Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/136

132 the British troops were to be surrendered. By Article 12 the Mahárájá agreed to recognise the independent sovereignty of Ghuláb Singh in such territories as might be assigned to him. The occupation of the city by British troops till the end of the year had akeady been agreed upon. Lál Singh, Bhai Rám Singh, Tej Singh, Diwán Dena Náth were the signatories of this historic document. The Treaty concluded at the same time by the British Government with Ghuláb Singh made over to him all the territory eastward of the Indus and westward of the Rávi River, on the payment of seventy-five lakhs of rupees (£750,000). The limits of these territories were not to be changed without the consent of the British Government.

Such was the Treaty of Lahore. It added to the Company's dominions territory yielding a revenue of £400,000, and strengthened our right flank so as to protect Simla, Ludhiána, and Ambála. Some have blamed the Government for the transfer of Kashmír to Ghuláb Singh; but such critics have probably not calculated the number of men necessary to hold that province, or the probable revenue which would have been derived from its annexation. Those, too, who cavil against Lord Hardinge's non-annexation policy, and who think, as Sir C. Napier did, that 'no Indian prince should exist,' must put to themselves this question: Could the Governor-General, with the military means at his disposal, have achieved such a conquest after Sobráon? There was at that time a deficit