An anniversary of more personal interest to Bute in the spring of 1897 was his own "silver wedding day." The event was celebrated with quiet happiness in the family circle, and, later in the year, by a great reception in the Exhibition-building at Cardiff, at which some three thousand guests were entertained. Bute, who received a congratulatory {212} address on the occasion, enclosed in a silver casket, from his Town Council at Rothesay, gave public and permanent expression to his thankfulness for twenty-five years of happy married life, by instituting both there and at Cardiff, what came to be known as the "Bute Dowry." This was the provision of an annual sum to be handed, on the recommendation of the municipal authorities, to some girl or girls of the poorer classes, to enable her to get married. The religious spirit in which Bute founded this benefaction is seen from a letter he addressed to the minister of Rothesay, announcing his intention of attending on the first occasion of the dowry being awarded: Mountstuart, _December_ 23, 1897. I will put on the chain, but not, I think, the gown, as I will leave the religious ceremony entirely to you; and I think it would be better if _you_ read John ii. 1-11 (as well as the passage from Ephesians). The only reason why I stipulated for the reading of John ii. 1-11 as a part of the ceremony, was to impress the idea that that marriage is truly blessed to which Jesus is called by humble prayer, and at which nothing takes place but the natural and harmless gaiety which is consonant with His sacred presence and approval. It does not matter at all who reads it. [Sidenote: 1899, Failing health] The success of Bute's three years' tenure of the office of provost was proved by the unanimity with which the council, at its conclusion, expressed its wish that he would accept re-election for another term. This would have included the fifth centenary of the erection of the royal burgh, which it was proposed to celebrate in 1900; and Bute, notwithstanding his rapidly failing powers (of which no one {213} was more conscious than himself), consented to be nominated for a second term on certain conditions, one of which was that he should be permitted to resign the office immediately after the centenary. In his letter thanking the council for their invitation he thus alluded to his state of health: