BUTE, JOHN STUART, 3RD EARL OF (1713-1792) , Eng lish prime minister, son of James, 2nd earl, and of Lady Jane Campbell, daughter of the 1st duke of Argyll, was born on May 25, 1713; he was educated at Eton and succeeded to the earldom (in the peerage of Scotland; created for his grandfather Sir James Stuart in 1703) on his father's death in 1723. He was elected a representative peer for Scotland in 7, but not in the- following parliaments, and appears not to have spoken in debate. In 1738 he was made a knight of the Thistle, and for several years lived in retirement in Bute, engaged in agricultural and botanical pursuits. From the quiet obscurity for which his talents and character entirely fitted him Bute was forced by a mere accident. He had resided in England since the rebellion of and in 1747, a downpour of rain having prevented the de parture of Frederick, prince of Wales, from the Egham races, Bute was summoned to his tent to make up a whist party; he immediately gained the favour of the prince and princess, became the leading personage at their court, and in 1750 was appointed by Frederick a lord of his bedchamber. After the latter's death in 1751 his influence in the household increased. His relations with the princess formed the subject of numerous popular lam poons, but the scandal was never founded on anything but con jecture and the malice of faction. Bute became the constant com panion and confidant of the young prince. In the year he took part in the negotiations between Leicester House and Pitt, directed against the duke of Newcastle, and in 1757 in the confer ences between the two ministers which led to their taking office together.
On the accession of George III. in 1760, Bute became a privy councillor, groom of the stole and first gentleman of the bed chamber, and though without a seat in parliament or in the cabi net, he was the only man who enjoyed the king's complete confi dence. George III. immediately proceeded in his attempt to ac complish his long-projected plans, the conclusion of the peace with France, the break-up of the long-continued Whig monopoly of power, and the supremacy of the monarchy over both parlia ment and the political parties.
His policy was followed with consummate skill and caution. Great care was shown not to alienate the Whig leaders in a body, which would have raised up under Pitt's leadership a formidable party of resistance, but advantage was taken of disagreements between the ministers concerning the war, of personal jealousies, and of the strong reluctance of the old statesmen who had served the crown for generations to identify themselves with active opposition to the king's wishes. They were all discarded singly and isolated, after violent disagreements, from the rest of the ministers. On March 25, 1761, Bute succeeded Lord Holderness as secretary of state for the northern department, and Pitt re signed in October on the refusal of the government to declare war against Spain.
On Nov. 3 Bute appeared in his new capacity as prime minister in the House of Lords, where he had not been seen for 20 years. Though he had succeeded in disarming all organized opposition in parliament, the hostility displayed against him in the nation, aris ing from his Scottish nationality, his character as favourite, his peace policy and the resignation of the popular hero Pitt, was overwhelming. He was the object of numerous attacks and lam poons. He dared not show himself in the streets without the protection of prize-fighters, while the jack-boot (a pun upon his name) and the petticoat, by which the princess was represented, were continually being burnt by the mob or hanged upon the gallows. On Nov. 9, while proceeding to the Guildhall, he nar rowly escaped falling into the hands of the populace, who smashed his coach, and he was treated with studied coldness at the banquet. In Jan. 1762 Bute was compelled to declare war against Spain, though now without the advantages which the earlier decision urged by Pitt could have secured, and he supported the war, but with no zeal and no definite aim beyond the obtaining of a peace at any price and as soon as possible. In May he succeeded the duke of Newcastle as first lord of the treasury. In his eagerness for peace he conducted on his own responsibility secret negotiations for peace with France through Viri, the Sardinian minister, and the preliminary treaty was signed on Nov. 3 at Fontainebleau. A parliamentary majority was now secured, with the aid of Henry Fox, who deserted his party to become leader of the Commons, for the king's policy by bribery and threats. The definitive peace of Paris was signed on Feb. Io, 1763, and a wholesale proscription of the Whigs was begun, in which even the most insignificant ad herents of the party, including widows, servants and schoolboys, incurred the vengeance of the court. Later, Bute roused further hostility by his cider tax, an ill-advised measure producing only a year, imposing special burdens upon the farmers and landed interest in the cider counties, and extremely unpopular be cause extending the detested system of taxation by excise, regarded as an infringement of the popular liberties. At length, unable to contend any longer against the general and inveterate animosity displayed against him, fearing for the consequences to the mon archy, alarmed at the virulent attacks of the North Briton, and suffering from ill-health, Bute resigned on April 8 an office he had never desired to fill.
He still for a time retained influence with the king, but George Grenville (whom he recommended as his successor) insisted on possessing the king's whole confidence, and on the failure of Bute in Aug. 1763 to procure his dismissal and to substitute a ministry led by Pitt and the duke of Bedford, Grenville demanded and obtained Bute's withdrawal from the court. He resigned accord ingly the office of privy purse, and took leave of George III. on Sept. 28. He still corresponded with the king, and returned again to London next year, but in May 1765, after the duke of Cum berland's failure to form an administration, Grenville exacted the promise from the king which appears to have been kept faithfully, that Bute should have no share and should give no advice whatever in public business, and obtained the dismissal of Bute's brother from his post of lord privy seal in Scotland. Bute continued to visit the princess of Wales, but on the king's arrival always re tired by a back staircase.
He spoke against the government on the American question in Feb. 1766, and in March against the repeal of the Stamp Act. In 1768 and 1774 he was again elected a representative peer for Scotland, but took no further part in politics, and it, 1778 refused to have anything to do with the abortive attempt to effect an alliance between himself and Chatham. He travelled in Italy, complained of the malice of his opponents and of the ingratitude of the king, and determined "to retire from the world before it retires from me." He died on March 10, 1792, and was buried at Rothesay in Bute.
Bute in his short administration was used by George III. as his instrument for the destruction of the Whig Party. His own principles and intentions were inspired by feelings of sincere affection and loyalty for his sovereign, and his character remains untarnished by the grosser accusations raised by faction. In the circle of his family and intimate friends, away from the great world in which he made so poor a figure, he was greatly esteemed. See J. A. Lovat Fraser, John Stuart, Earl of Bute (1912) ; Mrs. E. Stuart Wortley, A Prime Minister and his Son. From the corre spondence of the Earl of Bute and of Lt. General the Hon. Sir Charles Stuart (1925). See also WILKES, JOHN.