MADAM--I feel sensibly my inability to express in adequate terms the
gratification with which I have read the letter which your Majesty
has done me the high honour of transmitting by the hands of Earl
Russell.

On the occasion which has attracted your Majesty's attention, of
setting apart a portion of my property to ameliorate the condition
and augment the comforts of the poor of London, I have been actuated
by a deep sense of gratitude to God, who has blessed me with
prosperity, and of attachment to this great country, where, under
your Majesty's benign rule, I have received so much personal
kindness, and enjoyed so many years of happiness. Next to the
approval of my own conscience, I shall always prize the assurance
which your Majesty's letter conveys to me of the approbation of the
Queen of England, whose whole life has attested that her exalted
station has in no degree diminished her sympathy with the humblest of
her subjects. The portrait which your Majesty is graciously pleased
to bestow on me I shall value as the most gracious heirloom that I
can leave in the land of my birth; where, together with the letter
which your Majesty has addressed to me, it will ever be regarded as
an evidence of the kindly feeling of the Queen of the United Kingdom
toward a citizen of the United States.

I have the honour to be

Your Majesty's most obedient servant,

GEORGE PEABODY.

This miniature of the Queen is mounted in an elaborate and massive chased