I hear the Queen has written a letter to the Prince of Wales announcing to him his emancipation from parental authority and control, and that it is one of the most admirable letters that ever were penned. She tells him that he may have thought the rule they adopted for his education a severe one, but that his welfare was their only object, and well knowing to what seductions of flattery he would eventually be exposed, they wished to prepare and strengthen his mind against them, that he was now to consider himself his own master, and that they should never intrude any advice upon him, although always ready to give it him whenever he thought fit to seek it. It was a very long letter, all in that tone, and it seems to have made a profound impression on the Prince, and to have touched his feelings to the quick. He brought it to Gerald Wellesley in floods of tears, and the effect it produced is a proof of the wisdom which dictated its composition. Footnote 1: [Lord Stanley, the present Earl of Derby, had succeeded to the Presidency of the Board of Control upon the resignation of Lord Ellenborough, and was the first Secretary of State for India upon the abolition of the former office.] [Sidenote: LORD DERBY'S REFORM BILL.] _November 17th._--The principal topics of interest for the last fortnight have been Bright's speeches, the visit of Palmerston and Clarendon to Compiègne, the Portuguese and French quarrel, and the pamphlet and approaching trial of Montalembert, on all of which there is plenty to say. Bright's speeches have evidently been a failure, and if they produce any effect, it will probably be one rather useful to the Government; but the very failure only proves more strongly the bad policy of Derby in bringing forward a Reform measure, and how much more safe he would have been if he had let it alone. There is a considerable though not universal impression that by some means and through the operation of the chapter of accidents this Reform Bill will prove fatal to him. Mr. Elwin, the editor of the 'Quarterly Review,' told the Duke of Bedford he thought so, and that he had been told by a Cabinet Minister that there had been such serious differences of opinion amongst them on this subject that if the session had been prolonged the Government would probably have gone to pieces at that time, and Lord John told the Duke that Walpole had intimated to him something of the same kind. Lord John is expecting, and Palmerston is hoping, that the Government will fall, and the latter is still confident that his day will come again, a confidence which no one else seems to partake of. Clarendon, who is the staunchest of Palmerston's allies and colleagues, has been endeavouring to dissipate this illusion and to bring him to take a more accurate view of his own position, but without success. 'He cannot see why John Russell should not again take office under him,' and it is in vain that Clarendon assures him that nothing on earth will