Construction, Cost, Repair, and Management. 385 
century ; and Mr. Telford, the founder of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, then introduced his well-known system, which has 
not yet been improved on. Mr. Telford's first undertaking was 
in Scotland, whither he was sent by the Government to report 
as to the best means of improving the fisheries, and to design 
such works as would tend to the development of the resources 
of the country, in order to check the tide of emigration. Mr. 
Telford's Report advised the opening out of the country by a 
complete system of highways — so as to bring the interior parts 
into communication with the great towns and the coast, — and 
the construction of harbours for the protection of the fishing- 
vessels. Mr. Telford's views having been adopted, a Board of 
Commissioners was appointed, with Mr. Telford as their en- 
gineer. Under their direction, 920 miles of roads were laid 
out and constructed during a period of about eighteen years. 
These roads, owing to the hilly and rugged nature of the country, 
involved works of great magnitude, the extent of which may be 
estimated from the fact that on their course 1200 bridges were 
built, some of which were as ingenious in construction as 
beautiful in design. 
From Scotland Mr. Telford extended his operations to the 
south, where many of the roads which were laid out in the latter 
half of the previous century had been so badly constructed as to 
require remaking. In 1815 he was engaged under Government 
upon one of the finest pieces of road-making in the world (the 
Shrewsbury and Holyhead line), and, in connection with it, in 
the construction of the Menai and Conway suspension-bridges. 
This road, lying on the direct line of communication between 
England and Ireland, was considered of sufficient importance to 
be deemed a national undertaking. 
Contemporaneous with Telford was Macadam, whose atten- 
tion was first directed to road-making when he was a trustee of a 
road in Ayrshire. He subsequently devoted himself with great 
enthusiasm to road-making as a profession. In 1815 he was 
appointed Surveyor-General of the Bristol roads, in which posi- 
tion he introduced that system which has ever since been dis- 
tinguished by his name. Macadam's plan mainly consisted in 
the use of small angular pieces of hard stone, carefully spread on 
the surface of the road, and so manipulated as to form a hard, 
even, and durable surface — a thing never before attempted in 
those days. In carrying out his improvements Mr. Macadam 
spent his whole fortune ; but in consideration of the benefits which 
they had conferred on the country, by saving animal labour, 
facilitating commercial intercourse, and rendering travelling easy 
and expeditious, the money thus expended by him was repaid 
