324 History of Inland Transport 



road, the highway board and the trustees might mutually agree 

 that the former should take upon itself the maintenance 

 and repair of such road, and, also, pay off and discharge either 

 the entire debt in respect thereto or such sum by way of compen- 

 sation as the Local Government Board, after an inquiry, might 

 determine. By a further Act, passed in 1873, highway boards 

 were authorised to raise loans for the more effective carrying 

 out of this arrangement, while Clifford states in his " History 

 of Private Bill Legislation " that " there have, also, been 

 Acts confirming more than 200 Provisional Orders passed 

 to arrange the debts of these unlucky trusts, extinguish arrears 

 of interest, allow compositions, and generally make the best of 

 some very disastrous investments." 1 



How rapid the actual decline in the number of trusts was 

 from the year 1864, when the House of Commons Turnpike 

 Committee came into existence, is shown by the following 

 figures, taken from the annual reports of the Local Government 

 Board for 1886 and 1890 : 



DATE. NUMBER OF TRUSTS. MILES. 



December 3, 1864 . . 1048 . . 20,589 



January i, 1886 . . 20 . . 700 



1890 .. 5 .. 77 



Of the five survivals on January i, 1890, three were to 

 expire in that same year and one in 1896, leaving only one 

 the fate of which was then undecided. It may be assumed 

 that by the end of 1896 the system of turnpikes on public 

 (as distinct from private) roads, which had for so long a period 

 played so prominent, so vexatious, and, in many respects, 

 so unsatisfactory a role in inland communication, had wholly 

 disappeared. 



Turnpike roads, no less than canals, undoubtedly conferred 

 great advantages on the growing trade and industries of the 

 country. Each, however, had its serious drawbacks and 

 disadvantages, and, in the result, the shortcomings of the 

 turnpikes, added to the shortcomings of the canals,- gave 

 still greater emphasis to the welcome offered by traders to the 

 railways which were to become, to so large an extent, sub- 

 stitutes for both. 



1 The turnpike trust loans still outstanding on the 25th of March, 

 1887, amounted to 92,000. 



