Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 50124-h.htm or 50124-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50124/50124-h/50124-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50124/50124-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/frederickwilliam00fishuoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). Signatures are enclosed by tilde characters (~Signature~). FREDERICK WILLIAM MAITLAND A Biographical Sketch Cambridge University Press London: FETTER LANE, E.C. C. F. Clay, Manager [Illustration] Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street Berlin: A. Asher and Co. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons Bombay and Calcutta: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. _All rights reserved_ [Illustration: Photogravure by Annan & Sons Glasgow] [Illustration: ~Yours very truly F. W. Maitland~] FREDERICK WILLIAM MAITLAND Downing Professor of the Laws of England A Biographical Sketch by H. A. L. FISHER Cambridge: at the University Press 1910 Cambridge: Printed by John Clay, M.A. At the University Press PREFATORY NOTE Whatever merit this Memoir may possess it owes to Maitland and to the circle of those who cherish his memory. My own disabilities will be made plain to the reader, but, lest he entertain false expectations, let me explain at the outset that I was educated neither at Eton, nor at Cambridge, nor at Lincoln's Inn, that I am no lawyer, and that I have never received a formal education in the law. Finally, I did not make Maitland's acquaintance till he was in his thirty-seventh year. These are grave shortcomings, and if I do not rehearse the long roll of benefactors who have helped me to repair them, let it not be imputed to a failure in gratitude. I cannot, however, forbear from mentioning five names. Before these sheets went to Press they were read by Mrs Maitland, by Mrs Reynell, by Dr Henry Jackson, by Dr A. W. Verrall and by Professor Vinogradoff. To their intimate knowledge and weighty counsels I owe a deliverance from many errors. Dr Jackson has generously laid upon himself the additional burden of helping me to see the volume through the Press. H. A. L. FISHER. _May 1910._ FREDERIC WILLIAM MAITLAND I.