CARLETON, WILLIAM, one of the most popular writers of tales describing Irish life and manners, was b. 1798, at Pril]isk, in the co. of Tyrone, Ireland. Bred and educated among the peasantry. he passed through the common sufferings and privations of Irish poverty, and, after receiving some scanty instruction in a hedge-school, he, in his 17th year, went to an academy which a relative had opened at Glasslough, where he remained two years. Afterwards, a vague ambition led him to Dublin, where he arrived with only some three shillings in his pocket, and where, in 1830, he published his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. Their freshness of style pleased the public, and won the favor of critics. A second series, issued in 1832, was also well received; and, in 1839, he published a powerful story, entitled Fardorougha the _Miser, in several passages of which, however, his humor becomes extravagant. Subsequently, C. published a series of tales (3 vols., Dub.1841), mostly of pathetic interest, but including a very genial
and humorous sketch of the Mieorturtes of Barney Branagan, which proved a great favorite. The story of Valentine M'Clutchy is half-political and half religions in its ten dency, defending the Irish Catholic priesthood, and advocating repeal of the union, it appeared in 1845. Other narratives— Rod ,y the Rover, 1846; The Black Prophet, 1847; and The Tithe Proctor, 1849—contain many proofs of the author's genius. Wtlley Reilly, 3 vols., appeared in 1855, and The Evil Eye in 1860. C. is the true historian of the Irish people. Sharing in their qualities of mind and temperament, he has a true sympathy with all their joys and sorrows, and a graphic and picturesque pen with which to describe them. In consideration of his literary services, he enjoyed a government pension of £200 a year, and on his death in Jan., 1869, the queen granted a pension of £100 to his widow.