1 8 THE COACHING AGE. 



averaged about £11 3s. per mile a year. That the 

 whole of the sums levied under the denomination 

 of highway rates was not strictly applied to the 

 purpose specified is manifest from the fact of its 

 sometimes being applied in aid of. the poor rate 

 and some other objects, of which I will give in- 

 stances, as also from the administration' of the fund 

 being entrusted to persons, as surveyors, who were 

 inefficient for the superintendence of the repairs of 

 the roads, were perhaps appointed against their wish, 

 and remained in office for a year only. True, there 

 was generally some remuneration fixed by the vestry 

 as a salary for the road surveyor, but it was so small 

 that it probably barely covered his expenses during 

 his year of office. 



It would certainly seem that the annual appoint- 

 ment of persons occasionally unwilling to act and in 

 very many cases wholly incompetent to discharge the 

 duties either imposed on or obtained by them, and 

 delegating to them the duty of expending the large 

 amount annually raised by highway rates throughout 

 the kingdom, was a very unsatisfactory system. The 

 deputing to persons thus appointed the collection and 

 administration of a sum of no less than £1^273,000, 

 which was the amount of rates levied for highways 

 in the year 1839, without any adequate control as 

 regarded expenditure, is so much at variance with 



