ej into the British territory. In
consequence of these transactions, the governor-general demanded that
a British resident should be received at Lahore, to whom all political
questions should be referred before obtaining a practical application.
Also that English troops should be at liberty to occupy any fort or
territory, if necessary to preserve the public peace and enforce the due
observance of the treaty. The Lahore state to pay twenty-two lacs of
new Nameck-shee rupees, of full tale and weight, per annum, in order
to reimburse the expenses which the British government should incur,
in preserving by an armed force the authority of the maharajah, and
the observance of the treaty against the refractory chiefs or disbanded
soldiery. On the attainment of his sixteenth year, the maharajah to be
recognised as of age, and the regency of the ranee and the council of
regency to cease, or sooner, if the governor-general and the Lahore
durbar so agreed. Thirteen of the principal sirdars of the Punjaub
signed these agreements in the presence of Lieutenant-colonel Lawrence
and Mr. Currie, not one of whom, in all probability, contemplated the
observance of the stipulations a moment longer than suited their own
views.

Little further of importance occurred in the Punjaub during 1846.
British India generally was quiet, but disturbances of all sorts
prevailed in the surrounding territories. The new conquest of Scinde
was consolidated by the genius of the eccentric and gallant man who
conquered it, and his name was, by a strange perversion of compliment,
used as a synonyme for "_Shatan_" all over Beloo-chistan, Affghanistan,
Delhi, and the Punjaub. Lieutenant-general Sir G. Arthur was
incapacitated by ill-health from that active administration of the
Bombay presidency which had characterised his government. He had
done much to consolidate British authority there by his firmness and
humanity, his goodness and justice, and not only by those high moral
qualities, but also by his intellectual aptitudes for sustaining the
responsibility imposed upon him.

One of the causes of disquietude in various places, and more especially
in the Punjaub, was an increasing desire of the whole native population
to expel the British. This partly arose from fanaticism, and partly from
hostility of race. The Sikh ranks had been mainly recruited from our
disbanded Sepoy soldiery and deserters. Sir Charles Napier made vigorous
efforts to correct the evils