MAYNARD, Sir JottN, 1602-90; b. at Tavistock, England; educated at Exeter col lege, Oxford. After the regular course of study in the Middle Temple he was called to the bar, having been made a member of parliament in the previous year, 1625. He was aubsequently made a sergeant-at-law and king's sergeant, but declined the place on the bench offered him by Charles II. in 1660. In a long political career, extending over 65 years, sir John was a witness of and prominent actor in the most eventful crises of English history. An urgent advocate of increasing the power of the people, he never -concurred in the extreme views taken by the radical republicans; an earnest Presby terian, he stood aloof from the absurd fanaticism of many in his party. He was active in the prosecution of Strafford and Laud, but strongly opposed the arbitrary power assumed by the army, and Cromwell's evident intention of making himself king in fact, if not iu name; and for the position he took in this respect was twice imprisoned by order of the protector in the tower of London. At the restoration the honor of knight hood was conferred upon him by Charles II.; and his political course under that mon
_arch was judicious and conservative. In the time of the revolution and the accession of William and Mary, he showed great ability, and notably in the great conference held between the house of lords and the commons in regard to the abdication of James II., a measure which he strenuously advocated. In the same year, 1689, he was made a com missioner of the great seal. Macaulay relates that when, at an interview with 1Villiam III., the king remarked to Maynard that he must have outlived all the lawyers of his tirne, sir John both wittily and truthfully replied, "Yes; and if your highness had not come to our assistance, I should have outlived the law, also." Both. as a statesman and as a lawyer and expounder of the true principles of the British constitution, :Maynard occupied a very high position among the many remarkable men of his age. A number of his political speeches and legal decisions have been collected and published.