Page:Historical account of Lisbon college.djvu/101

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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LISBON COLLEGE.
91

universally sought and admired. He was loved and respected by all, and his Charity towards his neighbour was ever most exemplary. He cautiously abstained from the least word which could affect the reputation of others, and if in the warmth of a discussion a harsh expression escaped him, he was sure to ask pardon of the aggrieved party however much his inferior, before he retired to rest.

To return to the narrative. After twenty-one years of office Dr. Barnard, at the request of Bishop Challoner, resigned the Presidency in 1776, and was succeeded by Father James Barnard. Finding the character of his successor uncongenial, Dr. Barnard retired to the village of Nossa Signora de Monte on a pension allowed him by the College, where he remained until the departure of the Rev. James Barnard on to the Mission. Father Fryer, the succeeding President, kindly readmitted him into the College, and until his death, in 1783, treated him with the utmost consideration.

James Barnard was born in London in the year 1733, and was educated a Protestant. At an early age he was sent to Seville, and was employed for some time in a mercantile house in that city. Whilst in this situation he became convinced of the truth of the Catholic Religion, and was in the most public manner received into the Church. Soon after feeling a strong inclination to the ecclesiastical state, he asked and obtained admission into the English College in the same city, and was promoted to the priesthood. In the year 1758 he left Seville, for what reason it does not appear, and was received into Lisbon College, where he twice defended public Theses. Having finished his studies, he was sent on the English Mission in 1761, and continued to labour in the London District till his nomination to the Presidency in 1776. His knowledge of business and characteristic love of order, rendered him at this moment an invaluable acquisition to the College. The earthquake and various other causes, had contributed to throw the archives and the affairs of the House into a state of almost inextricable