The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

would not be understood here in my own character, much less in the delegated character in
which I stand, to contend for any man in the totality of his conduct. Perhaps in some of his
measures he was mistaken, and in some of his acts reprehensible; but justice obliges me to
say, that the plan which he formed and the course which he pursued were in general great
and well imagined,—that he laid great foundations, if they had been properly built upon.
For, in the first place, he composed all the neighboring countries torn to pieces by the wars
of Cossim Ali, and quieted the apprehensions raised by the opinion of the boundless
ambition of England. He took strong measures to put an end to a great many of the abuses
that prevailed in the country subject to the Company. He then proceeded to the upper
provinces, and formed a plan which, for a military man, has great civil and political merit.
He put a bound to the aspiring spirit of the Company's servants; he limited its conquests; he
prescribed bounds to its ambition. "First" (says he) "quiet the minds of the country; what
you have obtained regulate; make it known to India that you resolve to acquire no more."

On this solid plan he fixed every prince that was concerned in the preceding wars, on the
one side and on the other, in an happy and easy settlement. He restored Sujah ul Dowlah,
who had been driven from his dominions by the military arm of Great Britain, to the rank of
Vizier, and to the dominion of the territories of Oude. With a generosity that astonished all
Asia, he reinstated this expelled enemy of his nation peaceably upon his throne. And this
act of politic generosity did more towards quieting the minds of the people of Asia than all
the terror, great as it was, of the English arms. At the same time, Lord Clive, generous to
all, took peculiar care of our friends and allies. He took care of Bulwant Sing, the great
Rajah of Benares, who had taken our part in the war. He secured him from the revenge of
Sujah ul Dowlah. The Mogul had granted us the superiority over Bulwant Sing. Lord Clive
reëstablished him in a secure, easy independency. He confirmed him, under the British

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