rfare; to
Peace it was never more than a desperate resort or an act the outcome of
ungovernable passion.

Ireland can claim the honour of Butler's birth. It took place at
Kilkenny about 1845. At an early age he left his native land for
Australia, and commenced his professional career by being sentenced
under the name of James Wilson--the same initials as those of James
Wharton of Queensland--to twelve months' imprisonment for vagrancy. Of
the sixteen years he passed in Victoria he spent thirteen in prison,
first for stealing, then in steady progression for highway robbery and
burglary. Side by side with the practical and efficient education in
crime furnished by the Victorian prisons of that day, Butler availed
himself of the opportunity to educate his mind. It was during this
period that he found inspiration and encouragement in the study of the
lives of Frederick and Napoleon, besides acquiring a knowledge of music
and shorthand.

When in 1876 Butler quitted Australia for New Zealand, he was
sufficiently accomplished to obtain employment as a schoolmaster.

At Cromwell, Otago, under the name of "C. J. Donelly, Esq.," Butler
opened a "Commercial and Preparatory Academy," and in a prospectus that
recalls Mr. Squeers' famous advertisement of Dotheboys Hall, announced
that the programme of the Academy would include "reading, taught as
an art and upon the most approved principles of elocution, writing,
arithmetic, euclid, algebra, mensuration, trigonometry, book-keeping,
geography, grammar, spelling and dictation, composition, logic and
debate, French, Latin, shorthand, history, music, and general lectures
on astronomy, natural philosophy, geology, and other subjects." The
simpler principles of these branches of learning were to be "rendered
intelligible, and a firm foundation laid for the acquirement of future
knowledge." Unfortunately a suspicion of theft on Butler's part cut
short the fulfilment of this really splendid programme, and Butler left
Cromwell hurriedly for the ampler field of Dunedin. There, less than a
fortnight after his arrivel{sic}, he was sentenced to four years' hard
labour for several burglaries committed in and about that city.

On the 18th of February, 1880, Butler was released from prison. With
that consummate hypocrisy which was part of the man, he had contrived to
enlist the sympathies of the Governor of the Dunedin Jail, who gave
him, on his departure, a suit of clothes and a small sum of mo