It is also
provided that, if any parish in this business do not her duty, but
suffereth the thief (for the avoiding of trouble sake) in carrying him
to the gaol, if he should be apprehended, or other letting of their
work to escape, the same parish is not only to make fine to the king,
but also the same, with the whole hundred wherein it standeth, to
repay the party robbed his damages, and leave his estate harmless.
Certainly this is a good law; howbeit I have known by my own
experience felons being taken to have escaped out of the stocks, being
rescued by other for want of watch and guard, that thieves have been
let pass, because the covetous and greedy parishioners would neither
take the pains nor be at the charge, to carry them to prison, if it
were far off; that when hue and cry have been made even to the faces
of some constables, they have said: "God restore your loss! I have
other business at this time." And by such means the meaning of many a
good law is left unexecuted, malefactors emboldened, and many a poor
man turned out of that which he hath sweat and taken great pains
toward the maintenance of himself and his poor children and family.
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