BUTLER, JAMES. 



BUTLER, JOSEPH. 



Inn, where he nlensl on the ttudy of the Uw, and ultimately practiced 

 M a conveyancer. The remainder of his life uiay be comprised in the 

 history of bis numerous publication*. He firat appeared before the 

 public anonymously in an essay published in 1779, ' On Houses of 

 Industry,' which chiefly related to the county of Norfolk, and beyond 

 that county, a* iU author Tory modestly uyi of it, it obtained rery 

 little circulation. Fire yean afterward! be wrote a more important 

 pamphlet, ' On the Legality of Impressing Seamon,' which procured 

 for him the acquaintance of Lord Sandwich, at that time firat lord of 

 the Admiralty, who wrote a few pages in the icoond edition, and of 

 Wedderburno, then solicitor-general, and afterward* Lord Lough- 

 borough. The chief arguments and authorities were taken from the 

 speech of Sir Michael Forster, in the case of Alexander Rroadfoot, who 

 wa indicted for the murder of a aailor, being one of a party that 

 endeavoured to impreu him. So little original matter it added in the 

 pamphlet to the argument! of Sir M. Fonter, that Mr. Butler after- 

 ward* refused to admit it into the general collection of his work*. In 

 the following year Mr. Butler prepared a ipeecb, which Lord Sandwich 

 delivered in the Home of Lord*, in defence of hi* government of 

 Greenwich Hoepital; and about the same time, in conjunction with 

 Mr. Wilkes, he appeared a* an inquirer into the authorship of Juniux. 

 A letter, including the results of their conversations, was printed 

 without Mr. Butler s knowledge in the ' Anti-Jacobin Review,' and it is 

 reprinted in his ' Reminiscences.' In the additional remark* made on 

 the reprint in the ' Reminiscences,' Mr. Butler seem* inclined to believe 

 that Juniu* himself has never been detected ; that he was of too high 

 a rank to be bought, and that Sir Philip Krancm was his amanuensis. Mr. 

 I'.iitlcr next engaged himself in the professional task of continuing and 

 completing Mr. Margrave's edition of 'Coke upon Littleton.' Numerous 

 editions of Coke upon Littleton ' followed at intervals during the life of 

 Mr. Butler. To this work succeeded ' Hone Juridical subsecivse ; being 

 a connected series of Notes respecting the Geography, Chronology, 

 and Literary History of the Principal Codes and Original Documents 

 of the Grecian, Roman, Feudal, and Canon Law ;' an outline of great 

 use to the historian a* well as to the lawyer. Mr. Butler also super- 

 intended a new edition of Fcarne'a ' Essay on Contingent Remainders,' 

 and he contributed to Mr. Seaward'* 'Anecdotes' an 'Essay on the 

 Character of Lord Mansfield's Forensic Eloquence.' The ' Horso 

 Biblioe' comes next, and is perhaps the moat popular of all Mr. 

 Butler's works : it speedily ran through five editions. The first part 

 professes to contain an historical and literary account of the original 

 text, early versions, and printed editions of the Old and New Testa- 

 ments ; the second to embrace a similar account of the Koran, the 

 Zend-Avasta, the Kings, and the Edda. In 1806 the great change in 

 the constitution of the Austrian dominions induced Mr. Butler to 

 draw up, chiefly from Anderson and Koch, a succinct history of the 

 geographical and political revolutions of the German empire. Ilia 

 pen for the remainder of his life was largely employed on subjects 

 regarding his own church, which ore collected in his general works. 

 Among them are lives of Bossuet, of Fcnclon, of AbW de Rand, 

 abbot of La Trappe ; of St. Vincent de Paul, of Erasmus, of Grotius, 

 of Henrie Marie de Boudon, of Thomas h Keuipis, of the Chancellor 

 L'Hopital, &c , and of his own uncle, the Rev. Alban Butler, author of 

 ' Livei of the Saints,' a work which Mr. Butler himself continued. 

 The relief proposed to be given to the Roman Catholics in 1795 

 occasioned three books, written in conjunction with Joseph Wilkes, a 

 Benedictine, and named from tho colour of their covering the ' Blue 

 Books.' It is needless to say that Mr. Butler was a strenuous advocate 

 of Roman Catholic emancipation, and that much of the successful 

 progress of that measure is to be attributed to the ' Historical Memoirs 

 of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics,' 1819. Hitherto be had 

 abstained from controversy, but the appearance of Dr. Southey's ' Book 

 of the Church ' engaged him in a series of letters to that writer, and 

 afterwards in two replies to the present Bishop of London, and to the 

 Rev. George Townteud. They were written in a spirit of gentleness 

 very seldom found in similar publications. The first volume of hi* 

 ' Reminiscences,' chiefly containing the history of his literary life, was 

 published in 1822, tho second in 1827. They contain some interesting 

 details, but are expressed in the cr*m|>ed style of most autobiographies. 

 As a conveyancer Mr. Butler had full practice, and he was the first of 

 bis communion who was called to the bar after the Relief Act in 1791. 

 He was afterwards made king's counsel. Mr. Butler died at his own 

 house in Great Ormond-street, London, leaving behind him an 

 unblemished character and a considerable literary reputation, June 2, 

 1882. (OentUouui't Magazine. 1832; Reminiiccnca.) 



BUTLER, JAMES. [OBMOXD. DUKK or.l 



BUTLER, JOSEPH, born at Wantage in Berkshire in 1692, was the 

 son of Thomas Butler, a respectable shopkeeper, and a dissenter of the 

 Presbyterian denomination. He received the rudiments of bis educa- 

 tion in the free grammar-school at Wantage, whence he was removed 

 to the Dissenting Academy of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, then 

 nuperintonded by Mr. Jono*, who hod tha singular fortune of having 

 for pupils, with the view of being ordained to the Presbyterian 

 ministry, three young men, afterwards prelates of tho Established 

 ' ii Chandler, Butler, and Seeker; the two latter were contem- 

 porsri. It was h*re that Batter gave the first proofs of the peculiar 

 bent of his mind to abstruso speculation. Being dissatisfied with the 

 argument ' U priori' of Dr. Samuel Clarke in his ' Demonstration of tho 



Being and Attribute* of God,' he ventured, being then only in his 

 twenty-second year, to express by a letter his doubts, and to offer hi* 

 objections, to that acute writer. Dr. Clarke was for a time unac- 

 quainted with the name of his correspondent. The manner in which 

 he replied to Butler's objections, and* the fact of hit publishing the 

 letters in which they were conveyed, with his own answers, in subse- 

 quent edition* cf his work, sufficiently show that he felt the remark* 

 of his youthful correspondent to be not without their weight 



About this time Butler was led to a more particular examination of 

 the tenets of the religious body to which he belonged, the result of 

 which, after some natural opposition from his father, accompanied 

 with remonstrances from several respectable Presbyterian divines, was 

 secession from Preabyterianism, and a conformity to the Church of 

 England. His viowi being thus changed, he entered Oriel College, 

 i ixl'ord. in March, 1714, and soon after was admitted into holy orders. 

 While at Oriel he formed a friendship with Mr. Edward Talbot, the 

 second sou of Dr. Talbot, bishop of Durham, a circumstance to which 

 he appears to have owed bis subsequent promotion. In 1718 he was 

 recommended by Mr. Talbot and Dr. Clarke to Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master 

 of the Rolls, by whom he was appointed preacher at the Rolls. In 

 1721, on being presented by Bishop Talbot to the rectory of Haughton, 

 near Darlington, he divided his residence between the Rolls and his 

 parochial benefice. In 1725 he received Stanhope, one of the wealthiest 

 but most retired rectories in England, from the same patron, in 

 exchange for Haughton. In 1726 he resigned the Rolls preach 

 and went to reside upon his rectory of Stanhope. In the same year he 

 published a volume of fifteen sermons preached at the Rolls. These 

 sermons arc, upon hU own acknowledgment, of a somewhat abstruse 

 character, which arises as much from the method as from the scope 

 of bis argument, which is to demonstrate vice to be " a violation or 

 breaking in upon our nature." He wished to show that man was formed 

 for virtue, and that vice is a departure from his intended condition ; 

 to prove that religion and virtuo were primarily natural to man ; that 

 they constitute order, whereas their opposite is disorder. Although 

 his object might have been effected by the more direct proof thai 

 is contrary to tho nature and reason of things," he chose the other 

 method, as " in a peculiar manner adapted to satisfy a fair uiind, and 

 as more easily applicable to the several particular relations and cir- 

 cumstances in life." Tho firat three sermons arc entitled ' Upon 

 Human Nature; or, Man considered as a Moral Agent.' That man is 

 made for society, is evident from all we know of him ; the very 

 of his body show dependence one on another ; and it in no wresting 

 of words or of argument to carry the comparison further, anil to 

 show that mankind in general is a body made up of a number -ml 

 variety of members, like the natural body. As it is the oliice of his 

 own several component parts, or members, each to assist and 1 

 the others, so it is tho duty of each member of society to promote the 

 general welfare ; and any deviations from this rule, which is in fact a 

 rule of nature, have been the deviations of ignorance and sin. Tho 

 author establishes his point by three proof.-. . o is in man 



a natural principle of benevolence, which is, in iU degree, to society 

 what self-love is to the individual ; and that there in such a principle, 

 appears from the existence and operation of those foeliugs which are 

 called affections. Are we not inclined to lovo, to friendship, to com- 

 passion ? That we are thus inclined in any degree is enough for tho 

 purpose. It matters not how narrow and obscure these feelings are. 

 If they exist at all, they " prove tho assertion, and point out what we 

 were designed for." Secondly, there are several affections or passions 

 distinct both from benevolence and self love, which in general con- 

 tribute and lead us to public good as really as to private. Thii.liy, 

 there is a principle of reflection by which men approve or disapprove 

 of their own actions ; this is conscience, which faculty tends to restrain 

 men from doing mischief to one another, and leads them to do good. 

 That man has evil dispositions is no objection to this mode of argu- 

 ment, for his ungoverned passions incline him to act against his own 

 interests as well at against the interests of others. The pure nature 

 of man then would lead him to right conduct in society, or what we 

 denominate virtue. To understand tho purpose of a being, wo must 

 ascertain the bent of his true nature; and where the true nature is 

 known, there can be no difficulty. The illustration used is that of 

 the eye. The eye is designed for vision ; and, as we are not to judge 

 of first design from any state of defect into which it may have casually 

 fallen, neither ore we to judge of the true nature of man from any 

 present perversion of inclination ; and the objection to his argument, 

 " that nature is that to which any man is most inclined, and that the 

 following of nature is but a following of inclination, which may be 

 different in different individuals," is answered by an explanation of the 

 t.-rm. "By nature," he says, "is often meant no more than some 

 principle in man, without regard cither to the kind or degree of it." 

 This however is manifestly wrong ; for the same person may havo 

 contrary principles, driving or urging him contrary way. Again, 

 " Nature is frequently spoken of as consisting in those passions which 

 are strongest, and most influence the actions." This U wrong too. 

 Men are certainly now vicious, as it were, by nature ; but they are -o 

 because their nature is deteriorated, and the arguni ><> the 



original and pure nature. In neither of those senses it) m . 

 nature to bo received, because, to follow nature in cither of : 

 would bo a wandering from tho original design, and a following of 



