1 182 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 On learning that the Governor-General was with
3 the forces at Kasiir, the Rani, with the consent of
4 the sirdars and Panches, dispatched Raja Ghulab
5 Singh to meet him on her behalf, and to offer her
6 submission together with that of the Maharaja
7 Dhulip Singh. She rightly judged that the Jammu
8 chief would prove a more acceptable ambassador than
9 either Lai Singh or Tej Singh, and she entrusted him
10 with full powers to treat with the British, on condi-
11 tion that they were prepared to recognize a Sikh
12 government at Lahore. The Raja reached Kasur on
13 the morning of the 15 th, and was at once conducted
14 into the presence of the Governor- General. Being
15 the representative of an unfriendly power, his recep-
16 tion was marked by no outward ceremonial, and no
17 salute was fired. Sir Henry Hardinge, in the course
18 of the interview, pointed out to the Raja the serious
19 nature of the offence which his government had
20 committed, in that, without provocation on the part
21 of the British, and in the face of an existing treaty
22 of amity, it had permitted its army to undertake the
23 invasion of British India. He then informed him
24 that he was resolved to show to the world at large
25 that such insults were not to be offered to the
26 government of British India with impunity; and
27 that if the ruler of Lahore would continue to be
28 regarded as a friendly sovereign, he must submit to
29 the terms now to be offered to him — namely, the
30 cession to the British of " all his forts, territories, and
31 rights situate between the rivers Beas and Sutlej,"
32 the payment of a war indemnity of one and a half
33 million pounds sterling, the reduction of the Sikh