358 HENRY JAMES SUMNER MAINE. 



Maine was never a strong man. As a youth he was frequently ill. 

 His stay in India benefited him in respect to his health, and he was 

 stronger after his return. He was well enough, as a rule, to work 

 moderately hard, and to perform satisfactorily the duties of his various 

 appointments. But early in this year, 1888, he felt very feeble and 

 nervous, and decided to go to the South of France for a rest. On the 

 3d day of February, while he was at Cannes, he had a stroke of 

 apoplexy, and died in a few hours. He was buried at Cannes on 

 the 8th. 



Sir Henry Maine was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign 

 Associate of the Institute of France, being chosen in the place of 

 Emerson, and he was elected Foreign Honorary Member of this 

 Academy, November 14, 1866, in place of Whewell. 



Having reviewed the principal events of Maine's life, we must 

 now consider his life's work, its character and its value. The work 

 distributes itself into two departments, one of scholarship, and one of 

 statesmanship. Maine spent as much as half of his life's energy in 

 connection with the government of India. As legal member of the 

 Government Council, an office previously held by Macaulay and subse- 

 quently by Fitz James Stephen, Maine drafted many important stat- 

 utes. Among others, the Successions Act and the Marriage Act of 

 1865; the Companies Act of 1866; the General Clauses Act of 1868; 

 and the Divorce Act of 1869. These statutes, particularly the Suc- 

 cessions Act, are described as models of comprehensive thought and 

 direct expression. No one, however, not an expert in Indian affairs 

 can speak with authority regarding them. Nor is it possible for us to 

 estimate the value of Maine's work as adviser of the government in its 

 councils, commissions, and committees. We can only record what we 

 have heard from others who were associated with him. They speak of 

 him as a man of great good sense and wisdom, a man who kept his 

 temper under all circumstances, and a most pleasant man to be asso- 

 ciated with. 



We hear of certain complaints of office clerks, who say that Maine 

 was very unwilling to do routine work and shirked it when he could. 

 It is well that he did so. A man of Maine's mental power and ca- 

 pacity of understanding ought not to waste his energies in routine 

 work, which is mostly thoughtless work, when there are so many 

 people everywhere who are especially fitted for it. We must remem- 

 ber that Maine was not a strong man, physically ; he had to save his 

 strength as much as possible. Perhaps he was not a hard worker, in 

 the ordinary sense of the phrase ; but he was certainly a hard thinker. 



