building. One of these tents was set aside as a temporary church, in which leave was obtained to celebrate Mass and perform the other duties of religion.
After some time the Community returned from the country residence, and entered again on the regular duties of the College, but without venturing for the present to reside within its walls. In the meantime many of the poor families of the neighbourhood who had, by the late calamity, been deprived of shelter took possession of the ground apartments, which were arched and strong, of the deserted edifice, and after the lapse of three quarters of a century there existed in the vicinity many a venerable sire who owned for his birthplace the lower corridor of the English College.
After the tragical end of Father Manley, Dr. Barnard, as head Superior, undertook the government of the House, and in the following year, 1756, received the deed of his promotion to the Presidency, becoming thus the thirteenth President. But if before the earthquake, and under the rule of Father Manley, the prospects of the Establishment were anything but cheering; under his successor they were still more gloomy. It has already been hinted that the management of domestic discipline and economy was not the province in which the talents of Dr. Barnard were calculated to shine, and the late calamity had rendered indispensable the incurring of several fresh and heavy monetary obligations.
The Catholics in England, indeed, occasionally came forward with pecuniary assistance in favour of the Establishment, yet even with this addition its means were found barely sufficient to meet the current expenditure of a very limited number of students.
In this emergency recourse was had to the ruinous expedient of borrowing a very considerable sum at a high rate of interest, and the consequence was, that without any signal permanent advantage, a new and oppressive burden was entailed upon the College. In this state of depression affairs continued for the space of twenty years, from 1757 to 1777, when new and brighter prospects
