He was the third son of Charles Bernard of
Jamaica, the descendant of a
Huguenot family, and was born at
Tibberton Court,
Gloucestershire. He was educated at
Sherborne School, and
Trinity College, Oxford. Graduating
BA in 1842, he took his
BCL, was elected Vinerian scholar and fellow, and having read in chambers with
Roundell Palmer (afterwards Lord Selborne), was called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn in 1846. He was specially interested in legal history and in church questions, and was one of the founders of the
Guardian. In 1852 he was elected the newly established post of
Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Oxford, attached to
All Souls' College, of which he afterwards was made a fellow. But besides his duties at Oxford he undertook a good deal of non-collegiate work; he was a member of several royal commissions; in 1871 he went as one of the
high commissioners to the
United States, and signed the
treaty of Washington, and in 1872 he assisted Sir Roundell Palmer before the tribunal of arbitration at
Geneva. In 1874 he resigned his professorship at Oxford, but as member of the university of Oxford commission of 1876 he was mainly responsible for bringing about the compromise ultimately adopted between the university and the colleges. Bernard's reputation as an international lawyer was widespread, and he was an original member of the
Institut de Droit International (1873). ==Works==