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174 three provinces the English possessed the richest parts of India. It was surely good policy, he argued, if he could by treaty with his neighbours, and by occupying the salient points which covered them, render them unassailable.

After some preliminary conversation with the Nawáb-Wazír, Clive found that it would be necessary to proceed to Allahábád to confer there with the titular emperor, Sháh Alím. He found that prince full of ideas as to the possibility of recovering with the aid of Clive his lost possessions in the north-west. Nothing was further from Clive's mind than an enterprise of that character, and, with his accustomed tact he soon convinced the two princes that it was necessary first to settle the English frontier before discussing any other subject. He then proceeded to develop his plan. He demanded the cession of the fortress of Chanár to the English; the provinces of Karra and Allahábád to the Emperor, to be held, on his behalf, by the English; the payment by the Nawáb-Wazír of fifty lakhs, for the expenses of the war just concluded; an engagement from him never to employ or give protection to Mír Kásim or to Samru; permission to the East India Company to trade throughout his dominions, and to establish factories within them. The Nawáb-Wazír agreed to every clause except to that regarding the factories. He had observed, he stated, that whenever the English established a footing in a country, even though it were only by means of a commercial fac-