Note 97 — CHAP. III.

It is with pain I read, in the page of a modern historian, the following passage[98]:—"The English were very desirous to make their peace with that formidable ruler (Suraj-u-Dowlah); but the capture of Hooghley, undertaken solely with a view to plunder, had so augmented his rage, that he was not in a frame of mind to receive from them any proposition." I rejoice to state, I have hitherto searched in vain for the facts that could warrant so unqualified an imputation upon the fame and reputation of Admiral Watson, Colonel Clive, and the other naval and military officers, detached in command of the force employed on this occasion; and, until proof is produced of their having been actuated by the sordid motives here ascribed to them, I cannot give credit to the unsupported opinion of any author, however respectable.

Orme states, that Suraj-u-Dowlah was exasperated at the capture of Hooghley (as, no doubt, such a despot would be at any operation which implied a defiance of his power by a nation he had contemned and injured); but that clear and able historian, to whom his country is so deeply indebted for a minute narration of the facts connected with the early establishment of her power in India, has not one word in his page that can justify the opinions Mr. Mill expresses as to the motives of their attack.

I have the sincerest personal respect for Mr. Mill: I admire his accuracy, his industry, and indefatigable research; but our conclusions from the same premises often differ most widely. In this work, I shall have frequent occasion to claim that liberty of a free expression of my sentiments, which he so properly uses towards those who have written on the same subjects as himself. This will oblige me to question some of his assertions and opinions, which, however positive and unqualified, appear to me neither supported by arguments nor borne out by facts. I am aware of my own defects, and have laboured to amend them; I also acknowledge that early impressions, and the occupations of my life, may give a bias to my judgment: but no human mind is free from prejudices, and those of the closet author are not the fewest in number, or the easiest to be subdued. With a full sense of my own disadvantages, I confess that I am not convinced, by the laboured and metaphysical preface to Mr. Mill's History, that local knowledge, and an acquaintance with the languages, habits, and characters of the nations of whom I, and others similarly circumstanced, have treated on this and other occasions, are disqualifications for the tasks we have attempted. At all events, our efforts may be useful in collecting facts for more critical and philosophical historians. Though we do not withhold those opinions which our experience has led us to adopt, our chief purpose is to inform—theirs to speculate. We are satisfied if we can lay before our readers a true picture of the scenes we describe. They have what they deem a higher object; and the facts of their volumes are often rendered subservient to the propagation of their general principles and abstract theories.