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THE GREEN BAG
for Trinity at that time offered a fellowship in moral science for open competition every three years, and owing to the rule of super annuation no one could compete for this more than once. Chance had brought to gether four such candidates as are rarely found in an university competition. Maitland, the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, Professor James Ward, and the late Bishop of South ampton (the Hon. A. T. Lyttleton). They were all destined to attain high distinction, and three of them were to remain in the university and eventually to secure the prize which at the moment could be allotted to only one. Sidgwick was the examiner and he has related the searchings of heart with which he tried to discern amid so much excellence the marks of superiority that might guide his choice. The lot fell upon Ward, and Maitland went on his appointed way, which was the study of the law at Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the Bar in due course, and practiced in London until 1884. During these years in London his profes sional engagements did not, it would seem, absorb all of his time and energy. As a practicing barrister indeed he had no suc cess, and his work consisted chiefly in "deviling" for other people. He achieved, however, a thorough mastery of the practice of the courts and the intricacies of convey ancing. The practical knowledge of the law which he obtained is, indeed, abun dantly proved by his subsequent teaching and the substantial services which, as counsel, he was able to render his college upon his return to Cambridge. But before the close of the period he was already ask ing himself questions about the history and growth of the common law. His attention was first drawn to this subject by another Trinity man, seven years his senior in academic standing, Sir Frederick Pollock, "from whom," he wrote in 1887, "I first learnt to find an interest in the history of law." The result of the interest so in spired is before the world to-day. It is no
exaggeration to say that it amounts to the creation of the history of English law. The material, indeed, existed in abundance, but it was scattered and uncriticized, and the existing commentaries from Lyttleton to Reeves afforded but meager help. The whole work of research and criticism had to be performed before the synthesis could be made, and that work Maitland did, almost single-handed, between the years 1884 and 1895. The first-fruits of these labors was the volume of Gloucester Pleas, a selec tion of cases heard in 1221 before the jus tices itinerant in the county where Maitland was himself a free-holder, and might in other ages have been bound to suit and service at the shire-court. Meanwhile a new career was preparing for him. Sidgwick had, it seems, from the first recognized the qualities of his pupil and desired to obtain his services for the University. In 1884, partly by his own generosity and partly by his influence in the University, Sidgwick secured the foun dation of a Readership in English Law which was offered to Maitland, as indeed it had been created for him. He seems to have come into residence in the autumn of 1884 — he certainly began to lecture early in 1885. From this time until his death there are but few events of general interest to record. His life is to be traced in his teaching and writing. In 1887, on the death of Birckbeck, the Downing professor of the Laws of England, Maitland was elected to that office, thereby becoming a member of the youngest of the Cambridge colleges. He went into residence in the pleasant house in Downing, where so many Americans in search of help or inspiration have been welcomed by him. As his work proceeded, without haste and without rest, recognition came abundantly from every quarter. The Universities of Oxford, Glasgow, and Cra cow conferred their doctorates upon him; the Royal Academies of Prussia and Bavaria elected him corresponding member; the
