136 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



tical importance that the excuse of a justice that the letter 

 patent had never reached him or that he had not taken 

 part in the session is accepted as vaHd ; ^ provided that 

 the barons can secure sufficient estreats properly arraiatas,' 

 it is a matter of indifference to them as to who of the com- 

 mission had acted. When, however, as in the case of Nor- 

 thumberland, no estreats at all are forthcoming, '' it is then 

 necessaiy that cause shall be shown for failure to execute 

 the letters patent. The episode of Northumberland has 

 been already related ; after the cancelling of the second set 

 of letters patent, it did not receive another commission for 

 over a year. The case of London deserves special attention. 

 The ordinance and statute had been promptly enrolled on 

 the Letter-Books,'' and one of the two earliest recorded 

 commissions is directed to the mayor and sheriffs, as far 

 back as 1349; ^ the next information comes from complaints 

 made in the parliament of the spring of 1354 of the ex- 

 ceedingly high price of provisions in London, followed by 

 suggestions for elaborate administrative remedies, with no 

 mention of justices of labourers." Then, in Hilary term 

 1355, at the time of settling up the accounts of the subsidy, 

 it appears on inquiry by the exchequer that, in spite of the 

 parliamentary discussion of a few months previous, no one, 

 not even the mayor and sheriffs, knew whether or not there 

 were any justices of labourers." The result is first, a writ 



'See the quotation from the Stafford case supra; and cf. p. 35. 



* See p. 62 for instances where the entreats are returned for correc- 

 tion; cf. also Mem. K. R., 26. Hill., Recorda, Somerset, where a bag 

 of estreats belonging to Lovell, a justice serving on the joint commis- 

 sion, is returned as containing estreats " minus sufhcientes." 



'See p. 35, and app., 366-368. * App., 8, note 3, and 12, note i. 



"Cf. p. ID, note 4. ^/?of. Pari., ii, 258b-2S9a. 



'Mem. L. T. R., 29, Hill., Presentaciones, rot. i, London', De die 

 dato. The collectors say that they had received no estreats; " ideo 

 ... ad presens inde sine die." 



