Footnote 60: Admiral Lord Algernon Percy (1792-1865), President of the Royal Institution, was created in 1816 Baron Prudhoe: in 1847, on the death of his brother, he became fourth Duke of Northumberland.
Lord Hill to Queen Victoria.
RESIGNATION OF LORD HILL
Hardwicke Grange,61 9th August 1842.
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.
Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria.
APPOINTMENT OF COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF