DISPOSITION OF THE PENALTIES 



149 



are two aspects that need special emphasis : first, that the 

 exchequer maintained a persistent control over the proceed- 

 ings of the justices of labourers through its determination 

 to secure the penalties ; and second, that the king and coun- 

 cil were acting steadily in close connection with the ex- 

 chequer and in supervision of it. Frequently it has ap- 

 peared that royal writs stopped exchequer action in a given 

 case; and it is, of course, to be remembered that the treas- 

 urer was a member of the council.' The figures of the 

 amounts of the penalties as far as they have been ascer- 

 tained and the eagerness to establish a right to the penal- 

 ties shown by the taxpayers in relation to the subsidies, by 

 the lords in their claims and by the exchequer at every 

 stage, give a vivid impression of the importance of the 

 statutes in the eyes of the community and afford conclusive 

 proof that they were not at this time dead letters. The 

 justices of labourers who were clearly doing their work 

 with effectiveness and with an honesty not below the gen- 

 eral standard of contemporary official morality, must be 

 regarded as an important factor in local administration. 



• Cf. e. g.. Mem. L. T. R., zi. Hill., Breu. Ret., Norf , a writ to the 

 justices of labourers ordering them to deliver their estreats into the ex- 

 chequer, " vt execucio pro leuacione finium . . . fieri valeat," signed 

 "per ipsum thesaurarium et alios de consilio." Also Mem. K. R., 24, 

 Trin., Commissiones, etc., York, W. R. and N. R., a writ to the 

 barons bidding them see that the collectors account, signed "per ipsum 

 thesaurarium et consilium." 



