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182 upon the viceregal throne at Murshidabad, as Nawab of Bengal, and obtained for his appointment a farmán from the Mughal emperor of Delhi. Enormous sums were exacted from Mír Jáfar as the price of his elevation. The Company claimed ten million rupees as compensation for its losses. For the English, Hindu, and Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta were demanded, respectively, 5 million, 2 million, and 1 million rupees; for the naval squadron and the army, 2½ million rupees apiece. The members of the Council received the following amounts:—Mr. Drake, the Governor, and Colonel Give, as second member of the Select Committee, 280,000 rupees each; and Mr. Becker, Mr. Watts, and Major Kilpatrick, 240,000 rupees each. Colonel Clive also received 200,000 rupees as Commander-in-Chief, and 1,600,000 rupees 'as a private donation.' Additional 'donations' were likewise made to the other Members of the Council, amounting in the case of Mr. Watts to 800,000 rupees. The whole claim of the British amounted to £2,697,750. The English still cherished extravagant ideas of Indian wealth. But no funds existed to satisfy their inordinate demands, and they had to be content with one-half the stipulated sums. Even of this reduced amount one-third had to be taken in jewels and plate, there being neither coin nor ingots left.

Grant of the Twenty-four Parganás, 1757. — At the same time the new Nawáb of Bengal made a grant to the Company of the zamíndárí or landholder's rights over an extensive tract of country round Calcutta, now known as the District of the Twenty-Four Parganás. The area of this tract was 882 square miles. In 1757, the Company obtained only the zamíndárí rights,—i.e. the right to collect the cultivator's rents, together with the revenue jurisdiction attached, subject to the obligation of paying over the assessed land-tax to the Nawáb, as the representative of the Delhi Emperor. But, in 1759, the land-tax also was granted by the emperor, the nominal suzerain of the Nawáb, in favour of Clive, who thus became the landlord of his own masters, the Company. This military fief, or Clive's jágír, as it was called, subsequently became a matter of inquiry in England. Lord Clive's claims to the property as feudal suzerain over the Company were contested by it in 1764. But finally