Early Road Legislation 31 



assessments to remain in operation until the passing of the 

 General Highway Act of 1835, when it was wholly superseded 

 by highway rates. The labour itself, though it brought about 

 an improvement on the previous road conditions, was from 

 the first far from satisfactory, judging from the references 

 made to it by Holinshed. The roads, he says, were very deep 

 and troublesome in winter ; the obligation in regard to six 

 days' labour on them was of little avail, since the rich evaded 

 their duty, and the poor loitered so much that scarcely two 

 days' work was done out of the six ; while the surveyors, 

 instead of applying the labour to the amendment of roads 

 from market town to market town, bestowed it on particular 

 spots the repair of which conduced to their own convenience. 

 Nor, it seems, was the power conferred on the justices to 

 punish surveyors and parishioners if they failed in their duty 

 of much practical avail. 



No further general legislation concerning roads was 

 passed until the Restoration, when, says Macpherson, " The 

 vast increase of commerce and manufactures and of the 

 capital city of London, with the concomitant increase of 

 luxury, brought in such numbers of heavy-wheel carriages 

 as rendered it by degrees impracticable, in most cases, for 

 parishes entirely to keep their own part of the roads in a 

 tolerable condition, more especially in the counties lying near 

 London and in the manufacturing counties." 



Petitions had been received from the inhabitants of various 

 districts throughout the country praying that steps should be 

 taken for the betterment of their roads, with the view of 

 facilitating intercommunication, and it became evident that 

 some more effective system for the construction and repairing 

 of roads must be adopted. 



In 1662 Parliament passed an Act (14 Car. II., c. 6) which 

 stated that, inasmuch as former laws and statutes for 

 mending and repairing public highways had been found 

 ineffectual, by reason whereof, and the extraordinary burdens 

 carried on waggons and other carriages, divers highways had 

 become dangerous and almost impassable, churchwardens 

 and constables or tithing men in every parish were directed 

 to choose surveyors yearly on the Monday or Tuesday in 

 Easter week, giving public notice thereof in church immedi- 

 ately after the end of the morning prayer. These surveyors 



