CHAPTER XI.
Early in the year 1820, the Rev. Edmund Winstanley received from Dr. Poynter formal letters appointing him President of the College, and on January 17, took at the hands of the Protector the oaths of office.
In the month of May in this year, the College Library was largely increased by books bequeathed by Joseph Maria de Mello, Bishop of Algarve. About the year 1785, he resigned his Bishopric, to become the Confessor of the Queen and Inquisitor General, which latter office he retained until the arrival of the French in 1807. He died on January 10, 1820, leaving his large library to be divided between the Bishopric of Algarve, the House of the Oratorian Fathers de Spiritu Saiicto and the College. Amongst the books received on this occasion were Walton's Polygiotte and a very beautiful English illuminated Manuscript. This accession of books, necessitated the enlargement of the library, which was done by removing the partition wall that had hitherto divided the former small library from the large room, which prior to the enlargement of the College had served as a dormitory for the students. The condition attached to this legacy was, that for twenty years an annual Mass should be offered for the Soul of the Testator. In this year also the Philosophers Class Room was fitted up with the necessary physical and chemical instruments.
With the accession of Dr. Winstanley to the Presidentship, may be said to have commenced the contemporary history of Lisbon College, for there are still living those who if not precisely at this period, only a few years later entered upon their Collegiate course under his administration, and many still survive, upon whose
