40 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



given date this total number of districts could not receive 

 distinct commissions, but it is evident from the chrono- 

 logical list of commissions that the entire country was 

 mapped out into subdivisions sufficiently small for efficient 

 administration. Since the statute had only provided for 

 the county as a district, it is possible that the king and 

 council had determined on the experiment of the smaller 

 districts in the belief that the justices of labourers would 

 thus be enabled to do their business more thoroughly. 

 The fact, however, that the majority of the subdivisions 

 are private franchises, lends colour to the theory, to be 

 discussed later,' that it was their owners who hoped to 

 gain by this practice of the appointment of special jus- 

 tices within their liberties. 



(5) Their oath of office. — The statutes of this decade 

 do not mention an oath of office, but the first parlia- 

 mentary petition having to do with the justices appointed 

 to enforce the labour legislation, presented in the session 

 of January, 1352, contains a reference to the justices as 

 sermentezj' The petition as a whole is refused and in the 

 printed rolls of parliament the question of the oath does 

 not again come up^ until, toward the very end of 

 Edward's reign, there is recorded the request that justices 

 of the peace, now justices of labourers also, soient ser- 

 mentez devant le Conseil le Roi en mesme la manere come 

 autres gentz sont.^ There is, therefore, considerable 

 doubt as to how the oath of office was administered dur- 

 ing these early years, as well as to the exact form which 



* Cf. supra, p. 39. '^Eot. Pari., ii, 238a and b. 



^ Unless the prayer that the justices " soient artez par notre dit Seignur 

 le Roi a pursuyr les Articles de lour Commission " indicates a demand 

 for an oath of office; J^ot. Pari., ii, 252b. For this same petition cf. 

 p. 27, note 3. 



^Poi. Pari., ii, 333a and b. 



