time to time in his rooms at All Souls. In 1876 he served on the royal commission for inquiring into the duties of commanders of British vessels with reference to fugitive
slaves, and in 1877 became a member of the University of Oxford Commission under the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act of that year. Upon this commission, at any
rate after Lord Selborne, upon becoming a second time lord chancellor, had ceased to preside over it, Bernard's combination of legal training with academical experience
gave him the leading place. To him, more than to any single commissioner, is doubtless due the character of compromise which was arrived at between the interests of the university on the one hand and the autonomy of the colleges on the other. The commission has been blamed for timidity, but its work was much more thorough than is generally supposed. The university is now not only better endowed than it has ever been, but is also far better organised than it has been
for some centuries past. The faculties have been revived, and encouragement has been given to branches of learning which have no direct bearing upon the examinations. The
labour of constructing what was practically a new corpus juris academicum for the university and its twenty colleges was immense, and seems to have fatally overtaxed the
strength of Bernard. In the spring of 1882, just when the new statutes for Oxford had received the royal assent, he became seriously ill, and after lingering for some months, died at Overross on 2 Sept. of that year.
Bernard was accomplished in all branches of law, and his reputation as a master of the law of nations was as high on the continent and in America as in his own country. He was one of the original members of the Institut de Droit International, founded in 1873, and presided over its Oxford meeting in 1880 with much tact and dignity. As a professor he inclined rather to the historical than to the systematic exposition of his subject, dwelling by preference upon the analysis of treaties, the character of politicians, and the by-play of diplomacy. He could be generous, both of time and money. He was laborious, impartial, conscientious, fastidious, and averse to extremes. All that he did was governed by a consummate common-sense, which was, however, perhaps wanting in robustness. Though sometimes reserved in manner, he could be delightful as a conversationalist, and was the friend of many of the leading men of his day. His public services were of a very high order, though not of a kind to win the applause, or even to come to the knowledge, of the public generally. A monument erected to his memory in All Souls' College chapel truly sets forth how 'in hoc collegio xv. annos, turn juris gentium professor, turn socius bis cooptatus, Academiam scientia, ingenio, exemplo, auxit et ornavit ; Reipublicse fideliter deserviit.'
His style as a writer reflected his qualities as a man. It was conspicuous for good sense, good taste, and lucidity. The following is probably a complete list of his acknowledged writings: 1. The article on 'The Growth of Laws and Usages of War,' in the 'Oxford Essays' for 1856, T. W. Parker, London. 2. 'Remarks on the Proposed Alteration of the Law of Naval Prize,' 1857, London. 3. 'An Introductory Lecture on International Law,' 1859, Oxford. 4. 'A Lecture on the Principles of Nonintervention,' 1860, T. W. Parker, Oxford and London. 5. 'Two Lectures on the Present American War,' 1861, Parker, Oxford. 6. 'Notes on some Questions suggested by the Case of the Trent,' 1862, Oxford. 7. 'A Lecture on Alleged Violations of Neutrality by England in the Present War,' 1863, Ridgway, London. 8. 'A Letter to the Vice-Chancellor on the Study of Law at Oxford,' 1864, University Press. 9. 'A Lecture on the Schleswig-Holstein Question,' 1864, University Press. 10. 'Remarks on some late Decisions respecting the Colonial Church,' 1866, Oxford. 11. 'Four Lectures on Diplomacy,' 1868, Macmillan, London. 12. f Notes on the Academical Study of Law,' 1868, Oxford. 13. 'An Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain during the American Civil War,' 1870, 4to, Longmans, London. 14. 'A Letter to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone on the Statutes of the University ' (dated 27 Feb.), 1882, Rivington, London.
[Personal knowledge.]
BERNARD, NICHOLAS, D.D. (d. 1661), divine, was born about the commencement of the seventeenth century, and educated at Cambridge, though nothing is known of his academic course. Having migrated to Ireland, he was ordained by Archbishop Ussher, in St. Peter's church, Drogheda, in 1626 (Wood, Athenae Oxon.) He became the archbishop's chaplain and librarian. On 12 July 1627 he was presented to the deanery of Kilmore (another account states that he was nominated by the archbishop and elected on 9 Oct. 1627, and installed same day). Ussher, in his 'Visitation Book of the Province' in 1622, says of Kilmore: 'This deanery is merely titulary, nothing belonging to it, but the bishop for the time being made choice of any one of his clergie whom he thought fittest to give unto the name
