Frederick William Maitland

I only saw Thayer for a few hours, but I feel his death as the death of a friend. The loss must be deeply felt at Harvard.

To Henry JacksonDowning.6 July, 1902.

You repay me my letter with usurious interest. However you are sui juris– or ought I to say tui? – and I doubt a court of equity would extend to you the protection which it bestows on improvident young gentlemen.

No I had nothing to write of Acton. A few memorable talks on Sunday afternoons were all I had. To my great regret I did not hear the first of the Eranus papers… What the literary Nachlass is like I cannot tell and am not likely to know. I saw the notes for an introductory chapter29 confided to Figgis. They seemed to me to be quite useless in the hands of anyone save him who made them. They struck me as very sad: the notes of a man who could not bring to the birth the multitude of thoughts that were crowding in his mind.

Have you seen Sidgwick's small book on philosophy? I think it in some respects the most Sidgwickian thing that is in print. I can hear most of it – some of it from the hearth-rug or at the Eranus.

I think that the K.C.B. came to Stephen just at the right moment and that he is really pleased by it. About his condition I don't know the exact truth. The good thing is that there is little discomfort. He is writing Ford Lectures for Oxford, but says that he will not be able to deliver them. Have you seen in his George Eliot the remark about Edmund Gurney? "I have always fancied – though without any evidence, that some touches in Deronda were drawn from one of her friends, Edmund Gurney a man of remarkable charm of character and as good-looking as Deronda" (p. 191). What think you?

To Henry Jackson20 December, 1902.

Muy Señor mio

Deseo que pase Vd. bien las Pascuas y que tenga feliz año nuevo

Quedo de Vd. atento y Seguro

Servidor que besa su mano

F. W. Maitland.

From an exercise on the use of the subjunctive. Beyond this point my Spanish will not carry me. Compulsory Greek, acting on a fine natural stupidity, deprived me early of all power of learning languages. I envy my children who chatter to the servants in what is good enough Canario, though I doubt it being Castilian. My voyage was abominable. I am driven into the second class. I like second class men (not women): they are often very interesting people who have seen odd things and been in strange places – but a cabin close to the screw is bad and sleep was out of the question. Two lines of F. Myers (have I got them rightly) got into my head and set themselves to the accompanying noises: – "doubting if any recompense hereafter waits to atone the intolerable wrong?" But this was faithlessness – it is all atoned by a few hours of this glorious sunshine. Already I am regenerate and a new man… Do you know Paul Bourget's L'Étape? It is not great but it served to kill some bad hours. And do you know Huysman? He looks to me like a debauchee who has turned himself into a ritualistic curate and is very sweet upon his highly artificial style. I am now tackling Gil Blas in the classical Spanish translation which some say is better than the original.

My house of call is Quiney's but I am up country at a place called Tafira.

To Frederick PollockCasa Verda,Tafira.17 Jan. 1903.

Your letter about Paris is to hand. Well I envy you. Yours are the joys that I should have liked if I had my choice – but I must not complain, for I am having a superlatively good time. I don't exactly know why it is but the sun makes all the difference to me – I live here and don't live in England. I am even beginning to boast of my powers as a hill rider: but if ever I come here again I shall bring a machine with a very low gear and a free wheel: that is what you want if you live half way up a road that rises pretty steadily for 21 kilometres to 2600 feet. My friend Bennett who has vast experience recommends a gear of 50 for such work.

Meanwhile I push on with the Year Books. My first volume is done in the rough and a good piece is in print. Being away from books I become intrigued in small verbal problems. Am now observing the liberal use of the verb lier. In French you (an advocate) are said to lier the seisin, or the esplees, or the like, in this person or that. When translating I naturally write "lay," and I have a suspicion that the "to lay" of our legal vocabulary (e.g. to lay these damages) really descends from lier – que piensa Vd? That is the sort of triviality that occupies my mind: – however I am meditating a final say about the personality of states and corporations. Why not bring over Salmond to succeed you at Oxford? He is a good man. Local politics are interesting. I think that when Gladstone was in power he never was subjected to such continuous assaults as are directed against the Alcalde of Las Palmas by the organ of opinion that I patronize. Drought and flood, mud and dust, smallpox and measles are all from him, he fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies. But I should like to hear the lectures that you make for los Yanquis (N.B. in a Spanish mouth Americano is apt to mean a Spanish speaking man – and Yanqui is not uncivilly meant).

Much rain has fallen – but a road recovers from the most appalling mud in a very few hours.

To Leslie StephenCasa Verda,Tafira.17 Jan. 1903.

The news that we get of you out here is satisfactory rather than satisfying – I mean that we have heard little, but it was all to the good. The last intelligence takes you back to your home and I feel good reason for hoping that long before now you have become reasonably comfortable. What I wish you know.

All here goes well. I am having a supremely good time – the only pains are those given by my conscience or by the voice that exists where my conscience should be – but the remedies for moral twinges are not difficult to come by in this world of sin – which also is (locally) a world of corrupting sunshine.

I brought with me this time all the three supplementary volumes of Dict. Natl. Biog. I stare at them and wonder how anybody can have the energy to make such things. Even novels strike me as laborious productions when the sun is at its best.

We have been having rain: and when it rains here you find that the roof of your house has been surprised by the performance. I am now engaged in drying a boxful of copied Year Book which unfortunately was left beneath a weak point in the ceiling. Is it "ceiling" by the way? I don't know, and while I am in the garden the dictionary is in the house and I don't care a perrita (primarily little bitch but also a five centimo piece) how this or any other word spells itself; and all this I ascribe to the sun.

It will be a good day when I get a postcard signed L. S. – but don't be in a hurry to send one before the spirit moves you.

Back at Hobbes again? I hope so. Florence joins me in hopes – as you can well suppose.

Yours very affectionately,F. W. Maitland.To Henry JacksonTafira,Las Palmas.14 February, 1903.

We have been having bad news of sorts from home and this has spoilt what would otherwise have been a pleasant time, for though we have had heavy rain – even snow on the hill tops – we keep a really working sun that is up to a sun's business and converts the most appalling mud into dust in the space of a few hours. Until just lately I have been wondrous well. My amusement I have taken in the shape of lessons in Spanish from the hostess of the village inn. She prides herself on not talking like the other folk of Tafira – but asked me whether Perez Galdos wrote Gil Blas. P. G. is by birth a Canario and mighty proud they are of him here. Every little town has a street named after him. To my mind he is a most unequal storyteller – sometimes very good, at others dull.

To Frederick PollockTafira.14 March, 1903.

… Did I tell you that a while ago I was informed that I had been elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn (with the "usual fees" forgiven). The news made my hair stand on end – one of the vacant bishoprics would have been less of a surprise.

To A. W. VerrallQuiney's Hotel,Las Palmas.14 Feb. 1903.

Until just this week I have been doing wonderfully well. Now the messenger of Satan has returned to buffet me and abate my pride. So the cycle has to rest; but I am hopeful that the visitation may be short – it ought to be if the climate has anything to do with the matter, for after some rainy weeks we are on the sun again. El Señor Cura "clapped in the prayer for rain" so very effectually that he had to protest before all saints that he had not meant quite so much as all that. Rainmaking is still one of the chief duties of the priesthood in such a country as this.

The proposal made by "the minister" and mentioned by you was rejected by return of post30. There were seven or eight good causes for the refusal – all of which will at once occur to your l'dship except perhaps one which I will tell you. My present place has been made extremely easy to me by the very great kindness of such colleagues as it has happened to few to have. Even if I had been a historian and an able-bodied man I should have thought many times before I changed my estate. – And what you say of the crowd at Bury's first lecture – I thought the appointment very good – confirms my view. The Regius Professor of Modern History is expected to speak to the world at large and even if I had anything to say to the W. at L. I don't think that I should like full houses and the limelight. So I go back to the Year Books. Really they are astonishing. I copy and translate for some hours every day and shall only have scratched the surface if I live to the age of Methusalem – but if I last a year or two longer I shall be a "dab" at real actions. It was a wonderful game as intricate as chess and not like chess cosmopolitan. Unravelling it is an amusement not unlike that of turning the insides out of ancient comedies I guess.

To W. W. BucklandTelde.14 Feb. 1903.

Muy estimado colega y querido amigo mío

Espero que Vd no ha olvidado lo que ha aprendido de la lengua castillana cuando estaba en Gran Canaria el año próximo pasado. Por tanto me esforzaré escribir una carta en aquel lenguaje aunque no puedo expresar mis pensamientos sin muchas disparates ridiculosas que quizas Vd perdonará.

Mientras las primeras semanas de mia estancia en Tafira hacia buen tiempo y D. Benito del Colegio de Manuel y yo dabamos algunos largos paseos en nuestras bicicletas. Despues de su partida en Enero llovía muchas veces y se ha visto nieve en las cumbres. Los barrancos fueron llenos de agua y le agua se introdujó por el tejado de nuestra casa. El fango me recordaba el viaje que hicimos en Marzo de Galdar á Telde. No mé gustaba el frio y no estoy tan bién que estaba hace poco tiempo. Mi antiguo enemigo me amenaza pero espero que le venceré. De consiguiente no he ido á Telde; pero espero ir luego, y si fuere buscaré á Santiago su criado de Vd y le daré el duro que mi dió para él. La viruela todavia se enfurece en Telde y en las Palmas tambien.

Todos sus amigos de Vd estan muy bien pero un señor cuyo nombre no mencionaré estaba fuertemente ébrio cuando le ví la ultima vez…

Quiero leer el libro de Sen. X aunque no sé si le podré entender. Es un hombre docto, doctísimo pero stogioso – esta ultima no puedo deletrear.

Estas pocas palabras son una recompensa muy ligera por su carta de Vd que me interesó mucho y por que estoy muy agradecido pero he tornado un largo tiempo escribiendolas. Si pudiere31 escribir mas facilmente le contaría a Vd todos los sucesos que han acontecido en Gran Canaria. Pero es preciso acabar.

Con muchas memoriasQuedo su afectuoso amigoF. W. Maitland.

Al muy excelente

Sen. D. G. G. Buckland.

To John C. GrayDowning College,Cambridge.4 Oct. 1903.

I should like to take this opportunity of asking you a question which you will be able to answer very easily. In 1862 our Parliament made it possible for any seven or more persons associated for any lawful purpose to form themselves into a corporation. But this provision was accompanied by a prohibition. For the future the formation of large partnerships (of more than 20 persons) was forbidden. In effect the legislature said that every big association having for its object the acquisition of gain must be a corporation. Thereby the formation of "unincorporated joint stock companies" was stopped. I may say in passing that now-a-days few Englishmen are aware of the existence of this prohibitory law because the corporate form has proved itself to be very much more convenient than the unincorporate. Now what I should like to know is whether when in your States the time came for general corporation laws there was any parallel legislation against unincorporated companies. I have some of your American books on Corporations and I gather from them that the repressive or prohibitory side of our Companies Act is not represented among you. But am I right in drawing this inference, and (if so) should I also be right in supposing that you would see constitutional objections to such a rule as that of which I am speaking: i.e. a rule prohibiting the formation of large partnerships or unincorporated joint-stock companies? A friend in New York supplied me with some very interesting trust deeds which in effect seemed to create companies of this sort. Should I then be right in supposing that in the U.S.A. the unincorporate company lived on beside the new trading corporation?

I am endeavouring to explain in a German journal how our law (or equity) of trusts enabled us to keep alive "unincorporate bodies" which elsewhere must have perished. Of course I must not speak of America. Still I should like to know in a general way whether the development of the "unincorporated company" which we repressed in 1862 was similarly repressed in the States, and a word or two from you about this matter would be most thankfully received.

By the way – and here I enter your own particular close – I observed that those New York deeds were careful to confine the trust within the limits of the perpetuity rule. Is it settled American law that this is necessary? We explain our clubs by saying that as the whole equitable ownership is vested in the original members there can be no talk of perpetuity – and I believe that there are some extremely important unincorporated companies with transferable shares (formed before 1862 – in particular the London Stock Exchange) which are built up on this theory: the theory is that the original shareholders were in equity absolute masters of the land, buildings, etc. Does that commend itself to you?

There! you see what comes of writing to me! A whole catechism! Please think no more of it unless a very few words would set my feet in the straight road.

Most of my time is being given to the Year Books. The first volume is with the binder.

I often look back with great pleasure to the few hours that you and Mrs Gray spent with us in Gloucestershire. Would that I could see you again, but all my journeys have to be to the Canaries.

To John C. GrayDowning College,Cambridge.15 Nov. 1903.

Your very kind letter of the 4th is exactly what I wanted. But surely there is nothing "odd" in my asking you questions which you of living men can answer best. It would be odd if I went elsewhere.

The brief in Howe v. Morse is extremely interesting. I think that an English Court would take your view in such a case, but when it comes to questions about legacies our judges sometimes say things which stray from the path of rectitude as drawn by Prof. Gray.

I have been trying all this summer to finish an essay designed to explain to Germans the nature of a trust, and especially the manner in which the trust enabled us to keep alive all sorts of "bodies" which were not technically corporate. I am obliged now to flee to the Canaries leaving this unfinished, for a particularly fraudulent summer has made me very useless. Some one ought to explain our trust to the world at large, for I am inclined to think that the construction thereof is the greatest feat that men of our race have performed in the field of jurisprudence. Whether I shall be able to do this remains to be seen – but it ought to be done.

To Leslie StephenLeon y Castillo 5,Telde,Gran Canaria.6 Dec. 1903.

I fear that I must not carry my good wishes beyond the point of hoping that the improvement that I saw last time I visited you has gone further and that at any rate you are easy and free from pain. I have just had a week in this island. Part of it I spent foolishly in bed but now I am in a delightful atmosphere and have been thoroughly enjoying your Hobbes. It is worthy of you, and you know what I mean when I say that. I have been all through it once and have corrected most of the typists errors. A few little points must stand over until I can command the whole of the "Works" (I only brought two volumes with me) but they are not of such a kind as would prevent the copy going to the printers, and I propose to send it to them very soon, for they will let me keep the stuff in type until I am again in England. The difficulties to which I refer are words occurring in your quotations from Hobbes – just here and there your writing beats me, but a few minutes with Molesworth will settle the matter…

I think I told you that in my estimate you have written, more rather than less, your due tale of words. I shall add nothing save some tag which will serve as a substitute for the missing end of the final paragraph (said tag I may be able to submit to you) and I shall omit nothing save trifles unless the publishers insist.

I have been speculating as to what T. H. would have said had he lived until 1688. If it becomes clear that your "sovereign" is going to acknowledge the pope's claims, this of course is no breach of any contract between ruler and ruled (for there is no such contract) but is there not an abdication? Putting theory out of the question, which would the old gentleman have disliked most, Revolution against Leviathan, or a Leviathan with the Roman fisherman's hook in his nose?

Well he was a delightful old person and deserved the expositor whom he has found.

To Henry JacksonLeon y Castillo 5,Telde,Gran Canaria.13 December, 1903.

This may – I cannot be sure that it will – be in time to salute you on Christmas day. Posts are irregular and nine miles of bad road separate us from Las Palmas. So, not being able as yet to cycle to our ciudad, I shall just drop this into the village letter box and trust that it may reach you some day.

I had the good luck to find the Bay of Biscay reflecting a really warm sun and very soon I could hardly believe that so grey a place as Cambridge existed. I arrived here at the end of a prolonged drought and the good folk of Telde "clapped on the prayer for rain": or rather they did much more; they carried round the town a milagroso Cristo whom they keep for great occasions. I am not sure that the priest let him go his rounds until he, the priest, saw that the clouds were collecting thick over the mountains. Anyhow the rain came at once, to the great edification of the faithful. Since then we have celebrated the Immaculate Conception. It is very queer how events get turned into persons. The Conception became a person for the people. I think that the historian of myths would learn a good deal here. Just lately I discovered – it was no great discovery – that the pet name "Concha" is the short for Concepcion, as Lola is the short for Dolores. My protestant mind has been a little shocked by a female form of Jesus, namely "Jesusa."

I am living in hope that Pollock's successor at Oxford may be Vinogradoff. I wish much that we had him at Cambridge.

I am curious to hear any news that there may be concerning the deliberations of the great syndicate. I suppose that something will be known before I return to Cambridge – if ever I return. I say "if ever" for I am always thinking of resignation. Out here I can do a great deal with photographed manuscripts and so on, whereas in England I get nothing done.

You I suppose are deep in "Josephism" – by the way has anybody endeavoured to transfer that term from a manner of treating the church to Mr C.'s fiscal policy? My latest newspaper gives the Duke's oration – how very good our Chancellor can be! – but no doubt that is with you a very ancient history32. My own impression when I left England was that the crusade was failing.

To Henry JacksonLeon y Castillo 5,Telde,Gran Canaria.14 Feb. 1904.

No, you draw a wrong inference from my silence. When I am hurt I cry. When I am not crying I am happy. In this instance I have been very happy indeed and so busy that I have taken six weeks over a novel, and am once more developing a corn on my little finger by copying… All that you tell me of the Studies Syndicate is extremely interesting – you may rely upon my discretion, for as you remark there is nobody to whom I could babble – even La Manana which is often hard up for news would I fear give me nothing for secret intelligence concerning the S.S.

Writing those initials made me think of your Eranus. I wish that I had heard you. I think that I might have been able to add an ancient story or two. I think that I once told you how the "to wit" placed after the name of a county at the beginning of a legal record (e.g. Cambridgeshire, to wit, A.B. complains that C. D. etc.) represents a mere flourish ʃ dividing the name of the county from the beginning of the story. This was mistaken for a long S which was supposed to be the abbreviation of scilicet. The Spaniards are fond of using mere initials: after a dead person's name you can put q.d.h.e.g. = que Dios haya en gloria. The case that amuses me most is that you can speak of the Host as S.D.M. (his divine majesty – just like H.R.H.). One day in Las Palmas I had to spring from my bicycle and kneel in the road because S.D.M. was coming along. But I have just had my revenge. I have been mistaken for S.D.M. They ring a little bell in front of him. I rarely ring my bicycle bell because I don't think it a civil thing to do in a land where cycles are very rare. However the other day I was almost upon the backs of two men, so I rang. They started round and at the same time instinctively raised their hats – and instead of S.D.M. there was only an hereje.

To be sure those letters of Acton's are thrilling. I saw them out here last year. Mrs Drew wanted me to edit them. I declined the task, after talking to Leslie Stephen. Obviously I was not the right man. I am boundlessly ignorant of contemporary history and could not in the least tell what would give undeserved and unnecessary pain. On the other hand I should think that H. Paul was the right man for the job.

… I hope that Vol. III is doing well, though I foresee that I shall be slated in all quarters. Acton was an adroit flatterer and induced me to put my hand far into a very nest of hornets.

To A. W. VerrallC/o Leacock & Co.Funchal,Madeira.15 Jan. 1905.

It is good to see your hand and kind of you to write to me, especially as I fear that writing is not so easy to you as it once was. I do very earnestly hope that things go fairly well with you and that you have not much pain. Yesterday I was thinking a lot of your courage and my cowardice for I took an off day – off from the biography I mean – and attained an altitude of (say) 5250 feet (a cog-wheel railway saving me 2000 thereof, however) and I was bounding about up there like a kid of the goats – and very base I thought myself not to be lecturing. There is not much left of me avoirdupoisly speaking; but that little bounds along when it has had a good sunning; and to-day I have a rubbed heel and a permanent thirst as in the good old days. Missing a train on said railway I made the last part of the descent in the special Madeira fashion on a sledge glissading down over polished cobble stone pavement – a youth running behind to hold the thing back by a rope: it gives the unaccustomed a pretty little squirm at starting. Up in the hills it is a pleasant world – you pass through many different zones of vegetation very rapidly – at one moment all is laurel and heath – you cross a well-marked line and all is tilling – then you are out among dead bracken on an open hill-top that might be English. Get on a sledge and wiss (or is it wiz?) you go down to the sugar and bananas through bignonia and bougainvillia which blind you by their ferocity.

To Henry JacksonLeon y Castillo, 5,Telde,Gran Canaria.15 January, 1906.

I have your second letter, not your first. The first may be lying in the Hotel at Las Palmas and I must attempt to get it. This year it is difficult to communicate with the "ciudad" for there has been a prolonged drought and the roads – but did you ever try cycling across a ploughed field? Moreover people here are lazy and casual and the semi-hispanised English people who keep the English hotels are perhaps more casual than the true Jack Spaniards. Well, I must get that letter, for which I thank in advance, even if it costs me a day's labour and some strong language. Meanwhile I will talk of canary birds. The birds are named after our islands. What our islands are named after, nobody, so I am told, knows for certain. Whether the birds are found wild in all the seven islands I don't know. Certainly there are many in Gran Canaria. Also there are many in Madeira. The wild canary is, I believe, always a dusky little chap, brown and green. The sulphur coloured or canary-coloured canary is, I am told, a work of art, and I have heard say that he was made at Norwich: by "made" of course I mean bred by human selection. The most highly priced canaries are, I believe, made in Germany. I have known two guineas asked for a "Hartz Mountain Canary": it sang pp. like a very sweet musical box. On the other hand, wild canaries are cheap here, especially if you go up country and buy of the boys who catch them. My wife quotes as a fair range of price half a peseta to a peseta and a half. The peseta ought to be equivalent to the franc but is much depreciated. So let us say that a bird can be had for a shilling. My wife adds that she would be very happy to import birds for your daughter – and this is not a civil phrase but gospel truth: she is never happier than when she is acquiring pets as principal or agent: – so it is, and I can't help it. I like the song of these dusky birds: it is not nearly so piercing as that of the Norwich variety. I daresay that I have told you some untruths in this ornithological excursus – but at any rate I make no mistake about the price of wild birds or about my wife's willingness – I might say eagerness – to transact business.