84 History of Inland Transport 



road-management which the trustees, whether as the result 

 of their mutual differences or otherwise, generally left in his 

 hands. The " Edinburgh Review," in the article already 

 quoted, declares that " the state of the roads displays no 

 symptoms of well qualified commissioners. They leave the 

 art and science of the business to their surveyor who is com- 

 monly just as much in the clouds as themselves as to his own 

 proper calling. With a laudable veneration for his fore- 

 fathers, he proceeds according to the antient system of things, 

 without plan or method ; and fearing no rivalry, and subject 

 to no intelligent control, he proceeds, like his predecessors, 

 to waste the road money on team work and paupers, and 

 leave nothing for the public like a road but the name and cost 

 of it." 



Nevertheless, the turnpike system, defective in itself, 

 badly administered, and burdensome to the toll-payers, did 

 bring about an improvement in roads which previously had 

 too often received little or no attention ; and this improve- 

 ment, as will be shown in the chapter that follows, had a 

 material influence on trade, travel and social conditions ; 

 though it was not to attain its maximum results until the 

 turnpike roads had been supplemented by a further system 

 of scientific road-making and road-repairing. 



