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 CHAPTER XIV

The Political and Foreign Policy of Lord Clive: his Army-Administration and its consequences

On the 25th of June Clive started on his tour northward. His presence was urgently needed on the frontier, for he had to deal with two humiliated princes, the Nawáb-Wazír of Oudh, and the actual inheritor of the empire of the Mughal, Sháh Alím, now a houseless fugitive, his capital occupied by the Afgháns, possessing no resources but such as might accrue from the title which he bore.

At Murshidábád, which he took on his way upwards, Clive had to settle with the young Súbahdár the system which it would be incumbent upon him to introduce into the three provinces, as governor under the over-lordship of the English. The positions of the native ruler and the western foreigner had become completely inverted since the period, only nine years distant, when Siráj-ud-daulá marched against Calcutta to expel thence those who were his vassals. The system to be imposed now on the Súbahdár provided that he should become a Nawáb