CHAPTER X.
On the death of Father Fryer, the Rev. Edmund Winstanley was called upon, as Senior Superior, to take charge of the House until a successor to the late President should be appointed. The choice fell upon the Rev. James Buckley. Born in London, February 24, 1770, he was admitted into the College in February, 1785. He was gifted with great talents which he displayed throughout his College Course, especially in poetry, in which his compositions were of such beauty and excellence that Father Allen, his master, himself gifted with a most refined taste, expressed his opinion that not even Pope could have struck off more elegant verses in so short a time. As we have seen he had been chosen Superior in 1795, a position which he held until 1801, when, at his own request, he came to England; to return again, however, as President in May, 1806.
In the following year France and Spain having agreed to divide Portugal between them,[1] the reigning House of Braganza fled from Lisbon to a refuge in Brazil. On the very day of their departure the French entered Lisbon, and one of their first acts was to incarcerate the persons and confiscate the property of all British subjects who had not anticipated the violence by a timely flight. From these rigorous measures, however, some exception was made in favour of the College and its inmates. At the intercession of the Pope's Nuncio and other influential persons the property of the house though nominally confiscated, was left in the administration of the Superiors, and though both they and the students were declared prisoners of war, they enjoyed the liberty of
