Lord Hill presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and craves
your Majesty's gracious permission to lay before your Majesty his
resignation of the Command of your Majesty's Army.

Lord Hill deeply regrets the necessity of taking a step which will
deprive him of a charge that has been so long committed to his hands,
and for his continuance in which he is indebted to your Majesty's
grace and favour; but he has again suffered much from the illness
under which he laboured in the early part of the year, and his health
has in consequence become so indifferent as to render him unequal to
the adequate discharge of the various important duties of his command,
which therefore he feels he could not retain with due regard to the
interests of your Majesty's Service.

Lord Hill had flattered himself that he should have been able to have
laid his application for retirement before your Majesty himself, and
personally to have expressed to your Majesty his deep and lasting
sense of your Majesty's gracious kindness to him on all occasions.
Having, however, left London by the advice of his medical attendants,
and being too unwell to undertake a second journey, Lord Hill avails
himself of this mode of assuring your Majesty of his unabated zeal for
the Service, of his dutiful devotion to your Majesty's person, and
of the pain and sorrow with which he relinquishes an appointment that
afforded him the honour and advantage of executing your Majesty's
commands, and receiving many gracious proofs of your Majesty's support
and confidence.

[Footnote 61: Lord Hill's country house in Shropshire.]

[Pageheading: APPOINTMENT OF COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF]

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _10th August 1842._

Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs
leave to acquaint your Majesty that he received at a late hour last
night the accompanying letter to your Majesty from Lord Hill. From the
one which accompanied it, addressed to Sir Robert Peel, he has reason
to believe that it conveys to your Majesty the wish of Lord Hill to be
relieved, on the ground of ill-health and increasing infirmities, from
the Command of your Majesty's Forces.

Sir Robert Peel would humbly submit for your Majesty's consideration
whether it might not be a deserved mark of your Majesty's approbation
to confer upon Lord Hill the rank of Viscount, with remainder to his
nephew Sir Rowland Hill,[62] who will succeed Lord Hill in