Josephine Butler to Rhoda Butler

Photocopy of letter. Written from Winchester.

Refers to the week of functions Rhoda has been having at St Andrews [the usual accompaniment of the election of the Lord Rector which occurs every three years]. She has accepted an invitation to stay with Mr John Bellows, the celebrated printer and lexicographer who has recently caused 'the discomfiture of many Quakers' by publishing 'the truth about the Transvaal War'; and encouraged her when attacks were made on her little book 'Native Races and the War'. She is confused about the new Lord Rector; thought it was to be Mr Carnegie and now it seems Lord Balfour [Carnegie was elected Lord Rector 1901 and Lord Balfour of Burleigh was made Chancellor of St. Andrews in 1900]

30 Oct [1901].

'Eugenie will please them with her singing'

Rhoda's brother Arthur William Bolton entered the Navy as an engineer officer and in 1898 married Eugenie Zaozeroky, a Russian girl whose father was officer in command at Kronstadt. (For details about Arthur, see note, letter of 10 Jan 1897, JB to Stanley and letter of 29 Oct 1904, JB to Miss Forsaith.

'it was he who fought the battle for England and Imperialism about the South African war'

This was the painter and lexicographer John Bellows (1831-1902) who at the time of the S. African War, in spite of his Quaker tenets, published: 'The truth about the Transvaal War and the truth about War', 1900. It was translated into French and German.

'The attacks on my little book' This was 'Native races and the War', 1900, which cut across the pro-Boer views of most of her Abolitionist friends.

See note, letter of 12 Feb 1901, JB to Miss Forsaith.

'I do not understand about the new Lord Rector. I thought it was to be Mr Carnegie and now Lord Balfour' Andrew Carnegie, the great industrialist, was elected as Lord Rector of St Andrews in 1901 installed in 1902. Lord Balfour of Burleigh was made Chancellor of St Andrews in 1900.

'Mr Stuart sent me a paper with his Dundee speech' From J Stuart's autobiography, p 135.

'I delivered two addresses as Lord Rector, one the usual introductory one and the other at the conclusion of my tenure of office [in 1901] at the request of Dundee College, when that place was visited by the Chancellor (Lord Balfour of Burleigh) accompanied by all the official ceremony of his office with the view of emphasising the harmony of St Andrews and Dundee as portions of the same university'

Biog: Arthur William Bolton, Mr John Bellows, Andrew Carnegie, Lord Balfour