PART III 



SUMMARY OF THE WORK OF THE KING'S COUNCIL 



At many points in the preceding study of the labour 

 legislation and of its enforcement, reference has been made 

 to the part played by the king's council ; in conclusion, there- 

 fore, it seems desirable to recapitulate the more important 

 phases of its activity, in order to convey an impression of 

 its relation to the whole administrative machinery/ 



Owing to the inability of parliament to meet during the 

 plague, the first ordinance was framed and promulgated by 

 the council, and proved to be not a mere temporary ex- 

 pedient, but a permanent measure having all the force of 

 parliamentary legislation, and in many ways a more im- 

 portant enactment than the statute by which it was after- 

 wards supplemented. With the council originated the in- 

 genious device proclaimed in the second ordinance, namely 

 the relief of the taxpayers by the application in aid of the 

 current subsidy of the penalties resulting from the first or- 

 dinance. Even during the running of the next subsidy, 

 when a similar application of these penalties had been care- 

 fully regulated in parliament, the council steps in with a 

 special provision for a certain town, or with the issue of 

 spec'al commissions to investigate the carrying-out of the 

 scheme. It seems more than probable that it was the di- 

 rect initiative of the council, in consultation with the treas- 



' It is necessary always to remember that I have omitted the whole 

 subject of ecclesiastical responsibilities for the administration of the sta- 

 tutes; cf. the last clause of the ordinance and quotations cited by Gas- 

 quet, Great Pestilence, i86. 



215 



