The Turnpike System 81 



twenty miles of road, each concerned only in its own local, 

 or even its own personal, interests, and each operating under 

 conditions that involved an excessive expenditure with, too 

 often, the most unsatisfactory of results for the general public. 



The defects of the system thus brought about were well 

 recognised by various authorities at a time when they were 

 still being experienced to the full. 



The Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons 

 in 1819 to consider the subject of public highways said in the 

 course of their report : 



" The importance of land-carriage to the prosperity of a 

 country need not be dwelt upon. Next to the general in- 

 fluence of the seasons . . . there is, perhaps, no circumstance 

 more interesting to men in a civilised state than the perfection 

 of the means of interior communication. It is a matter, 

 therefore, to be wondered at, that so great a source of national 

 improvement has hitherto been so much neglected. Instead 

 of the roads of the Kingdom being made a great national 

 concern, a number of local trusts are created, under the 

 authority of which large sums of money are collected from 

 the public, and expended without adequate responsibility or 

 control. Hence arises a number of abuses, for which no 

 remedy is provided, and the resources of the country, instead of 

 being devoted to useful purposes, are too often improvidently 

 wasted." 



Writing in 1823, Dehany said in reference to the Act of 1663, 

 " It is to be regretted that this plan of passing one Act applic- 

 able to a considerable district, and carrying it into execution 

 under the superintendence of the magistracy, was not pursued, 

 instead of parcelling out the roads into smaller divisions, with 

 independent bodies of trustees " ; while the " Westminster 

 Review," in its issue for October, 1825, argued that the whole 

 system of roads should be one, and continued : 



" Such a work might have been thought the duty of the 

 Government most interested in it ; but that Government seems 

 generally to be otherwise occupied. Leaving all to individual 

 exertion, it perhaps often leaves too much ; since there are 

 matters in which individual exertion has an insufficient interest, 

 while there are others which it is unable to accomplish without 

 unjustifiable sacrifices. We do not desire the perpetual, nor 

 even the frequent interference of Government, that is most 



