66 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



said nothing as to the procedure of the justices, the 

 statute had been specific : the justices are empowered 

 to swear in local officials, seneschals, bailiffs, and con- 

 stables, to enforce the legislation and to make reports at 

 quarter sessions; they are also empowered to hear and 

 determine all offences against the statutes brought to 

 their attention by the suits of plaintiffs and by present- 

 ments of juries, and, if necessary, to have recourse to the 

 process of exigend after the issue of the first writ of 

 capias? The last clause in their commissions informs 

 them that the sheriff has been instructed to summon 

 suitable juries at a time and place to be named by them.'^ 

 Accordingly, the first step taken by the justices in virtue 

 of the receipt of their letters patent, ^ is the issue of a 

 writ to the sheriff,^ bidding him summon to a definite 

 place, at an assigned date, a specific number — normally 

 twenty-four or twenty- — of honest and lawful men, usu- 



'App., 15. In this section, except when otherwise specified, the 

 references are to pages of the appendix. 



•^Unfortunately I have been unable to discover on what principle an 

 agreement was reached as to who of the commission were to do the 

 actual work {cf. pt. i, p. 35), nor do I know who administered the oath of 

 office to the justices, {cf. pt. i, p. 43), or how the letters patent were de- 

 livered to them. Many instances occur where the justices' excuse for 

 not acting has been the failure to receive the letters patent, an excuse 

 which seems always to have been accepted without further inquiry; cf. 

 e. g., pt. I, ch. iii, s. 2, A, and app., 282. In one of the commissions the 

 sheriff is ordered to read aloud the letters patent in the presence of the 

 justices; and on one occasion it appears that the justices had themselves 

 read their commissions to a full county court.; app., 28, and 367. 



'It has already been said that it was the clerk's custom to enroll at 

 the beginning of his record a copy of the letter patent and also the en- 

 suing writ to the sheriff; cf. s. 1, p. 61, and app., 161. 



*i73,j'8i. Less often 18, or 12; 184, note i, 204-205. "Knights " 

 are sometimes specified; 199, in one case the reeve and four men from 

 each " villa; " 161. 



