HO AD. 



public, without allowing him, not only the full value, but 

 more than the value proportioned to the inconvenience or 

 injury he may fuftain by the meafure. 



But he contends, farther, that while the prefenl turnpike 

 laws remain in force, and the common mode is practifed ot 

 choofing furveyors annually, or by rotation, without the 

 fmalleft. regard to abilities or experience, it cannot be 

 expe&ed the public convenience will be fo much attended 

 to as it ought to be ; neither is it to be expected, that the 

 generality of furveyors, fo chofen, can know the proper 

 directions to give in making or repairing roads, nor the 

 proper manner of making eftimates, fo as either to conclude 

 an agreement with an artful contra&or, or to form a correct 

 judgment of fuch propofals as may be made. From thefe 

 difadvantages, it is inconceivable the lofs that may be oc- 

 cafioned, or the mifcliief that may be done by an ignorant 

 and inexperienced furveyor. For he is decidedly of opinion 

 that a furveyor of roads fliould be a man of confiderable 

 abilities, and of the ftri&eft honour and integrity. A 

 man not apt to be fwayed by party influence, or by private 

 or perfonal confiderations ; for if he once allow, hi 

 to be led away or biaffed by thofe, or to act in any manner 

 inconfiitent with the public interefts, he is unlit for that 

 office. He ought not to be a man, who has all his life-time 

 been confined to the narrow limits of a Angle dillrict or 

 county, or who has fuddenly, or by a flender recom- 

 mendation, been brought forward as a perfon qualified for 

 fo arduous an undertaking. He ought to have leen, in 

 various places, the different fyftems adopted in the manage- 

 ment and conflru&ion of roadi, and to have made it a 

 particular objedt of his attention, the judging of the belt 

 and moil advantageous practices, under the particular cir- 

 cumstances of different cafes. And befides thefe, there is 

 another probable reafon why, under the prefent fyitem, 

 the public roads cannot be fo impartially managed and con- 

 ducted as they ought ro be, in the unlimited power given to 

 country gentlemen over the roads in the county or dillritt 

 in which they live. Many of thofe gentlemen, for their bene- 

 volence and liberality, are truly deferving of every praife 

 that can be bellowed upon them ; but, however honourable 

 and refpettable thev may be, and however delirous to pro- 

 mote the public good, it would be doing an injultice to 

 human nature to fuppofe they can view, with impartial eyes, 

 the fine plantations, the beautiful inclofures, and other im- 

 provements, they have made on their ellates. We may as 

 well imagine, that a doting mother can coolly and delibe- 

 rately fee an incifion made in the fkin of her darling child, 

 however much it may be benefited by the operation, as 

 that a country gentleman can with indifference behold a 

 turnpike road carried through an inclofure, which he him- 

 felf has been at the pains and the expence of adorning. 

 He,adds, that fo fituated, it is natural to believe this gen- 

 tleman would wifli that road to go in any other direction, 

 even though it mould not be quite fo convenient to the 

 public. He will not only ufe his own perfuafion and en- 

 deavours to point out arguments againfl its coming that 

 way, but he will even endeavour to prevail on his friends to 

 exert themfelves alfo, and thus a party is often formed in 

 oppofition to the public intereft ; and if he is a man of 

 opu.ence and power, and generally refpedted, it is more 

 than probable his influence will prevail in this bulmefs. 



It confequently appears to him neceffary, in order to 

 obviate thefe abufes and inconveniencies, that there Ihould 

 be a controlling power over the meafures propofed by- 

 country gentlemen rcfpecting turnpike roads : for to allow 

 thofe gentlemen to decide ultimately on the laying out a 



new road through their own lands, or even on the diftribu- 

 tion of the money to be expended in repairing old roads, 

 1 ., in fact, making them judges in their own caufe. In 

 fhort, it is an object fo truly important to the interests of 

 the community at large, and of the kingdom in general, to 

 procure the molt eafy, fafe, and expeditious, and the leait 

 expenfive intercourfe with every part, by means of the belt 

 roads, that it is a meafure, he prefumes, highly deferving 

 the attention ot the legiflature ; and which, from the great 

 at ot bufinefs, would probably require a board, with 

 proper furveyors appointed by it, for the purpofe. If fome 

 plan of this nature were adopted, we fhould then hear no 

 more of thole numerous complaints that arc fo often made 

 refpedting the abufes committed in the management of 

 turnpike roads, and of the money levied at the toll-bars, at 

 many of which, it is faid, by the author of the " Wealth 

 of Nations," the money levied is more than double of what 

 '. ; neceffary for executing, in the completed manner, the 

 work which is often executed in a very flovenly manner, 

 and fometimes not executed at all. 



But in relpett to the improvement of both the public and 

 private road-;, the following hints have been thrown out in 

 the able Agricultural Survey of Shropfhire. In lieu of 

 furveyors in each parifh (who are generally chofen in turn, 

 and confequently have neither time nor experience fufficient 

 to att properly, and are generally not inclined to exert 

 themfelves by enforcing the duty, &c), the writer 

 would piopofc for the magillrates to have power to 

 appoint a proper furveyor with a falary, who fhould 

 act under their direction, and be amenable to them for his 

 conduct ; fuch furveyor to undertake the arrangement of 

 a certain dillrict (lay ten miles fquare>, whole duty it fhould 

 be to employ deputies, to call in and fee the llatute duty 

 done under his direction : by this means the forming of the 

 roads, which is the firit principle, would be done in the molt 

 approved method, and the llatute duty regularly called out. 

 There may be an infpedtor, an inhabitant in each parifh, 

 appointed, and chofen yearly, whofe intereft it would be, as 

 well as his duty, to act as a check upon the general furveyor 

 and his deputy : this office, being eafy, might be filled by one 

 of the moil liberal perfons in the parifh. He apprehends 

 that an arrangement of this fort would very foon inlure good 

 private roads. And fomething like the following would, 

 he thinks, procure good turnpike roads alfo ; namely, the 

 trultees of all the turnpike roads throughout England, 

 to be obliged to ereft weighing engines at all their gates or 

 bars, at wiiich tolls are received, on or before the 24th day 

 of June next, the expence of fuch erections to be repaid 

 to them, by their being empowered to add to their 

 prefent refpective tolls any fum to be paid by fuch 

 carriage to be weighed, not exceeding fo much as has 

 been heretofore paid within one year lafl for the tolls ; 

 fuch fums to be paid, until all expence of erecting the 

 faid engines fliall be fully repaid. The account of fuch 

 repayment to be made out and fettled by the clerks and 

 gate-keepers belonging to the refpective roads, and to be 

 attefied upon oath before two juitices of the peace. And 

 from and after the faid 24th day of June next, it may be 

 lawful for all carriages to be drawn with any number of 

 horfes along any turnpike road. But to prevent the inju- 

 ries done to roads, by the great burdens too frequently 

 drawn along them, it fhould be enafted, that from and 

 after the faid 24th day of June, it fhould be lawful for all 

 trultees appointed by any a£t or afts of parliament, for the 

 repair of any turnpike road, or any five or more of them, 

 and they fliould be required at a public meeting, to be held 



for 



