Page:Landholding in England.djvu/39

 army of "landless men," vagabonds. It does not improve a man's morals not to have where to lay his head, and many of these vagabonds took to thieving. They were freely hanged; but even in the Middle Ages hanging did not diminish crime, and we hear of them more and more as time goes on.

Meanwhile, the moment the villeins found how greatly their numbers were reduced—and their value enhanced—they banded together for better wages. In that very plague year of 1349 the first Statute of Labourers was passed, fixing the rate of wages at the rate which obtained in the twentieth year of the King (1347). But it is useless to fight with the law of supply, and even imprisoning the serfs could not make them work for the same wage as before. The great body of the labourers, "bond and free," joined together in "coactions," after the manner of a modern trades-union. They even subscribed money for these unions, which were described as "the malice of servants in husbandry." Statute after statute was made against "coactions," but in vain; and though Wat Tyler fell, and the Charters of Manumission granted during the panic were revoked as soon as the fright was over, serfdom was dead. The landlords, while predicting that they "all would perish in one day," dropped their claims to be masters of the villeins' bodies and souls.

These Statutes of Labourers show the helplessness of magistrates and lords to retain or recover their runaway servants. The 1 Richard II. complains that "counsellors, abettors and maintainers are getting the villeins to work for them, instead of for their lords, and telling them they are free from all manner of service," as well of body as of tenure. The villeins menace life and limb to the officers of their lords, assemble on the highroads, and take counsel together to help each other to resist their lords. The 5 Richard II. says that many villeins of great lords and others, as well spiritual as temporal, flee into cities and free towns, and pretend to institute suits against their lords—thus putting the lord in the dilemma of letting the case go unanswered, or by answering acknowledging the freedom of his villein. So now the lord shall not be barred of his right by answering. By 12 Richard II. no servant may go from one hundred to another without a "testimonial"