194 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



tion to these specifications by the ordinance of the rights of 

 the employee, the courts hold that a conditional contract 

 made by the latter is valid and need be carried out only if 

 the conditions are fulfilled; for example, there is one in- 

 stance of an engagement made subject to the consent of the 

 servant's parents/ and another, to that of a previous master." 

 It is also ruled by the courts that a contract made by a ser- 

 vant under compulsion need not be kept ; ^ that imprison- 

 ment by another master is a good plea to justify a ser- 

 vant's departure,* also forced obedience to the orders of the 

 justices of labourers.^ In nearly half the departure cases, 

 however, without relying on any of the above justifications, 

 the servant is content with the plea of a bald denial of the 

 retainer;''' very frequent also is his denial of his departure 

 within the term, or his assertion of the completion of his 

 term ; the two latter pleas being often based on the claim of 

 a difference in the length and the dates of the term agreed 

 upon from those named by the plaintiff in his count. 



It is evident that this new form of contract gave certain 

 well-defined rights to employees; it is equally evident that 

 it bestowed far more important advantages on employers 

 than they had possessed at common law, both as against 



'Case 32, app., F, 5. For other forms of conditional contract, cf. the 

 record of case 22, list in app., and case 42, app., F, 4. 



^De Banco, 46, Trin., 327, Line. 



^ Ibid., 33, Pasch., 181 d, Hunts.; 33, Mich., 224, Dorset; 40, Mich., 

 142, Midd. Cf. also case 4, list in app.; the second master in a de- 

 parture and retention case claimed that the plaintiff had kept the servant 

 in prison and compelled him to make a contract " par force et par dur- 

 esse." 



*De Banco, 41, Pasch., 223 d, Kent. 



^Ibid., 38, Pasch., 198, York.; cf. p. 191, note 4. 



*Space prevents me from giving the long list of references to the 

 commonplace pleas. 



