362 



Turnpike and Parish Roads. 



that the M'Adam roads are not new, that roads were so made 150 

 years ago ; in like manner I would ask. Could you travel by a coach 

 140 miles in 12 hours before M^Adam, Telford, and others so 

 systemised the art of road-making, that wherever there was good 

 material to be procured there was sure to be a good road? 

 Allowing, therefore, that the component parts of the mile -system 

 are not new in themselves, I must beg to lay claim to the suc- 

 cessful arrangement and organization of it ; and I feel convinced, 

 in the midst of the difficulties in which turnpike-roads are now 

 placed, provided there was an all-powerful central board esta- 

 lolished in London, who would enforce strict attention to the de- 

 tails as here laid down, that the expenses may be so easily appor- 

 tioned to the traffic and revenue of every road, that (separate 

 from any accumulation of debt that there maybe) every turnpike- 

 road could be repaired and maintained upon this system by its 

 own revenue. 



I also propose a modification of it for all parish-roads, by having 

 the gravel delivered into depots by the side of the road some 

 months before it is wanted, in such places as are likely most to 

 require it, and in such proportion as the funds of the highway- 

 rate will allow of. One intelligent, active labourer, apportioned 

 to a certain district, to be occupied at all times on that district, 

 keeping the water-courses clear, ruts filled in, throwing into a 

 hollow place two or three wheelbarrows full of stones, which, 

 when done in time, would save as many carts-load of gravel 

 when allowed to become saturated with water for a length of 

 time without repair. By these means the roads would gradu- 

 ally become of a proper form and uniform width, with the sides 

 and edges nicely marked out and defined, and which might be 

 done in most situations and soils by means of a strong plough, 

 throwing out a furrow or two as it may require on each side of 

 the road as a water-table, and which was practised by the surveyor 

 of a large neighbouring parish at my suggestion, a year or two 

 ago, with complete success, and at a very trifling cost, some miles 

 of road being done in a day.* But so long as the surveyors ol 

 parish-roads permit the neighbouring farmers to pare away the 

 edges or verge of the roads, to take to their compost heaps, the 

 width of road never can be properly defined, the traffic and wear 

 of the road must always be unequal, to say nothing of the danger 



The cost of clearing out the water-tables of the roads of a large parish 

 was as follows: — 



£. s. d. 



Cutting out the sides of a road with a plough, one mile, both sides 0 3 4 

 Shovelling out by contract . « . . . . .16 8 



Total per mile . . £1 10 0 



