Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/153

Rh Muhammadan population to the Hindu sovereign who had been forced upon them. In reply to this, it is sufficient to quote the high authority of Henry Lawrence who declared that the arrival of Ghuláb Singh in Kashmír was by no means displeasing to the inhabitants, the tyranny and oppression of the Shaikh having become insupportable.

The Kashmir insurrection and the treachery of Lál Singh led to a revision of the Treaty of Lahore, in a direction which the Governor-General had for some time been contemplating. In a despatch to the Secret Committee, dated from Simla, September 10th, 1846, after discussing the advisability of continuing the occupation of Lahore by British troops, he added: 'The other course which it may be open to the British Government to take, and which has constantly occupied my attention, would be to carry on the government of Lahore in the name of the Mahárájá during his minority, a period of about eight years, placing a British Minister at the head of the government assisted by a Native Council.

'The marked difference between the system of having a British Minister residing at Lahore conducting the government by native agency, and that which now prevails, would amount to this: that in the one case our troops are made the instruments for supporting misrule; and in the other, by British interposition, justice and moderation are secured by an