be employed, and in the application of their peculiar talents to the work for which they are suited. The personal efforts of one man can do little; but aided by the power of creating and employing subordinate instruments, can effect every thing. The sphere of Clive's selection, however, was very limited; and there are, in his private letters of this period, continual complaints of his being forced, from want of aid, to make personal efforts injurious to his health[196], which had never been good, and which he now represents as declining from the effects of a nervous complaint, to which he had been subject from his youth.
Affairs at Moorshedabad had, from the moment Clive left that city, become worse. Besides other evils, the Nabob had hitherto evaded compliance with several of the most important articles of the treaty; and he every day showed less disposition to comply with the reiterated demands made for its speedy fulfilment. Mr. Scrafton, who was at this period acting as political resident at his Court, urged Clive to hasten to Moorshedabad, with or without his force; as his presence appeared the only means of averting confusion and ruin.
"I shall march," said Clive, in answer[197] to several of Mr. Scrafton's letters[198], "with the whole army. I have wrote to the Nabob and Ram Narrain, of which copies are enclosed you. Do not suffer yourself to be unquieted beyond reason at the situation of affairs, but consider them coolly, and give me daily accounts of what is passing. The march of the army is absolutely necessary, as well to support the Nabob against his enemies, as to see justice done ourselves."
After Clive had joined the Nabob at Rajahmahul, he received a letter from the Select Committee, stating that as Sir G. Pocock was about to leave the river, were he to proceed to Patna the safety of Calcutta might be endangered. Clive observes in reply; "Without a foreknowledge of events, we cannot be at any certainty, whether the steps we take may or may not be for the advantage of the Company. By accompanying the Nabob to Patna, it is very possible, though I think not probable, for a French squadron to push up the river, and endanger Calcutta, and in consequence all of the Company's possessions in these parts; and by refusing to lend the Nabob our assistance, we must lose that influence with him which seems essentially necessary to obtain his fulfilling the rest of the treaty, and his continuing to us our valuable possessions.