70 OF KOADS. 



adopted, for enforcing a more impartial distribution of the 

 road-funds;* and that, when new turnpike roads are form- 

 ed, more care should be taken in the expenditure of the 

 money laid out. No sum should be expended, nor any 

 debt incurred, without accurately examining the ultimate 

 expence, otherwise the whole funds will soon be exhausted, 

 and the produce of the tolls will not clear the interest due 

 by the trust. The business then becomes more and more 

 troublesome to attend to, and the road is neglected. 



It may be proper also to add, the substance of Mr Lou- 

 don M'Adam's directions for repairing roads, extracted 

 from a valuable communication, which I had the pleasure 

 of receiving from him, regarding that interesting particular. 



He is of opinion, that where there is a quantity of clear 

 stone, equal to a foot thick, there is no occasion for any ad- 

 ditional materials, when a road is to be repaired. The 

 stones, to the depth of a foot, should be taken up, (one half 

 of the road at a time, to prevent the communication from 

 being interrupted), and then broken, so as to pass through 

 a screen or harp, through which no stone, above an inch in 

 any of its dimensions, can be admitted. The road should 

 be laid as flat as possible ; the less it is rounded the better, 

 provided it is not hollow in the middle. The broken stone 

 should be laid evenly on the road, on a coat of six inches at 

 a time, that the materials may be consolidated. Any ruts, 



* The management of turnpike trusts ought to be regulated by a ge- 

 neral law, so as to prevent jobs. To carry a particular object, meetings 

 are sometimes held in one district, while they ought to have been held 

 in the other, and other manoeuvres of a similar nature are perpetually 

 going forward. Is it then to be wondered at, that roads should get into 

 disrepair ? Tenants paying a certain rent, should certainly be allowed 

 to vote in the disposal of the county assessments, to which they contri- 

 bute so much, and in the proper application of which they are so mate- 

 rially interested. 



