1 Annexation — and After. 213
2 it desired no further conquests, and it proved by its
3 acts the sincerity of its professions.
4 " The Government of India has no desire for con-
5 quests now ; but it is bound in its duty to provide
6 fully for its own security, and to guard the interests
7 of those committed to its charge.
8 "To that end, and as the only mode of protecting
9 the state from the perpetual recurrence of unpro-
10 voked and wasting wars, the Governor-General is
11 compelled to resolve upon the entire subjection of
12 a people whom their own Government has long been
13 unable to control, and whom (as events have shown)
14 no punishment can deter from violence, and no acts
15 of friendship can conciliate to peace.
16 " Wherefore the Governor-General has declared, and
17 hereby proclaims, that the kingdom of the Punjab is
18 at an end ; and that all the territories of Maharaja
19 Dhulip Singh are now and henceforth a portion of
20 the British Empire in- India."
21 There is little more to be told. Maharaja Dhulip
22 Singh was granted a pension of £50,000 a year,
23 and permission to reside wherever he chose in
24 British territory outside the Punjab. His final act
25 of submission was to surrender the Koh-i-nur to the
26 British Government. The precious gem, after lying
27 forgotten for some weeks in the waistcoat-pocket of
28 John Lawrence, was sent to England, where its
29 adventures may be said to have terminated. It was
30 presented to Queen Victoria, together with a letter
31 from Lord Dalhousie containing a complete record of
32 " the vicissitudes through which the Koh-i-noor has
33 passed." The letter, after telling how Shah Shuja,