Editing Robert Clive (section)

==Return to the British isles==
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 | caption2 = Robert Clive's coat of arms (left) and the arms in relief at [[Claremont (country house)|Claremont]] (above)
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In 1760, the 35-year-old Clive returned to Great Britain with a fortune of at least £300,000 ({{inflation|UK|300000|1760|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}) and the [[quit-rent]] of £27,000 ({{inflation|UK|27000|1760|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}) a year. He financially supported his parents and sisters, while also providing Major Lawrence, the commanding officer who had early encouraged his military genius, with a [[stipend]] of £500 ({{inflation|UK|500|1760|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}) a year. In the five years of his conquests and administration in Bengal, the young man had crowded together a succession of exploits that led [[Lord Macaulay]], in what that historian termed his "flashy" essay on the subject, to compare him to [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], declaring that "[Clive] gave peace, security, prosperity and such liberty as the case allowed of to millions of Indians, who had for centuries been the prey of oppression, while Napoleon's career of conquest was inspired only by personal ambition, and the absolutism he established vanished with his fall." Macaulay's ringing endorsement of Clive seems more controversial today, as some would argue that Clive's ambition and desire for personal gain set the tone for the administration of Bengal until the [[Permanent Settlement]] 30 years later. The immediate consequence of Clive's victory at Plassey was an increase in the revenue demand on Bengal by at least 20%, which led to considerable hardship for the rural population, particularly during the famine of 1770.<ref>{{harv|Marshall|1987|p=144}}</ref>

[[File:Plassey House.jpg|thumb|Plassey House, now part of the [[University of Limerick]]]]
In 1762 Clive was awarded an [[Peerage of Ireland|Irish peerage]], created '''Baron Clive''' ''of Plassey, County Clare''; he bought lands in [[County Limerick]] and [[County Clare]], Ireland. Thomas Maunsell (1726-1814), an officer who had fought under Clive at the Battle of Plassey, bought lands near [[Limerick]] that he named [[Plassey, County Limerick]]. In 1970 these lands were acquired by [[National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick|a precursor of the University of Limerick]], whose main administrative centre is now Plassey House.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleming |first1=David |title=The University of limerick: a history |date=2012 |publisher=Four Courts Press |location=Dublin |isbn=978-1-84682-378-7}}</ref> Despite a popular myth, Clive never owned the land.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Logan |first1=John |date=2003 |title=Robert Clive's Irish peerage and estate, 1761-1842 |journal=North Munster Antiquarian Journal |volume=43 |page=1-19 }}</ref>

During the three years that Clive remained in the British isles, he sought a political position, chiefly so that he might influence the course of events in India, which he had left full of promise. He had been well received at court, was elevated to the peerage, had bought estates, and returned a few friends as well as himself to the House of Commons.  Clive was [[Member of parliament|MP]] for [[Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Shrewsbury]] from [[1761 British general election|1761]] until his death. He was allowed to sit in the Commons because his peerage was Irish.<ref name = HOP/> He was also elected [[Mayor of Shrewsbury]] for 1762–63.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Mayors of Shrewsbury 1638 to present |url=http://www.shrewsburytowncouncil.gov.uk/live/welcome.asp?id=714 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129042744/http://www.shrewsburytowncouncil.gov.uk/live/welcome.asp?id=714 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |access-date=19 November 2014 |publisher=Shrewsbury Town Council}}</ref> Clive received an honorary degree as [[Doctor of Civil Law|DCL]] from [[Oxford University]] in 1760, and in 1764 he was appointed [[Order of the Bath|Knight of the Order of the Bath]].<ref name="Compeerage">{{Cite book |editor-last=Gibbs |editor-first=Vicary |title=The Complete Peerage, Volume III |publisher=St Catherine's Press |year=1912 |page=326}}</ref>

Clive set himself to reform the home system of the East India Company, and began a bitter dispute with the chairman of the [[Court of Directors]], [[Laurence Sulivan]], whom he defeated in the end.  In this he was aided by the news of reverses in Bengal. Mir Jafar had finally rebelled over payments to British officials, and Clive's successor had put Qasim Ali Khan, Mir Jafar's son-in-law upon the ''musnud'' (throne). After a brief tenure, [[Mir Qasim]] had fled, ordering [[Walter Reinhardt Sombre]] (known to the Muslims as Sumru), a Swiss mercenary of his, to butcher the garrison of 150 British at Patna, and had disappeared under the protection of his brother, the Viceroy of Awadh. The whole company's service, civil and military, had become mired in corruption, demoralised by gifts and by the monopoly of inland and export trade, to such an extent that the Indians were pauperised, and the company was plundered of the revenues Clive had acquired. For this Clive himself must bear much responsibility, as he had set a very poor example during his tenure as Governor. Nevertheless, the Court of Proprietors, forced the Directors to hurry Lord Clive to Bengal with the double powers of Governor and Commander-in-Chief.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}