ROAD. 



fame time relieve thofe individuals who are exceedingly in- 

 jured, and alfo be of general utility. 



It is likewife remarked in regard to private roads, that 

 they are by no means properly attended to ; and which may 

 be attributed to the general highway act being fo eafy of 

 evafion, that every farmer is able to avoid doing itatute duty, 

 or at lead next to none. Nothing is more valuable than 

 time, efpecially to a man of bulinefs ; and a farmer who 

 executes the office of furveyor of the highway, impartially 

 .iii.i effectually, will find he mull neglect no fmall part of his 

 own bufinefs ; and after all he might, perhaps, have been 

 as little out of pocket had he done the whole work with his 

 own team and labourers. It is ftated, that there is no trick, 

 evafion, or idlenefs, that (hall be deemed too mean to avoid 

 working on the road ; fometimes the word horf:s are fent, 

 at others a broken cart, and a boy, or an old man pait labour, 

 to fill ; they are fometimes fent an hour or two too late in 

 the morning, or they leave off much fooner than the proper 

 time, unlefs the furveyor watch the whole day. It is true, 

 that redrefs may be had by application to amagiftrate ; but 

 then how often caufes of complaint occur; and how many 

 days muft be loik to bring each home to the offender ; who, 

 from cujlom, thinks he is doing no harm ; befides the con- 

 ltant breach of <jood neighbourhood that muft be occa- 

 fioned by thefe petty litigations. It is fuggefted that a re- 

 medy might eafily be had in the following manner. Abolilh 

 all perfonal fervice upon the highways. Let furveyors be 

 appointed, as at prelent, who fhould have power, under the 

 authority of two magiftrates, to raife, by rate, certain 

 fums that may be neceffary for the repair of the roads 

 within the refpective parilhes and townfhips, and to account 

 for the fame at going out of office at the year's end. The 

 farmer, who atts as furveyor, might then be able to repair 

 the highways when molt convenient to himfelf, and when he 

 could give attention to them without any interruption or 

 impediment, whereas at prefent fomc duty is given up, or 

 nearly fo, from the difficulties ariiing in collecting it. On 

 the fame principles, the author of the Prefent State of 

 Hufbandry in Great Britain contends, that an aft of par- 

 liament fhould be introduced, for the purpofe of refcinding 

 the ancient laws refpecting ftatute labour ; which have in 

 every inftance been found ineffectual, and to eftablifh other 

 general rules and regulations more likely to anfwer the pur- 

 pofe in the new improved ftate of the country. He adds, 

 that the exifting acts of parliament reflecting the making 

 and repairing roads, where the juftices of the peace cannot 

 commute the ftatute labour, are not fufficient for the pur- 

 pofe of raifing a fund fufficient for keeping the roads in re- 

 pair. Where the juftices of peace have it in their power to 

 affefs the inhabitants in a fum of money in lieu of the Itatute 

 labour, it is in general not the want of means, but the mif- 

 application of that means, or negligence in the general ma- 

 nagement, that is the caufe why the parifh roads are almolt 

 -very where a difgrace to the country. The imperfect and 

 indifferent modes of executing the ftatute work, as ftated 

 above, render it neceflary, it is fuppofed, that thofe fta- 

 tutes enforcing the performance of this neceffary duty fhould 

 therefore be abolilhed ; and in every county the juftices of 

 the peace ought to be invefted with the power to affefs the 

 inhabitants ot the diftrict by fome equitable ratio, whereby 

 they would pay only in proportion to the benefit they re- 

 ceived. Were this generally done, as is the cafe in feveral 

 parts of Scotland, the counties divided into diftritts of fuch 

 tize, that the proprietors could conveniently meet as occa- 

 fion required ; the money arifing from> the commutation aft 

 collected by one perfon, who fhould be allowed a certain per 



centage on the fum collected, be continued during good be- 

 haviour, and be refponfible for his conduct to the gentlemen 

 of the diftrict ; the money fo collected be afterwards ex- 

 pended under the direction of thefe gentlemen, and the 

 whole be fubject to tlie review of the quarter-feffions ; the 

 parifh roads would, it is fuppofed, foon be materially im- 

 proved. If to thefe regulations a power were added to 

 mortgage the fum ariiing from the commutation of the 

 ftatute labour for fuch a number of years, and to fuch an 

 extent, as was found neceffary to put the ufeful private 

 roads in a perfect Hate of repair, they might, it is fuppofed, 

 in a few years, be made the reverfe of what they are at pre- 

 fent. The laft meafure would be found the molt effectual 

 of any that could be adopted, and is probably the only 

 one that can be reforted to for the purpofe of effecting an 

 immediate and general improvement. 



It has likewife been remarked by the author of the 

 " Landed Property of England," in refpect to the im- 

 provement of farm-lands by thefe means, that the art of 

 planning, forming, and repairing roads, is a fubject with 

 which, for various reafons, every manager of a large eltate 

 ought to be familiarly converfant. It is not enough for him 

 to know the theory, or general principles, of the art. It is 

 neceffary that he fhould ftudy it practically in the particu- 

 lar diftrict in which he is placed ; and with the given ma- 

 terials that it happens to afford ; as by thefe means he can 

 only be capable of executing the bulinefs with the greatelt 

 pofiible advantage. In this bufinefs a molt material point, 

 whether in the laying out of new roads, or improving fuch as 

 have been long eftablilhed, is that of giving them all the ad- 

 vantage in direction and other circumitances that the peculi- 

 arity of their nature and fituation admit of. It has been 

 ftated by the above writer, that moft of all the old roads of 

 the kingdom (the remains of the Roman ways excepted) 

 owe their prefect lines to fortuitous circumitances. Many 

 of them were, no doubt, he thinks, originally foot-paths ; 

 fome of them, perhaps, the tracks of the aboriginal inhabit- 

 ants, the patriarchal favages, who lived by hunting ; or of 

 the paitoral tribes, who travelled with their flocks and herds 

 from pafture to pafture, as herbage and browze invited ; or 

 of the firlt fettlers, between biding places which may not 

 now exift. And that thefe incidental foot-tracks, efpecially 

 when they led through woods, became, as the condition of 

 focicty advanced, the moll convenient horfe-paths ; as we not 

 unfrequently find at the prefent day. Confequently, that in 

 this ftate of fociety, before wheel- carriages were in ufe, 

 many of the lands of the kingdom were appropriated, by 

 which circumftance thole fortuitous lines of roads became 

 fixed and unalterable ; there being no other legal lines left 

 for carriage roads, than thofe incidental horfe-ways, or fmall 

 tracks. He fuppofes, that in this account of the probable ori- 

 gin of roads, we have, at leaft in part, the caufe of the crook- 

 ednefs, as well as the ftcepnefs, of carriage roads, between 

 the places which are now inhabited : for true it is, that the 

 traveller is not unfrequently led down one fteep to make 

 an angle, and afcend another ; while the hang of the hill 

 would conduct him nearly on a level, and by a more direct 

 line. But, admitting that a clufter of habitations heretofore 

 itood at the angle, the feeming abfurdity ceafes. He adds, 

 that formerly, it is probable, the zigzag direction of roads, 

 between towns and villages, was much more obfervable than 

 at p-efent. In more modern times, and fmce the legiflature 

 wifely interfered with refpeft to appropriated lands, many 

 improvements of lines have been made. And, by the ge- 

 neral laws which have more recently been paffed, magiftrates 

 are inveited with authority to alter eftablilhed lines. So 



that 



