Bankipore, alias Patna, Feb. 7, 1863.

Dear Simkins,–A man gains more new ideas, or, which comes to the same, gets rid of more old ones, within his first month on Indian soil than during any equal period of his life. It is consequently very hard for him to realize that many things, which are familiar to himself, are strange to his English correspondents. A dashing comedy by Mr. Tom Taylor, with life in an up-country station for its subject, in the style of “the Overland Route,” would do more to unite the sympathies of England and India than the Red Sea Telegraph, or the Army Amalgamation Scheme. A few days before my departure a youth of that class which you persist in alluding to as “our mutual friends,” who had already undergone the rite of ordination, and might therefore be considered qualified to impart instruction to his fellow-men, asked whether I should not be a full fortnight on the voyage between England and Calcutta! On the same occasion, a gentleman much distinguished in the University Curriculum was speaking of a friend in Bengal who had been pushed forward by “a man called Grant.” I inquired, “Do you refer to Sir John Peter?” “I don't know about that,” he replied, “but I am sure that the man's name was Grant.”