LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE CLIVE MEMORIAL FUND AND THE ANNIVERSARY OF PLASSEY.
[To TOR EDITOR or TR. "EPROTATOR...] SIE;May I ask you to be kind enough to publish in your columns these few words reminding your readers of the chines which Clive has upon the everlasting esteem and, gratitude of Englishmen, and of the present project by which it is hoped that those claims may at last be in some measure recognised ? No memorial worthy either of ourselves or of him has as yet been set up to commemorate the man whose patience, resolu- tion, courage, and foresight laid the foundations of our Indian Empire. I do not wish now to add a word to the eloquent appeal which Lord Curzon has made on behalf of this fund. I only wish to point out that there could be no more suitable date for paying this honour to Clive's memory than that of the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his crowning victory of Plessey, which falls to-morrow. Though it is rather as a firm and able administrator than as a warrior that in our days we care to remember Clive, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the turning-point of his great career was reached on June 23rd, 1757, and as it is necessary to choose one especial date to stand for a long and brilliant life of usefulness, it is but natural to select that day which opened to him the work of his life and to us the splendid responsi- bilities of a vast and permanent Empire. It is a vain excuse for inaction that a hundred and fifty years have passed since the battle of Plessey. As generation succeeds to generation, the personal significance of Clive's life and victories becomes more and more clear to us, his descendants ; and more and more clear also is it that when Clive placed upon this English race the burden and responsibility of India he gave into our hands the noblest opportunity that has ever been entrusted to a people. We have made good use of it. Have we not earned the right to honour fittingly the man by whose intrepid foresight the work was entrusted to ourselves, and not to
Hon. Sec. to the Clive Memorial Fund. 6 Pall Mall Place, S.W.
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