R eviews of Books FISH ER'S MAITLAND Frederick William Maitland. Downing Professor of the Laws of England: A Biographical Sketch. By R. A. L. Fisher. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York; Cambridge University Press. Pp. 179. (81.65
M; 5:. net.)
HE late Professor Maitland is per haps to be regarded the moving spirit of the nineteenth century, with respect to research in the field of Eng
lish legal history, for in this direction he went far beyond any previous historian of legal or political institutions, like Stubbs or Freeman, and his work was so truly an original and creative force that it must long continue to supply an
But the charm of the biography is its presentation not only of the mind, but of the man. Not only Maitland’s ideals, but his friendships, his kindness and his humor are exhibited, and this is done
largely by offering a judicious abundance of his personal letters, not one of which could well have been omitted. The essay is full of sane, discriminating appre ciation of a great scholar, who has done perhaps more than any one else to break
down the unnatural barrier between history and law, and to demonstrate the interdependence of the community and its legal institutions.
inspiration not wholly unlike that exer cised by the founder of a new school.
POPULAR LAW-MAKING The writer of this delightful biography, though not a lawyer, is a man of philo
sophic insight and historical learning, fully capable of appreciating the sig nificance of Maitland’s work and the rank which it will assign him among English historians. The book presents the inner workings of Maitland’s mind, and it is a biography in the highest sense of the word, that is to say, in the sense
of a portrayal of a man's intellectual and moral life. Maitland’s aspirations, his enthusiasms, his renunciations and his openmindedness are clearly revealed,
and we may see the steady and impres sive advance of that procession of dis coveries which started from the awaken ing of a heroic ambition, during that memorable interview in which Vino gradoff first suggested to the young
Cambridge scholar the wealth of un explored treasures which lay mouldering in undeciphered and uncopied mediaeval
parchments. Thus it is that the inner life of Maitland is uncovered, with some thing of Maitland’s own vividness of description.
Popular Law-Making: A Study of the Origin. History and Present Tendencies of Law-Making by Statute. By Frederic Jesup Stimson. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Pp. xii + 390. ($2.60.)
0 use the author's own words, his work is “not one for lawyers alone;
it seeks to cover both what has been ac complished by law-making in the past, and what is now being adopted or even proposed; the history of statutes of legislation by the people as distinct from ‘judge-made’ law; how far legislatures can cure the evils that confront the state
or the individual, and what the future of American legislation is likely to be." The author is especially qualified to write on his chosen subject, as is proved by the books he has already written on similar subjects.
In
1886, he wrote
"American Statute Law,” an analytical and compared digest of the constitu tions and civil public statutes of all the states and territories relating to persons and property. This was followed, in 1892, by a second volume relating to
general, business and private Corpora tions. In 1908 he wrote “The Law Of
