{IN MEMORIAM. 
SiR. W. H. 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 Max- 
well, 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 attain- 
ments 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 abil- 
ities, 
Appointed in 1874 Assistant Government Agent, Province 
Wellesley, he had his first opportunity of improving District ad- 
ministration. 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 re- 
ceiving the Perak Medal. In 1878 he was appointed Assistant 
Resident, Perak, and it was during this period he gained his inti- 
mate 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 
