CF ROADS. 69 



Perliaps the most striking fact in favour of the use of 

 broad wheels is this, that the carts of the London and 

 Edinburgh Shipping Company, have cylindrical wheels of 

 five inches in breadth, and yet, with a single-horse cart, 

 they frequently draw, (the weight of the cart and the wheels 

 included), no less than forty cwt. or two tons, though there 

 is a considerable ascent from Leith to Edinburgh, and the 

 road in some places is not in the best state of repair. The 

 Edinburgh and Leith Shipping Company use the same 

 sort of wheels with equal success. 



In regard to the encouragement that ought to be given 

 to broad cylindrical wheels, Mr Cunningham is of opinion, 

 that if cylindrical wheels were to come into general use, 

 and were the toll rates much lessened in their favour, great 

 inconveniences might result from the diminution of the re- 

 venues of the tolls, which are in many cases mortgaged, in 

 security for sums advanced to make and repair the roads, 

 and in other cases there are contracts in existence for 

 maintaining the roads for a term of years. It is obvious, 

 that till the existing debts are paid, and the current con- 

 tracts have expired, no general diminution of toll-rates can 

 take place; but were these objects once attained, he thinks, 

 that the roads might be kept up, by levying one-half, or 

 one-third, of the tolls now exacted. 



The advantages which the nation would derive, fromadue 

 attention to the important objects of roads and carriages, 

 are not easily to be calculated. 



Before the subject of roads is dismissed, it is necessary 

 to observe, that in many districts, some plan should be 



more solid and regular, and with less agitation than with narrow wheels, 

 and consequently the machine, as well as the horses and the roads, wouk! 

 last much longer, by which the expence of the additional orijjinaJ ost 

 *ould be amply repaid. 



