_London, November 7th._--The event of the last few days has been the offer of the Colonial Office to Lord Stanley and his refusal to take it. When Palmerston proposed it to him he said that he could not give an answer without consulting his father, which _implied_ that he would accept if his father gave his consent. He posted down to Knowsley, from whence he had just come, and entered the room where Derby was playing at billiards, and much to his astonishment saw his son suddenly return. 'What on earth,' he cried out, 'has brought you back so soon? Are you going to be married, or what has happened to you?' Stanley said he wanted to speak to him, and carried him off. What passed is not known, but of course he advised his son to refuse office. He wrote to Palmerston in very becoming terms, and, I hear, a very good letter. He had, if not consulted, certainly imparted to Disraeli what passed, for Disraeli told me so. I think he judged wisely in declining, for it would have been an awkward thing to pass at once from the Opposition side of the House to the Treasury Bench, and take high office in a Cabinet without having any political or personal connexion with a single member of it, and to which he has hitherto been opposed generally, although upon many subjects his opinions have much more coincided with theirs than with those of the party to which he still nominally belongs. He is young and can afford to wait, and his position and abilities are certain before long to make him conspicuous and to enable him to play a very considerable part. He is exceedingly ambitious, of an independent turn of mind, very industrious, and has acquired a vast amount of information. Not long ago, Disraeli gave me an account of him and of his curious opinions--exceedingly curious in a man in his condition of life and with his prospects. Last night Lord Strangford (George Smythe) talked to me about him, expressed the highest opinion of his capacity and acquirements, and confirmed what Disraeli had told me of his notions and views even more, for he says that he is a real and sincere democrat, and that he would like if he could to prove his sincerity by divesting himself of his aristocratic character and even of the wealth he is heir to. How far this may be true I know not: if it be true, it may possibly be ascribed in some degree to his own consciousness that the realisation of his ideology is impossible, and at all events time will show whether these extreme theories will not be modified by circumstances and reflexions. Nothing appears to me certain but that he will play a considerable part for good or for evil, but I cannot pretend to guess what it will be. At present he seems to be more allied with Bright than with any other public man; and, as his disposition about the war and its continuance is very much that of Bright, it would have been difficult for him to take office with Palmerston, whose whole political existence,