k 



THE KING'S COUNCIL 217 



through the existing administrative machinery, carries out 

 the provisions of the statutes directly; for example, it em- 

 powers two citizens of Norwich to compel labourers to 

 serve in accordance with the compulsory service clause of 

 the ordinance/ or it appoints a special commission to aid the 

 bishop of Winchester in securing service from one of his 

 villeins, also in accordance with a clause of the ordinance.' 

 The more important functions of the council, however, 

 are those to which reference has already been made, the 

 initiation of legislation or of changes in the law without 

 recourse to legislation, and the persistent control of the 

 administrative machinery. 



Since the distinctive feature of the statutes of labourers 

 is that they represent the first thorough-going attempt to 

 impress uniform economic standards on the country at large, 

 and since the special machinery created to enforce these 

 standards became a permanent part of the new centralized 

 system of local justice that was cutting into the jurisdiction 

 of the old local courts, it was inevitable that these statutes 



'Pat., 26, pt. I, m. 10 d, 16 April; " De operariis capiendis pro ciui- 

 tate Norwici pauianda et muris eiusdem ciuitatis dirrutis reparandis;" 

 Ca/., ix, 283-284. ■"Cum . . . intellexerimus quod predict! ciues circa 

 pauiamentum et reparacionem predicta facienda et dictam ciuitatem 

 mundandam seruitoribus et operariis multum indigent, et quod quam- 

 plures homines et mulieres fortes et ad laborandum potentes in eadem 

 ciuitate vagantur ociosi et pro salario competenti operari recusant et 

 quia in ordinacione. ..." 



There is, of course, the regular practice of the issue by the crown of 

 writs empowering certain individuals to engage labourers for the royal 

 works at the statutory rates of wages; cf. e.g., Pat., 31, pt. 2, m. 11, 

 I Aug.; " De operariis capiendis." There were sometimes difificulties 

 in carrying out such instructions; cf. Pat., 29, pt. i, m. 27 d, 30 Jan.; 

 ■'De quibusdam cementariis arestandis." This is a commission to 

 Walter Albyn, serjeant-at-arms, and to the sheriff of Kent to arrest four 

 labourers for certain " contemptibus et inobedienciis " and to imprison 

 them in the Tower until further notice. 



- Cf. p. 200. 



