192 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



ten years. ^ Subsequently, however, when the question 

 comes up again, the justices of the court of common pleas 

 are unable, on the spot, to give judgment; * but since later 

 instances occur of contracts for more than a year,^ it is to 

 be inferred that their decision was in favour of the long 

 terms. Other elements of the agreement between master 

 and servant, such as the amount of wages and the details 

 of the tasks to be performed, evidently enter into the mak- 

 ing of the contract, as they are often explicitly stated in the 

 plaintiff's count.* while the defendant frequently denies 

 that the contract had been of the form thus described. 



The wording of the clause in the ordinance stipulates cer- 

 tain conditions under which the servant is released from his 

 contract.'' The simplest of these is permission from the 

 employer to depart, a fairly common plea on the part of 

 tlie defendant." In one case a servant's wages are, by 

 agreement, deducted for his absence; ^ in another, a writing 

 releasing the servant from his contract is produced in court/ 



* De Banco, 33, Pasch., ii d. Line, 3 years; 34, Hill., 205, Devon, 

 10 years; case 26, list in app., 9 years; record of case 29. list in app.. 

 ■2 years; case 18, list in app., 3 years. 



*Case 31, app., F, 4; the record shows that Fitzherbert's summary is 

 not correct. 



'E.g., De Banco, 49, Pasch., 274 d. Line. 2 years; ct. Fitzherbert, 

 op. cit., 391: " And a Man may retain one for two or three Years, and 

 it is good;" also: " And if a Man do retain one to serve him, and doth 

 not express for how long he shall serve him, he shall serve him for a 

 Year, for that Retainer is according to the statute." 



^De Banco and Coram Rege Rolls, passim. Cf. e. g., case 3, list in 

 app.. quoted in s. 3 or the following description: a labourer had been 

 retained " in qiiodam officio ad eradicandum spinas, tribulos et genettas 

 in quadam pastura vocata le Broom, et eandem pasturam mundandam 

 et claustrandam . . . per vnuni annum integrum." De Banco. 45. 

 Mich., 434 d, Essex. -"App., 9. 



^E.g., De Banco, 45, Trin., 259, Camb.; 50, Pasch., 465 d, Norfolk. 



■ Ibid., so, Pasch., 340 d. Herts. ^ Ibid.. 40. Mich.. 132 d, Lond. 



