38 G Roads and Higliicays : their History, 
bj order of the House of Commons, together with a further 
sum of 2000/., as an acknowledgment of the services he had 
rendered. 
With the termination of Mr. Telford's career, road-making, as 
an art, begun to decline ; the introduction of railways changed, 
for a time, the stream of traffic from the turnpikes ; and the trusts 
had frequently no money to pay the interest of their debts, and 
often even barely sufficient to maintain the roads. 
Legislation. 
Roads seem to have first engaged the attention of the Legisla- 
ture in 1285, when a statute was passed which had more reference 
to the prevention of robberies on roads than to the roads them- 
selves. In Edward IIL's reign an Act was passed authorising 
the levying of tolls for the repairs of the road leading from 
St. Giles to Charing Cross, and in subsequent reigns other local 
Acts were sanctioned. In the reign of Queen Mary the first 
attempt at general legislation was made, and the foundation of 
our present system of highway management was laid. By this 
Act every parish was to elect two surveyors to see to the mainte- 
nance and repair of the roads by compulsory labour. 
Under the simple system of the common law, the onus of 
maintaining a highway was on the inhabitants of the parish in 
which it was situated, who were bound by actual labour thereon 
to put it in good order when it was out of repair. 
Under the ancient system of tenures the lord of the soil fre- 
quently claimed the privilege of receiving tolls from all who 
travelled along his highway, in consideration of which he was 
liable to keep the way in good order, and in some countries even 
to defend the passengers from depredation. 
Previous to the passing of the Act 5 and 6 William IV. c. 50^ 
the highways were, under the provisions of certain statutes passed 
in the reign of George III., kept in repair by the performance of 
statute-duty. Every person occupying lands, &c., not exceeding 
the annual value of 50/; and keeping a cart or waggon, was 
liable to send, for six days in every year, at such time and place 
as the surveyor might appoint, one cart with horse or oxen, 
and two able-bodied men with the same, and so in proportion- 
for the value of the land occupied. Those persons who did not 
keep a team, but occupied an estate under the yearly value of 50/., 
were obliged to contribute, in lieu of such duty, a certain sum^ 
in respect of every 205. of the yearly value. 
As trade and commerce increased, and locomotion became- 
more necessarv and common, the inconveniences and delays 
