In September, 1795, the Duke of Portland wrote to Lord Dorchester telling him that General Prescott would be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada and would leave for Canada in the spring, so that Dorchester could suit his own convenience as to returning to England. At the same time the Secretary of State repeated his regret that Dorchester had determined to retire. Prescott arrived on the 18th of June, 1796, and on the 9th of July Dorchester embarked for England. His ship was wrecked on the shore of Anticosti island, but he reached England in safety in September, and died in a good old age in the autumn of 1808. Simcoe, in the meantime, had, in December, 1795, applied for leave of absence on account of ill health, suggesting that Peter Russell, the senior councillor, should in his absence administer the government of Upper Canada, and tendering his resignation if the leave could not be granted. His wish was complied with, and, after being detained for some time at Quebec, he came back with the returning ships of the autumn convoy and was in London in 1796, two months after Dorchester’s arrival. Canada saw him no more, and, as has been told, he died at a comparatively early age, outlived by the old Governor-in-Chief whose control had fretted his impetuous spirit. [Sidenote: Lord Dorchester’s services to Great Britain and Canada.] In the colonial history of Great Britain Lord Dorchester’s place is or ought to be second to none. Men should be measured by the times in which they live, the lands in which they serve, the conditions which they are called upon to face. It did not fall to Carleton’s lot to be borne on the flowing tide of British victories, to be a leader in successful wars, to be remembered as one who struck down England’s foes and added provinces to her empire. Nor was it given to him to bear rule in times of settled peace, when wisdom and statesmanship are called on to gather in and store the harvest, to consolidate, to develop, to reform, to enrich, to give security and beneficent measures to trusting and expectant multitudes of the human race. Providence set the span of his active life while his country’s fortunes were running out on the ebb-tide of adversity; his public services were coincident with Great Britain’s depression; and the part of the Empire in which he served was the scene of her defeats. No men of good English type cheered and supported him at home, the patriotism which inspired his life was unknown alike to the ministers who preceded William Pitt and to an Opposition which, as embodied in Fox, lost all sense of proportion, and almost all sense of duty, or principle. Yet he held Quebec and saved Canada. Men turned to him to gather up the fragments after the War of Independence; and he reconciled French Canada to British rule and held the balance even between conflicting races and creeds. Open warfare, political intrigue, in every form and from every quarter, from without and from within, beset his path.