[Page 198.]
Puncheess or Punchayets were a jury or assembly of five persons. These assemblies, which were of very ancient origin, obtained, both in the military and civil services of the Sikhs. In the former, five men who had distinguished themselves by their valour, were selected from every battalion or company, and to them were referred for decision, all affairs which brought the army into contact with the Government. In the latter, every tribe had its Punt. The system was also generally adopted in every trade and calling. The decision of the Punchees was definitive.
[Page 200.]
TREATY WITH GOOLAB SINGH OF 1846.
Treaty between the British Government and Maharajah Goolab Singh, concluded at Umritsur on March 16th, 1846.
Treaty between the British Government on the one part, and Maharajah Goolab Singh of Jummoo on the other, concluded on the part of the British Government, by Frederick Currie, Esq., and Brevet Major Henry Montgomery Lawrence, acting under the orders of the Right Honourable Sir Henry Hardinge, G.C.B., one of Her Britannic Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, Governor-General, appointed by the Honourable Company to direct and control all their affairs in the East Indies, and by Maharajah Goolab Singh in person.
Article 1.—The British Government transfers and makes over, for ever, in independent possession, to Maharajah Goolab Singh, and the heirs male of his body, all the hilly or mountainous country, with its dependencies, situated to the eastward of the river Indus, and westward of the river Ravee, including Chumba and excluding Lahool, being part of the territory ceded to the British Government by the Lahore State, according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Treaty of Lahore, dated March the 9th, 1846.
Article 2.—The eastern boundary of the tract transferred by the foregoing Article to Maharajah Goolab Singh shall be laid down by commissioners appointed by the British Government and Maharajah Goolab Singh respectively, for that purpose, and shall be defined in a separate engagement, after survey.
Article 3.—In consideration of the transfer made to him and his heirs by the provisions of the foregoing Articles, Maharajah Goolab Singh will pay to the British Government the sum of seventy-five lakhs of rupees (Nanukshahee), fifty lakhs to be paid on ratification of this treaty, and twenty-five lakhs on or before the 1st of October of the current year, A.D. 1846.