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nn Se en ae me mre nen em 
and as the trustees are selected from persons dis- 
persed over the whole extent of the trust road, the 
certainty of having the whole length under the in- 
spection of interested persons is thus secured, with- 
out imposing upon them the trouble of going far 
from their own homes. Each trust elects a clerk 
and a treasurer. ‘The clerk is generally a respectable 
attorney residing in the principal town upon the trust 
road, and he is the secretary and executive of the 
trustees, to see all the orders they may issue duly 
carried into effect, and is in fact the representative 
of the trustees in the interval of their sessions, but 
has no power to act otherwise than under the direc- 
tions of the board, unless such power is specially 
conferred upon him by them for particular purposes. 
The act of parliament constituting the trust, usually 
confers the power of suing and being sued at law, in 
the name of the trust, upon the clerk for the time 
being. 
The funds are raised by tolls charged upon all 
horses, carriages, and droves of sheep, oxen, &c,. 
that use the road. These tolls are limited in their 
extent, though not always fixed by the acts of parlia- 
ment that raise the trust; because if the trustees 
find they can keep the road in good order with a less 
sum than the maximum tolls will produce, they have 
the option of lowering the sum, though they have 
no power of augmenting it without a new act of par- 
liament, which cannot be obtained except on proof 
that the maximum toll is insufficient to insure com- 
fort and safety to the public. In this way the trus- 
tees can at all times make their available income 
-accordant with their necessary expenditure, and they 
can have no interest in making it larger, because the 
money raised can in no case be appropriated to any 
other purpose than the maintenance and repairs of 
the road in their particular charge. These tolls are 
collected at gates which stretch across the road, and 
have a small house for the collector adjoining them, 
as in this country. In roads of much traffic, these 
gates, for the sake of expedition, are never closed 
during the day, and the collector is constantly at his 
post, but they are shut and locked at night, though 
the collector is bound to rise and open them at all 
hours to any one desirous of passing: and he can 
shut the gate and refuse passage to any one who 
objects to paying the toll, which, to prevent im- 
position, is required by law to be painted and set 
forth in letters at least one inch high, on a board at 
the side of the gate. In England these tolls are only 
payable once in a day of twenty-four hours, except 
in a few instances of bridges; so that having once 
paid the toll a passenger can go backwards and for- 
wards as many times as he pleases between twelve 
o'clock on one night and the same hour on the follow- 
ing one. ‘To prevent a repetition of the demand, 
the collector is bound to give a printed pass ticket, 
with the name of the gate and a number, letter of 
the alphabet, or some private mark upon it, to a 
person on first paying the.toll, and the reproduction 
of this ticket exempts him from further demand that 
day. The letter or private mark is changed every 
day, so that the ticket of one day will not pass for 
another, 
The trusts upon all roads, and even upon the same 
road, are perfectly distinct and separate from each 
other, and they have no interference; consequently 
each trust is compelled to raise its own funds, and it 
does this by having its own toll-gates. Every trust 
must, therefore, have at least one toll-gate on each 
of its principal and branch roads; or if the trustees 
do not think proper to collect the whole sum they 
are authorized to take, at one spot, they may divide 
that sum, and receive one part of it at one part of 
the road and the remainder at another. This ac- 
counts for the number of toll-gates met with in Bri- 
tain, —a circumstance that always strikes travellers 
Ahan an en ey A ne A A eg 
57 
from strange countries with surprise. Still the prin- 
ciple is good, for if the number of gates is large, the 
sum taken at each of them is small in comparison to 
what it must be to raise a similar sum of money with 
fewer collectors. No person can travel one of these 
roads for more than ten or twelve miles, without 
being called upon to pay a toll for the road he is 
using, and thus the burthen of keeping those roads 
in repair becomes very much divided among the 
whole travelling community. 
The heaviest expense incident to the English sys- 
tem of turnpike roads, is the maintenance of the toll- 
collectors, who must be stationed at the many gates, 
and the apparent liability that may exist of the trus- 
tees being defrauded out of a great part of their 
revenue by their dishonesty, if they do not account 
for all the money they may receive, or from their 
being careless and wanting in vigilance in making 
their collections. This is met and obviated by the 
trustees never keeping the collection of the tolls in 
their own hands, but by farming or letting them out 
by auction for stated periods, to such collectors as 
will make the highest bidding; such periods being 
never shorter than one, or longer than three years. 
Road trustees are, in some cases, allowed to retain 
a certain limited fund of reserve out at interest on 
government security, to provide for alterations, 
amendments, and improvements, where they are 
likely to occur. And in the event of requiring a 
sum of money suddenly for such purposes, the tolls 
are frequently mortgaged, and are considered a full 
and efficient security for such loaus. 
The first principles that should govern the 
formation of roads, are proximity and facility of 
passage. The first is attained by making the 
road of communication as nearly right lined as 
possible whenever the country it has to pass over 
is so level as to admit of it; but the right lined 
direction should not be presevered in, when it 
is hilly and uneven, since a more circuitous 
route over a level tract of country is better than 
the shorter one that is hilly, whenever the eleva- 
tions and depressions of the soil are so extensive 
as to become inconvenient to the passenger. 
The operation of levelling, and thereby selecting 
a good and favourable line, is therefore of the 
greatest utility and importance in selecting a 
good line of road. é 
Another and most important subject. to be 
attended to in the selection of a line of road, is 
its drainage. Many old roads will be found sunk 
beneath the general surface of the adjacent land, 
notwithstanding this is the worst principle of 
construction, and one which no pains should be 
spared to avoid. Asa general rule, every road 
should be kept above the soil over which it passes 
if possible ; and, whenever this cannot be effected, 
its surface should be enough of a hill to cause 
water to run down it; or, if level, it should have 
side ditches or water-courses, to carry off rains as 
speedily as possible. Common observation will 
convince any one that a road formed of almost 
any ordinary soil, without gravel or any thing 
to cover and protect it, will be good, provided it 
is so elevated and drained, that rain water will 
not remain upon it; while, on the contrary, a 
sunk road, or one formed hke a wide ditch or 
shallow canal, will be soft and bad, and will wear 
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