24 MURSHIDABAD. Murshidabad to Calcutta. After an experience of three years, the tribunal of criminal justice was re-transferred to Murshidabad ; and it was not till 1790, under Lord Cornwallis, that both the entire revenue and judicial staff was ultimately fixed at the present capital of India. The Mint, the recognised emblem of metropolitan pre-eminence in the East, was abolished in 1799. About the same date, the civil headquarters of the District were transferred to Barhampur, which had been from the first the site of the military cantonments. Murshidabad city was thus left only as the residence of the Nawab Názím, a descendant of Mir Jafar, who till 1882 retained certain marks of sovereignty within his palace, and received a pension of £160,000 a year. The last holder of the title was for many years resident in England. On his return to India, he abdicated his position in favour of his son, who succeeded him, but without any sovereign rights, and on a diminished pension. The title of the present descendant of the once independent rulers of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, is now simply that of Nawab Bahadur of Murshidabad.' The importance of the District of Murshidabad declined with the decay of its chief city. When a Collector was first appointed to the charge in 1772, its area extended over the neighbouring zamindiiris of bhúm and Bishnupur. These outlying tracts had always been noted for lawlessness; and for the better administration of justice they were finally severed from Murshidábád in 1787. The District was thus reduced to very much its present size ; but the irregularity of the western boundary line, which marches with Bírbhúin, has been a constant source of perplexity to the local officials. The historical interest attaching to the ruins of KASIMBAZAR, and to BARHAMPUR, which has now ceased to be an important military station, has been explained under those headings. In 1875, the District of Murshidábád was transferred from the Division or Commissionership of Rajshahi to the Presidency Division. People.---Early estimates of the population, ranging from 1801 to 1852, which were based upon no trustworthy data, uniformly returned the inhabitants of the District at about one million. The Census of 1872 returned the real population of Murshidabad, on an area corresponding to that of the present District (2144 square miles), at 1,214, 104. At the last Census in 1881, the population was ascertained to be 1,226,790, showing an increase of only 12,686, or 1'04 per cent., in the nine years from 1872 to 1881. This very small increase is partly due to the ravages of fever, which prevailed virulently in Murshidabad during the autumn of 1880; but it also denotes the decay of a once thriving commercial centre, and the decreasing population of a great city.—See MURSHIDABAD City. The results of the Census of 1881 may be briefly summarized as
