e
English college, Douai, where on his ordination to the priesthood he held
successively the chairs of philosophy and divinity. He laboured for some
time as a missionary priest in Staffordshire, held several positions as
tutor to young Roman Catholic noblemen, and was finally appointed president
of the English seminary at St Omer, where he remained till his death on the
15th of May 1773. Butler's great work, _The Lives of the Saints_, the
result of thirty years' study (4 vols., London, 1756-1759), has passed
through many editions and translations (best edition, including valuable
notes, Dublin, 12 vols. 1779-1780). It is a popular and compendious
reproduction of the _Acta Sanctorum_, exhibiting great industry and
research, and is in all respects the best work of its kind in English
literature.

See _An Account of the Life of A.B. by C.B._, _i.e._ by his nephew Charles
Butler (London, 1799); and Joseph Gillow's _Bibliographical Dictionary of
English Catholics_, vol. i.

BUTLER, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1818-1893), American lawyer, soldier and
politician, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, on the 5th of November
1818. He graduated at Waterville (now Colby) College in 1838, was admitted
to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, Massachusetts,
and early attained distinction as a lawyer, particularly in criminal cases.
Entering politics as a Democrat, he first attracted general attention by
his violent campaign in Lowell in advocacy of the passage of a law
establishing a ten-hour day for labourers; he was a member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and of the state senate in
1859, and was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions from 1848
to 1860. In that of 1860 at Charleston he advocated the nomination of
Jefferson Davis and opposed Stephen A. Douglas, and in the ensuing campaign
he supported Breckinridge.

After the Baltimore riot at the opening of the Civil War, Butler, as a
brigadier-general in the state militia, was sent by Governor John A.
Andrew, with a force of Massachusetts troops, to reopen communication
between the Union states and the Federal capital. By his energetic and
careful work Butler achieved his purpose without fighting, and he was soon
afterwards made major-general, U.S.V. Whilst in command at Fortress Monroe,
he declined to return to their owners fugitive slaves who had come within
his lines, on the ground that, as labourers for fortifications, &c., they