ROADS AND BRIDGES. W 
get out without assistance, when my horse, 
which was very powerful, finding himself im¬ 
peded, threw himself upon his haunches, and 
disengaging his fore-feet, made a vigorous 
plunge forwards, which luckily disengaged 
both himself and the sulky, and freed me 
from my embarrassment. I was afterwards in¬ 
formed that General Washington, as he was 
going to meet congress a short time before, was 
stopped in the very same place, his carriage 
sinking so deep in the mud that it was found 
necessary to send to a neighbouring house for 
ropes and poles to extricate it. Over some of 
the bottoms, which were absolutely impassable 
in their natural state, causeways have been 
thrown, which are made with large trees laid 
side by side across the road. For a time these 
causeways afford a commodious passage; but 
they do not last long, as many of the trees 
sink into the soft soil, and others, exposed 
to the continual attrition of waggon wheels 
in a particular part, breaking asunder. In this 
state, full of unseen obstacles, it is absolutely 
a matter of danger for a person unacquainted 
with the road to attempt to drive a carriage 
along it. The bridges oyer the creeks, co¬ 
vered with loose boards, are as bad as the 
causeways, and totter as a carriage passes over. 
*J?}iat the legislature of Maryland can be so 
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