Loads, Wheels and Roads 49 



for the driver ; but this provision was repealed by 4 Geo. IV., 

 c. 95 (1823), " in compliance," says Dehany, " with a cry 

 raised on the part of the farmers and agriculturists, who, in 

 petitions and complaints against the Act, put forward this 

 clause as a principal grievance." 



The broad-wheel policy of successive Governments evoked 

 a good deal of criticism from others besides farmers and 

 agriculturists, who themselves seem to have been reduced from 

 time to time by the ever-changing regulations and restrictions 

 to a condition almost of despair. In speaking of the roads in 

 the parish of Eccles, Dr Aikin, writing in 1795, says in his 

 " Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round 

 Manchester " that although " much labour and a very great 

 expense of money " had been expended on them, they still 

 remained in a very indifferent state owing to the immoderate 

 weights drawn in waggons and carts, and he adds : "To 

 prevent this, vain and useless are all the regulations of weighing 

 machines ; and the encouragement of broad and rolling wheels 

 still increases the evil, which must soon destroy all the best 

 roads of Great Britain." 



The general effect of the legislation in question was, also, 

 thus commented on by William Jessop in an article on " Inland 

 Navigation and Public Roads," published in vol. vi. of the 

 " Georgical Essays " (1804) : 



" I do not know anything in this country . . . that has 

 been more neglected than the proper construction of wheel 

 carriages and the formation of roads. It has been generally 

 acknowledged that for carriages of burden broad wheels, 

 which will roll the roads, are the most eligible ; and by the 

 exemptions which have been granted to those who use broad 

 wheels, the legislature has certainly looked forward to the 

 benefits to be expected from the use of them ; but never was 

 a proposition more misunderstood, or an indulgence more 

 abused. Of all the barbarous and abominable machines that 

 have been contrived by ignorance, and maintained by vulgar 

 prejudice, none have equalled the broad-wheeled carriages 

 that are now in use ; instead of rolling the roads, they grind 

 them into mud and dust." 



Not alone cart-wheels, but even cart-wheel nails, engaged 

 the serious attention of Parliament, and formed the subject of 

 special legislation. The Act 18 Geo. II., c. 33, provided, among 



