92 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



chroniclers do not seem to have greatly exaggerated,' 

 nor does one wonder that the "malice of servants" 

 appears to the employers the only appropriate phrase to 

 describe the attitude of the labouring classes. 



(7) Supervision of the justices of labourers. — Omitting 

 for the present the control of the justices most system- 

 atically worked out at this period, namely that of the 

 exchequer, which has to do entirely with the question of 

 the money penalties, the other methods of control exer- 

 cised by the central authorities must now be considered. 



1. The removal of individual justices and the cancelling 

 of commissions by king and council. It has already been 

 noted that any particularly flagrant conduct on the part 

 of a given justice, if reported to the king and council, 

 sometimes resulted in his prompt removal without re- 

 course to the courts of law.^ 



2. The issue by royal writs of special commands to the 

 justices and occasionally the appointment of special com- 

 missions of investigation. 



3. The ordinary mediaeval system of dealing with the 

 extortion or other misdemeanors of officials. 



4. The removal to a higher court, by writ of certiorari, 

 of proceedings before the justices of labourers. 



The power of the crown over the removal of justices 

 has already been treated in some detail and needs no 

 comment here ; ^ further, the interference of king and 

 council with the action of the justices, by means of sup- 

 plementary writs, is sometimes due to the necessity for 

 an interpretation of the relation of the justices to seig- 



' It must however be admitted that the particularly high rates men- 

 tioned by Knighton do not seem to occur very often; cf. pt. ii, ch. ii, 

 s. 3- 



''Cf. case of the Surrey justices; p. 96. ^Pt. i, ch. i, s. 3. 



