32 MURSHIDABAD CITY. those days, but it must have been very great. The circumference of the extensive suburbs has been put as high as 30 miles; but the largest dimensions of the city proper in 1759 are said to have been 5 miles along the Bhagirathi in length, and 2 miles in breadth on each bank of the river. In the beginning of the present century, by which time the decay of the city had already set in, we have several estimates of the population; but we neither know the area which the city was then supposed to cover, nor the modes of enumeration adopted. In 1815, the number of houses was estimated at 30,000, and the total population at 165,000 souls. In 1829, the Magistrate, Mr. Hawthorn, returned the city population at 146, 176. In 1837, Mr. Adam found the inhabitants of Murshidabad city to amount to 124,804 persons, which shows a decrease of nearly 15 per cent. in eiglit years. At the first regular Census in 1872, the population of Nurshidabad city had dwindled down to 46,182; and at the last enumeration in 1881, to 39,231. The old city, however, comprised a much larger area than is included in the municipal boundaries of to-day. Classified according to religion, the population in 1881 consisted of-Hindus, 22,719; Muhammadans, 15,818; and others,' 694. The city of Murshidábád has been formed into a municipality under Act vi. of 1868. Gross municipal income in 1876–77, £2777; in 1883-84, £3335; average incidence of taxation, Is. 41d. per head. The official English name for the municipality is Lalbagh, the name also of the Sub-division of which it is the centre. The municipal boundaries, as fixed in a notification of Government dated 17th March 1869, include 17 villages on the right or west bank of the Bhagirathi, and 160 villages on the left bank of the river. The History of Murshidábád city is the history of Bengal during the 18th century. In 1704, the great Nawab, Murshid Kulí Khán, fixed the seat of Government at the city which he called by his own name. Murshidábád has up to the present day continued to be the residence of the Nawab of Bengal; but it has lost all historical importance since 1790, in which year Lord Cornwallis finally transferred the supreme criminal jurisdiction to Calcutta. The old name of the place was Maksúdábád or Mukhsoosabad, and it is stated by Ticffenthaler to have been originally founded by the Emperor Akbar. In 1696, the Afgháns from Orissa, in the course of their rebellion, advanced as far as Maksúdábád, defeated 5000 of the imperial troops, and plundered the town. The neighbouring town of Kasimbázár is said to have been saved from a similar fate by the intercession of its merchants. The place was called Murshidábád by its second founder ; but the old name yet lingers, and is said to be still in constant use among the Muhammadans. It is regularly spelt Muxudavad in the carly English Records, as late as the year 1760. Tradition relates that Murshid Kulí Khán moved his
