ten years' war (1728-38), in which Dr. Colbatch, a senior fellow of Trinity, was the leader of the opposition. In 1733 being then seventy-one, Bentley was for the second time brought to trial at Ely House before the Bishop of Ely, Dr. Greene. On 27 April 1734 Bishop Greene sentenced Bentley to be deprived of the mastership. But an unexpected hitch occurred. The college statute prescribed that the master, if condemned, should be deprived by the agency of the vice-master. The vice-master, Dr. Hacket, was advised by Bentley's counsel to refrain from acting, and, on resigning in May 1734, he was succeeded as vice-master by Dr. Richard Walker a friend of Bentley's. During the next four years (1734-8) every moral and legal resource was vainly used in the hope of driving Dr. Walker into executing the sentence against Bentley. The master could not be deprived because the vice-master refused to deprive him, and no one else had the power to do so. Three different motions were made in the court of king's bench: (1) for a writ to compel Dr. Walker to act (2) for a writ to compel the Bishop of Ely to compel Dr. Walker to act; (3) for a writ to compel the Bishop of Ely to act. On 22 April 1738 the last of these applications was rejected. That day marks Bentley's final victory in the struggle dating from 1710. During the remaining four years of his life he was undisturbed in the mastership, although, in the view of those who accepted Bishop Greene's judgment, he had no longer a legal title to it.
Which side had been most to blame in this controversy, which lasted a year longer than the Peloponnesian War—Bentley or the fellows? We must first of all distinguish the legal from the moral bearings of the case. The contention of the fellows was that Bentley had incurred the penalty of deprivation because he had infringed the statutes. There seems to be no doubt that he had infringed them. That was the finding of a competent court, after a careful inquiry, both in 1714 and in 1733. From the moral point of view there was much in the temper and in the tactics of Bentley's adversaries on several occasions which cannot be excused. On the other hand, it was Bentley's arrogance which originally provoked the feud. The fellows were long-suffering: but his repeated acts of insolent absolutism at last forced them into active resistance. His conception of a college was higher than theirs: but that cannot palliate his infringement of their rights.
It must never be forgotten that Bentley's mastership of Trinity is memorable for other things than its troubles. He was the first master who established a proper competition for the great prizes of that illustrious college. The scholarships and fellowships had previously been given by purely oral examination. Bentley introduced written papers; he also made the award of scholarships to be annual instead of biennial, and admitted students of the first year to compete for them. He made Trinity College the earliest home of a Newtonian school by providing in it an observatory, under the direction of Newton's disciple and friend—destined to an early death—Roger Cotes. He fitted up a chemical laboratory in Trinity for Vigani of Verona, the professor of chemistry. He brought to Trinity the eminent orientalist, Sike of Bremen, afterwards professor of Hebrew. True to the spirit of the royal founder. Bentley wished Trinity College, to be indeed a house 'of all kinds of good letters;' and at a time when England's academic ideals were far from high, he did much to render it not only a great college, but also a miniature university.
The glimpses which we get of Bentley's domestic life are pleasing. They belong chiefly to his later years, being mainly due to the 'Memoirs' of his grandson, Richard Cumberland. In 1701 (the year after his installation at Trinity) he was married (in the chapel of Eton College) to Joanna, daughter of Sir John Bernard, of Brampton, Huntingdonshire. She bore him four children: Elizabeth, who married Humphrey Ridge, a gentleman of Hampshire; Joanna, who became the wife of Denison Cumberland, and mother of Richard, the author of the 'Memoirs;' William, who died in infancy; and Richard, the youngest (born in 1708), an accomplished but eccentric man, who achieved nothing signal in life. Of the home at Trinity Lodge, Richard Cumberland says that Bentley's 'establishment was respectable, and his table affluently and hospitably served.' Bentley usually breakfasted alone in his library, and was seldom visible till dinner-time. After evening prayers at ten, the family retired, and Bentley, 'habited in his dressing-gown,' would go back to his books. The children used to read the 'Spectator' aloud to him as each number came out, and he 'was so particularly amused by the character of Sir Roger de Coverley'—as his daughter Joanna told her son—'that he took his literary decease most seriously to heart.' 'His ordinary style of conversation was naturally lofty,' his grandson says, and by using 'thou' and 'thee' rather too much, he sometimes gave a dictatorial tone to his talk; but the native candour and inherent tender-
