126 ENFORCEMENT OF THE ST A TUTES OF LABOURERS 



records. The petition is from the community of North- 

 ampton,^ — one suspects at their instigation, — and makes the 

 plea that the collectors had turned in the penalties together 

 with the tax, but had omitted mentioning them in their ac- 

 counts, — an exactly contradictory statement from that re- 

 corded in the case of one set of collectors. Perhaps the 

 council did not in this instance compare notes carefully with 

 the exchequer, and it is, of course, possible that the ori- 

 ginal collectors were not guilty though appearances are 

 certainly against them. In any case it seems likely that the 

 inconvenience suffered by these particular heirs had a de- 

 cisive effect after so many years of similar difficulties, and 

 that the crown decided to relinquish the chance of obtaining 

 the penalties, and thus to bring to an end all the numerous 

 processes still pending. 



After this date, all processes of the exchequer for arrears 

 of penalties lapse, and letters patent appointing the joint 

 commissions of the peace and for labourers, now include the 

 power to compel the collectors to account." Nominally, 

 therefore, by 1362, the communities have asserted their right 

 to the arrears of penalties against the claims of the crown, 

 but I am inclined to suspect that the crown yielded only be- 

 cause it had found it impossible to obtain such arrears, and 

 that when the sources for this later period are examined, it 

 will turn out that the communities had obtained merely an 

 empty privilege. 



Without a statistical study of the actions against the col- 

 lectors, it is impossible to ascertain the exact amount of the 

 penalties that through remissness or dishonesty of officials 



^/?o(. Pari., ii, 409b-4ioa; the editors print this without a date, evi- 

 dently by an error, for the original is endorsed: " Cotyngham, Bille de 

 parliamento anno xxxvi." (Ancient Petitions, File 17, no. 814.) 



*C7. e. g-.. Pat;, 36, pt. 2, m. 7 d, 20 Nov.; " De pace conseruanda." 



