The result was that war broke out again, and that Clive with three thousand men, one third of whom were English, met the nabob at the head of fifteen thousand horse and thirty-five thousand foot.
The disproportion in artillery was nearly as great.

Against these odds was fought and won the battle of Plassey, on the 23d of June, 1757,--the date from which, by common consent, the British empire in India is said to begin.

The overthrow of the nabob was followed by placing in power one of the conspirators against him, a creature of the English, and dependent upon them for support.

Bengal thus passed under their control, the first-fruits of India.

"Clive," says a French historian, "had understood and applied the system of Dupleix." This was true; yet even so it may be said that the foundation thus laid could never have been kept nor built upon, had the English nation not controlled the sea.