Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

REMARKS

ON THE PRESENT

SYSTEM OF ROAD MAKING, &c.

H. Bryer, Printer,

Bridge-street, Blackfriars.

REMARKS
ON THE PRESENT
SYSTEM OF ROAD MAKING;
WITH OBSERVATIONS,
DEDUCED FROM PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE,
WITH A VIEW TO A REVISION OF THE EXISTING LAWS, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF IMPROVEMENT IN
THE METHOD OF MAKING, REPAIRING, AND PRESERVING ROADS,
AND
DEFENDING THE ROAD FUNDS FROM MISAPPLICATION.
SEVENTH EDITION,
CAREFULLY REVISED, WITH AN
APPENDIX,
AND
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 1823,
WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE.

By JOHN LOUDON MᶜADAM, Esq.

GENERAL SURVEYOR OF THE ROADS IN THE BRISTOL DISTRICT.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1823.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Since the Publication of the early editions of this Essay, the Author has witnessed with very great satisfaction the amendment of a large proportion of the Turnpike Roads, and some improvement of the Parish Roads. That the reformation has not been more extensive and successful, may be attributed to the error still persisted in by Trustees, of continuing the services of persons as Road Surveyors, who are not only altogether ignorant of the business they profess, but full of prejudices in favour of their own erroneous practice.

Another and a greater error has been committed lately, in several parts of the Country, and which has entirely arisen from the desire entertained of using the new method of Road making. This very dangerous error consists in employing persons who offer themselves as having been instructed in Road making on scientific principles, without due inquiry respecting their skill, industry, and moral character.

Among the many persons who present themselves to be instructed, a very small proportion acquire a competent knowledge of their profession, and this number is farther diminished by subsequent dismission for negligence, drunkenness, and dishonesty.

Of these rejected and incapable persons, great numbers are spread over the Country, soliciting employment; and many have been incautiously engaged by Trustees, without inquiry either as to their character or their ability in their profession.

Under the most favourable circumstances for the constant and vigilant control of a master, whose public credit depends on the economical and skilful performance of the work, it is difficult to keep sub-surveyors in the strict line of their duty; but it may be easily conceived how much the public must suffer from accepting the services of men rejected for gross misconduct, and placing them in situations of confidence, altogether freed from the only control capable of being exerted with effect. This error, although of recent date, has already been attended with very disastrous consequences in several places.

A practical experience of Six Years, has served to confirm the opinion of the Author, that the control of Commissioners over surveyors is altogether ineffectual; whether for direction in their active duties, or for protecting the funds of Trusts from waste and peculation. The unceasing control, and minute inspection of a person whom the surveyors know to be as much their superior in skill and general information, as in station in society, and in the confidence of the Commissioners, is absolutely necessary for the protection of the Roads. Where such control is duly exercised, good management with economy will be the result; and wherever a mistaken notion of economy shall continue to prevent the application of such wholesome and necessary control, the roads will be imperfectly repaired, and the funds dissipated.

It appears from the returns made to Parliament, that the sum annually raised for the use of the Roads exceeds the neat revenue of the Post Office; yet is this very large sum expended through the hands of persons of the lowest rank in society, under an appearance of control; which equally deceives the public and deludes the expectation of those who conduct the general business of the Roads.

Commissioners can only act with effect, as a deliberative body; and their most beneficial resolutions are rendered valueless, through want of a steady executive power. Any attempt on the part of individual Commissioners to exercise this power is a still more dangerous course. The designs of the majority may thus be impeded, or thwarted by the subsequent interference of a single person.

All other branches of the public revenue are defended by the station and character of the persons, under whose care they are placed. The Legislature and the Government have wisely considered it important (with a view to economy) to purchase talents, and station, as a protection for every branch of the public expenditure; but in the case of the Roads they have miscalculated the power and effect of the controlling and directing authority. A proper comparison has not been made of the duties, or of the effect of the exertions of a body composed of unpaid and unresponsible individuals, like the road Commissioners, and those of bodies composed of Boards of Commissioners, in the pay, and responsible to the Government for the due administration of the trust reposed in them: having also proper officers equally responsible as themselves to act under their directions. The state of the public roads, the alarming amount of an increasing debt, the loose and neglected state of the accounts of the several Trusts, are the best proofs of the defects of the system, and of its comparative inefficiency.

The returns made to Parliament by the several Trusts in the kingdom (defective as they are) afford matter for serious reflection. England alone, is divided into 955 little Trusts which may be considered, in fact, as hostile to each other; while it is evident that unity of action is of vital importance among Commissioners of the same branch of the public service, for effecting the great object of their appointment. While therefore each of those small communities is liable to be biassed by individual interest or feeling, it will hardly be deemed inexpedient to recommend some central control over the District Commissioners, that may have the effect of regulating the eccentricity of their measures, as well as giving their views, in many instances, a better direction. This central control will be most beneficially established in each county, under such regulations, and with such powers as the wisdom of Parliament may deem most effectual.

A General Road Act must, in order to adapt itself to the exigences of the times, embrace a comprehensive view of the subject: and effectually remedy all the great evils which have originated in the weakness of the system, and have been allowed to grow up, through a want of attention to the altered state of the commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and general interests of the kingdom. Until the Legislature shall be pleased to enter into a serious consideration of the subject, no general and useful amendment can take place. The great debt, (exceeding at this moment Seven Millions,) will continue to increase, and improvement will still be impeded by obstacles not removeable by any other power except the authority of Parliament.

PREFACE
TO THE
SEVENTH EDITION.

In preparing another edition of the various papers on roads, which I have published during the last six years, it may be useful to take a slight review of the subject, and of the gradual progress of road improvement throughout the country.

That any further information should be called for, after the numerous additions made to the original pamphlet, (particularly the last communication to the Board of Agriculture,) is a convincing proof of the impossibility of conveying adequate instructions for practical purposes, by means of the press. It is, however, of the utmost importance that the theory be fully understood, as from want of comprehending the original nature of the system have arisen the many fruitless attempts at imitation, which have cost such vast sums to the public.

The practical utility of some parts of the system is so obvious, that they have been acted upon in various places, without any desire of further improvement. It is uncommon now, to meet with roads repaired with large stones, or of the dangerous convex form, which was the universal custom about five years ago; but these improvements being merely grafted on the old erroneous method, have never been attended with the rapid diminution of expense, and the durable advantages which immediately result from the adoption of the entire system as recommended by me.

Those who continue to use any part of the old method of road-making, are not, perhaps, aware of the principles upon which they are acting. I have formerly remarked, that the old roads of the country were generally carried along the tops of hills in search of dry or strong ground; and it is plain that the first turnpike roads were merely attempts to open more direct communications through the country, in continuing, by mechanical means, the rocky paths, to which travellers were obliged to resort. With this view, large masses of stone were first sunk into the ground, and afterwards thick layers of broken stone strewed over them, so as, in fact, to form an artificial rock. The insecurity of this unskilful structure must be obvious. The rain penetrating through every part of the surface kept it continually in a loose state, and as it was imbedded below the ground water, it was constantly broken up in winter by the frost. Hence the vast sums required for the forming new roads, and the heavy and incessant expense of keeping them in a passable state. Any improvements that have been made on this plan, merely relate to the smoothness of the surface, by more carefully laying on the stones, at, consequently, a greater expense: but the original principle remains the same in every road, except those where the new system has been fully adopted. Under such disadvantages, it is not surprizing that the roads of the kingdom have not kept pace with the advancement of every other useful art. The large sums demanded for the first outlay, and the frequent failure of such speculations from the badness of the roads, and the expense of their subsequent repairs, sufficiently account for the tardy progress of road-making. From conviction of the very insufficient and expensive nature of the method in use, I was led to consider of the possibility of constructing lines of communication, capable of conveying the heaviest weights over every kind of soil, and at all seasons, upon principles purely scientific: a plan, which even in theory differs as widely from the inartificial methods of road-making hitherto practised, as the principle by which an arch is thrown over a river, differs from the heap of stones which constitutes the ford.

The actual experience of seven years, the great extent of road which has been entirely constructed according to my direction, and the unquestionable testimony of the Committees of the House of Commons appointed to enquire into this matter, have now placed the efficiency of the discovery beyond a doubt. It remains with the country to consider of the most wise and effectual mode of securing the benefit of the system.

Whoever has attentively considered the weakness and inadequacy of the present road laws, to protect the great interest at stake, must be aware of the urgent necessity for some new legislative measures, more adapted to the present state of the country. The roads are, perhaps, the most important branch of our domestic economy. The revenue collected for their support equals that of the Post-office; and any failure in executing the work, operates as a severe check upon our commerce, manufactures, and agriculture. Yet a public service of such vital importance, continues to be regulated solely by the narrow policy and limited views of the first Turnpike Act, (which were, in fact, mere experiments in legislation,) while this immense revenue is abandoned to the discretion or the cupidity of the lower orders of society.

The benefit which I have aspired to render the country, is of a twofold nature; and my labours have been as constantly directed towards the introduction of a wise and well-regulated system of management for the roads, as towards their mechanical construction. I have always expressed a conviction, that no permanent improvement could take place in road affairs, without the interference of the legislature; nor has the success attending the efforts of my family, in various places, in any way tended to weaken that opinion. The advantages of the new method of making roads are so apparent, they have not failed of attracting attention; but I have not been equally fortunate in inducing the gentlemen of the country to observe the means by which economy and improvement have been combined.

It is not only to the simplicity and cheapness of the new system, that the great difference of expense is owing. In every place where the system has been properly acted upon, care has been taken to place the road business on the same respectable footing as other branches of the public service; a complete executive department has been created. The inferior officers, selected from the most respectable yeomanry, are placed under the vigilant inspection of a superior, whose responsibility secures his attention, and who is not liable to be biassed by any influence in the duties of his office. The great success that has attended the adoption of this plan, under all the disadvantages of the present road laws, is an earnest of what might result from its being established on a comprehensive scale, under the authority of Parliament.

Although no measures have yet been taken for establishing any systematic plan for the management of roads, it is gratifying to observe the spirit of improvement which is extending itself over the country. This is manifest in various ways. The plan of converting the pavements of streets into stoned roads, was introduced into the Bristol district about six years ago; and it may reasonably be expected, that pavements will very soon be nearly superseded by the more convenient, safe, and economical substitute of stoned roads. Of the superior convenience of roads, there can be no question; and all the minor objections which have been started can be so easily obviated, that a very little reflection will be sufficient for any candid mind. The inhabitants of towns are generally apprehensive that roads will be less commodious for foot passengers than pavements: but (if proper care be bestowed on cleaning and watering) a road made of broken stone will be found more eligible than such pavements as those of London. In some towns, where the principal streets are turnpike roads, the commissioners have caused them to be made of materials broken very small, which, when skilfully laid, form a smooth, firm surface.

The great difference between the cost of a road, and even the worst London pavement, would enable the city to bestow such care on the cleanliness of the carriage ways, as would allow the inhabitants to enjoy all the advantages of smooth road, with even increased comfort to the foot passenger.

TO THE GENERAL TREASURER, THE TREASURERS OF DIVISIONS, AND THE OTHER COMMISSIONERS FOR THE CARE OF THE TURNPIKE ROADS IN THE BRISTOL DISTRICT, TO WHOSE FIRMNESS AND PATRIOTIC ZEAL IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR DUTY, THE KINGDOM IS INDEBTED FOR THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF THE PRACTICE OF A NEW AND EFFECTUAL SYSTEM OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE REPAIR OF THE ROADS, AND IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FUNDS UNDER THEIR CARE; THESE REMARKS ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS A TESTIMONY OF THE ESTEEM AND GRATITUDE OF THEIR

OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTION.

The present very defective state of the Turnpike Roads and Highways in the United Kingdom, and the continual and apparently unlimited increase of the Toll Duties, are the considerations, which have given rise to the publication of the following remarks.

Of the value of the information contained in them, the intelligent reader will be the most competent judge; the author can only venture to assure him, that the few facts brought forward in the course of the work have been most carefully authenticated; that the opinions advanced are the result of much thought, and patient investigation; that whatever may appear theoretical, has, for the most part, been already reduced to practice; and that where practice has been wanting, a long experience of the evils arising from the present system, and not the mere love of innovation, has been the motive for the suggestion of the remedies proposed.

These, however, the author gladly submits to the good sense and candour of the public; only requesting, in the words of a celebrated writer, that whoever favors him with a perusal, will not judge by a few hours reading of the labours of nearly thirty years.

In the following chapters, the subject of Roads will be considered under three principal heads:

The mode of making Roads;

The Commissioners, and Officers employed under them, for this service,

and

The care of the Finances:

Which has appeared to the Author the most clear and comprehensive arrangement.

REMARKS ON ROADS.

PART FIRST.
THE MODE OF MAKING ROADS.

The modes of making and repairing Roads are so various in the different parts of the kingdom, that it would be an endless task to attempt a particular account of each. It may, however, be possible to give a general idea of them, according to the materials produced in each part of the country.

In the neighbourhood of London, the roads are formed of gravel; in Essex and Sussex, they are formed of flint; in Wilts, Somerset, and Glocester, limestone is principally used; in the North of England, and in Scotland, whinstone is the principal material; and in Shropshire and Staffordshire, large pebbles mixed with sand.

Excellent roads may be made with any of these materials.

The gravel of which the roads round London are formed is the worst; because it is mixed with a large portion of clay, and because the component parts of gravel are round, and want the angular points of contact, by which broken stone unites, and forms a solid body; the loose state of the roads near London, is a consequence of this quality in the material, and of the entire neglect, or ignorance of the method of amending it.

A more careful examination of facts connected with the roads round London, has discovered several other causes, from whence proceeds the defective state of these roads. The greatest appears to be, the division of the roads into so many small Trusts, which precludes the possibility of any extended plan of operations, for the benefit of the whole. Before any one road round London can be properly reformed, and all wasteful expenditure restrained, a comprehensive view of the local situation of the whole district will be requisite.

Another great impediment to improvement, arises from the laws and regulations, which prevent a supply of good road materials, of several kinds, being brought to London by water, and landed in different places, convenient for the roads. Were these restrictions removed, as far as concerns stone, flint, or any ballast for road-making, London is so favorably situated for water carriage by the river, and by the canals connected with it, that a supply, equal to the wants of all the roads in the vicinity of London, might be obtained at a reasonable rate, and of good quality, so as to render the use of the bad gravel round the metropolis no longer necessary.[^[1]] But this measure, to be performed in an economical, and efficient manner, must be done upon an extended scale; it must become one interest, directed by one select body of men of weight, ability, and character.

[1]. This must not be understood as conveying an opinion, that a good road may not be constructed with the London gravel, properly prepared and applied. The road at Reading, in Berkshire, has lately been made perfectly smooth, solid, and level, with a gravel inferior to that of London, and at less than it formerly cost. Carriages make no impression on this road, and it has remained good in all changes of weather. Nevertheless, a means having been discovered, by diligent enquiry, for importing flints, from a distance, the Reading road will, in future, be repaired with flint, at half the expence required to prepare the gravel of the neighbourhood.

A road near London may be made as smooth, solid, and easy for cattle to draw carriages over, as the road near Bristol; and the London road so made will last longer, and consequently be less expensive than the Bristol road, because the materials which may be obtained are more durable, and may be procured at less expence.

Flint makes an excellent road, if due attention be paid to the size; but from want of that attention, many of the flint roads are rough, loose, and expensive.

Limestone, when properly prepared and applied, makes a smooth, solid road, and becomes consolidated sooner than any other material; but from its nature is not the most lasting.

Whinstone is the most durable of all materials; and wherever it is well and judiciously applied, the roads are comparatively good and cheap.

The pebbles of Shropshire and Staffordshire, are of a hard substance, and only require a prudent application to be made good road materials.

On the other hand, the Scottish roads, made of the very best materials, which are abundant and cheap in every part of that country, are the most loose, rough, and expensive roads in the United Kingdom, owing to the unskilful use of the material.

The formation of roads is defective in most parts of the country; in particular the roads round London, are made high in the middle, in the form of a roof, by which means a carriage goes upon a dangerous slope, unless kept on the very centre of the road.

These roads are repaired by throwing a large quantity of unprepared gravel in the middle, and trusting that, by its never consolidating, it will in due time move towards the sides.

When a road has been originally well made, it will be easily repaired. Such a road can never become rough, or loose; though it will gradually wear thin and weak, in proportion to the use to which it is exposed; the amendment will then be made, by the addition of a quantity of materials prepared as at first. As there will be no expense on such road, between the first making and each subsequent repair, except the necessary attention to the water-ways, and to accidental injuries, the funds will be no longer burdened with the unceasing expenditure, at present experienced, from continual efforts at repairing, without amendment of the roads.

There cannot be a doubt, that all the roads in the kingdom may be made smooth and solid, in an equal degree, and to continue so at all seasons of the year. Their durability will of course depend on the strength of the materials of which they may be composed, but they will all be good while they last, and the only question that can arise respecting the kind of materials, is one of time and expence, but never of the immediate condition of the roads.

The anxious provisions of the Legislature for preservation of the roads have unfortunately taken precedence of measures for making roads fit to be travelled upon, or worth the care of being preserved. Will it be deemed presumptuous to propose, that some regulations may be adopted, for encouraging and promoting a better system of making roads, by eliciting the exertion of science, and by creating a set of officers of skill, and reputation, to superintend this most essential branch of domestic economy?

When roads are properly made, very few regulations are necessary for their preservation. It is certainly useful to make effectual provision for keeping clear the watercourses, for removing nuisances, and for the pruning of trees and hedges; for these purposes ample powers should be given to Commissioners; but the advantage of many existing regulations respecting wheeled carriages may very well be questioned. There can be no doubt that many of those regulations are oppressive to commerce and agriculture, by compelling an inconvenient construction of carriages.[^[2]] The author has never observed any great difference of effect, on a well made road, by narrow or broad wheels; either of them will pass over a smooth, solid road, without leaving any visible impression: on rough, loose roads, the effect will certainly be different; but whether a loose and rough road can be amended by dragging an unwieldy carriage over it, or whether, if it were possible to amend roads by such means, it can be deemed the most economical for the nation at large, can hardly be subject of doubt.[^[3]]

[2]. The increase of the breadth of the wheels, though in a greater proportion than that of the weights, is by no means a compensation for it; because the whole breadth in many instances, from the inequality of the ground, or the wheels, will not be brought to bear whenever it can, the first impression must be made by the nails, where they are prominent, perhaps by a single nail; or the bearing may happen upon single pieces of materials, or upon the edges of materials, incapable of supporting the weights. See Enquiry into the State of the Public Roads, by the Rev. Henry Homer, A. M. Rector of Birdlingbury, Warwickshire. Published in 1767, Page 66.

It must be observed, that these remarks of Mr. Homer, and of every other writer on the subject of roads, are only applicable to such as are loose, rough, and uneven; and that no one seems to have contemplated the idea of a road being made at once strong, smooth, and solid.—Author.

[3]. Broad-wheeled carriages are found to be so unadapted to the purposes of husbandry, the number of horses requisite for their draught so great, and the beneficial effects of them to the road so questionable, that neither the encouragements on the one hand, nor the discouragements on the other, have been sufficient to bring them into general use.

Homer’s Enquiry, Page 25.

It must however be admitted, that the wear of roads is proportioned to the weight and velocity of carriages running upon a given breadth of the tire of the wheels, and therefore, it is of consequence that some regulations should be adopted. The best regulations, as regard the breadth of the tire of wheels, will be found in several Acts of the Session of Parliament 1816, where Carts are required to have wheels of a cylindrical form five inches broad; and Waggon Wheels of the same form six inches broad, with an equal upright bearing. The weights will be best and most easily regulated by the number of horses, or other cattle, drawing the carriages: and this, as a regulation of economy, may be made, by the tolls at present payable on the cattle being levied in a larger ratio as the number increases.

Waggons and carts with wheels of a cylindrical form and upright bearing, running on a breadth of tire of five and six inches, cannot injure a well made road, at the slow pace with which such carriages travel; at least, in any proportion beyond the toll they pay. On the contrary, it is certain, that Stage Coaches, with their present system of loading, and velocity of travelling upon very narrow wheels, damage the roads in a much greater proportion than the compensation derived from the toll.

Every wheel, propelled by a force applied to its centre of motion, as the axis of a carriage wheel, is disposed by its specific gravity, to be dragged forwards, instead of turning round; and the rotative motion is occasioned by the resistance presented by the surface over which it passes; yet this resistance does not entirely prevent dragging; for every wheel running upon a road drags in some degree. This degree will be proportioned to the weight of the carriage, and the velocity of the wheel upon its axis, and will be opposed by the breadth of the tire coming in contact with the road.

Stage Coaches, therefore, carrying heavy weights, moving with great velocity, and presenting to the road a narrow tire of wheel, must of necessity drag in a greater degree than any other carriage, as combining in themselves every cause by which dragging is produced.[^[4]]

[4]. Above fifty Stage Coach journies are made daily between Bristol and Bath: the Author’s observation leads him to the conclusion, that the toll-duty paid by them, does not indemnify the funds for the wearing of the road.

When the Legislature shall have provided the means of putting all the roads in the United Kingdom into the best and fittest state for the accommodation of the agriculture and commerce of the country, they will naturally consider of the most proper modes of protecting them from injury, or for indemnifying the funds for the effects of use which are unavoidable, by imposing toll duties in a just and equitable proportion on the carriages occasioning such injury.

PART SECOND.
COMMISSIONERS AND OFFICERS EMPLOYED UNDER THEM.

The care of the Turnpike Roads has been committed by Parliament, into the hands of Commissioners, selected from that class of society, most capable of executing the duties of superintendance, and from their station most likely to perform the duty with fidelity; in this respect the expectations of the public has not been disappointed; and there can be but one opinion, upon the obligations the country owes to this very respectable part of the community. Perhaps the only useful regulation wanted, in respect to Commissioners, would be to confine the qualification of Trustees to landed property.

The superintending and controuling power, so wisely placed by Parliament in the Commissioners, has not, however, been sufficient to secure all the objects of the Legislature. A scientific, laborious, executive power is wanting; and no means having been thought of for this part of the service, it has been altogether neglected, or at best very unprofitably supplied by a set of Surveyors, altogether ignorant of the duties of the office they were called upon to fill.[^[5]]

[5]. The general laws relating to highways seem sufficiently calculated to answer the purpose intended by them, if Overseers were qualified with a sufficient degree of judgment to execute them properly, and of industry and spirit to do it effectually.

Homer’s Enquiry, Page 18.

General superintendance and gratuitous services, such as the law contemplated to receive from the Commissioners of Turnpikes, may be obtained, and have been faithfully and conscientiously given by the Commissioners; but that constant and laborious attention, requisite to superintend the executive duties of a turnpike trust, cannot reasonably be expected from gentlemen engaged in other pursuits. Were they to undertake the task, it must be subject to all the interruptions of their private affairs, or other occupations; and this alone would render their services nugatory. Some instances of individual zeal and exertion, on the part of Commissioners, in particular parts of the country, have served to show what benefit might be derived from providing each county with an executive officer, whose sole attention should be given to the business; whose services should be amply remunerated, and of whom the Commissioners might of right demand an account of the manner in which their orders were carried into execution; who should examine and audit the accounts of the Sub-surveyors; compare them with the work performed, and certify them, if approved, to the Treasurers.

In a trust of any extent, say about 150 miles of road, the time of such an officer would be very fully employed. He must direct the execution of the repairs, and alterations of the road, when ordered by the Commissioners; and he must controul the contracts, and other agreements entered into by the Sub-surveyors, so as to prevent unnecessary expence; he must examine all work performed, to see that it is corresponding with contracts, and generally keep a vigilant superintendance over the persons employed under him. Accounts of all expences incurred should every second week be delivered by the Sub-surveyors into his office in duplicate; after examination, one copy to remain in the office, the other certified, to be sent to the Treasurer, upon which payment may follow.

Much must depend on the selection of the officer to whom this charge is committed; he must have a considerable share of general information respecting country business; the subject of road-making ought to have been well considered by him; his station in society should be such, as to secure to him the support and confidence of the Commissioners, while it commands the obedience and deference of the subordinate officers.

The success of the exertions of individual Commissioners, in particular parts of the country first suggested the opinion, that a better system of road-making might be adopted, and the examples of a better practice extended to all parts of the country; but the benefit can never be rendered thus general, unless accompanied by the zeal and activity that produced it; and this can only be supplied by officers, whose sole duty it shall be, and who will be accountable to the Commissioners under whose orders they act for the execution of the trust confided to them. Gratuitous services are ever temporary and local, they are dependant on the residence, and life of the party; and have always disappointed expectation. Skill and executive labour must be adequately paid for, if expected to be constantly and usefully exerted; and if so exerted, the price is no consideration when compared with the advantage to the public.

From the want of such an officer, the orders of the Commissioners, after having been maturely considered, and wisely given, have fallen, for execution into the hands of Surveyors, selected not unfrequently from the lowest class of the community, who have proceeded without plan or method. The consequence is seen in every corner of the country; want of science in the Surveyor has gone hand in hand with improvident expenditure, to the injury of the roads, and the derangement of the finances. A vigilant and unremitting superintendance is wanting to ensure an economical and effectual execution.

Whether it may not be useful to empower Commissioners in the small Trusts into which the roads of England are unfortunately divided, to unite together in sufficient number to enable them to provide a respectable and efficient executive officer, and for other general purposes of improvement, is humbly submitted to the wisdom of Parliament.

The effect of an active and efficient controul over the Sub-surveyors, in the executive part of their duties; and in rescuing the funds from mis-application and depredation, is exemplified in the measures wisely entered into by the Commissioners for the care of the turnpike roads in the Bristol District, the success of which has amply justified their adoption, the roads having been entirely reformed and put into the best possible state for use, at an expence considerably within the revenue of the Trust. This improved state of the finances has enabled the Commissioners to effect several great permanent improvements, without forgetting the necessary provision for liquidation of the debt, which had accumulated during former years.

PART THIRD.
CARE OF THE FINANCES.

The funds placed by the Legislature at the disposal of the Commissioners for the care of turnpike roads are very considerable, and might be supposed with proper management, fully equal to the object; they arise principally from toll duties, and a proportion of statute labour.

As long as it shall be necessary to raise large sums for the maintenance of roads, the present means must continue; toll duties, although liable to many objections, are so immediately, and effectually productive, that little hope can be entertained of the possibility of their being reduced, until a continuance of a better system shall have materially amended the roads, and reduced the expence, so as to leave means for extinguishing the heavy debt owing by the country for this branch of the public service.

Statute labour, in kind, was decreed by Parliament at a time, when no better means could be devised: when a circulating medium was deficient, and when a fair quantum of labour could not, in many parts of the country, be obtained for money.

Personal labour for a public service can never be made profitable, or fairly productive; at the same time, it is liable to the great objections of being made an instrument of partiality and oppression under the direction of a class of men with whom such a power should never be lodged, and over whom, in this instance, no adequate controul can be placed.

The causes, which operated to induce Parliament to resort to personal service, having ceased, it will be found expedient to commute statute labour for a moderate assessment in money. This has been effected with great advantage in Scotland, by most, if not all of the local and county Acts for turnpike roads.[^[6]]

[6]. It is impossible not to see that statute labour is a remnant of personal service; a gentleman might as well argue at the present day, that rents paid in kind, are more easy and equitable than monied rents, as to defend the custom of mending highways by compulsory labour.

Edgeworth’s Essay on the Construction of

Roads and Carriages, p. 46.

The sum of money annually raised in the kingdom for roads is very great, and would be found, if carefully examined into, much beyond the general belief. Government have procured information, as to the sum raised annually for parish roads (generally denominated highways) but they have not yet enquired into the amount of the much greater sum raised for the maintenance of the turnpike roads, nor into the amount of the debt incurred for the same purpose.

These funds, considerable as they are, continue to be expended, nominally, under the direction of Commissioners, but effectually and practically under the Surveyors, over whom the Commissioners have very uncertain means of useful controul; and there is no doubt, that much abuse exists in the expenditure, partly from ignorance, but much more from peculation and patronage very much misplaced.

Under such circumstances the protection of the funds would be promoted by the inspection and controul of a superior officer; and finally it might be desirable, that a report from each trust should be made to Parliament of the receipt and expenditure for the year.

That the funds provided by Parliament for the roads are either insufficient for the object, or that they are improvidently expended, is best proved by the numerous applications to Parliament in every Session, for extension of powers and increase of tolls; setting forth that without such aid the debts cannot be paid, nor the roads kept in repair. In the Session of Parliament 1815, thirty-four such petitions were presented; and in the Session of 1816, thirty-two; all which bills were passed as a matter of course; the petitioners being only required to prove the actual necessity to the Committee, but no enquiry seems to have been made as to the cause of that necessity.

An efficient, uniform and constant controul of the expenditure of road funds, and an annual report of the result to Parliament would enable the House of Commons to form a judgment, whether the deficiency proceeded from inadequacy of the means, or from improvident expenditure; and thereby that Honourable House would be enabled to use means for preventing the growing amount of debt, which the petitions presented each Sessions sufficiently shew to be increasing to an alarming degree; and which, being incurred under the authority of Parliament, must ultimately become a claim upon the justice of the country.

Upon consideration of this important subject it appears, that a review of the turnpike laws has become indispensable, for the purpose of altering and amending obsolete, useless, and oppressive regulations; and for substituting others more consonant with the present state of society. This review is required by experience of the inadequacy of the present system, to the great object of forming the best and easiest communications through every part of the country, with a due regard to economy; and for preventing the increase of a debt, which has been allowed, in silence, to accumulate to an extent, that will hardly be credited when properly and accurately ascertained.

Many and important improvements have originated from the good sense and zeal of individual Commissioners, or from particular district meetings, the good effects of which have been confined to the place of origin; such improvements have also ceased to operate, on the death or removal of their authors, and have been thereby finally lost, for want of a general superintendance, which would have an interest in the improvement of the whole.

The defective state of the roads, independent of the unnecessary expence, is oppressive on agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, by the increase of the price of transport, by waste of the labour of cattle, and wear of carriages, as well as by causing much delay of time.

Under an efficient and responsible executive department, established and directed by the wisdom of Parliament, this subject would be brought within the means of examination and regulation; and many local improvements, which have been confined to small districts, would be brought forward, and communicated generally for the public benefit.[^[7]]

[7]. Since this Essay was written, I have visited England, and have found, on a journey of many hundred miles, scarcely twenty miles of well-made road. In many parts of the country, and especially round London, the roads are in a shameful condition. This must strike the public; and sooner or later the good sense of the English nation will feel the necessity of adopting some means of improvement.

Edgeworth’s Essay, Preface, p. 7.

In Ireland, the cross roads are generally better than the great roads, and comparing all the roads in that country with the roads in England, the shameful inferiority of the latter would evidently appear.

Edgeworth’s Essay, p. 46.

The Author has abstained from any notice of the parish roads; although their condition and the state of their funds, are more deplorable than that of the turnpike roads. The Legislative enactments for their maintenance and repair are so inadequate to the object, that they may be considered as being placed almost out of the protection of the law.

There can be no apparent good reason, why, such a distinction should be made between the two description of roads; and their being both placed under the care of the Commissioners, with the benefit of the scientific direction of a General Surveyor, would ensure an equal improvement of the parish roads.

The foregoing Remarks on Roads cannot be better concluded than by the following Extract from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons in 1811.

“The many important advantages to be derived from amending the highways and turnpike roads of the kingdom need hardly be dwelt upon. Every individual in it would thereby find his comforts materially increased, and his interest greatly promoted. By the improvement of our roads, every branch of our agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry would be materially benefited. Every article brought to market would be diminished in price; the number of horses would be so much reduced, that by these, and other retrenchments, the expence of FIVE MILLIONS would be annually saved to the public. The expence of repairing roads, and the wear and tear of carriages and horses, would be essentially diminished; and thousands of acres, the produce of which is now wasted in feeding unnecessary horses, would be devoted to the production of food for man. In short, the public and private advantages, which would result from effecting that great object, the improvement of our highways and turnpike roads, are incalculable; though from their being spread over a wide surface, and available in various ways, such advantages will not be so apparent as those derived from other sources of improvement, of a more restricted and less general nature.”

Appendix.

Extracts from Observations on the Highways of the Kingdom, by John Loudon MᶜAdam, presented to a Committee of the House of Commons, and printed by order of the House, 14th June 1811.

“In all the Reports of Committees of the House of Commons on the subject of Roads, they seem to have had principally in view the construction of wheeled carriages, the weights they were to draw, and the breadth and form of their wheels; the nature of the roads on which these carriages were to travel has not been so well attended to.”

“The observations I have made in a period of twenty-six years on the roads of the kingdom, in which time I have travelled over the greater number in England and Scotland, and the opportunities I have had of making comparisons on the different materials and the modes of their application, have led me to form the following conclusions.”

“1st. That the present bad condition of the roads of the kingdom is owing to the injudicious application of the materials with which they are repaired, and to the defective form of the roads.”

“2nd. That the introduction of a better system of making the surface of roads, and the application of scientific principles, which has hitherto never been thought of, would remedy the evil.”

“In illustration of these positions, I beg to observe, that the object to be attained in a good road, as far as regards the surface, is to have it smooth, solid, and so flat as that a carriage may stand upright; these objects are not attained by the present system, because no scientific principles are applied; but it is presumed they are perfectly attainable in all parts of the country.”

“Stone is to be procured in some form in almost every part of the kingdom, and a road made of small broken stone to the depth of ten inches, will be smooth, solid and durable.”

“The materials of which the present roads are composed, are not worn out; but are displaced by the action of the wheels of carriages upon stones of too large a size: the wheel does not pass over the materials of which the road is formed, but is constantly, almost at every step, encountering an obstacle which must either give way and be removed, or the carriage must be lifted by the force of the cattle so as to surmount it; in either case the road is injured, and the carriage impeded, and the injury and impediment will be great in the exact proportion to the number and size of the obstacles.”

“The size of stones for a road has been described in contracts in several different ways, sometimes as the size of a hen’s egg, sometimes at half a pound weight. These descriptions are very vague, the first being an indefinite size, and the latter depending on the density of the stone used, and neither being attended to in the execution. The size of stone used on a road must be in due proportion to the space occupied by a wheel of ordinary dimensions on a smooth level surface, this point of contact will be found to be, longitudinally about an inch, and every piece of stone put into a road, which exceeds an inch in any of its dimensions, is mischievous.”

“The roads in Scotland are worse than those in England, although, materials are more abundant, of better quality, and labour at least as cheap, and the toll duties are nearly double; this is because road-making, that is the surface, is even worse understood in Scotland than in England. By a late discussion in Parliament on the subject of Mail Coaches paying toll, it was universally allowed that the roads in Scotland were in a deplorable state, and in their circumstances, bankrupt.”

Note.—It is understood, that the Postmaster-General was obliged to give up the mail-coach from Glasgow to Ayr, on the road towards Ireland, on account of the expence of tolls, and the bad condition of the road; there being ten turnpike gates on thirty-four miles of road.

During nearly five years that the writer has given his whole attention to the improvement of the Turnpike Roads, experience having confirmed his ideas on the subject, no endeavours have been spared, to extend the benefits which have already resulted to the Bristol district, over the whole country. The very limited means possessed by any individual for influencing this important branch of domestic economy, has occasioned frequent attempts to convey instructions for road-making in writing. This method has never been entirely successful; it being impossible to acquire a mechanical art without actual practice; or to obtain any just ideas of it, beyond the first principles, from books.

These principles are, that a road ought to be considered as an artificial flooring forming a strong, smooth, solid surface, at once capable of carrying great weight, and over which carriages may pass without meeting any impediment.

Directions for Repair of an old Road, being the substance of a Communication made to a Committee of the Honourable House of Commons in 1811, and published with the Report by Order of the House, with additions and alterations, deduced from actual practice during the last three years.

1st February, 1819.

No addition of materials is to be brought upon a road, unless in any part of it be found that there is not a quantity of clean stone equal to ten inches in thickness.

The stone already in the road is to be loosened up and broken, so as no piece shall exceed six ounces in weight.

The road is then to be laid as flat as possible, a rise of three inches from the centre to the side is sufficient for a road thirty feet wide.

The stones when loosened in the road are to be gathered off by means of a strong heavy rake, with teeth two and a half inches in length, to the side of the road, and there broken, and on no account are stones to be broken on the road.

When the great stones have been removed, and none left in the road exceeding six ounces, the road is to be put in shape and a rake employed to smooth the surface, which will at the same time bring to the surface the remaining stone, and will allow the dirt to go down.

When the road is so prepared, the stone that has been broken by the side of the road is then to be carefully spread on it—this is rather a nice operation, and the future quality of the road will greatly depend on the manner in which it is performed. The stone must not be laid on in shovels full, but scattered over the surface, one shovel full following another and spreading over a considerable space.

Only a small space of road should be lifted at once; five men in a gang should be set to lift it all across: two men should continue to pick up and rake off the large stones and to form the road for receiving the broken stone, the other three should break stones—the broken stone to be laid on as soon as the piece of road is prepared to receive it, and then break up another piece; two or three yards at one lift is enough.

The proportioning the work among the five men must of course be regulated by the nature of the road; when there are many very large stones, the three breakers may not be able to keep pace with the two men employed in lifting and forming, and when there are few large stones the contrary may be the case; of all this the Surveyor must judge and direct.

But while it is recommended to lift and relay roads which have been made with large stone, or with large stone mixed with clay, chalk or other mischievous materials, there are many cases in which it would be highly unprofitable to lift and relay a road, even if the materials should have been originally too large.

The road between Cirencester and Bath is made of stone too large in size, but it is of so friable a nature that in lifting it becomes sand; in this case I recommended cutting down the high places, keeping the surface smooth and gradually wearing out the materials now in the road, and then replacing them with some stone of a better quality properly prepared.

In like manner a part of the road in the Bath district is made of freestone which it would be unprofitable to lift.

At Egham in Surrey, it was necessary to remove the whole road to separate the small portion of valuable materials from the mass of soft matter of which it was principally composed which was removed at considerable expence, before a road could be again made upon the site.

Other cases of several kinds have occurred where a different method must be adopted, but which it is impossible to specify, and must be met by the practical skill of the Officer whose duty it may be to superintend the repair of a road, and who must constantly recur to general principles. These principles are uniform, however much circumstances may differ, and they must form the guide by which his judgment must be always directed.

When additional stone is wanted on a road that has consolidated by use, the old hardened surface of the road is to be loosened with a pick, in order to make the fresh materials unite with the old.

Carriages, whatever be the construction of their wheels, will make ruts in a new-made road until it consolidates, however well the materials may be prepared, or however judiciously applied; therefore a careful person must attend for some time after the road is opened for use, to rake in the track made by wheels.

The only proper method of breaking stones, both for effect and economy, is by persons sitting; the stones are to be placed in small heaps, and women, boys, or old men past hard labour, must sit down with small hammers and break them, so as none shall exceed six ounces in weight.

The Tools to be used are,—

Strong picks, but short from the handle to the point, for lifting the road.

Small hammers of about one pound weight in the head, the face the size of a new shilling, well steeled, with a short handle.

Rakes with wooden heads, ten inches in length, and iron teeth about two and a half inches in length, very strong for raking out the large stones when the road is broken up, and for keeping the road smooth after being relaid, and while it is consolidating.

Very light broad-mouthed shovels, to spread the broken stone and to form the road.

Every road is to be made of broken stone without mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any other matter that will imbibe water, and be affected with frost; nothing is to be laid on the clean stone on pretence of binding; broken stone will combine by its own angles into a smooth solid surface that cannot be affected by vicissitudes of weather, or displaced by the action of wheels, which will pass over it without a jolt, and consequently without injury.

PRICES.

The price of lifting a rough road, breaking the stones, forming the road, smoothing the surface, cleaning out the watercourses, and replacing the stone, leaving the road in a finished state, has been found in practice to be from one penny to two-pence per superficial yard, lifted four inches deep; the variation of price depends on the greater or lesser quantity of stone to be broken.

At two-pence per yard, a road of six yards wide will cost, therefore, one shilling per running yard, or 88l. per mile.

Any rough road may be rendered smooth and solid at this price, unless it be weak and require an addition of stone, or require some very material alteration of shape.

Breaking stone has been reduced in price by the use of more proper hammers, and the sitting posture.

The Commissioners at Bristol used to pay fifteen pence per ton for limestone from Durdham Down, for the use of their roads, and broken to a size above twenty ounces.—Stone is now procured from the same place, broken so as none exceed six ounces for ten-pence per ton! and the workmen are very desirous of contracts at that rate, because the heavy work is done by the men, the light work with small hammers by the wives and children, so that whole families are employed.

In Sussex, the proportion is greater between former and present prices; the breaking of flint cost at one time two shillings per ton, and is now done, by introducing a better method and fitter tools at one shilling per ton.

By a more judicious preparation and application of materials the quantity of stone consumed in roads is decreased, by which a great saving of expence is made, and with this great advantage, that the saving is in horse labour of cartage, while the labour price is given to men, and in such a manner as includes boys from the age of ten upwards, women and old men past the age of being able to labour hard. The proportion of men and horse labour in the Bristol district, under the former management, was

One-fourth to men’s labour,

Three-fourths to horse labour.

Under a better system of management the proportion has been exactly reversed: during half a year that an exact account was kept, there was paid.

This immense advantage is presented in every part of the country, as roads are confined to no particular place, and are universally in want of repair: ample funds are already provided for every useful and proper purpose, although at present misapplied in almost every part of the kingdom, while the labourers are in want of that employment which it ought to afford them.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE PRESIDENT,
AND
THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Having communicated to your Honourable Board, some observations on making and repairing roads, in February, 1819, I beg leave to add the following, which have arisen from increased experience on the subject, and also from a desire of calling your attention to the effects of the late severe winter on the roads of the country, and the confirmation afforded to the opinions I have endeavoured to introduce on the construction of roads.

During the late winter, and particularly in the month of January, 1820, when the frost was succeeded by a sudden thaw, accompanied by the melting of snow, the roads of the kingdom broke up in a very alarming manner, and to an extent that created great loss and inconvenience by the interruption of communication, and the delay of the mails, and also occasioned a very heavy extra expenditure by the Post-office.

The obvious cause of this defect of the roads, was the admission of water from the loose and unskilful method of their construction. Previous to the severe frost, the roads were filled with water, which had penetrated through the ill-prepared and unskilfully laid materials: this caused an immediate expansion of the whole mass during the frost, and upon a sudden thaw, the roads became quite loose, and the wheels of carriages penetrated to the original soil, which was also saturated with water, from the open state of the road. By this means, many roads became altogether impassable, while the whole were rendered deep and inconvenient to be travelled upon.

In particular, it was observed, that all the roads of which chalk was a component part, became, generally, impassable; and even, that the roads made over chalk soils gave way in most places. This evidently proceeded from the absorbent quality of chalk, which renders it so tenacious of water, that I consider its use to be one of the most dangerous errors in road making. I was induced on former occasions to recommend particular care in making roads over chalk soils, and to advise a discontinuance of the practice of mixing chalk, clay, or any other matter that holds water, with the materials of a road. The experience of last winter has confirmed this opinion, and has shewn the ruinous effects of the former method.

Of all the roads which have been thoroughly re-made, according to the directions which I had the honour to submit to your Honourable Board last spring, not one has given way, nor has any delay taken place through the severity of the late season.

As every winter has, in some degree, presented such inconveniences, and as it has been observed that very severe winters occur in England every six or seven years, it is of great consequence to consider of the means of constructing the roads of the kingdom in such a manner as shall prevent their being in future affected by any change of weather or season.

The roads can never be rendered thus perfectly secure, until the following principles be fully understood, admitted, and acted upon: namely, that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of traffic: that while it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight without sinking, and that it does in fact carry the road and the carriages also; that this native soil must previously be made quite dry, and a covering impenetrable to rain, must then be placed over it, to preserve it in that dry state; that the thickness of a road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to form such impervious covering, and never by any reference to its own power of carrying weight.

The erroneous opinion so long acted upon, and so tenaciously adhered to, that by placing a large quantity of stone under the roads, a remedy will be found for the sinking into wet clay, or other soft soils, or in other words, that a road may be made sufficiently strong, artificially, to carry heavy carriages, though the sub-soil be in a wet state, and by such means to avert the inconveniences of the natural soil receiving water from rain, or other causes, has produced most of the defects of the roads of Great Britain.

At one time I had formed the opinion that this practice was only a useless expence, but experience has convinced me that it is likewise positively injurious.

It is well known to every skilful and observant road-maker, that if strata of stone of various sizes be placed as a road, the largest stones will constantly work up by the shaking and pressure of the traffic, and that the only mode of keeping the stones of a road from motion, is to use materials of a uniform size from the bottom. In roads made upon large stones as a foundation, the perpetual motion, or change of the position of the materials, keeps open many apertures through which the water passes.

It has also been found, that roads placed upon a hard bottom, wear away more quickly than those which are placed upon a soft soil. This has been apparent upon roads where motives of economy, or other causes, have prevented the road being lifted to the bottom at once; the wear has always been found to diminish, as soon as it was possible to remove the hard foundation. It is a known fact, that a road lasts much longer over a morass than when made over rock. The evidence produced before the Committee of the House of Commons, shewed the comparison on the road between Bristol and Bridgwater, to be as five to seven in favour of the wearing on the morass, where the road is laid on the naked surface of the soil, against a part of the same road made over rocky ground.

The practice common in England, and universal in Scotland, on the formation of a new road, is, to dig a trench below the surface of the ground adjoining, and in this trench to deposit a quantity of large stones; after this, a second quantity of stone, broken smaller, generally to about seven or eight pounds weight; these previous beds of stone are called the bottoming of the road, and are of various thickness, according to the caprice of the maker, and generally in proportion to the sum of money placed at his disposal. On some new roads, made in Scotland, in the summer of 1819, the thickness exceeded three feet.

That which is properly called the road, is then placed on the bottoming, by putting large quantities of broken stone or gravel, generally a foot or eighteen inches thick, at once upon it.

Were the materials of which the road itself is composed, properly selected, prepared, and laid, some of the inconveniences of this system might be avoided; but in the careless way in which this service is generally performed, the road is as open as a sieve to receive water; which penetrates through the whole mass, is received and retained in the trench, whence the road is liable to give way in all changes of weather.

A road formed on such principles has never effectually answered the purpose which the road-maker should constantly have in view; namely, to make a secure, level flooring, over which carriages may pass with safety, and equal expedition, at all seasons of the year.

If it be admitted, as I believe it is now very generally, that in this kingdom an artificial road is only required to obviate the inconvenience of a very unsettled climate; and that water with alternate frost and thaw, are the evils to be guarded against, it must be obvious that nothing can be more erroneous than providing a reservoir for water under the road and giving facility to the water to pass through the road into this trench, where it is acted upon by frost to the destruction of the road.

As no artificial road can ever be made so good, and so useful as the natural soil in a dry state, it is only necessary to procure, and preserve this dry state of so much ground as is intended to be occupied by a road.

The first operation in making a road should be the reverse of digging a trench. The road should not be sunk below, but rather raised above, the ordinary level of the adjacent ground, care should at any rate be taken, that there be a sufficient fall to take off the water, so that it should always be some inches below the level of the ground upon which the road is intended to be placed: this must be done, either by making drains to lower ground, or if that be not practicable, from the nature of the country, then the soil upon which the road is proposed to be laid, must be raised by addition, so as to be some inches above the level of the water.

Having secured the soil from under water, the road-maker is next to secure it from rain water, by a solid road, made of clean, dry stone, or flint, so selected, prepared, and laid, as to be perfectly impervious to water: and this cannot be effected, unless the greatest care be taken, that no earth, clay, chalk, or other matter, that will hold or conduct water, be mixed with the broken stone; which must be so prepared and laid, as to unite by its own angles into a firm, compact, impenetrable body.

The thickness of such road is immaterial, as to its strength for carrying weight; this object is already obtained by providing a dry surface, over which the road is to be placed as a covering, or roof, to preserve it in that state: experience having shewn, that if water passes through a road, and fill the native soil, the road, whatever may be its thickness, loses its support, and goes to pieces.

In consequence of an alteration in the line of the turnpike road, near Rownham Ferry, in the parish of Ashton, near Bristol, it has been necessary to remove the old road. This road was lifted and relaid very skilfully in 1816; since which time it has been in contemplation to change the line, and consequently, it has been suffered to wear very thin. At present it is not above three inches thick in most places, and in none more than four: yet on removing the road it was found, that no water had penetrated, nor had the frost affected it during all the late winter; and the natural earth beneath the road was found perfectly dry.

Several new roads have been constructed an this principle within the last three years. Part of the great north road from London by Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire—two pieces of road on Durdham Down, and at Rownham Ferry, near Bristol—with several private roads, in the eastern part of Sussex.

None of those roads exceed six inches in thickness, and although that on the great north road is subjected to a very heavy traffic, (being only fifteen miles distant from London) it has not given way, nor was it affected by the late severe winter; when the roads between that and London became impassable, by breaking up to the bottom, and the mails and other coaches were obliged to reach London by circuitous routes. It is worthy of observation, that these bad roads cost more money per mile for their annual repair, than the original making of this useful new road.

Improvement of roads, upon the principle I have endeavoured to explain, has been rapidly extended during the last four years. It has been carried into effect, on various roads, and with every variety of material, in seventeen different counties. These roads being so constructed as to exclude water, consequently none of them broke up during the late severe winter; there was no interruption to travelling, nor any additional expense by the Post-office in conveying the mails over them, to the extent of upwards of one thousand miles of road.

Many new roads, and to a considerable extent, are projected for the ensuing season. Some of them are to be assisted by grants or loans from government, and it will be a great saving of property, and enable government to extend their assistance more effectually, if these roads be made in the most approved and economical manner.

The unnecessary expense attending the making of new roads in the manner hitherto practised, is one great cause of the present heavy debt upon the road trusts of the kingdom. The principal part of the large sums originally borrowed, have been sunk in the useless, and in my opinion, mischievous preparation, of a foundation. This debt presses heavily on the funds of all the roads in England, and, in many cases, absorbs almost their whole revenue in payment of interest. In Scotland this pressure is still more heavily felt: indeed it is not of uncommon occurrence in that country, for creditors to lose both principal and interest of their loans to roads.

This causes not only a great and unnecessary loss in the first instance, and a deficiency of means for ordinary repair, and maintenance of the roads, but it also discourages the formation of new roads. Were a better and more economical system generally adopted and acted upon, many great additions and improvements of the communications of the country would take place, from which, at present, the landholders are deterred, by fear of the extent of the expense, and the difficulty of obtaining loans of money.

The measure of substituting pavements, for convenient and useful roads, is a kind of desperate remedy, to which ignorance has had recourse. The badness, or scarcity of materials, cannot be considered a reasonable excuse; because the same quantity of stone required for paving, is fully sufficient to make an excellent road any where: and it must be evident, that road materials of the best quality may be procured at less cost than paving stone.

The very bad quality of the gravel round London, combined with want of skill and exertion, either to obviate its defects, or to procure a better material, has induced several of the small trusts, leading from that city, to have recourse to the plan of paving their roads, as far as their means will admit. Instead of applying their ample funds to obtain good materials for the roads, they have imported stone from Scotland, and have paved their roads, at an expense ten times greater than that of the excellent roads lately made on some of the adjoining trusts. Very few of these pavements have been so laid as to keep in good order for any length of time; so that a very heavy expense has been incurred without any beneficial result, and it is to be lamented that this wasteful and ineffectual mode is upon the increase in the neighbourhood of London.

This practice has also been adopted in places where the same motive cannot be adduced: in Lancashire, almost all the roads are paved at an enormous cost, and are, in consequence, proverbially bad. At Edinburgh, where they have the best and cheapest materials in the kingdom, the want of science to construct good roads, has led the trustees to adopt the expedient of pavements, to a considerable extent; and at an expense hardly credible, when compared with what would have been the cost of roads on the best principles.

The advantages of good roads, when compared with pavements, are universally acknowledged; the extension of pavement is therefore to be deprecated as an actual evil, besides the greatness of the expence. Pavements are particularly inconvenient and dangerous on steep ascents, such as the ascent to bridges, &c. A very striking example of this may be observed on the London end of Blackfriars Bridge, where heavy loads are drawn up with great difficulty, and where more horses fall and receive injury, than in any other place in the kingdom. The pavement in such places should be lifted, and converted into a good road; which may be done with the same stone, at an expense not exceeding ten-pence per square yard. This road would be more lasting than the pavement, and, when out of order, may be repaired at less than one-tenth of the expense which relaying the pavement would require.

This measure has been adopted with great success, and considerable saving of expense, in the suburbs of Bristol, where the pavements were taken up, and converted into good roads, about three years ago.

The advantages of the system recommended is so obvious to common observation in the repair of old roads, and has been practised to an extent so considerable, during the last four years, that the minds of most people have become reconciled to it; and objections, founded on old prejudice and suspicion, have given way to experience, but the application of the same principles to the construction of new roads, has necessarily been much more limited. It will, therefore, require more liberality and confidence on the part of country gentlemen, and also more patient investigation of the principles on which the system is founded, before they will allow of its adoption on new lines of road. It is to be hoped, however, that the importance of the subject will recommend it to general consideration.

REPORT
FROM THE
SELECT COMMITTEE
ON THE
HIGHWAYS OF THE KINGDOM:
TOGETHER WITH THE
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE
TAKEN BEFORE THEM.

REPORT.

The Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the Acts now in force regarding the Turnpike Roads and Highways in England and Wales, and the expediency of additional Regulations for their better repair and preservation, and to report their Observations thereupon from time to time to the House; and to whom the Petitions of Joseph D. Bassett, John Richards Reed, and John Martin; and of several Trustees of Turnpike Roads in the Counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, were referred;—Have, pursuant to the Orders of the House, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following REPORT:

Your Committee considered it their indispensable duty to direct their first attention to the Reports of former Committees, appointed to investigate the same important subject; in these Reports, as well as in the documents subjoined to them, are to be found much scientific information, and many valuable suggestions, which have doubtless tended to aid the progress of improvement in the art of making and preserving roads. Still the object of amending the laws which relate to them has been unattained, the bills introduced with a partial view to that purpose having been lost in their progress through Parliament, and the suggestions for more general improvements having been allowed to remain without further notice.

If your Committee may be permitted to assign the probable reasons of this discouraging result of the labours of their predecessors, they would venture to suggest, that too wide a field of inquiry was taken to lead to immediate practical benefit: that some of the systems most confidently recommended were of a novel and speculative nature; that the regulations which it was proposed to found on them too strongly affected the interests of vested property; and that even the most valuable information communicated to the House rested upon ingenious theories, which had then been very partially, if at all, reduced to practice, or submitted to fair experiment.

As the considerations which influenced the appointment of the present Committee, avowedly sprang from the successful trial of an improved system of making roads, your Committee have judged it right to institute a particular examination into all the circumstances of that experiment, and the various instances in which the example has been followed.

Mr. John Loudon MᶜAdam having for many years directed his attention, as a magistrate and a commissioner, to the improvement of roads, was induced to accept the situation of general surveyor of an extensive trust round the city of Bristol.

The admirable state of repair into which the roads under his direction were brought, attracted very general attention; and induced the commissioners of various districts to apply for his assistance or advice.

The general testimony borne to his complete success wherever he has been employed, and the proof that his improvements have been attended with an actual reduction of expense, while they have afforded the most useful employment to the poor, induce your Committee to attach a high degree of importance to that which he has already accomplished. The imitation of his plans is rendered easy by their simplicity, and by the candour with which he has explained them, though ability in the surveyor to judge of their application must be understood as an essential requisite.

Your Committee have dwelt on this improved system of making roads, as a preliminary consideration to any alteration of the laws, being persuaded that it is of essential importance to adapt the law to new circumstances; that the first step requisite is to take effectual measures for ensuring the formation of good roads; and that their preservation afterwards, if proper principles for their repair be once adopted, will require fewer legislative regulations than former inquirers have deemed necessary.

For a full elucidation of the methods pursued by Mr. MᶜAdam your Committee beg leave to refer to his evidence in the Appendix annexed, as well as to that of his son, and of different Commissioners who had witnessed the success of his plans.

But though your Committee have limited their first inquiries to the actual state of the turnpike roads, and the results of recent plans for their improvement, they have by no means confined their researches to the operations or the opinions of one individual. In the evidence which they subjoin will be found, in the first place, a description of the present general defects of the turnpike roads, given by those whose employments and interest render them best acquainted with the nature and extent of the evil; and this exposition is followed not only by the detail of Mr. MᶜAdam’s system, already alluded to, but by the evidence of other eminent surveyors and civil engineers, under whose superintendence the latest and most perfect improvements have been effected.

Your Committee consider that high praise is due to the superior science exhibited by Mr. Telford, in tracing and forming the new roads in North Wales; but they contented themselves with a general inquiry into his plans, aware that their merits would be particularly brought under the eye of the House in the Reports of the Committee on the Holyhead Roads.

The concurrent testimony of all the witnesses examined by your Committee establishes the fact that the general state of the turnpike roads in England and Wales is extremely defective, but at the same time proves that proper management is alone wanted to effect the most desirable reformation. It is not the least interesting result of the researches of your Committee, that the most improved system is demonstrated to be the most economical; that even the first effectual repair of a bad road may be accomplished with little, if any, increase of expenditure; and that its future preservation in good order will, under judicious management, be attended with a considerable annual saving to the public.

There is no point upon which a more decided coincidence of opinion exists amongst all those who profess what may now be called the science of road-making, than that the first effectual step towards general improvement must be the employment of persons of superior ability and experience as superintending surveyors.

Your Committee, fully concurring in this opinion, have anxiously considered in what manner this object can be attained with the least expense to the country, and the least injurious or offensive interference with existing customs and authorities.

Various are the plans which have been brought under their consideration for altering the general constitution of the laws affecting the management of Turnpike Roads, proposing either to annex the superintendence and patronage to some of the existing departments of Government, or to constitute a new Board of Commissioners expressly for this object.

Your Committee forbear to detail the reasons which induce them to withhold their recommendation from any of these plans, whatever advantages they might afford in unity or vigour of management.

They are of opinion, that many important reasons exist for leaving generally the direction of the affairs of the different turnpike trusts in the hands of their respective Commissioners, whose experience, character and interest, afford the best pledges of ability, attention and economy. If your Committee think it necessary to propose, in one respect, an interference with their appointments, it by no means proceeds from any distrust of their judgment or integrity.

The duties of a head surveyor demand suitable education and talents. These qualifications must be fairly remunerated; and it is evident, that the limited extent of the funds of Turnpike Trusts, in general, do not afford the means of paying to such an officer an adequate salary. The difficulty might in many instances be obviated by voluntary associations, but where the system is wished to be universal, it ought not to be left to so precarious a dependence.

The plan to which your Committee, after full consideration, are disposed to give the preference, is that of empowering the magistrates of every county, assembled in quarter sessions, to appoint one or more surveyors general, who shall have the superintendence and management of the turnpike roads within the county, under the authority and direction of the Commissioners of the different trusts. It is not necessary at present to enter on the detailed regulations by which the executive duties of such an officer should be prescribed, so as to keep them under the deliberative control of the Commissioners, whose meetings he should attend, and to whom he should uniformly report on the improvements and alterations he may wish to recommend within their trusts.

Your Committee are of opinion, that the most eligible mode of paying the salary of this officer would be by an uniform rate per mile upon all the roads within the county; to be fixed by the magistrates at quarter sessions, and paid from the funds of the respective trusts.

The success of this plan of appointing general county surveyors will, in a great degree, depend upon the firmness evinced by the magistrates, in laying aside every consideration of personal favour, and impartially looking to integrity, talents, and energy of character, as the recommendations for office; some skill in the science of an engineer should also be regarded as a valuable qualification.

Your Committee have manifested their general disinclination to any interference with the honourable and gratuitous discharge of the functions of the Commissioners of Turnpike Trusts; in one instance, however, they are disposed to depart from the principle which they have recommended. A full consideration of the evidence relative to the defective state, and injudicious management of the roads round the Metropolis, and of the advantages which would accrue from a consolidation of the numerous small Trusts into which they are most inconveniently divided, induce your Committee to express to the House their strong recommendation, that a special Act of Parliament may be passed for uniting all the Trusts within a distance of about ten miles round London under one set of Commissioners. It is to these roads that the heaviest complaints made by the coachmasters, and the surveyor of mail coaches under the post-office, principally apply; and whether an improvement is to be effected by the importation of flint, and other common materials, or by laying granite pavement in the centre or sides of the roads, it is evident that, “the measure to be performed in an economical and efficient manner, must be done upon an extended scale it must become one interest, directed by one select body of men, of weight, ability, and character.”

It is the object of the recommendation of your Committee to render the roads round the Metropolis a pattern for the kingdom, by the introduction of the most judicious system of formation and repair, which will thus be brought under general inspection; and the spirit of improvement, radiating from this centre, may be expected to spread with rapidity throughout the country, and to diffuse “those incalculable public and private advantages,” which a former Committee anticipated from the accomplishment of this great national object.

Your Committee are deeply sensible of the consideration due to the persons whose property is invested in the funds of these Trusts, as well as to those who now act as Commissioners. They are perfectly aware of the jealousy with which the House may view any proposition for the creation of new offices of patronage and profit; and they do not disguise their conviction, that it will be found expedient to remunerate those efficient Commissioners who are expected to devote their time to the performance of active duties.

Your Committee however anticipate, that if the House shall approve the formation of a Board of Commissioners for this object, they will deem it proper to place at its head some persons of eminent station and character, as a security for the independence and respectability of its proceedings.

All these considerations certainly require cautious deliberation, and delicacy in arranging the plan; but your Committee feel confident that the wisdom and judgment of the House will find the means of surmounting the difficulties, without injustice, or hazardous innovation.

It is obvious, that the formation of this distinct central authority will be best effected by the introduction of a separate Bill, while the plan of empowering the magistrates to appoint county surveyors would naturally form part of a general Bill for amending the laws relating to Turnpike Roads.

Your Committee have weighed, with much attention, the comparative advantages of an attempt to amend these laws by supplemental enactments, and of the comprehensive plan of endeavouring to embody in one Act of Parliament all that is valuable in the old laws, with the addition of such new regulations as are acknowledged to be desirable.

The Committee of 1811 were impressed with the expedience of “combining the old and new regulations into one general code, divided into two branches, one regarding the Highways, and the other regarding Turnpike Roads,” though they considered that “it would require more time and labour than those who have not had some experience in the drawing up of such laws can be at all aware of.”

“Your Committee do not hesitate to avow their opinion, that unless this task, however arduous be accomplished, the laws relating to roads must remain in an incomplete, uncertain, and inconvenient state. They cannot doubt that the House will agree with them that the promotion of such a measure is deserving of legal assistance on the part of his Majesty’s government, to those who are disposed to apply their time and attention to the undertaking; and they indulge the hope, that if the House shall think fit to reappoint a Committee for the same object in the next session of Parliament, much may be found done for the preparation of such a bill.”

Your Committee themselves have not been inattentive to many of the amendments which they think it ought to embrace, some of which they proceed to particularize for the consideration of those members whose attention may be drawn to the subject of this Report.

There is no object which appears more deserving of regulation than the expense attending the passing and renewing of Turnpike Acts. This might be lessened by comprising in a general Act such customary clauses as are applicable to all trusts, and by dispensing with the attendance of witnesses in London to prove the notices required by the orders of the House; but a still greater advantage would be gained by extending the period of the duration of these Acts, and providing for their renewal without the payment of fees.

A general commutation for statute labour appears to be required, both for public advantage and private convenience. The amount of composition might be levied as a rate; and it will become a subject of consideration, whether some better principle may not be laid down for apportioning the money thus collected between the highways and turnpike roads.

The advantage of authorizing parish officers to contract with the commissioners for the repair of the roads passing through the parish by labourers belonging to it, has been strongly pressed on the attention of your Committee, but though they are disposed to admit that such a system may often afford desirable relief to the parishes, they are not equally satisfied that it will have a tendency to promote the improvement of the roads. They think it right to bring the proposition under the consideration of the House, though they are too diffident of its utility to venture to add to it their recommendation.

It seems generally admitted, that the present exemptions from toll granted to broad-wheeled waggons require to be revised, as the enormous weights which they carry render them more destructive to the materials of the roads than their supposed advantage in consolidating them can compensate. Without entering into the yet unsettled controversy respecting the superior utility of conical, barrelled, or cylindrical wheels, for the purpose of draught, it is perfectly evident, that the narrow part of the surface upon which wheels of the two first descriptions meet the ground, cannot give them the advantage of the roller. As soon as impolitic exemptions shall be abolished, and the tolls be regulated upon all carts and waggons, with wheels of a moderate width, in proportion either to the weight carried, or the number of horses, there will no longer be the same temptation to carry excessive loads; and it is probable that a new practice, regulated by private interest, may render it unnecessary to limit the weight allowed to be taken.

Some regulations appear to be absolutely required in respect to the conduct of tollkeepers, and the liability of renters, for the penalties imposed on their servants.

Your Committee have thus noticed a few of those objects of amendment which have presented themselves to their consideration. To reduce these and other proposed improvements into proper form—to digest the various provisions of former Acts—to expunge what is useless or injurious,—to reconcile what is contradictory—to re-model and arrange what is sound and useful, will require the assistance of the best legal judgment. Your Committee however, after having thus availed themselves of the power granted by the house, of reporting the partial result of their investigations, will continue to make such inquiries, and to collect such materials, as may pave the way for the accomplishment of that important undertaking.

It will at once be seen, that they have confined themselves to one branch of the work committed to them, having conceived it to be more judicious not to distract their own attention and that of the House by too many subjects of inquiry, but to pursue that which they first undertook to a practical result.

Should the House adopt their recommendation of renewing the Committee in another session, the subject of the Highways will naturally engage their attention as soon as they shall have fully matured the plan for amending the laws relating to the Turnpike Roads.

25th June, 1819.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.

WITNESSES:

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.

Martis, 2º die Martij, 1819.
EDWARD PROTHEROE, ESQUIRE,
In the Chair.

Charles Johnson, Esquire, called in; and Examined.

You are surveyor and superintendent of mail coaches under the Post Master General?—Yes.

How long have you held that office?—Not twelve months yet.

Has your attention been directed, in the execution of the duties of that office, to the state of the turnpike roads throughout the kingdom?—I have given a general attention to the subject, and I have had occasion, of course, to give particular attention to it, when complaints have been made of loss of time.

In what state of repair do you consider the turnpike roads to be, generally throughout the kingdom?—I certainly (as far as I have had an opportunity of inspecting them) consider, that almost all the roads might be improved; but there are very few instances in which I should have thought it necessary to advise the Post Master General to interfere, except in the more immediate neighbourhood of London.

It is not the practice of the Post-office to interfere in the mode you mention, by indictment, unless the evil has arisen to a very great pitch?—Not until it has arisen to a very considerable evil.

Do you consider that the general defective state of the road arises from any local disadvantages, or from mismanagement in regard to the funds, or the application of materials?—That question involves so many considerations, that I hardly know how to give an answer to it; but I think, that in general one may observe a great want of that skill in forming the road and keeping it in repair, which is very obvious in some parts of the country.

Do you consider that the defects you have mentioned in the neighbourhood of London, arise from any local disadvantages, or from the roads been worse managed?—It is generally understood that in the neighbourhood of London they have not so good materials to repair the roads with, being chiefly gravel; but I think I may say, that there is certainly a want of attention and of care.

Have you known instances in the neighbourhood of London where better roads have been obtained by superior management?—In the early part of the winter we were under such great difficulties with respect to the Exeter mail coach, that I was under the necessity of applying to the Egham trust. It was at that time reported to me, that the whole town of Egham had been covered with gravel unsifted, eight or nine inches deep from side to side; the consequence of that was, that the mail coach lost ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes every night. We were given afterwards to understand that the commissioners had put that particular road under the care of Mr. MᶜAdam, and at this time I have no sort of occasion whatever to complain of it.

Generally speaking, do you consider that the mails are detained more by the bad state of the roads in the neighbourhood of London than elsewhere?—They certainly have more difficulty in passing to and from London for the first fifty or sixty miles, than in almost any other part of the country. It is in the nights we have the heaviest weights, and therefore it is very desirable that the roads near town should be rather better, than worse than others.

Has your attention been particularly directed to the state of the roads in other parts of the kingdom lately?—I travelled a considerable distance last autumn in the north of England. Certainly I considered the roads that I passed over there, to be very superior in general to what they are in the first hundred miles from the metropolis. Subsequently to that, I have had occasion to travel throughout North Wales, and I gave particular attention to the Holyhead line of road.

By what road?—By Coventry. The roads which are found in North Wales are remarkably good, and in my humble opinion, show great science in the formation of them. The new roads I mean. The materials in that country are of course very good. On this side of Birmingham, which is also the road to Liverpool, there is great occasion to complain, particularly from Dunchurch to Daventry. At this time that road is in a very neglected state, very heavy, narrow, and blocked up by banks of drift. I have had occasion to apply to that trust, but I do not learn that any thing has been done.

Have you found the system of indictment afford any effectual remedy for the evils which you have had cause to observe in that way?—I think we have. But there have been very few indictments preferred for some years past; the postmaster general not thinking it right to press upon the districts during the season of agricultural distress. I should say, we do not consider that any reason, at present, for abstaining.

Have you experienced from the commissioners, a disposition, generally, to attend to such complaints as you have found occasion to make?—Such applications as I have had occasion to make appear to have been very well received; but I cannot say, that in many instances the roads have been much improved. I will add to this answer, that I lately passed over the road from Oxford through Henley to London; and although that is one of the roads complained much of, it is certainly, at this time, in a very improper state.

In such cases do you not follow up your measures by stronger proceedings, by indictment?—I think that in this case it would be necessary to renew our applications, and perhaps to proceed by indictment; but I have considered it prudent not to interfere, chiefly in contemplation of the proceedings of this Committee.

From what you have seen of the new roads in Wales, do you not conceive that nearly all the turnpike roads in England are capable of very considerable improvement, by an application of equal skill in the disposition of the materials employed upon them?—I certainly do.

Mr. William Waterhouse, called in; and Examined.

You keep the Swan-with-two-Necks in Lad-lane?—I belong to the premises; I don’t keep the house; I am the coachmaster.

You are the proprietor of many mail and other coaches?—I am.

As the proprietor of mail and stage coaches, has your attention been directed to the state of the roads over which they travel?—Yes, it has.

Inform the Committee whether you think the roads are in such a state of repair as they might be, under proper management, with the advantages they possess?—Taking them generally, I think they are not.

Do you consider that the amount of the tolls at present received would be sufficient to place them in a state of good repair, under proper management?—From what information I have been able to obtain of the sums which the gates are let for upon several trusts, it is my opinion that the money so received is quite sufficient to put them in a very good state. For instance, there is one trust, which is called the Daventry trust, leading from Old Stratford to Dunchurch; their tolls, I understand, produce more than 100l. a mile per annum. Very little improvement has been made in that trust; and the roads are very unsafe, and in a bad condition altogether.

Do you consider that that arises from want of proper materials, or want of proper skill in making use of them?—From both. The materials that they have in that neighbourhood, in my opinion, are not good; and the people that they employ upon the roads are not equal to the task, and therefore they are very much neglected. The surveyors and the men that work under them are insufficient.

Do you know of any instances where similar disadvantages have been surmounted by proper skill and ingenuity?—I believe I can state that upon one particular trust that has been the case. I believe they call it the Hockliffe trust. It is but a short distance, but very great improvements have been made upon it. The great improvements that have been made there, I am informed by several of the commissioners, have been done through their skilful and attentive surveyors. They have improved that trust very much indeed. I believe I can mention another road out of London that has been much improved, I mean the Essex road, (their surveyor being a clever man, and competent to understand his business,) between Whitechapel church and Brentwood.

Are there any particular defects in the management of the roads generally, which you think might be remedied, that you can point out to the Committee?—In the first place, there may be great improvements by the proper formation of the roads. I know, in some places, particularly from here down to Colney, where there is a clayey bottom, and upon that line of road there are a great many land springs; those springs frequently work up through the gravel, and injure the road very materially. When that is the case I consider that they should under-drain the road, and take away these land springs, which would be the means of having the roads firm and hard, much harder than they are now.

Is it not a common defect to place the gravel on the road without being sufficiently sifted or washed?—Very much so.

Do you not consider it as a bad system, likewise, to place the gravel so much in the centre of the road, thereby rendering it of too great convexity?—Yes, certainly. I think it is laid generally too thick and too high in the middle. There is no necessity for the roads being rounded so much.

Have you known any accidents to have arisen from the steepness of the road?—Yes; several accidents with my coaches, as well as those of other people, in consequence of the road being laid so very high in the middle.

Is not that shape of the road likewise attended with a disadvantage in the draft of the carriage?—I consider it so, inasmuch as it flings the weight too much on one side.

Is not a great loss sustained by the proprietors of stage coaches, in consequence of the badness of the roads, in the wearing out of their horses?—Yes; particularly so the first fifty or sixty miles from London.

With regard to the performance of time by the mail coaches, do you find that you labour under greater difficulty on the roads near London, than on those at a greater distance from town?—I am certain we do. It requires a greater quantity of horses to perform the duty, and, in my opinion, it requires ten horses to perform the same number of miles for the first fifty out of London, that might be done by eight, with the same speed, beyond that distance.

Is there any difference in the value of the horses used near town and at a distance from it?—I can buy horses at 15l. a piece that will perform the duty, at a distance from London, equal to those that we are obliged to give 30l. a piece for, on the average, for the work near town.

Are you in the habit of working coaches to a greater than fifty miles from London?—Not at this time; I have worked coaches as far as one hundred miles distance from London, and I always found there that eight horses would perform as many miles as ten, the first fifty miles out of London.

Have not the tolls very much increased of late years under new acts of parliament?—It is my opinion that the tolls generally have doubled within these last fifteen years.

Have the roads improved in any degree in the same proportion?—No, they have not.

Have you calculated the average rate per mile which a coach with four horses pays for toll?—I have: It is my opinion that the average amount throughout the kingdom is 3½d. per mile; it was above 3d. when I took them above twelve months ago.

Do you find that the horses wear out in a much shorter space of time, in working coaches within the first fifty miles from London, than they do lower down?—Yes they do very much. We calculate that our stock of horses, employed in working the first fifty miles out of London, will not last more than four years; in the country, at a greater distance, I believe they calculate that their stock, on an average, will last six years.

Are you not frequently obliged to put six horses to your coaches, on the roads from London?—Sometimes that is the case; we do work with six horses where the roads are bad and heavy. I may say, from the knowledge I have of one particular road, namely, from London to Birmingham, it requires twelve horses to perform the same number of miles as eight horses will do between Birmingham and Holyhead.

How many coach-horses do you keep?—About four hundred.

Are you acquainted with the new roads in North Wales, made by Mr. Telford?—Yes, I am.

Do you think that three of your horses would draw the Holyhead mail as easily on those roads as four of them do the same coach on any part of the road from London to Dunchurch?—I have no doubt about it.

Does that arise from the construction of the road, or nature of the materials, or both?—Both. The construction of the new road is extraordinarily good, and the materials also are very good.

Can you state what particular construction those roads are of?—They are laid in a form sufficiently round to wash themselves, if there is a shower of rain that comes upon them. They are not very high; and their excellence consists in the smallness of the convexity. They are in the best form I have ever seen roads made.

Mr. William Horne, called in; and Examined.

You keep the Golden Cross Inn, Charing Cross?—Yes.

You are the proprietor of many mail and stage coaches?—I am.

Your attention of course has been directed to the state of the roads over which they travel?—It has.

Can you inform the Committee in what state the roads generally are, in point of goodness?—I think in general they have been better for the last seven years than formerly, though they are now bad. They are generally bad, and might be very much improved.

Can you state to the Committee any particular instances of improvement that have taken place within your own knowledge?—Yes; one between London and Hounslow, which must be known to every body to have been very bad; that road has been made good, which was extremely bad before.