-72 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



customary; this wages clause applies first to agricultural 

 labourers and servants, and second, to artisans.' 



4. Reasonable prices are to be charged for all victuals. 



5. Alms to the able-bodied are prohibited. 



The endeavor of the framers of the statute to be 

 specific and to provide for all possible contingencies 

 results in a rather confused medley of provisions, includ- 

 ing details of administrative method, out of which it is 

 not easy to distinguish the essentials. Leaving aside the 

 question of penalties and of their disposition,^ as well as 

 the instructions to the justices for their sessions and 

 their mode of procedure,^ the remaining clauses fall into 

 two main groups, namely, provisions to be observed by 

 the labouring classes and duties to be performed by 

 existing local officials and by the justices in supervision 

 of these officials. In the first group, concrete details 

 are added to the corresponding provisions of the ordin- 

 ance.* 



1. Agricultural labourers are described by their occu- 

 pations and their maximum legal wages specified ; their 

 contract of service is to be by the year or other usual 

 term and never by the day ; their service in summer must 

 be in the same place as in v/inter, with exceptions for 

 labourers of certain districts in harvest time ; they must 

 all take an oath before local officials that they will obey 

 these articles. 



2. Three sets of artisans are referred to; for the first 



' To the first by the context and to the second by a supplementary 

 clause; in the latter case "givers" are not mentioned. App., :o. 

 Unless otherwise specified the remaining references in this section are 

 to pages of the appendix. 



'The nature of the penalties belongs under s. 5 of this chapter and 

 their disposition under ch. iii. 

 ^Already treated in s. i and s. 2. * I3-I5- 



