Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 32/In Memoriam, Sir William Maxwell
IN MEMORIAM.
Sir W. E. Maxwell, K. C. M. G.
Since its foundation in 1877, the Society has never sustained such a severe loss as that caused by the death of Sir William Maxwell, late governor of the Gold Coast.
Of his distinguished official career in this colony a very brief sketch will here suffice. From 1855 to 1869, he was employed in the Supreme Court, his father, Sir P. Benson Maxwell, being Chief Justice of the Colony. In 1867 he qualified as an advocate of the local bar, and for some years was a magistrate and commissioner of the Court of Request, acting for a short time As a judge of the Supreme Court of Penang. His legal attainments were of a high order, and qualified him to take the important part he did in the work of legislation, especially with regard to the Land question, to which he devoted his great abilities.
Appointed in 1874 Assistant Government Agent, Province Wellesley, he had his first opportunity of improving District administration. In the following year the Perak war took place, Mr. Maxwell serving as District commissioner with the Larut field force and being specially mentioned in despatches and receiving the Perak Medal. In 1878 he was appointed Assistant Resident, Perak, and it was during this period he gained his intimate knowledge of the Malays of the country—their language and folklore. In 1881 he was called to the bar (Inner Temple), and for some years after this, as Commissioner of land titles, he devoted himself to improving the land system in the Colony. The debates in the Legislative Council of this period and Reports on the Land Question shew what a complete mastery he had of the intricacies of land administration and legislation. In spite of determined opposition, he was able to carry out his policy, the good effects of which must now be admitted by his former critics. To him is due the system of District Administration which, started first in the Colony, has been reproduced with such success in the Federated Malay States. After acting 88 Resident Councillor, Penang, from 1884 to 1889, Mr. Maxwell (who for his services in connection with the Nisero affair had been created a C. M. G.) was appointed in 1889 British Resident, Selangor, and in 1892 Colonial Secretary, S. S. After administering the Government here for some months, he was appointed Governor of the Gold Coast, where, after distinguished services in the Ashanti Expedition, he was made a K. C. M. G. His iron constitution was not proof against the deadly climate of the Coast, and he was cut off in the prime of life. The news of his death came as a great shock to his many friends in the Straits.
During his long career in the Colony and in the Native States, Sir W. Maxwell enjoyed exceptional opportunities of acquiring large stores of information on subjects of special interest to the Society. Of these opportunities he readily availed himself. A facile writer, his pen was never idle, and the hours which he could snatch from his all-absorbing official duties were devoted to literary work. His first contribution to the Society's journal was a paper on Malay Proverbs, written when he was Assistant Resident of Perak, and read at a meeting of the Society in May 1878. The second number of the Journal contained a further paper on the same subject, as well as "Notes on two Perak MSS." To the third number he contributed more work on Malay Proverbs, and on the Sakais and other aboriginal tribes of Perak, Soon after this, Sir W. Maxwell went home on leave; and his next contribution is to be found in the ninth number of the Society's Journal, which contains a most interesting paper, historical and geographical, entitled, "A journey on foot to the Patani Frontier in 1876" (67 pages), and another on the "History of Perak from native sources."
In 1883 he was unanimously elected to the honorary Secretaryship of the Society, and continued to hold that office till 1887, when, owing to absence from Singapore, he asked to be relieved of the arduous duties which it involved. During this period the Society owed its existence in a great measure to the energy of its Secretary, as it received but scanty support in the way of contributions from members. Sir William contributed papers on "The Dutch in Perak," on more "Malay Proverbs," and on "Shamanism in Perak," and on "The Laws and Customs of the Malays with reference to the Tenure of Land." He also edited three Malay Fairy Tales, "Sri Rama," "Raja Donan," and "Raja Ambong," taken down by him from the lips of Malay rhapsodists, and published with a translation and with notes from his pen. In 1893 he was elected Vice President of the Society, and his official duties as Colonial Secretary from this time forward prevented his contributing to the Journal, though he continued to take the liveliest interest in the Society's work, and was able in many ways to give it material assistance.
The work he did for the Society is not, however, to be only judged by what he did under its auspices and in its name. He contributed to the Royal Asiatic Society's journal some interesting notes on Malay legends, and he wrote a Manual of the Malay Language which has done much to facilitate a scholarly acquisition of the idioms in which he took so deep an interest. He was in some measure acquainted with Arabic and Sanskrit, but will best be remembered for his work in connection with the indigenous elements of the Malay Language, its traditions and folk-lore. He collected a fine library of Malay MSS., which he has bequeathed to the Royal Asiatic Society. A great. advocate of scholarly method, he did much to draw attention to the material that exists, in Dutch and other foreign languages, for the proper study of Malay. Indeed it was his view that an intending student of Malay should commence by learning Dutch; and there is no doubt that, with our limited literature on local subjects, his advice is worthy of consideration. That he was much influenced by Dutch scholars is often clearly traceable in his writings; and he had frequently to fight single-handed in defence of views which anyone acquainted with Dutch studies en the subjects would have at once admitted to be sound.
It is most difficult to exactly measure the extent of Sir William Maxwell's influence, as a scholar, upon his contemporaries and successors. He is constantly referred to by Dutch writers, and (except on one point) always with authority. His work on Malay Proverbs drew attention to the possibilities of a most interesting study, and led to the publication of at least one other valuable contribution on the same subject, from the pen of Mr. H. Clifford. His edition of Malay Rhapsodist tales also attracted the notice of scholars to a literature which, being unwritten, is all the more likely to perish. It is noticeable in this respect that the fourth tale alluded to by Sir W. Maxwell, but never published by him, has been placed on record by Mr. Clifford, and published by the Society. It is however by his "Manual" that he is likely to have exercised bis widest influence, in that he introduces every learner of Malay to a scholarly appreciation of Malay style and language, when all the learner's surroundings tend to degrade that language in his eyes. In his inaugural address on the foundation of the Straits Asiatic Society, the President, speaking of Logan's Journal, remarked that the weak point in that brave attempt was that the Editor was alone responsible for the management of his Journal, and that he was forced to give up, for want of sufficient co-operation, a work which was beyond the power of a single man to sustain. Is this to be true of the work of the Straits Asiatic Society? The President expressed a hope that the work of a Society might possess more permanence than that of an individual. "Individuals," said he, "are removed, but others remain." Nevertheless bearing in mind the limited range of interest in the Society's work, and the difficulty of securing contributors, any one who has been familiar with the Society's history from the first must feel how much depends on one man, and how much must have fallen on Sir William Maxwell in the past. The work done has been in a great measure his own work; and although there is fortunately no need to anticipate any abandonment of the aims which he did so much to forward, it is impossible either to minimize the extent of the Society's loss, or to believe that without increased effort on the part of members it will be possible to maintain in future numbers of the Journal the standard which the late Sir William Maxwell set.