CAPTAIN T. A. BUTLER.
DEEPLY as the death of Captain Butler may be lamented, his fate is far from being one from whieh a soldier would recoil. If his life has been cut short, it has been fall ; if his parents have to mourn his loes, they have not to mourn that his promise has been unful- filled. A longer life might have added to the list of his actions, but it could not have stamped his character more strongly. To encounter death is the very business of the soldier, and every man who sets forth with a sword by his side must be distinctly pre- pared to walk straight up to his fate, not only without flinching, but without hesitation or regret. How many are there, however, who have to incur that chance of the soldier's life without real- izing the rewards of the sacrifice ? how many who perish nameless? While still a very young volunteer, Captain Butler had the opportunity of proving, as Lord Hardinge says, his, valour, his skill, " his prudence and firmness in council." Commanding in a semi-barbarian force, acting as volunteer assistant to the illustrious soldier of fortune who leads the Turks, he was mainly instrumental in prolonging the defence of Silistria even to the discomfiture of a great Russian army. " Sa memoire ne perira pas dans Perm& Ottomane," says Omar Pasha. It will indeed not perish in the history of the Continent which is the his- tory of the world ; for the siege of Silistria will always stand conspicuous as the point at which the power of Russia received its check ; and to a great extent it may be said that Butler administered that check. The Turks, the army of his own coun- try, his Government, his countrymen, all conspire to proclaim his merit. Like Bellot, like Eldred Pottinger, he is among those .men whom death selects at an early age to promote at once and for ever amongst the most distinguished servants of their country and of mankind.
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