The Office Of Justice of the Peace in England: In Its Origin and Development

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...upon trade and industry. 8 Cunningham, ii, 16. Wages and Prices. By the labor statute of the eleventh year of Henry VII.'s reign, the wages of laborers and artisans were regulated, and any one who refused to work at the legal scale or took or paid unlawful wages was liable to a fine of twenty shillings upon conviction before the justices of the peace in sessions.1 The act of 1514 marked no special advance upon this law except that it empowered two justices out of sessions to investigate all cases which arose under the statute.2 Fares on the Thames boats and the wages of watermen were under the supervision of the justices.8 In the reign of Edward VI. a severe blow was struck at combinations of laborers. The complaint was made that artificers, handicraftsmen, and laborers had made confederacies and sworn mutual oaths that they would not meddle with one another's work or finish what another had begun, and also that they had determined how much work they would do in a day and what hours and times they would work. The statute provided that artificers who combined to force certain arbitrary conditions upon employers should be severely punished by the justices in sessions. For the first offence, there was a penalty of £10 or imprisonment; for the second £20 or pillory; and for the third, £40 or pillory, the loss of an ear and infamy.4 Like the poor laws, the labor statutes culminated in a comprehensive measure under Elizabeth.5 This act was a revision, extension, and partial codification of the previous laws, and a 1 11 Henry VII., c. 22. 26 Henry VIII., c. 3. 8 6 Henry VIII., c. 7. 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. 15. K 5 Elizabeth, c. 4. This act supplemented the poor law in completing a system for controlling the employed and unemployed. Cunningham, ii, 38...