s
in respect of such employers, though in villenage to their original
lord. As he demanded less of their labour, through the diminution of his
domain, they had more to spare for other masters; and retaining the
character of villeins and the lands they held by that tenure, became
hired labourers in husbandry for the greater part of the year. It is
true that all their earnings were at the lord's disposal, and that he
might have made a profit of their labour when he ceased to require it
for his own land. But this, which the rapacity of more commercial times
would have instantly suggested, might escape a feudal superior, who,
wealthy beyond his wants, and guarded by the haughtiness of ancestry
against the desire of such pitiful gains, was better pleased to win the
affection of his dependants than to improve his fortune at their
expense.

The services of villenage were gradually rendered less onerous and
uncertain. Those of husbandry, indeed, are naturally uniform, and might
be anticipated with no small exactness. Lords of generous tempers
granted indulgences which were either intended to be or readily became
perpetual. And thus, in the time of Edward I., we find the tenants in
some manors bound only to stated services, as recorded in the lord's
book.[405] Some of these, perhaps, might be villeins by blood; but free
tenants in villenage were still more likely to obtain this precision in
their services; and from claiming a customary right to be entered in the
court-roll upon the same terms as their predecessors, prevailed at
length to get copies of it for their security.[406] Proofs of this
remarkable transformation from tenants in villenage to copyholders are
found in the reign of Henry III. I do not know, however, that they were
protected, at so early an epoch, in the possession of their estates. But
it is said in the Year-book of the 42nd of Edward III. to be "admitted
for clear law, that, if the customary tenant or copyholder does not
perform his services, the lord may seize his land as forfeited."[407] It
seems implied herein, that, so long as the copyholder did continue to
perform the regular stipulations of his tenure, the lord was not at
liberty to divest him of his estate; and this is said to be confirmed by
a passage in Britton, which has escaped my search; though Littleton
intimates that copyholders could have no remedy against their lord.[408]
However, in the reign of Edward IV. this was put out of doubt by the
j