68 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



constables, that no further process is recorded, but that 

 /Ims or Jin em fecit is entered over each name in the list.' 

 Probably the lack of further details is due merely to in- 

 adequate notes on the part of the clerk; it seems pos- 

 sible, however, that the early procedure of the old local 

 courts was still in use, and that the presentments instead 

 of being traversable are treated as conclusive proof of 

 guilt/ By far the more usual method is the one now to 

 be described. Occasionally, without further measures on 

 the part of the justices, the indicted appear of their own 

 accord; 3 but normally the justices issue a writ of at- 

 tachies to the sheriff, ordering him to produce the in- 

 dicted on a given day.-* The sherifif then reports, often 

 according to the return of the bailiff of a hundred or of 

 a liberty, 5 that the individuals mentioned in the list given 

 to him are attached by pledges, or that they have noth- 

 ing by which they can be attached.^ In the first case the 

 indicted when summoned are to appear in the charge of 

 the sheriff, and their examination can begin ; ^ if they do 

 not appear when summoned, their pledges are in mercy, ^ 

 and the justices issue a writ of capias to the sheriff, re- 

 turnable at a later day, ordering him to produce both 

 this latter set of indicted, as well as those before men- 

 tioned who had no property by which they could be 



'145-148; 198; 22},. 



"^Cf. Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eiig. Law, ii, 652-653. There are 

 equally clear cases where a constable's presentment is treated as an in- 

 dictment; 201. 



•'' 182. 



* 152; sometimes the writ is a " venire facias," and in connection with 

 offences against the weights' and measures' legislation a writ of "dis- 

 tringas " is usual. 



''153, and 175. 



"153; 175- '152; 162. 8158. 



