CENTRAL COURTS 1 73 



Rolls, averaging perhaps three times as great/ the smaller 

 total of cases in the king's bench dealing with the statutes 

 bears approximately the same relation to the number of ac- 

 tions on all other subjects in this court as does the larger 

 total of cases on the statutes in the common pleas to all 

 other actions recorded on its rolls. 



. In accordance with the estimates just given the combined 

 figures for the two courts are : 900 for the first type of re- 

 cords, and 8000 for the second, a total of nearly 9000. With- 

 out statistics as to the frequency of the other common forms 

 of actions, covenant, debt, trespass vi et armis etc., an ac- 

 curate appreciation of the relative numerical importance of 

 the actions on the statutes is impossible, but the conclusion 

 is certainly warranted that the upper courts were a valuable 

 factor in the enforcement of the labour legislation. More- 

 over, it is clear that, as indicative of widespread economic 

 disturbance, the actions that are only begun are precisely as 

 significant as those that are argued out, and that for a 

 period of twenty-six years and in a population of about two 

 millions and a half,^ nearly 9000 cases, involving from two 

 to five or six individuals each, represent a considerable 

 amount of litigation. 



Apart from this attempt to calculate the probable total 

 number of actions, my investigation of the work of the 

 upper courts is based chiefly on a detailed analysis, from 

 various points of view, of the 288 De Banco cases and the 

 24 Coram Rege cases that reached the stage where both 

 plaintiff and defendant made their appearance. The dis- 

 tribution of these 312 cases according to the county in 

 which the action is brought is as follows : London, 48 ; Nor- 

 folk, 21 ; York, 19; Cambridge, 18; Northampton, 16; Kent, 

 15; Suffolk, 14; Lincoln, 12; Buckingham, 11 ; Essex, Dor- 



' Cf. p. 166, note 2. ^ Cf. pp. 1-2. 



