l8o4« Thoughts on Turnpike-Roads and Road ABs» SSJ 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Thoughts on Turnpike-Roads and Road Acls, 



Sir, 



It appears to me that dillln6l:, clear, and correal ideas of a 

 toll-roid are fehlom to be met with amongd road truflees. A toU- 

 road is one that, by a particular ftatute, is ordained to be made, 

 and kept up from funds leviable by that ilatutc, and has nothing 

 to do with any other funds whatever. If fupport is drawn from 

 any other fource, it is not properly a toll-road. All converfions 

 for ftatute fervices (as money in place of labour performed by our 

 late road laws) it has nothing to do with. The money arifing 

 from fuch converfion is, by all laws hitherto exi fling, the proper- 

 ty of the parifh it is levied in, and applicable only to the by roads 

 within that pariih. No road ought to he declared a toll-road, 

 but fuch great lines as go through feveral pariilies. The conver- 

 fion money ought to be appropriated to the making of the by- 

 roads within its own parifh, or, in other Viords, to the roads 

 leading to the great or toll-roads, from ditTerent parts of the pa- 

 riih. This, I humbly apprehend, is a pretty clear and diftindt 

 idea of the two forts of roads, and of their refpeclive funds, viz. 

 toll-money of the one, and converfion-money of the other ; and 

 betwixt thefe funds there ought to be no connexion or interfer- 

 ence. The toll funds are a cumulo fum levied from bars erecfed 

 at different parts of a great line of road, and to be laid out as the 

 , ftatute directs, by which fuch line is declared a toll-road. The 

 converfion- money is a fund merely for making internal panih 

 roads, by which the inhabitants are to get to the toll roads. If 

 the parifh money is thrown into the toil funds, and made a cutnuh 

 fum, and little or nothing allowed, on various pretences, for by- 

 roads, great injuftice is done the proprietor and his tenant -, be- 

 caufe, though they pay toll equal to every one elfe, they pay 

 converfion-money alfo, without having accefs to the toll- road. 

 Where nothing is allowed for the pariih roads, that pardh ought 

 to pay no converfion-money. Why fliould the poiTeffor of land 

 pay more than any other, and at the fam.e time be in a worfc fi- 

 tuation ? This, however, is exa£lly his fituation, when his con- 

 verfion money is made a cumulo fum with the toll-money, and the 

 whole applied to the toll-roads, or to pay the fooncr the money at 

 firft fubfcribed to make them. 



There may, however, be roads neceflary, and pailuig through 

 more parilhes than one, on which tolls would not yield .money 

 fufhcient to anfwer the idea above given of a toll-road, of main- 



VQJ-. V. ^0. 19, T Uining 



