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NOTIFICATION.
Foreign Department, Camp, Ferozepore.
March, 30.
The Governor-General is pleased to direct, that the accompanying Proclamation, by which the Punjaub is declared to be a portion of the British Empire in India, be published for general information, and that a royal salute be fired at every principal station of the army, on the receipt thereof.
By order of the Right Honourable, the Governor-General
of India.
P. Melvill,
Under Secretary to the Government of India,
with the Governor-General.
PROCLAMATION OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL.
Head Quarters, Ferozepore,
March 29, 1849.
For many years, in the time of Maharajah Runjeet Singh, peace and friendship prevailed between the British nation and the Sikhs. When Runjeet Singh was dead, and his wisdom no longer guided the counsels of the state, the Sirdars and Khalsa army, without provocation and without cause, suddenly invaded the British territories. Their army was again and again defeated. They were driven with slaughter and in shame from the country they had invaded, and, at the gates of Lahore, the Maharajah, Dhuleep Singh, tendered to the Governor-General the submission of himself and his chiefs, and solicited the clemency of the British Government. The Governor-General extended the clemency of his Government to the State of Lahore, he generously spared the kingdom which he had acquired a just right to subvert; and the Maharajah having been replaced on the throne, treaties of friendship were formed between the States.
The British have faithfully kept their word, and have scrupulously observed every obligation which the treaties imposed upon them. But the Sikh people and their chiefs have, on their part, grossly and faithlessly violated the promises by which they were bound. Of their annual tribute no portion whatever has at any time been paid, and large loans advanced to them by the Government of India have never been repaid. The control of the British Government, to which they voluntarily submitted themselves, has been resisted by arms. Peace has been cast aside. British officers have been murdered when acting for the State; others engaged in the like employment have treacherously been thrown into captivity. Finally, the whole of the State and the whole Sikh people, joined by many of the Sirdars in the Punjaub who signed the treaties, and led by a member of the Regency itself, have risen in arms against us, and have waged a fierce and bloody war for the proclaimed purpose of destroying the British and their power.