ROADS. 



Jloadi 



and one perpendicular to about 15 horizontal. In the pre- 

 M in * nt a committee of the Canal Company, one horde 

 < """V~~' actually took up a load of three tons upon a common 

 cart weighing nine cwt. without any apparent difficul- 

 ty, till he reached the top of the railway, and was 

 about to enter upon the common causeway. But, al- 

 though the causeway was in good order, and the 

 line of draught had become easy, the animal could 

 proceed no farther than the extent of the cast-iron 

 tracks. In any view of the application of these 

 tracks to the partial acclivities of the common road, 

 it is important to mention that the carters frequenting 

 Port Dundas all agree in stating, that their horses had 

 formerly as much difficulty in taking up 24 cwt. on the 

 common causeway, as is now experienced with a load 

 of three tons upon these wheel-tracks. Let us there- 

 fore consider the beneficial effects of such an immense 

 acquisition of power, as the use of wheel-tracks would 

 prove to carriage upon the great scale ! 



Road en- ' n an article treating distinctly of roads, we trust it 

 gincers. will not be considered out of place if we notice two or 

 three professional gentlemen who have more or less di- 

 rected their attention to the road department of the 

 engineer, and it is rather curious to notice that these 

 happen to have belonged to Scotland. It was, we be- 

 lieve, the late Mr. Charles Abercromby who first adopt- 

 ed, as the leading principle of his designs, a more 

 improved line of draught than the example either of 

 the military or civil engineers of a more early period 

 had afforded. But the appointment of Mr. Thomas 

 Telford, as engineer to the Parliamentary Commission- 

 ers for roads and bridges, and the field thereby open- 

 ed for his practice, may doubtless be mentioned as one 

 of the most fortunate circumstances in the history of 

 our improvement in this art. The highest praise is 

 due to that eminent individual for the magnificence 

 and extent of his various designs ; and especially for the 

 sedulous attention with which he has directed his great 

 talents to all the details of Road-making. To these 

 we gladly embrace the opportunity of adding the name 

 of Mr. Loudon MacAdam, eminent as the founder of 

 a system by which our public roads, formerly strong, 

 though rough, are now becoming generally smooth, 

 firm, and compact. 



System of The country is perhaps not more indebted to the 

 manage. labours of the engineer than to the regular system of 

 ment. management which the road trustees have latterly 

 adopted, both in respect to the conduct of their works 

 and the management of their funds. Though Bri- 

 tain has not an organised professional board like that 

 of France, for roads, bridges, harbours, and sea-lights, 

 in one connected body, yet, in the affairs of roads, 

 she may be said to possess a universal Board of Free- 

 holders and their eldest sons, who, as trustees, man- 

 age those concerns with a patriotic feeling, a patri- 

 monial interest, and a local knowledge, which has 

 brought the British roads to their present state of pre- 

 eminence. From time to time these gentlemen call pro- 

 fessional men to their assistance, without sparing their 

 own trouble, or withholding security, often to a great 

 extent, upon their lands, for carrying on the operations 

 of the trusts of which they respectively take the respon- 

 sibility. 



The management of roads is now so systematized 

 as to have become, upon the whole, extremely simple. 

 In Scotland, and now also pretty generally in Eng- 

 land, the statute labour is commuted into a payment 



in money instead of personal service. With this fund, Iloada and 

 and the dues collected at the different toll-bars, the 

 liighways, pariah and cross-roads, are made and main- 

 tained. The benefits of system, even in point of 

 economy, is such, that some of the dutricU pay at the 

 rate of L.700 or L.SOO a-year, to the superintending 

 engineer, for the management of about 150 miles of 

 road. The more general way, however, in Scotland is, 

 for the convener of the district to employ a thorough 

 bred practical road-maker, who, as Inspector, receives 

 a modified salary, attends to the state of the work, and 

 directs the upholding of repairs. The road-metal, agree- 

 ably to this system, is quarried, carted, and broken by 

 contract, at so much per cubic yard of broken stone. 

 It is then, according to what we conceive to be the 

 best arrangement, laid upon the road by day's wage- 

 men. The money disbursements are made by the trea- 

 surer for the district, upon statements of the work 

 done. In this manner the check on all hands is simple 

 and direct, and there is not now the same opportunity 

 for peculation and oppression that existed while the 

 statute-labour was personally exacted. 



In all improvements of any extent the trustees now 

 proceed in a regular manner by plan, specification, and 

 contract, instead of the more loose mode that was 

 formerly practised. We have indeed been called to 

 take a road off the hands of contractors, whose work 

 amounted to several thousand pounds. The opera- 

 tions consisted in making the road partly new by 

 certain alterations in the line of direction, while the 

 remainder had undergone a thorough repair. In call- 

 ing for documents it appeared that the line had ne- 

 ver been professionally surveyed, that no section of 

 the earth-work, or blasting of rock, had ever been 

 made, nor had any regular contract been entered into. 

 The works were inspected by the factor on a neigh- 

 bouring estate, and afterwards travelled upon for twelve 

 or fifteen months, without any precaution in filling up 

 the ruts. This procedure arose from a misconceived 

 and ill-applied economy ; which has too often led bu- 

 siness of this kind to be settled in a court of law, as in 

 the instance alluded to. 



Description of Plate CCCCLXXX. 



Fig. 1 . represents the plan of a street or road laid Description 

 with two sets of stone- tracks formed of what may be of P L *T* 

 called aisler, or the best description of causeway, of p" 00 ""' 

 a form peculiarly simple, of dimensions easily procured, '*' 

 and calculated for supporting any load. Between, and 

 on each side of the tracks of this diagram, the com- 

 partments are formed of common road-metal. The track- 

 stones may be of granite, greenstone, or any of the 

 harder kinds of rock that will admit of being hammer- 

 dressed. To be properly bedded or laid upon a stra- 

 tum of clean sharp sand, gravel, or stone chips, accord- 

 ing to the state of the ground, and the situation of the 

 country for procuring materials. At Bath, Paris, and 

 other places, we have seen causeways carefully built 

 with lime-mortar. 



A B C D point out a compartment of a road laid Referring 

 partly with broken stones, in which E E and F F are l Mr - 

 the aisler-causeway tracks, A B being the sky or open Ste * ens <>n' 

 drain upon the side of the road, which, if situated 1 *' 

 within, or near a populous town, is supposed to be 



