12 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



of which certainly included jurisdiction both for the pre- 

 servation of the peace and under the ordinance of labour- 

 ers. For the same period there are a number of separate 

 commissions of the peace/ so that evidently neither sys- 

 tem had become fixed. 



The experimental character of these first attempts at 

 enforcement is shown by the varying forms of the above 

 commissions. That for Durham is sui generis, couched 

 in vague terms, scarcely intelligible, but for the marginal 

 heading; the joint commission'' includes eight important 

 clauses: i. The preservation of the peace under the 

 statutes of Winchester and Northampton. 2. Powers of 

 array. 3. Inquiry by sworn inquest as to the violence 

 committed by vast multitudes of malefactors. 4. Inquiry 

 as to labourers who had received excess wages contrary 

 to the ordinance. 5. Inquiry as to misappropriation by 

 local officials, baililTs, etc., of the penalties imposed on 

 such labourers. 6. Inquiry as to similar misappropria- 

 tion by the subsidy collectors. ^ 7. Punishment of 

 offences against any portion of the ordinance. 8. Power 

 of two of the commission to hear and determine cases of 

 homicide and felony.* The commission for Lancaster 

 omits clauses i, 2, and 8, but contains an almost exact 

 duplicate of the remainder of the joint commission, with 

 merely slight verbal variations in clause 3. The form of 

 the commissions for Lindsey and Suffolk is, however, 



^Pat., 23, pt. 2, m. 27 d, Cal., viii, 382-383; 24, pt. i. m. 38 d, Cal., 

 S16. 



'"Joint commission"' is used throughout to describe commissions 

 having jurisdiction over both the preservation of the peace and the sta- 

 tutes of labourers. 



'For the duties of the collectors, cf. pt. i, ch. iii, s. i, A. 



*The usual instructions to the sheriff and the authority to hear and 

 determine unfinished indictments are not touched on in this analysis. 



