The same writer calls the nationalists 'rascals and poltroons,' expressions quite easy to understand if it is considered that insults and injuries were during his stay constantly inflicted on the most respectable members of the community and the most defenceless.

The last entries in Governor Hutchinson's Diary' relating to Sir Francis Bernard's visit are the following:

2nd.-Dined at Lord Dartmouth's with my son E. and daughter, besides Mr. Keene and Lady, Sir F. B. and Colonel Dalrymple.

This, it may be presumed, was the Colonel Dalrymple, recently on uneasy terms with Governor Hutchinson, who had brought troops to Boston in 1768, and had then written slightingly of Governor Bernard. It is possible, indeed, that he had since altered his mind.

4th.-Sir F. Bernard set out at ten o'clock from my house to return home to Ailesbury [sic].

On the same day Governor Hutchinson wrote to Mr. Burch— probably the Commissioner of Customs often mentioned already :

Sir F. Bernard has obtained a pension of 800£ a year for himself and 400€ Lady Bernard [sic], and a place of better than 200£ a year for his son Tom, all of which makes him happy, and, I think, more healthy. He has been with me as a lodger for 10 or 11 days in a house which I have taken three doors above Park Place, very pleasant and well furnished. We live in great friendship. My other predecessor [Governor Pownall] has been printing again, and given me two or three severe lashes. Non scribit, cujus carmina nemo legit. I am at the end of my paper. Governor Pownall 1 was a man of some note, of varied information and acquirements, and also of advanced opinions. He became for a while a friend of John Adams, Revolution,' vol. iii. ch. i. p. 56 (by the Rev. Edward G. Porter, pastor of the Hancock Church, Lexington). Mr. Winsor quotes from Memoir and Letters of Captain W. Glanville Evelyn, of the Fourth Regiment (King's Own), printed in 1879 at Oxford, edited by G. D. Scull.

A short notice of Governor Thomas Pownall will be found in Rees's Cyclopædia. He is eulogistically mentioned in Winsor's Mem. Hist. Boston and many other American books.

SIR FRANCIS BERNARD'S PENSION

269

but his views eventually underwent considerable modification.

I do not know whether Mr. Hutchinson's account of the pensions to Sir Francis and Lady Bernard is strictly accurate, or was written down hastily from recollection: Probably the pension to Lady Bernard was not payable till she became a widow-that is, when the 8007. ceased. It would seem, however, that this last amount was subsequently augmented by another pension of 600l. per annum to Sir Francis: at what date I cannot say. The fact is noted in some memoranda1 of the ex-Governor's property at the time of his death. This would make the total 1,400., and must be the sum intended by Thomas Bernard when he wrote that, on his father's resignation of his post in Ireland, his former pension was restored to him, which some time afterwards, at the instance of Lord North, was increased to the extent of the assurances which he had received before he quitted his Government.' The original promise was, that he should receive an income equal to the sum he annually obtained as Governor. This had, indeed, never reached 1,400l., the amount at which it seems to have been officially reckoned, and had sometimes fallen below 1,000l., owing to the upsetting measures of the British Government, which in every way pressed hardly on Sir Francis. The new grant, therefore, was a bare measure of justice, and, unfortunately, came too late to effect any permanent improvement in his health. Moreover, had he been otherwise a totally destitute man, he could not have lived upon it, because of the delays in payment. When he died, one pension was six quarters, the other seven, in arrears. These delays, with possible deductions, and the difficulties he had experienced before the grants were made, explain the mention of several charges on his property in the above-mentioned memoranda.

4

IMS. at Nether Winchendon, from Collinson papers.

2 Life of Sir Francis Bernard.

Ibid.

MS. at Nether Winchendon giving particulars of Sir Francis Bernard's estate.

With regard to Lady Bernard's pension-if, as may be assumed, it was to take effect only in case of survivorship— no payment was ever made, but the promise, of course, helped to tranquillise her husband's mind. She was certainly entitled to some consideration for the loyalty with which she had stood by his side throughout those distressing years in Massachusetts, which had ruined her health as well as his. When recording her death, a few years later, her daughter Julia writes: She had long been subject to returns of nervous fever-spring and summer.' 1

In her 'Reminiscences.'

SIR FRANCIS BERNARD'S FAMILY

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CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF SIR FRANCIS BERNARD

John Bernard supposed to be Settled in America-Thomas resolves on reading for the Bar-William and Scrope sent to Harrow-Jane Bernard Marries Charles White-Amelia, the Second Daughter-Frances Elizabeth-Her Self-Reliance-She becomes an Author-Her Strictures on London and its Follies-Julia-The 'Boston Port Bill '-Its Effect on John Bernard's Prospects-Return of Sir Francis from London to Aylesbury-American Loyalists in Aylesbury-Visit to Stowe-Billy or William Bernard-Scrope Bernard enters Christ Church-Drowning of William.

ONE of the most pressing cares of Sir Francis and Lady Bernard, on reaching England, must have been to provide for the future of their children in the altered circumstances of their lives. They were now eight in number, and of ages varying, in 1770, from twenty-five to eleven.

John, the eldest surviving son, was supposed to be settled in America; it will by degrees appear more and more how little any American prospect could be trusted.

For Thomas, who had attained his twentieth birthday in the April of that year, and had long been his father's amanuensis and confidential secretary, Sir Francis hoped to obtain a Government appointment, for which line he was well fitted by his previous training. But time wore on, and Thomas seemed to be forgotten. As year succeeded year he keenly realised the humiliation of this position, which threatened injury to his character and ruin to any career he might have desired. Therefore he determined,' says his biographer, 'to pursue a more independent line of life'1-in other words, he resolved on reading for the Bar.

This scheme did not meet with the approbation of Sir Francis. He was, perhaps for the only time in his life,

Baker (Rev. James), Life of Sir Thomas Bernard.

seriously displeased with Thomas; and it must be admitted that there was something to be said for his side of the question. Thomas Bernard had been thrown altogether out of the regular groove; he had been educated in a colony, and had quitted the colonial college at the age of sixteen. Moreover, he suffered from an impediment in his speech, which all his efforts never enabled him entirely to overcome. And the time which must necessarily elapse before he could earn any money, even if favoured by circumstances, and the expenses which must be incurred, were formidable objections.

Sir Francis told his grief to Lord Barrington,' who, on learning its cause, congratulated him on having a son of so independent a spirit,' and promised to assist, so far as he could, in reconciling the two opposed views of the question. Through his influence, Thomas eventually obtained the appointment, already mentioned, of Commissary of Musters, the value being about 2007. a year, and the amount of work so small as not to interfere with his professional studies. The young man thus escaped being a burden to his father. He had not allowed himself to be injured by the ordeal of a long period of comparative inaction; indeed it is probable, from the nature of his ultimate pursuits, that he had turned it to useful account by inquiring into the hindrances of various conditions of life, and especially into the sufferings of the submerged portion of humanity. He now set to the work of learning his profession in right earnest, choosing as his line conveyancing, by which means he avoided the obstacle presented by his imperfect utterance.

The two younger sons, William and Scrope, who arrived in England with their mother early in 1771, were, as already noticed, sent to Harrow. Whether the repute of the school at that moment decided this choice, or the fact that it was some miles on the way to Winchendon from London had also some influence, does not appear. William attained the age of fifteen in May 1771, and it may be assumed that his educa

1 Baker (Rev. James), Life of Sir Thomas Bernard.

2 This appears from various letters at Nether Winchendon.