26 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



the phrase ''justices of labourers,"^ — even as late as the 

 middle of the fifteenth century — , that seems unintelligible 

 except on the hypothesis of a recurrence to the practice 

 of the division of the work of a joint commission ; "^ pos- 

 sibly the provision in Elizabeth's labour law for a special 

 salary for justices of the peace while executing the act^ 

 is a survival of the old difTerentiation of functions. 



(3) Method of appointment a7id removal. — The rela- 

 tion of the justices of labourers to the keepers of the 

 peace made it inevitable that the two sets of officials 

 should be appointed by similar methods. By the middle 

 of the fourteenth century, the crown, that is the king 

 and his permanent council, had made good its authority 

 to assign the keepers, but subject to continual efforts on 

 the part of parliament to assert its rights in the matter. * 

 The struggle lasted during the rest of Edward's reign, in 

 regard to both the justices of labourers and the keepers 

 of the peace, and was not permanently settled in favour of 

 the crown until late in the next reign. ' For the decade 

 under consideration three out of the five parliaments of 

 which there are printed records^ contain petitions on the 

 subject. During the second parliament of the 25th year 

 there are complaints as to the execution of laws in gen- 



*See my article, 530. 



* Especially is this true in regard to the petitions in the Good Parlia- 

 ment on the labour legislation; Rot. Pari., ii, 340-341, " Bille des 

 Laboriers." 



^Statutes, 5 Eliz., c. 4, s. xxxi. 



* Beard, op. cit., 42-44. For an account of the occasional election of 

 the " conservatores pacis " in the county court at an earlier date, see 

 ibid., 23-32. 



^ Ibid., 42, note 4, refers to a petition of the third year of R. II as the 

 last on the subject; but there is even a later one in the fourteenth year. 

 Rot. Pari., iii, 279a and b. 



*See app., 8, for a list of parliaments during the decade. 



