PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES g^ 



norial rights of jurisdiction and to the profits of jurisdic- 

 tion and can therefore be most profitably treated later in 

 connection with the disposition of penalties;' there are, 

 however, other causes for interference which belong- 

 here. For example, when a certain abbot complains to 

 the king that at the instigation of some of his rivals the 

 justices in his county had forced his tenants to serve 

 other masters, although he himself had need of their 

 services for the tilling of his demesne lands, the king 

 issues a writ to the justices bidding them supply the 

 abbot with a sufficient number of labourers.' Again, the 

 urgent pleas of the Carthusians of Hinton and of Wytham 

 that, owing to their peculiar situation they are utterly 

 unable to secure workmen, result, in the case of the first, 

 in the permission from king and council to pay wages 

 fixed by contract instead of the statutory rates and in a 

 command to the justices of the county not to interfere ;3 

 and in the case of the second, in the permission to hire 

 labourers from the neighboring districts in spite of the 

 statutory prohibition against labourers leaving their place 

 of residence.* 



It also appears that the justices, when in difficulties, 

 are glad to have the aid and protection of the crown ; 

 on several occasions when their sessions have been 

 broken up by the violent attacks of malefactors, and they 



^Cf. pt. I, ch. iii, s. 2, B, and pt. ii, ch. i. ■'App., 217-218. 



*Pat., 29, pt. 2, m. 4, 5 Oct., "Pro priore et fratribus de Henton, 

 ordinis Cartusiensis;" quoted by Gasquet, Great Pestilence, 171-172. 



* Pat., 28, pt. I, m. 20, 16 Jan., "Pro priore et fratribus de Wytham;" 

 also quoted by Gasquet, ofi. cit., 170-171. There is a limitation to the use 

 of writs in increasing the powers of the justices; cf. 42 Ltd. Ass., pi. 12; 

 the jurisdiction of the justices of labourers in a certain county had been 

 extended by writ to include champarties etc., and it is decided by the 

 court of king's bench that for such a purpose a writ is illegal and a 

 commission necessary. 



