[Page 200.]

SECOND TREATY WITH LAHORE OF 1846.

Foreign Department, Camp, Bhyrowal Ghât, on the
left Bank of the Beas, the 22nd of December, 1846.

The late Governor of Cashmere on the part of the Lahore State, Sheik Imam Ooddeen, having resisted by force of arms the occupation of the province of Cashmere by Maharajah Goolab Singh, the Lahore Government was called upon to coerce their subject, and to make over the province to the representative of the British Government, in fulfilment of the conditions of the treaty of Lahore, dated the 9th of March, 1846.

A British force was employed to support and aid, if necessary, the combined forces of the Lahore State and Maharajah Goolab Singh in the above operations.

Sheik Imam Ooddeen intimated to the British Government that he was acting under orders received from the Lahore Durbar in the course he was pursuing; and stated that the insurrection was instigated by written instructions received by him from the Vizier Rajah Lall Singh.

Sheik Imam Ooddeen surrendered to the British Agent on a guarantee from that officer, that if the Sheik could, as he asserted, prove that his acts were in accordance with his instructions, and that the opposition was instigated by the Lahore minister, the Durbar should not be permitted to inflict upon him, either in his person or his property, any penalty on account of his conduct on this occasion. The British Agent pledged his Government to a full and impartial investigation of the matter.

A public inquiry was instituted into the facts adduced by Sheik Imam Ooddeen, and it was fully established that Rajah Lall Singh did secretly instigate the Sheik to oppose the occupation by Maharajah Goolab Singh of the province of Cashmere.

The Governor-General immediately demanded that the ministers and Chiefs of the Lahore State should depose and exile to the British provinces the Vizier Rajah Lall Singh.