BAD ROADS INCREASE PROFANITY. 75 



for the purpose of putting the roads in order. In France, the 

 government took possession of all the roads, and kept them in 

 order. In England and in Scotland, the roads are in charge of 

 a board of public works in each country, and there are com- 

 missioners who go about and direct the surveyors elected in the 

 parishes (corresponding to our highway surveyors) how the 

 roads shall be built. 



I will not pretend to say that all the roads in this Common- 

 wealth should be put in condition equal to the roads described 

 in Newton and some other towns ; wo could not afford to go at 

 once into that expensive way of constructing our roads, and it 

 would not be necessary ; but I will pretend to say that there 

 must be a homogeneous system of perfecting the highways 

 before we can have any complete system of thoroughfares which 

 will satisfy the public. In addition to that, we must make a 

 distinction, which I think my friend Dr. Loring has not made. 

 We need not put all the roads in this excellent condition, but 

 we must make a distinction between cross-roads and what are 

 commonly called highways. I can answer for Berkshire, that 

 we arc more neglectful in regard to our roads than the people 

 in any other part of the Commonwealth, and we shall be so, 

 just as long as the matter is left to the selectmen or highway 

 surveyors selected by the town. Take the road from Lenox to 

 Pittsfield ; I doubt if anything has been done on that road for 

 fifty years to improve it permanently. I have lived there for near 

 a dozen years, and it has been just about the same one year as it 

 was the year before, and it could not be worse. It reminds me 

 of what Arthur Young, the great agriculturist, in 1780 said of 

 the road from Liverpool to Manchester: " There was no word in 

 the English language which would express its nasty and miser- 

 able condition." That road from Lenox to Pittsfield is in such 

 a condition, that a man who never swore before will swear when 

 he passes over it, and he who swore before will swear still 

 more. 



I merely take this as an example. Now, what is the remedy ? 

 See what towns, situated as Lenox is, are losing. We have a 

 large numljcr of people who come fi'oni Boston and New York 

 during the summer. The principal place to do their shopping 

 is Pittsfield, but half the time it is impossible to get tliere with 

 a decent carriage. The result is, that there is a great loss of 



