_July 10th_.--What will the House of Commons say when the bill which has to be paid for this war is presented? The expense is enormous: in my opinion, utterly disproportionate to the objects to be effected. The Admiral is doing things excellently well, if money be no object. _July 12th_.-We are in a delightful climate. Troops and all in good health. I shall not, however, dilate on these points, because I am sure you will read all about it in the _Times_. 'Our Own Correspondent' is in the next cabin to me, completing his letter. I leave it to him to tell all the agreeable and amusing things that are occurring around us. My letters to you are nothing but the record of incidents that happen to affect me at the time; trifling things sometimes; sometimes things that irritate; things that pass often and leave no impression, as clouds reflected on a lake. [Sidenote: Cavalry camp.] [Sidenote: Sir Hope Grant.] _Talien-Whan Bay.--July 14th_.--Yesterday, at an early hour, the French Admiral and General arrived. It was agreed that they should go over to the cavalry camp on the other side of the bay, some ten miles off, and that I should accompany them. No doubt you will see in the _Times_ a full account of all that took place on the occasion. Nothing could be more perfect than the condition of the force, both men and horses. The picturesqueness of the scene; the pleasant bay, with its sandy margin and background of bleak hills, seamed by the lines of the cavalry tents; the troops drawn up in the foreground in all their variety of colour and costume, from the two squadrons of H.M.'s Dragoon Guards on the right to the two squadrons of Fane's light-blue Sikh Irregulars on the left; the experiments with the Armstrong guns--from one of which a shell was fired which went over the hills and vanished into space, no one knows whither--will all be described by a more graphic pen than mine. The weather was excellent. Enough covering over the sky to prevent the rays of the sun from striking us too fiercely, and yet no rain. The proceedings of the day terminated by some _tours de force_ of the Sikh cavalry and their officers; wrenching tent-pegs from the ground with their lances, and cutting oranges with their sabres when at full gallop. Everything went to confirm the favourable opinion of the state of the army here which I expressed in my last letter. Hope Grant seems very much liked. It can hardly be otherwise, for there is a quiet simplicity and kindliness about his manner which, in a man so highly placed, must be most winning. I am particularly struck by the grin of delight with which the men of a regiment of Sikhs (infantry) who were with him at Lucknow, greet him whenever they meet him. I observed on this to him, and he said: 'Oh, we were always good friends. I used to visit them