28 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



Except for the 30th and 33rd years, parliament met every 

 year during this decade, but sat for only a few weeks at 

 a time. A glance at the dates of the appointments of 

 the justices of labourers shows that it had not yet be- 

 come the custom to issue a complete list annually ; ' in- 

 stead, it appears that for nearly every month of the year 

 some commission is issued, often for a district that has 

 received a previous one very recently, so that many 

 counties have as many as three commissions within 

 twelve months,' In addition, it is apparent that frequent 

 associations are made, — on ninety-nine occasions during 

 the decade, including usually one or two names, some- 

 times more, and thus making a fairly large total. ^ On 

 the one hand, it is significant that in several instances 

 full lists seem to have been the result of parliamentary 

 action. For example, the long list of 15 March, 1351, 

 or of 2 July, 1354,'* may easily have been discussed in the 

 sessions immediately preceding those dates ; ^ while the 

 list of 20 December, 1355, was also issued only a few 

 weeks after parliament had sat.* On the other hand, the 

 equally complete list of 5 February, 1357, is dated several 

 months before the session of that year, ^ at a time when 

 no parliament had met for over twelve months. 



'See the chronological list of appointments in app., B, 2. 



'This same statement is true of the keepers of the peace. 



'See app., 42, and B, 3, passim. The practice of associations was 

 evidently regarded as an evil and was forbidden in the next reign; 

 Statutes, 12 R. II, c. 10. 



* App., B, 2, contains the references to these and to the following lists. 



^The respective sessions had ended on i March and 20 May; the latter 

 had included the petition, part of which is quoted on p. 27 and part on 

 p. 50, and which may conceivably have had some influence. 



*The session had been from 12 to 30 Nov. 



'It began on 10 April. 



