_July 15th._--For the last three weeks or more all public interest and curiosity have been absorbed in the affairs of India and the great Mutiny that has broken out there, and which has now assumed such an alarming character. I had intended to take some notice of this, and of other matters which time and the hour have brought forth; but, according to my bad custom, I kept putting it off, till at last all other things were driven out of my mind by the news which so unexpectedly reached us on Saturday last of the death of George Anson from a sudden attack of cholera. He was the oldest and most intimate friend I had, and almost the last surviving associate of my youth. I reserve for another moment to say a word or two of a man who, without great abilities or a great career, was too conspicuous a member of society to be passed over without some notice. The alarm created here by the Indian news is very great, and Ellenborough (reckoned a great authority on Indian matters) does his best to increase it. The serious part of it is that no one can tell or venture to predict what the extent of the calamity may be, and what proportions the mischief may possibly assume. It is certain that hitherto the Government and the East India Company have been in what is called a fool's paradise on the subject. They have been so long accustomed to consider our Empire there as established on so solid a foundation, and so entirely out of the reach of danger, that they never have paid any attention to those who hinted at possible perils, and I don't think anybody ever foresaw anything like what has occurred, and they were disinclined to adopt any of the precautionary recommendations which would have been attended with expense, and the Press, and the public who are always led by the Press, took the same easy view of the subject. While the Russian War was going on a clamour was raised against Government for not calling away _all_ the British troops in India and sending them to the Crimea, and those who went mad about the Crimean War would willingly have left India without a single European regiment, and have entrusted all our interests to the fidelity and attachment of the Native army. Though our Government was willing enough to enter into anything that the passion of the multitude suggested, they were not so insane as all that; but as it is, we may consider it most providential that the mutiny did not show itself during the Russian, or indeed during the Persian war. If it had happened while we were still fighting in the Crimea, we could not have sent out the force that would have been indispensable to save India. At the present moment the interest of the public is not greater than its apprehensions and alarm. Rumours of every sort are rife, generally of the most disastrous kind, and though the mails only come at a fortnight's interval, and it is physically impossible that any intelligence should reach us during