51�Թ�

Middle-class people didn’t talk like that in pastoral Chandernagore, a small town in West Bengal, about 30 miles from Kolkata.

Chandernagore became a French settlement in 1688.

The only great British successes of the year were in India where Calcutta and Chandernagore were captured and the battle of Plassey was won.

French, too, was vital, and the best was to be picked up in Chandernagore, a few miles from Calcutta.

In 1730 he was made superintendent of French affairs in Chandernagore, the town prospering under his energetic administration and growing into great importance.