Chapter XVIII: Part 18

BUSIRIS, in a Greek legend preserved in a fragment of Pherecydes, an Egyptian king, son of Poseidon and Lyssianassa. After Egypt has been afflicted for nine years with famine, Phrasius, a seer of Cyprus, arrived in Egypt and announced that the cessation of the famine would not take place until a foreigner was yearly sacrificed to Zeus or Jupiter. Busiris commenced by sacrificing the prophet, and continued the custom by offering a foreigner on the altar of the god. It is here that Busiris enters into the circle of the myths and _parerga_ of Heracles, who had arrived in Egypt from Libya, and was seized and bound ready to be killed and offered at the altar of Zeus in Memphis. Heracles burst the bonds which bound him, and, seizing his club, slew Busiris with his son Amphidamas and his herald Chalbes. [v.04 p.0874] This exploit is often represented on vase paintings from the 6th century B.C. and onwards, the Egyptian monarch and his companions being represented as negroes, and the legend is referred to by Herodotus and later writers. Although some of the Greek writers made Busiris an Egyptian king and a successor of Menes, about the sixtieth of the series, and the builder of Thebes, those better informed by the Egyptians rejected him altogether. Various esoterical explanations were given of the myth, and the name not found as a king was recognized as that of the tomb of Osiris. Busiris is here probably an earlier and less accurate Graecism than Osiris for the name of the Egyptian god Usiri, like Bubastis, Buto, for the goddesses Ubasti and Uto. Busiris, Bubastis, Buto, more strictly represent Pusiri, Pubasti, Puto, cities sacred to these divinities. All three were situated in the Delta, and would be amongst the first known to the Greeks. All shrines of Osiris were called _P-usiri_, but the principal city of the name was in the centre of the Delta, capital of the 9th (Busirite) nome of Lower Egypt; another one near Memphis (now Abusir) may have helped the formation of the legend in that quarter. The name Busiris in this legend may have been caught up merely at random by the early Greeks, or they may have vaguely connected their legend with the Egyptian myth of the slaying of Osiris (as king of Egypt) by his mighty brother Seth, who was in certain aspects a patron of foreigners. Phrasius, Chalbes and Epaphus (for the grandfather of Busiris) are all explicable as Graecized Egyptian names, but other names in the legend are purely Greek. The sacrifice of foreign prisoners before a god, a regular scene on temple walls, is perhaps only symbolical, at any rate for the later days of Egyptian history, but foreign intruders must often have suffered rude treatment at the hands of the Egyptians, in spite of the generally mild character of the latter.

See H. v. Gartringen, in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, for the evidence from the side of classical archaeology.

(F. LL. G.)

BUSK, GEORGE (1807-1886), British surgeon, zoologist and palaeontologist, son of Robert Busk, merchant of St Petersburg, was born in that city on the 12th of August 1807. He studied surgery in London, at both St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's hospitals, and was an excellent operator. He was appointed assistant-surgeon to the Greenwich hospital in 1832, and served as naval surgeon first in the _Grampus_, and afterwards for many years in the _Dreadnought_; during this period he made important observations on cholera and on scurvy. In 1855 he retired from service and settled in London, where he devoted himself mainly to the study of zoology and palaeontology. As early as 1842 he had assisted in editing the _Microscopical Journal_; and later he edited the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_ (1853-1868) and the _Natural History Review_ (1861-1865). From 1856 to 1859 he was Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons, and he became president of the college in 1871. He was elected F.R.S. in 1850, and was an active member of the Linnean, Geological and other societies, and president of the Anthropological Institute (1873-1874); he received the Royal Society's Royal medal and the Geological Society's Wollaston and Lyell medals. Early in life he became the leading authority on the Polyzoa; and later the vertebrate remains from caverns and river-deposits occupied his attention. He was a patient and cautious investigator, full of knowledge, and unaffectedly simple in character. He died in London on the 10th of August 1886.

BUSKEN-HUET, CONRAD (1826-1886), Dutch literary critic, was born at the Hague on the 28th of December 1826. He was trained for the Church, and, after studying at Geneva and Lausanne, was appointed pastor of the Walloon chapel in Haarlem in 1851. In 1863 conscientious scruples obliged him to resign his charge, and Busken-Huet, after attempting journalism, went out to Java in 1868 as the editor of a newspaper. Before this time, however, he had begun his career as a polemical man of letters, although it was not until 1872 that he was made famous by the first series of his _Literary Fantasies_, a title under which he gradually gathered in successive volumes all that was most durable in his work as a critic. His one novel, _Lidewijde_, was written under strong French influences. Returning from the East Indies, Busken-Huet settled for the remainder of his life in Paris, where he died in April 1886. For the last quarter of a century he had been the acknowledged dictator in all questions of Dutch literary taste. Perfectly honest, desirous to be sympathetic, widely read, and devoid of all sectarian obstinacy, Busken-Huet introduced into Holland the light and air of Europe. He made it his business to break down the narrow prejudices and the still narrower self-satisfaction of his countrymen, without endangering his influence by a mere effusion of paradox. He was a brilliant writer, who would have been admired in any language, but whose appearance in a literature so stiff and dead as that of Holland in the 'fifties was dazzling enough to produce a sort of awe and stupefaction. The posthumous correspondence of Busken-Huet has been published, and adds to our impression of the vitality and versatility of his mind.

(E. G.)

BUSKIN (a word of uncertain origin, existing in many European languages, as Fr. _brousequin_, Ital. _borzacchino_, Dutch _brozeken_, and Span, _borceguí_), a half-boot or high shoe strapped under the ankle, and protecting the shins; especially the thick-soled boot or _cothurnus_ in the ancient Athenian tragedy, used to increase the stature of the actors, as opposed to the _soccus_, "sock," the light shoe of comedy. The term is thus often used figuratively of a tragic style.

BUSLAEV, FEDOR IVANOVICH (1818-1898), Russian author and philologist, was born on the 13th of April 1818 at Kerensk, where his father was secretary of the district tribunal. He was educated at Penza and Moscow University. At the end of his academical course, 1838, he accompanied the family of Count S.G. Strogonov on a tour through Italy, Germany and France, occupying himself principally with the study of classical antiquities. On his return he was appointed assistant professor of Russian literature at the university of Moscow. A study of Jacob Grimm's great dictionary had already directed the attention of the young professor to the historical development of the Russian language, and the fruit of his studies was the book _On the Teaching of the National Language_ (Moscow, 1844 and 1867), which even now has its value. In 1848 he produced his work _On the Influence of Christianity on the Slavonic Language_, which, though subsequently superseded by Franz von Miklosich's _Christliche Terminologie_, is still one of the most striking dissertations on the development of the Slavonic languages. In this work Buslaev proves that long before the age of Cyril and Methodius the Slavonic languages had been subject to Christian influences. In 1855 he published _Palaeographical and Philological Materials for the History of the Slavonic Alphabets_, and in 1858 _Essay towards an Historical Grammar of the Russian Tongue_, which, despite some trivial defects, is still a standard work, abounding with rich material for students, carefully collected from an immense quantity of ancient records and monuments. In close connexion with this work in his _Historical Chrestomathy of the Church-Slavonic and Old Russian Tongues_ (Moscow, 1861). Buslaev also interested himself in Russian popular poetry and old Russian art, and the result of his labours is enshrined in _Historical Sketches of Russian Popular Literature and Art_ (St Petersburg, 1861), a very valuable collection of articles and monographs, in which the author shows himself a worthy and faithful disciple of Grimm. His _Popular Poetry_ (St Petersburg, 1887) is a valuable supplement to the _Sketches_. In 1881 he was appointed professor of Russian literature at Moscow, and three years later published his _Annotated Apocalypse_ with an atlas of 400 plates, illustrative of ancient Russian art.

See S.D. Sheremetev, _Memoir of F.I. Buslaev_ (Moscow, 1899).

(R. N. B.)

BUSS, FRANCES MARY (1827-1894), English schoolmistress, was born in London in 1827, the daughter of the painter-etcher R.W. Buss, one of the original illustrators of _Pickwick_. She was educated at a school in Camden Town, and continued there as a teacher, but soon joined her mother in keeping a school in Kentish Town. In 1848 she was one of the original attendants at lectures at the new Queen's College for Ladies. In 1830 her [v.04 p.0875] school was moved to Camden Street, and under its new name of the North London Collegiate School for Ladies it rapidly increased in numbers and reputation. In 1864 Miss Buss gave evidence before the Schools Inquiry Commission, and in its report her school was singled out for exceptional commendation. Indeed, under her influence, what was then pioneer work of the highest importance had been done to put the education of girls on a proper intellectual footing. Shortly afterwards the Brewers' Company and the Clothworkers' Company provided funds by which the existing North London Collegiate School was rehoused and a Camden School for Girls founded, and both were endowed under a new scheme, Miss Buss continuing to be principal of the former. She and Miss Beale of Cheltenham became famous as the chief leaders in this branch of the reformed educational movement; she played an active part in promoting the success of the Girls' Public Day School Company, encouraging the connexion of the girls' schools with the university standard by examinations, working for the establishment of women's colleges, and improving the training of teachers; and her energetic personality was a potent force among her pupils and colleagues. She died in London on the 24th of December 1894.

BUSSA, a town in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, on the west bank of the Niger, in 10° 9' N., 4° 40' E. It is situated just above the rapids which mark the limit of navigability of the Niger by steamer from the sea. Here in 1806 Mungo Park, in his second expedition to trace the course of the Niger, was attacked by the inhabitants, and drowned while endeavouring to escape. During 1894-1898 its possession was disputed by Great Britain and France, the last-named country acknowledging by the convention of June 1898 the British claim, which carried with it the control of the lower Niger. It is now the capital of northern Borgu (see NIGERIA, and BORGU).

BUSSACO (or BUSACO), SERRA DE, a mountain range on the frontiers of the Aveiro, Coimbra, and Vizeu districts of Portugal, formerly included in the province of Beira. The highest point in the range is the Ponta de Bussaco (1795 ft.), which commands a magnificent view over the Serra da Estrella, the Mondego valley and the Atlantic Ocean. Luso (pop. 1661), a village celebrated for its hot mineral springs, is the nearest railway station, on the Guarda-Figueira da Foz line, which skirts the northern slopes of the Serra. Towards the close of the 19th century the Serra de Bussaco became one of the regular halting-places for foreign, and especially for British, tourists, on the overland route between Lisbon and Oporto. Its hotel, built in the Manoellian style--a blend of Moorish and Gothic--encloses the buildings of a secularized Carmelite monastery, founded in 1268. The convent woods, now a royal domain, have long been famous for their cypress, plane, evergreen oak, cork and other forest trees, many of which have stood for centuries and attained an immense size. A bull of Pope Gregory XV. (1623), anathematizing trespassers and forbidding women to approach, is inscribed on a tablet at the main entrance; another bull, of Urban VIII. (1643), threatens with excommunication any person harming the trees. In 1873 a monument was erected, on the southern slopes of the Serra, to commemorate the battle of Bussaco, in which the French, under Marshal Masséna, were defeated by the British and Portuguese, under Lord Wellington, on the 27th of September 1810.

BUSSY, ROGER DE RABUTIN, COMTE DE (1618-1693), commonly known as BUSSY-RABUTIN, French memoir-writer, was born on the 13th of April 1618 at Epiry, near Autun. He represented a family of distinction in Burgundy (see SÉVIGNÉ, MADAME DE), and his father, Léonor de Rabutin, was lieutenant-general of the province of Nivernais. Roger was the third son, but by the death of his elder brothers became the representative of the family. He entered the army when he was only sixteen and fought through several campaigns, succeeding his father in the office of _mestre de camp_. He tells us himself that his two ambitions were to become "honnête homme" and to distinguish himself in arms, but the luck was against him. In 1641 he was sent to the Bastille by Richelieu for some months as a punishment for neglect of his duties in his pursuit of gallantry. In 1643 he married a cousin, Gabrielle de Toulongeon, and for a short time he left the army. But in 1645 he succeeded to his father's position in the Nivernais, and served under Condé in Catalonia. His wife died in 1646, and he became more notorious than ever by an attempt to abduct Madame de Miramion, a rich widow. This affair was with some difficulty settled by a considerable payment on Bussy's part, and he afterwards married Louise de Rouville. When Condé joined the party of the Fronde, Bussy joined him, but a fancied slight on the part of the prince finally decided him for the royal side. He fought with some distinction both in the civil war and on foreign service, and buying the commission of _mestre de camp_ in 1655, he went to serve under Turenne in Flanders. He served there for several campaigns and distinguished himself at the battle of the Dunes and elsewhere; but he did not get on well with his general, and his quarrelsome disposition, his overweening vanity and his habit of composing libellous _chansons_ made him eventually the enemy of most persons of position both in the army and at court. In the year 1659 he fell into disgrace for having taken part in an orgy at Roissy near Paris during Holy Week, which caused great scandal. Bussy was ordered to retire to his estates, and beguiled his enforced leisure by composing, for the amusement of his mistress, Madame de Montglas, his famous _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_. This book, a series of sketches of the intrigues of the chief ladies of the court, witty enough, but still more ill-natured, circulated freely in manuscript, and had numerous spurious sequels. It was said that Bussy had not spared the reputation of Madame, and the king, angry at the report, was not appeased when Bussy sent him a copy of the book to disprove the scandal. He was sent to the Bastille on the 17th of April 1665, where he remained for more than a year, and he was only liberated on condition of retiring to his estates, where he lived in exile for seventeen years. Bussy felt the disgrace keenly, but still bitterer was the enforced close of his military career. In 1682 he was allowed to revisit the court, but the coldness of his reception there made his provincial exile seem preferable, and he returned to Burgundy, where he died on the 9th of April 1693.

The _Histoire amoureuse_ is in its most striking passages adapted from Petronius, and, except in a few portraits, its attractions are chiefly those of the scandalous chronicle. But his _Mémoires_, published after his death, are extremely lively and characteristic, and have all the charm of a historical romance of the adventurous type. His voluminous correspondence yields in variety and interest to few collections of the kind, except that of Madame de Sévigné, who indeed is represented in it to a great extent, and whose letters first appeared in it. The literary and historical student, therefore, owes Bussy some thanks.

The best edition of the _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_ is that of Paul Boiteau in the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne (3 vols., Paris, 1856-1859). The _Mémoires_ (2 vols., 1857) and _Correspondance_ (6 vols., 1858-1859) were edited by Ludovic Lalanne. Bussy wrote other things, of which the most important, his _Genealogy of the Rabutin Family_, remained in MS. till 1867, while his _Considérations sur la guerre_ was first published in Dresden in 1746. He also wrote, for the use of his children, a series of biographies, in which his own life serves a moral purpose.

BUSTARD (corrupted from the Lat. _Avis tarda_, though the application of the epithet[1] is not easily understood), the largest British land-fowl, and the _Otis tarda_ of Linnaeus, which formerly frequented the champaign parts of Great Britain from East Lothian to Dorsetshire, but of which the native race is now extirpated. Its existence in the northern locality just named rests upon Sir Robert Sibbald's authority (_circa_ 1684), and though Hector Boethius (1526) unmistakably described it as an inhabitant of the Merse, no later writer than the former has adduced any evidence in favour of its Scottish domicile. The last examples of the native race were probably two killed in 1838 near Swaffham, in Norfolk, a district in which for some years previously a few hen-birds of the species, the remnant of a plentiful stock, had maintained their existence, though no cock-bird had latterly been known to bear them company. In Suffolk, where the neighbourhood of Icklingham formed its chief haunt, an [v.04 p.0876] end came to the race in 1832; on the wolds of Yorkshire about 1826, or perhaps a little later; and on those of Lincolnshire about the same time. Of Wiltshire, George Montagu, author of an _Ornithological Dictionary_, writing in 1813, says that none had been seen in their favourite haunts on Salisbury Plain for the last two or three years. In Dorsetshire there is no evidence of an indigenous example having occurred since that date, nor in Hampshire nor Sussex since the opening of the 19th century. From other English counties, as Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire, it disappeared without note being taken of the event, and the direct cause or causes of its extermination can only be inferred from what, on testimony cited by Henry Stevenson (_Birds of Norfolk_, ii. pp. 1-42), is known to have led to the same result in Norfolk and Suffolk. In the latter the extension of plantations rendered the country unfitted for a bird whose shy nature could not brook the growth of covert that might shelter a foe, and in the former the introduction of improved agricultural implements, notably the corn-drill and the horse-hoe, led to the discovery and generally the destruction of every nest, for the bird's chosen breeding-place was in wide fields--"brecks," as they are locally called--of winter-corn. Since the extirpation of the native race the bustard is known to Great Britain only by occasional wanderers, straying most likely from the open country of Champagne or Saxony, and occurring in one part or another of the United Kingdom some two or three times every three or four years, and chiefly in midwinter.

An adult male will measure nearly 4 ft. from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and its wings have an expanse of 8 ft. or more,--its weight varying (possibly through age) from 22 to 32 lb. This last was that of one which was recorded by the younger Naumann, the best biographer of the bird (_Vögel Deutschlands_, vii. p. 12), who, however, stated in 1834 that he was assured of the former existence of examples which had attained the weight of 35 or 38 lb. The female is considerably smaller. Compared with most other birds frequenting open places, the bustard has disproportionately short legs, yet the bulk of its body renders it a conspicuous and stately object, and when on the wing, to which it readily takes, its flight is powerful and sustained. The bill is of moderate length, but, owing to the exceedingly flat head of the bird, appears longer than it really is. The neck, especially of the male in the breeding-season, is thick, and the tail, in the same sex at that time of year, is generally carried in an upright position, being, however, in the paroxysms of courtship turned forwards, while the head and neck are simultaneously reverted along the back, the wings are lowered, and their shorter feathers erected. In this posture, which has been admirably portrayed by Joseph Wolf (_Zool. Sketches_, pl. 45), the bird presents a very strange appearance, for the tail, head and neck are almost buried amid the upstanding feathers before named, and the breast is protruded to a remarkable extent. The bustard is of a pale grey on the neck and white beneath, but the back is beautifully barred with russet and black, while in the male a band of deep tawny-brown--in some examples approaching a claret-colour--descends from either shoulder and forms a broad gorget on the breast. The secondaries and greater wing-coverts are white, contrasting vividly, as the bird flies, with the black primaries. Both sexes have the ear-coverts somewhat elongated--whence doubtless is derived the name _Otis_ (Gr. [Greek: ôtis])--and the male is adorned with a tuft of long, white, bristly plumes, springing from each side of the base of the mandible. The food of the bustard consists of almost any of the plants natural to the open country it loves, but in winter it will readily forage on those which are grown by man, and especially coleseed and similar green crops. To this vegetable diet much animal matter is added when occasion offers, and from an earthworm to a field-mouse little that lives and moves seems to come amiss to its appetite.

Though not many birds have had more written about them than the bustard, much is unsettled with regard to its economy. A moot point, which will most likely always remain undecided, is whether the British race was migratory or not, though that such is the habit of the species in most parts of the European continent is beyond dispute. Equally uncertain as yet is the question whether it is polygamous or not--the evidence being perhaps in favour of its having that nature. But one of the most singular properties of the bird is the presence in some of the fully-grown males of a pouch or gular sac, opening under the tongue. This extraordinary feature, first discovered by James Douglas, a Scottish physician, and made known by Eleazar Albin in 1740, though its existence was hinted by Sir Thomas Browne sixty years before, if not by the emperor Frederick II, has been found wanting in examples that, from the exhibition of all the outward marks of virility, were believed to be thoroughly mature; and as to its function and mode of development judgment had best be suspended, with the understanding that the old supposition of its serving as a receptacle whence the bird might supply itself or its companions with water in dry places must be deemed to be wholly untenable. The structure of this pouch--the existence of which in some examples has been well established--is, however, variable; and though there is reason to believe that in one form or another it is more or less common to several exotic species of the family _Otididae_, it would seem to be as inconstant in its occurrence as in its capacity. As might be expected, this remarkable feature has attracted a good deal of attention (_Journ. für Ornith._, 1861, p. 153; _Ibis_, 1862, p. 107; 1865, p. 143; _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1865, p. 747; 1868, p. 741; 1869, p. 140; 1874, p. 471), and the later researches of A.H. Garrod show that in an example of the Australian bustard (_Otis australis_) examined by him there was, instead of a pouch or sac, simply a highly dilated oesophagus--the distension of which, at the bird's will, produced much the same appearance and effect as that of the undoubted sac found at times in the _O. tarda_.

The distribution of the bustards is confined to the Old World--the bird so called in the fur-countries of North America, and thus giving its name to a lake, river and cape, being the Canada goose (_Bernicla canadensis_). In the Palaearctic region we have the _O. tarda_ already mentioned, extending from Spain to Mesopotamia at least, and from Scania to Morocco, as well as a smaller species, _O. tetrax_, which often occurs as a straggler in, but was never an inhabitant of, the British Islands. Two species, known indifferently by the name of houbara (derived from the Arabic), frequent the more southern portions of the region, and one of them, _O. macqueeni_, though having the more eastern range and reaching India, has several times occurred in north-western Europe, and once even in England. In the east of Siberia the place of _O. tarda_ is taken by the nearly-allied, but apparently distinct, _O. dybovskii_, which would seem to occur also in northern China. Africa is the chief stronghold of the family, nearly a score of well-marked species being peculiar to that continent, all of which have been by later systematists separated from the genus _Otis_. India, too, has three peculiar species, the smaller of which are there known as floricans, and, like some of their African and one of their European cousins, are remarkable for the ornamental plumage they assume at the breeding-season. Neither in Madagascar nor in the Malay Archipelago is there any form of this family, but Australia possesses one large species already named. From Xenophon's days (_Anab._ i. 5) to our own the flesh of bustards has been esteemed as of the highest flavour. The bustard has long been protected by the game-laws in Great Britain, but, as will have been seen, to little purpose. A few attempts have been made to reinstate it as a denizen of this country, but none on any scale that would ensure success. Many of the older authors considered the bustards allied to the ostrich, a most mistaken view, their affinity pointing apparently towards the cranes in one direction and the plovers in another.

(A. N.)

[1] It may be open to doubt whether _tarda_ is here an adjective. Several of the medieval naturalists used it as a substantive.

BUSTO ARSIZIO, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Milan, 21 m. N.W. by rail from the town of Milan. Pop. (1901) 19,673. It contains a fine domed church, S. Maria di Piazza, built in 1517 after the designs of Bramante: the picture over the high altar is one of Gaudenzio Ferrari's best works. The church of S. Giovanni Battista is a good baroque edifice of 1617; by it stands a fine 13th-century campanile. Busto Arsizio is an active manufacturing town, the cotton factories being [v.04 p.0877] especially important. It is a railway junction for Novara and Seregno.

BUTADES, of Sicyon, wrongly called DIBUTADES, the first Greek modeller in clay. The story is that his daughter, smitten with love for a youth at Corinth where they lived, drew upon the wall the outline of his shadow, and that upon this outline her father modelled a face of the youth in clay, and baked the model along with the clay tiles which it was his trade to make. This model was preserved in Corinth till Mummius sacked that town. This incident led Butades to ornament the ends of roof-tiles with human faces, a practice which is attested by numerous existing examples. He is also said to have invented a mixture of clay and ruddle, or to have introduced the use of a special kind of red clay (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxv. 12[43]). The period at which he flourished is unknown, but has been put at about 600 B.C.

BUTCHER, one who slaughters animals, and dresses and prepares the carcass for purposes of food. The word also is applied to one who combines this trade with that of selling the meat, and to one who only sells the meat. The O.Fr. _bochier_ or _bouchier_, modern _boucher_, from which "butcher" is derived, meant originally a killer of goats and a seller of goats' flesh, from the O.Fr. _boc_, a he-goat; cf. Ital. _beccaio_, from _becco_, a goat.

BUTE, JOHN STUART, 3RD EARL OF (1713-1792), English prime minister, son of James, 2nd earl, and of Lady Jane Campbell, daughter of the 1st duke of Argyll, was born on the 25th of May 1713; he was educated at Eton and succeeded to the earldom (in the peerage of Scotland; created for his grandfather Sir James Stuart in 1703) on his father's death in 1723. He was elected a representative peer for Scotland in 1737 but not in the following parliaments, and appears not to have spoken in debate. In 1738 he was made a knight of the Thistle, and for several years lived in retirement in Bute, engaged in agricultural and botanical pursuits. From the quiet obscurity for which his talents and character entirely fitted him Bute was forced by a mere accident. He had resided in England since the rebellion of 1745, and in 1747, a downpour of rain having prevented the departure of Frederick, prince of Wales, from the Egham races, Bute was summoned to his tent to make up a whist party; he immediately gained the favour of the prince and princess, became the leading personage at their court, and in 1750 was appointed by Frederick a lord of his bedchamber. After the latter's death in 1751 his influence in the household increased. To his close intimacy with the princess a guilty character was commonly assigned by contemporary opinion, and their relations formed the subject of numerous popular lampoons, but the scandal was never founded on anything but conjecture and the malice of faction. With the young prince, the future king, Bute's intimacy was equally marked; he became his constant companion and confidant, and used his influence to inspire him with animosity against the Whigs and with the high notions of the sovereign's powers and duties found in Bolingbroke's _Patriot King_ and Blackstone's _Commentaries_. In 1775 he took part in the negotiations between Leicester House and Pitt, directed against the duke of Newcastle, and in 1757 in the conferences between the two ministers which led to their taking office together. In 1756, by the special desire of the young prince, he was appointed groom of the stole at Leicester House, in spite of the king's pronounced aversion to him.

On the accession of George III. in 1760, Bute became at once a person of power and importance. He was appointed a privy councillor, groom of the stole and first gentleman of the bedchamber, and though merely an irresponsible confidant, without a seat in parliament or in the cabinet, he was in reality prime minister, and the only person trusted with the king's wishes and confidence. George III. and Bute immediately proceeded to accomplish their long-projected plans, the conclusion of the peace with France, the break-up of the Whig monopoly of power, and the supremacy of the monarchy over parliament and parties. Their policy was carried out with consummate skill and caution. Great care was shown not to alienate the Whig leaders in a body, which would have raised up under Pitt's leadership a formidable party of resistance, but advantage was taken of disagreements between the ministers concerning the war, of personal jealousies, and of the strong reluctance of the old statesmen who had served the crown for generations to identify themselves with active opposition to the king's wishes. They were all discarded singly, and isolated, after violent disagreements, from the rest of the ministers. On the 25th of March 1761 Bute succeeded Lord Holderness as secretary of state for the northern department, and Pitt resigned in October on the refusal of the government to declare war against Spain.

On the 3rd of November Bute appeared in his new capacity as prime minister in the House of Lords, where he had not been seen for twenty years. Though he had succeeded in disarming all organized opposition in parliament, the hostility displayed against him in the nation, arising from his Scottish nationality, his character as favourite, his peace policy and the resignation of the popular hero Pitt, was overwhelming. He was the object of numerous attacks and lampoons. He dared not show himself in the streets without the protection of prize-fighters, while the jack-boot (a pun upon his name) and the petticoat, by which the princess was represented, were continually being burnt by the mob or hanged upon the gallows. On the 9th of November, while proceeding to the Guildhall, he narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the populace, who smashed his coach, and he was treated with studied coldness at the banquet. In January 1762 Bute was compelled to declare war against Spain, though now without the advantages which the earlier decision urged by Pitt could have secured, and he supported the war, but with no zeal and no definite aim beyond the obtaining of a peace at any price and as soon as possible. In May he succeeded the duke of Newcastle as first lord of the treasury, and he was created K.G. after resigning the order of the Thistle. In his blind eagerness for peace he conducted on his own responsibility secret negotiations for peace with France through Viri, the Sardinian minister, and the preliminary treaty was signed on the 3rd of November at Fontainebleau. The king of Prussia had some reason to complain of the sudden desertion of his ally, but there is no evidence whatever to substantiate his accusation that Bute had endeavoured to divert the tsar later from his alliance with Prussia, or that he had treacherously in his negotiations with Vienna held out to that court hopes of territorial compensation in Silesia as the price of the abandonment of France; while the charge brought against Bute in 1765 of having taken bribes to conclude the peace, subsequently after investigation pronounced frivolous by parliament, may safely be ignored. A parliamentary majority was now secured for the minister's policy by bribery and threats, and with the aid of Henry Fox, who deserted his party to become leader of the Commons. The definitive peace of Paris was signed on the 10th of February 1763, and a wholesale proscription of the Whigs was begun, the most insignificant adherents of the fallen party, including widows, menial servants and schoolboys, incurring the minister's mean vengeance. Later, Bute roused further hostility by his cider tax, an ill-advised measure producing only £75,000 a year, imposing special burdens upon the farmers and landed interest in the cider counties, and extremely unpopular because extending the detested system of taxation by excise, regarded as an infringement of the popular liberties. At length, unable to contend any longer against the general and inveterate animosity displayed against him, fearing for the consequences to the monarchy, alarmed at the virulent attacks of the _North Briton_, and suffering from ill-health, Bute resigned office on the 8th of April. "Fifty pounds a year," he declared, "and bread and water were luxury compared with what I suffer." He had, however, before retiring achieved the objects for which he had been entrusted with power.

He still for a short time retained influence with the king, and intended to employ George Grenville (whom he recommended as his successor) as his agent; but the latter insisted on possessing the king's whole confidence, and on the failure of Bute in August 1763 to procure his dismissal and to substitute a ministry led by Pitt and the duke of Bedford, Grenville demanded and obtained Bute's withdrawal from the court. He resigned accordingly the office of privy purse, and took leave of George III. [v.04 p.0878] on the 28th of September. He still corresponded with the king, and returned again to London next year, but in May 1765, after the duke of Cumberland's failure to form an administration, Grenville exacted the promise from the king, which appears to have been kept faithfully, that Bute should have no share and should give no advice whatever in public business, and obtained the dismissal of Bute's brother from his post of lord privy seal in Scotland. Bute continued to visit the princess of Wales, but on the king's arrival always retired by a back staircase.

The remainder of Bute's life has little public interest. He spoke against the government on the American question in February 1766, and in March against the repeal of the Stamp Act. In 1768 and 1774 he was again elected a representative peer for Scotland, but took no further part in politics, and in 1778 refused to have anything to do with the abortive attempt to effect an alliance between himself and Chatham. He travelled in Italy, complained of the malice of his opponents and of the ingratitude of the king, and determined "to retire from the world before it retires from me." He died on the 10th of March 1792 and was buried at Rothesay in Bute.

Though one of the worst of ministers, Bute was by no means the worst of men or the despicable and detestable person represented by the popular imagination. His abilities were inconsiderable, his character weak, and he was qualified neither for the ordinary administration, of public business nor for the higher sphere of statesmanship, and was entirely destitute of that experience which sometimes fills the place of natural aptitude. His short administration was one of the most disgraceful and incompetent in English history, originating in an accident, supported only by the will of the sovereign, by gross corruption and intimidation, the precursor of the disintegration of political life and of a whole series of national disasters. Yet Bute had good principles and intentions, was inspired by feelings of sincere affection and loyalty for his sovereign, and his character remains untarnished by the grosser accusations raised by faction. In the circle of his family and intimate friends, away from the great world in which he made so poor a figure, he was greatly esteemed. Samuel Johnson, Lord Mansfield, Lady Hervey, Bishop Warburton join in his praise. For the former, a strong opponent of his administration, he procured a pension of £300 a year. He was exceptionally well read, with a refined taste for books and art, and purchased the famous _Thomason Tracts_ now in the British Museum. He was learned in the science of botany, and formed a magnificent collection and a botanic garden at Luton Hoo, where Robert Adam built for him a splendid residence. He engraved privately about 1785 at enormous expense _Botanical Tables containing the Different Familys of British Plants_, while _The Tabular Distribution of British Plants_ (1787) is also attributed to him. Bute filled the offices of ranger of Richmond Forest, governor of the Charterhouse, chancellor of Marischal College, Aberdeen (1761), trustee of the British Museum (1765), president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1780) and commissioner of Chelsea hospital.

By his marriage with Mary, daughter of Edward Wortley Montagu of Wortley, Yorkshire, who in 1761 was created Baroness Mount Stuart of Wortley, and through whom he became possessed of the enormous Wortley property, he had, besides six daughters, five sons, the eldest of whom, John, Lord Cardiff (1744-1814), succeeded him as 4th earl and was created a marquess in 1796. John, Lord Mount Stuart (1767-1794), the son and heir of the 1st marquess, died before his father, and consequently in 1814 the Bute titles and estates came to his son John (1793-1848) as 2nd marquess. The latter was succeeded by his only son John Patrick (1847-1900), whose son John (b. 1881) inherited the title in 1900.

BUTE, the most important, though not the largest, of the islands constituting the county of the same name, in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, about 18 m. S.W. of Greenock and 40 m., by water, from Glasgow. It is bounded on the N. and W. by the lovely Kyles of Bute, the narrow winding strait which separates it from Argyllshire, on the E. by the Firth of Clyde, and on the S. and S.W. by the Sound of Bute, about 6 m. wide, which divides it from Arran. Its area is about 49 sq. m., or 31,161 acres. It lies in a N.W. to S.E. direction, and its greatest length from Buttock Point on the Kyles to Garroch Head on the Firth of Clyde is 15½ m. Owing to indentations its width varies from 1-1/3 m. to 4½ m. There are piers at Kilchattan, Craigmore, Port Bannatyne and Rothesay, but Rothesay is practically the harbour for the whole island. Here there is regular communication by railway steamers from Craigendoran, Prince's Pier (Greenock), Gourock and Wemyss Bay, and by frequent vessels from the Broomielaw Bridge in Glasgow and other points on the Clyde. Pop. (1891) 11,735; (1901) 12,162.

The principal hills are in the north, where the chief are Kames Hill (911 ft.) and Kilbride Hill (836 ft.). The streams are mostly burns, and there are six lochs. Loch Fad, about 1 m. S. of Rothesay, 2½ m. long by 1/3 m. wide, was the source of the power used in the Rothesay cotton-spinning mill, which was the first establishment of the kind erected in Scotland. In 1827 on its western shore Edmund Kean built a cottage afterwards occupied by Sheridan Knowles. It now belongs to the marquess of Bute. From Loch Ascog, fully 1 m. long, Rothesay derives its water supply. The other lakes are Loch Quien, Loch Greenan, Dhu Loch and Loch Bull. Glen More in the north and Glen Callum in the south are the only glens of any size. The climate is mild and healthful, fuchsias and other plants flowering even in winter, and neither snow nor frost being of long continuance, and less rain falling than in many parts of the western coast. Some two-thirds of the area, mostly in the centre and south, are arable, yielding excellent crops of potatoes for the Glasgow market, oats and turnips; the rest consists of hill pastures and plantations. The fisheries are of considerable value. There is no lack of sandstone, slate and whinstone. Some coal exists, but it is of inferior quality and doubtful quantity. At Kilchattan a superior clay for bricks and tiles is found, and grey granite susceptible of high polish.

The island is divided geologically into two areas by a fault running from Rothesay Bay in a south-south-west direction by Loch Fad to Scalpsie Bay, which, throughout its course, coincides with a well-marked depression. The tract lying to the north-west of this dislocation is composed of the metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Highlands. The Dunoon phyllites form a narrow belt about a mile and a half broad crossing the island between Kames Bay and Etterick Bay, while the area to the north is occupied by grits and schists which may be the western prolongations of the Beinn Bheula group. Near Rothesay and along the hill slopes west of Loch Fad there are parallel strips of grits and phyllites. That part of the island lying to the east of this dislocation consists chiefly of Upper Old Red Sandstone strata, dipping generally in a westerly or south-westerly direction. At the extreme south end, between Kilchattan and Garroch Head, these conglomerates and sandstones are overlaid by a thick cornstone or dolomitic limestone marking the upper limit of the formation, which is surmounted by the cement-stones and contemporaneous lavas of Lower Carboniferous age. The bedded volcanic rocks which form a series of ridges trending north-west comprise porphyritic basalts, andesite, and, near Port Luchdach, brownish trachyte. Near the base of the volcanic series intrusive igneous rocks of Carboniferous age appear in the form of sills and bosses, as, for instance, the oval mass of olivine-basalt on Suidhe Hill. Remnants of raised beaches are conspicuous in Bute. One of the well-known localities for arctic shelly clays occurs at Kilchattan brick-works, where the dark red clay rests on tough boulder-clay and may be regarded as of late glacial age.

As to the origin of the name of Bute, there is some doubt. It has been held to come from _both_ (Irish for "a cell"), in allusion to the cell which St Brendan erected in the island in the 6th century; others contend that it is derived from the British words _ey budh_ (Gaelic, _ey bhiod_), "the island of corn" (_i.e._ food), in reference to its fertility, notable in contrast with the barrenness of the Western Isles and Highlands. Bute was probably first colonized by the vanguard of Scots who came over from Ireland, and at intervals the Norsemen also secured a footing for longer or shorter periods. In those days the Butemen were also called Brandanes, after the Saint. Attesting the antiquity of the island, "Druidical" monuments, barrows, cairns and cists are numerous, as well as the remains of ancient chapels. In virtue of a charter granted by James IV. in 1506, the numerous small proprietors took the title of "baron," which became hereditary in their families. Now the title is practically extinct, the lands conferring it having with very few exceptions passed [v.04 p.0879] by purchase into the possession of the marquess of Bute, the proprietor of nearly the whole island. His seat, Mount Stuart, about 4½ m. from Rothesay by the shore road, is finely situated on the eastern coast. Port Bannatyne (pop. 1165), 2 m. north by west of Rothesay, is a flourishing watering-place, named after Lord Bannatyne (1743-1833), a judge of the court of session, one of the founders of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1784. Near to it is Kames Castle, where John Sterling, famous for Carlyle's biography, was born in 1806. Kilchattan, in the south-east of the island, is a favourite summer resort. Another object of interest is St Blane's Chapel, picturesquely situated about ½ m. from Dunagoil Bay. Off the western shore of Bute, ¾ m. from St Ninian's Point, lies the island of Inchmarnock, 2 m. in length and about ¾ m. in width.

See J. Wilson, _Account of Rothesay and Bute_ (Rothesay, 1848); and J.K. Hewison, _History of Bute_ (1894-1895).

BUTE, or BUTESHIRE, an insular county in the S.W. of Scotland, consisting of the islands of Bute, from which the county takes its name, Inchmarnock, Great Cumbrae, Little Cumbrae, Arran, Holy Island and Pladda, all lying in the Firth of Clyde, between Ayrshire on the E. and Argyllshire on the W. and N. The area of the county is 140,307 acres, or rather more than 219 sq. m. Pop. (1891) 18,404; (1901) 18,787 (or 86 to the sq. m.). In 1901 the number of persons who spoke Gaelic alone was 20, of those speaking Gaelic and English 2764. Before the Reform Bill of 1832, Buteshire, alternately with Caithness-shire, sent one member to parliament--Rothesay at the same time sharing a representative with Ayr, Campbeltown, Inveraray and Irvine. Rothesay was then merged in the county, which since then has had a member to itself. Buteshire and Renfrewshire form one sheriffdom, with a sheriff-substitute resident in Rothesay who also sits periodically at Brodick and Millport. The circuit courts are held at Inveraray. The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there is a secondary school at Rothesay. The county council subsidizes technical education in agriculture at Glasgow and Kilmarnock. The staple crops are oats and potatoes, and cattle, sheep and horses are reared. Seed-growing is an extensive industry, and the fisheries are considerable. The Rothesay fishery district includes all the creeks in Buteshire and a few in Argyll and Dumbarton shires, the Cumbraes being grouped with the Greenock district. The herring fishery begins in June, and white fishing is followed at one or other point all the year round. During the season many of the fishermen are employed on the Clyde yachts, Rothesay being a prominent yachting centre. The exports comprise agricultural produce and fish, trade being actively carried on between the county ports of Rothesay, Millport, Brodick and Lamlash and the mainland ports of Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock, Ardrossan and Wemyss Bay, with all of which there is regular steamer communication throughout the year.

BUTHROTUM. (1) An ancient seaport of Illyria, corresponding with the modern Butrinto (_q.v._). (2) A town in Attica, mentioned by Pliny the Elder (_Nat. Hist._ iv. 37).

BUTLER, the name of a family famous in the history of Ireland. The great house of the Butlers, alone among the families of the conquerors, rivalled the Geraldines, their neighbours, kinsfolk and mortal foes. Theobald Walter, their ancestor, was not among the first of the invaders. He was the grandson of one Hervey Walter who, in the time of Henry I., held Witheton or Weeton in Amounderness, a small fee of the honour of Lancaster, the manor of Newton in Suffolk, and certain lands in Norfolk. In the great inquest of Lancaster lands that followed a writ of 1212, this Hervey, named as the father of Hervey Walter, is said to have given lands in his fee of Weeton to Orm, son of Magnus, with his daughter Alice in marriage. Hervey Walter, son of this Hervey, advanced his family by matching with Maude, daughter of Theobald de Valognes, lord of Parham, whose sister Bertha was wife of Ranulf de Glanville, the great justiciar, "the eye of the king." When Ranulf had founded the Austin Canons priory of Butley, Hervey Walter, his wife's brother-in-law, gave to the house lands in Wingfield for the soul's health of himself and his wife Maude, of Ranulf de Glanville and Bertha his wife, the charter, still preserved in the Harleian collection, being witnessed by Hervey's younger sons, Hubert Walter, Roger and Hamon. Another son, Bartholomew, witnessed a charter of his brother Hubert, 1190-1193. That these nephews of the justiciar profited early by their kinship is seen in Hubert Walter's foundation charter of the abbey of West Dereham, wherein he speaks of "dominus Ranulphus de Glanvilla et domina Bertha uxor eius, qui nos nutrierunt." Hubert, indeed, becoming one of his uncle's clerks, was so much in his confidence that Gervase of Canterbury speaks of the two as ruling the kingdom together. King Richard, whom he accompanied to the Holy Land, made him bishop of Salisbury and (1193) archbishop of Canterbury. "Wary of counsel, subtle of wit," he was the champion of Canterbury and of England, and the news of his death drew the cry from King John that "now, for the first time, am I king in truth."