CENTRAL COURTS 



179 



tween masters and servants, even though not made in 

 writing. 



The significance of the discovery through this analysis 

 of cases that only the contract and compulsory service 

 clauses were dealt with by the two upper courts lies partly 

 in the circumstance that it is thus proved that the ordinance, 

 not the statute, was the essential document, and that dur- 

 ing the long period before it was made a statute^ it hsd 

 all the force of statute law. 



(4) Classes to which the compulsory service and contract 

 clauses applied. — The analysis of the work of quarter ses- 

 sions showed that the juries, in by far the majority of in- 

 stances, were making presentments against the takers of 

 excess wages and prices, chiefly agricultural labourers, do- 

 mestic servants, victuallers, and representatives of handi- 

 crafts, and only very occasionally against members of the 

 employing class, even in contract cases ; ^ for practical pur- 

 poses it may be said that the justices of labourers were en- 

 forcing the law against manual labourers only. It must 

 now be ascertained whether this statement is also to be 

 made of the application by the upper courts of the two 

 clauses of which they took cognizance. 



Compulsory service. The wording of the ordinance is 

 explicit : ^ all able-bodied men and women under sixty,* 



' Cf. p. 2, note 8. 



^See pt. I, ch. ii, ss. 3, 4 and 5. Suits brought by individuals are so 

 few in comparison with presentments of juries that they need scarcely 

 be counted, but the same description applies to them. 



^Already summarized and discussed in pt. i, ch. ii, s. 3. 



*The minimum age is not indicated. There is some ambiguity in 

 Fitzherbert's comment: " An Infant of 12 Years of Age shall be bound 

 by his Covenant to serve in Husbandry . . . although he may spend 

 40 Shillings or 12 Marks by the Year." Nezej Nat. Brev., 390-391. 

 This seems rather to apply to liability of minors for a contract; cf. 

 pp. 185-186. 



