or regulations. In the second place, the constitutions of the four universities had to be harmonised and, so far as possible, made identical. This laborious task lasted nearly eleven years, during which the commission held 251 meetings. Its general report was not issued until April 1900. It was generally recognised by the commissioners and by the academical body that Butcher's wide experience and varied culture, his industry, tact, and temper, were of the greatest value in determining the principles and working out the multitudinous details of a beneficent and far-reaching reform.
Meanwhile Butcher not only continued to discharge his professorial duties with energy and success but took an active part in Edinburgh society; and his house, graced by the social gifts and conversational powers of his wife, became a brilliant social centre. Among his closest friends were Professor and Mrs. W. Sellar (cf. Mrs. Sellar's Recollections, passim). In 1891 Butcher published a volume of essays and addresses, entitled 'Some Aspects of the Greek Genius,' mostly written or delivered during his residence in Edinburgh. These essays set forth, lucidly and attractively, the nature of the Greek mind, in some of its most striking and important aspects. From the point of view of scholarship, the most notable essay in the volume is that which analyses Aristotle's conception of fine art and poetry. This essay was the germ out of which grew Butcher's most important work, 'Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art' (1895). It contains a critical text and translation of the 'Poetics,' with a commentary which analyses and judges Aristotle's views on poetry and art, in the light of modern philosophy and achievement.
It was during his residence in Edinburgh that Butcher was first drawn into active connection with politics. The question of home rule became pressing, and he threw himself with decision and energy into the conflict. A man of liberal views but strong conservative instincts, he at once took a leading share in organising the unionist party in Edinburgh. Six years later, when, with Gladstone's return to power in 1892, the danger of home rule reappeared, he actively promoted the election of his friend Lord Wolmer (now second earl of Selborne) for West Edinburgh. In these contests he first showed his capacity for politics, and at once tested and improved his powers of speech.
In 1902 Mrs. Butcher died after a brief illness. This event loosened the ties which bound him to Edinburgh; and, having held his professorship long enough to earn a pension, he resigned in the following year. At a farewell dinner in January 1904 Mr. Arthur Balfour presided, and many speeches, made by distinguished persons, testified to the esteem and affection which he had won. He removed to London, taking a house (No. 6) in Tavistock Square, where he passed the remainder of his life. In 1904 he accepted an invitation to lecture at Harvard University and elsewhere in the United States. Some of his addresses he subsequently published in a volume entitled 'Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects' (1904), a sort of sequel to 'Some Aspects of the Greek Genius.' Such leisure for literary work as Butcher subsequently enjoyed he spent on a critical edition of the speeches of Demosthenes, two volumes of which were published (1903, 1907), and in correcting and improving successive editions of the 'Poetics.'
Before leaving Edinburgh he had been nominated a member of the Royal Commission on University Education in Ireland (1901), of which Lord Robertson was chairman. In its discussions Butcher took a prominent part. Believing in the justice of the catholic demands, he aimed at satisfying the catholic authorities, without infringing the independence of Trinity College. He therefore aided the chairman in excluding that foundation from the discussion, while doing his utmost to elicit the exact views of catholic witnesses as to the extent of ecclesiastical control which they considered advisable. He also endeavoured to secure the attendance of the students of Maynooth in the new university. When, in 1903, the report appeared, it was found to be accompanied by eight 'reservations'; and the chairman himself dissented from the scheme. The report, therefore, produced no result.
Another royal commission was appointed to deal with the same subject in June 1906. Sir Edward Fry was chairman. Butcher was the only person who served on both this and the former commission. This time, Trinity College was expressly included in the purview of the commissioners, and its financial and other conditions were carefully examined ; but in their report (January 1907) the commissioners declared that, in their opinion, it was impossible to make that foundation available for the higher education of catholics. They therefore recommended the establishment in Dublin of a
