Independence. He ordered the first codification of the civil
law of the province, and was largely responsible for the passing of the
Quebec Act. On the American invasion of Canada in 1775 he was compelled
to abandon Montreal and narrowly escaped capture, but defended Quebec
(q.v.) with skill and success. In October of the same year he destroyed
the American flotilla on Lake Champlain. In 1777 he was superseded in
his command of the military forces by Major-General John Burgoyne, and
asked to be recalled. He returned, however, to America in May 1782 as
commander-in-chief, remaining till November 1783. In 1786 he was again
sent to Canada as governor-general and commander of the forces, with the
title of Baron Dorchester. Many important reforms marked his rule; he
administered the country with tact and moderation, and kept it loyal to
the British crown amid the ferment caused by the French Revolution, and
by the attempts of American emissaries to arouse discontent. In 1791 the
province was divided into Upper and Lower Canada by the Constitutional
Act. Of this division Carleton disapproved, as he did also of a
provision tending to create in the new colony an hereditary aristocracy.
In 1796 he insisted on retiring, and returned to England. He died on the
10th of November 1808. He married in 1772 a daughter of the 2nd earl of
Effingham, and had nine children, being succeeded in the title by his
grandson Arthur. On the death in 1897 of the 4th baron (another
grandson) the title became extinct, but was revived in 1899 for his
cousin and co-heiress Henrietta Anne as Baroness Dorchester.

J. C. Dent's _Canadian Portrait Gallery_ (Toronto, 1880) gives a
sketch of Lord Dorchester's Canadian career. His life by A. G. Bradley
is included in the _Makers of Canada_ series (Toronto). Most of his
letters and state papers, which are indispensable for a knowledge of
the period, are in the archives department at Ottawa, and are
calendared in Brymner's _Reports on Canadian Archives_ (Ottawa, 1885,
seq.). (W. L. G.)

DORCHESTER, a market town and municipal borough and the county town of
Dorsetshire, England, in the southern parliamentary division, 135 m.
S.W. by W. from London by the London & South Western railway; served
also by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 9458. It stands on an
eminence on the right bank of the river Frome, within a wide open tract
of land, containing 3400 acres, held under the duchy of Co