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1857, Meeting to plan a memorial to Lord Clive Several British politicians and public figures met in Princess's Hall, London, on the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, to plan the creation of a memorial to Lord Clive. It was decided to form a committee to raise subscriptions to support the erection of a statue in a prominent location in Shrewsbury. During the meeting, Earl Stanhope said, 'That, inasmuch as the services of the great Lord Clive, the founder of the British Empire in the East, have not been commemmorated by any public monument, it is in the opinion of this meeting (assembled on the 100th anniversary of the victory of Plassy) desirable to record the national gratitude for those services by erecting a statue on some conspicuous site in Shrewsbury, the chief town of Lord Clive's native county.' Lord Dungannon noted that the aims of this activity was to honour of the virtues of the dead, as well as to 'excite the moral principles of the rising generation.' Expressing a vision of benevolent and paternalist empire, Mr Campbell Paterson noted that the 'defection' in the Indian army had been caused by a departure from Clive's own principles; that Indian soldiers should be treated with kindness rather than severity. A committee was formed consisting of the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff of Shropshire, the President of the India Board, the Chairman of the East India Company, the members for Shrewsbury, the Duke of Cleveland, the Earl of Stanhope, Viscount Dungannon, Sir Robert Vivian, Sir Lawrence Peel, Sir James Hogg, Mr. W.B. Bagley, the Mayor of Shrewsbury, and the Rev. B.H. Kennedy D.D.