80 History of Inland Transport 



we are secured from all insults of the country people who 

 immediately dispersed and posts and chains are again erected, 

 and the tolls levied, but the turnpikes are fixed nearer the 

 city." 



The revolt in Yorkshire referred to by Whitaker occurred 

 in 1753, four years later than the disturbances in the west. 

 At Selby the inhabitants were summoned by the bellman 

 to assemble at midnight, with hatchets and axes, and destroy 

 the turnpikes. They obeyed the summons, and any gate 

 left unprotected was soon level with the ground. In the 

 neighbourhood of Leeds the rioting was especially serious. 

 Whitaker says concerning it : 



" The public roads about Leeds were at that time narrow, 

 generally consisting of a hollow way that only allowed a 

 passage for carriages drawn by a horse in a single row, and an 

 elevated causeway covered with flags or boulder stones. 



" The attempt to improve this state of the public roads 

 excited great discontent among the lower classes of the people, 

 who formed the design of pulling down all the turnpike bars 

 in the neighbourhood." 



They pulled down, or burned down, as many as a dozen 

 in one week ; and when some of the rioters had been arrested, 

 and were on their way to York Castle, their friends attempted 

 a rescue, following this up by assaulting the magistrates and 

 breaking some windows. Troops were called out, and, 

 warnings and the firing of blank cartridge being of no avail, 

 ball cartridges were used, with the result that two or three 

 persons were shot dead, and twenty-two were wounded, some 

 fatally. 



Whatever the justification for the turnpikes that gave 

 rise to this popular discontent, the way in which the system 

 itself was developed was certainly open to criticism. 



The precedent set by the Act of Charles II. in the grouping 

 together of several counties, and in conferring on the justices 

 the powers of chief control, was wholly disregarded. Instead 

 of even an improvement on this procedure being effected by 

 the creation of a national system of turnpike roads, directed 

 by some central authority, and responding in regard to in- 

 ternal communication to the wants of the country as a whole, 

 there was called into being an almost endless number of purely 

 local trusts, each taking charge of, as a rule, from ten to 



