Baron Dorchester. Military Officer and Diplomat.

Britain (England) defeated France on the Plains of Abraham (Québec City) in 1759. This military victory secured northern North America for the British. However, Britain then had to govern the settlement of New France (later, Québec) that was almost entirely French-speaking.

Carleton was a colonel in the British forces that captured Québec. He returned to become governor of the British colony of Québec from 1768 to 1778, and again from 1785-1795.

During Carleton's first tenure as Governor, two important events occurred. The first was the Québec Act, which Carleton wrote and passed. This act understood clearly that the only way for a minority of British people to govern a majority of French settlers was by concessions. Therefore, the Québec Act made it legal for all colonists to practise the Roman Catholic religion (still outlawed in England at that time), to retain the seigneurial system of land tenure that the French had established, to speak French while serving in public offices, and to retain and use French civil law (but British criminal law) in the courts.

These concessions were enough to keep the colony from joining the disaffected thirteen British colonies in the American Revolution (also known as the American War of Independence) of 1775-1783, and Québec repelled an invasion by USAmericans in the winter of 1775-1776.

Carleton is regarded as an architect of the Canadian spirit of compromise and tolerance, which continues to keep the nation together, despite perceived differences between English-speaking Canadians and many Québecois.