38 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



The following sections are based chiefly on data de- 

 rived from an examination of the entire contents of these 

 eighteen rolls, and more especially from the extracts 

 selected for printing, the latter having been chosen with 

 a view to illustrate as far as possible every phase of the 

 work of the justices in session.' 



(i) Genei'al description of the sessions and of the ses- 

 sional records. — With characteristic administrative pre- 

 cision the statute^ had specified that the justices were to 

 hold their sessions four times a year, Lady-Day (25 

 March), St. Margaret's (20 July), Michaelmas (29 Septem- 

 ber), and St. Nicholas (6 December), and at any other 

 time at their " discretion." ^ This earliest regulation of 

 the dates of what may properly be called " quarter ses- 

 sions," framed for the joint commission of the peace and 

 for labourers,"* was held to apply also to the separate 

 commissions for labourers,-^ and until two years after the 

 consolidation of the commissions, — and, therefore, after 

 my decade, — was not modified by statute.*' Although 

 there was no enactment as to the length of the sessions, 

 the writs for payment of the salaries of the justices from 

 the very beginning assume forty days to be the normal 

 amount per year,^ but do not suggest that this maximum 

 is compulsory, or that it needed to be distributed equally 

 among the four sessions. A petition of 1354, requesting 

 that the justices sit at least forty days a year,^ implies 

 some shortcomings on their part, but the complaints do 



' App., C, I. 



■The ordinance had not mentioned sessions of justices. 



'App., 16. 



'CT. p. 9, note i, for reference to Lambard's error in this matter. 



'•Proved by the dates of the Cornwall sessions, app., 159-160. 



^Statutes, 36 Edw. Ill, st. i, c. 12. 'Pt. i, ch. i, s. 6. 



^Rot. Pari., ii, 257b-258a; cf. p. 27. 



