Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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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 L75,000 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
L300 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 151/2 m. Owing to
indentations its width varies from 1-1/3 m. to 41/2 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, 21/2 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 41/2 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 1/2 m. from Dunagoil Bay. Off the western shore
of Bute, 3/4 m. from St Ninian's Point, lies the island of Inchmarnock, 2 m.
in length and about 3/4 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."

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