7 

 In Mexico and Peru, we are informed that the Incas, 

 being destitute of beasts fitted for draught, had carried 

 mere foot-roads to the highest degree of excellence ; that, 

 in their construction, the builders had overome great 

 natural obstacles by means of high embankments, tun- 

 nels through living rock, long flights of steps hewn in 

 solid stone, and bridges, some of which were of masonry 

 and others proper suspension bridges of the tough fibre 

 of some of their native woods ; that these roads were so 

 nearly perfect that runners, relieving one another at inter- 

 vals of five miles, were able to convey light burdens one 

 hundred and fifty or two hundred miles a day. We read 

 that in France, to the end of the sixteenth century, " all 

 travelling was performed on horseback, the slowness and 

 discomfort of wheeled conveyances confining their use to 

 the transport of goods." An act passed in the reign of 

 Henry VIII. indicates that, in certain countries of Eng- 

 land, it was easier to open a new road than to repair an 

 old one. Between 1760 and 1774. four hundred and fifty- 

 two turnpike acts were passed; and from 1785 to 1809, a 

 period of twenty-four years, no less than one thousand 

 and sixty-two more. A perusal of the acts of the English 

 Parliament, concerning the matter of highways from this 

 time on, brings to view many curious and complicated 

 devices for distributing the responsibility of their mainte- 

 nance. The enumeration of some of these, did our pres- 

 ent limits permit, would be found interesting and amusing ; 

 and they seem likely to impress one with the conviction 

 that the problem of maintaining a system of public roads 

 upon an equitable basis of expenditure, has troubled our 

 ancestors, for many generations, quite as much as it trou- 

 bles us, having ever been among the most difficult in 

 which to achieve satisfactorv solution. 



