GUY CARLETON,
LORD DORCHESTER.
When General Wolfe was appointed to the Command of the Land Forces destined to act against Canada, in 1759, Mr. Pitt, then Secretary of State, told him, that as he could not give him so many troops as he wanted for the Expedition, he would make it up to him in the best manner he could, by allowing him the appointment of all his Officers. Accordingly the General sent in a list, in which was the name of Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton, whom he had put down as Quarter-Master-General. This Officer, who had been Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Cumberland during the campaign in Germany, in 1757, had unfortunately made himself obnoxious to George the Second, by some unguarded expressions relating to the Hanoverian Troops, and which had by some officious person been reported to the King. Lord Ligonier, then Commander in Chief of the Forces, took General Wolfe’s list to his Majesty for his approbation, when the King having looked over it, made some objections in pointed terms, to Colonel Carleton’s name, and refused to sign his commission. Lord Ligonier reported the King’s objections and refusal to Mr. Pitt, who immediately sent his Lordship a second time to his Majesty with no better success. Mr. Pitt then suggested that his Lordship should go again, which he refused, on which Mr. Pitt told him, that unless he went to the King and got Colonel Carleton’s commission signed he should lose his place. Lord Ligonier then went a third time to the King, and represented to him the peculiar state of the expedition, and that in order to make the General completely responsible for every part of his conduct, it was necessary that the officers employed under him should be those who enjoyed his entire and perfect confidence, so that, if he did not succeed, he might not accuse the Government at home with putting under him officers who, either by incapacity, want of energy, or inactivity, should thwart his commands, and thus paralyse the most skilful arrangements. The King listened to his Lordship’s reasons with a favourable ear, and his resentment against Colonel Carleton, was so completely disarmed, that he immediately signed the commission under which that Officer accompanied General Wolfe as Quarter-Master-General of his army.