If your Committee may be permitted to assign the probable reasons of this discouraging result of the labours of their predecessors, they would venture to suggest, that too wide a field of inquiry was taken to lead to immediate practical benefit: that some of the systems most confidently recommended were of a novel and speculative nature; that the regulations which it was proposed to found on them too strongly affected the interests of vested property; and that even the most valuable information communicated to the House rested upon ingenious theories, which had then been very partially, if at all, reduced to practice, or submitted to fair experiment. As the considerations which influenced the appointment of the present Committee, avowedly sprang from the successful trial of an improved system of making roads, your Committee have judged it right to institute a particular examination into all the circumstances of that experiment, and the various instances in which the example has been followed. Mr. John Loudon MᶜAdam having for many years directed his attention, as a magistrate and a commissioner, to the improvement of roads, was induced to accept the situation of general surveyor of an extensive trust round the city of Bristol. The admirable state of repair into which the roads under his direction were brought, attracted very general attention; and induced the commissioners of various districts to apply for his assistance or advice. The general testimony borne to his complete success wherever he has been employed, and the proof that his improvements have been attended with an actual reduction of expense, while they have afforded the most useful employment to the poor, induce your Committee to attach a high degree of importance to that which he has already accomplished. The imitation of his plans is rendered easy by their simplicity, and by the candour with which he has explained them, though ability in the surveyor to judge of their application must be understood as an essential requisite. Your Committee have dwelt on this improved system of making roads, as a preliminary consideration to any alteration of the laws, being persuaded that it is of essential importance to adapt the law to new circumstances; that the first step requisite is to take effectual measures for ensuring the _formation_ of good roads; and that their preservation afterwards, if proper principles for their repair be once adopted, will require fewer legislative regulations than former inquirers have deemed necessary. For a full elucidation of the methods pursued by Mr. MᶜAdam your Committee beg leave to refer to his evidence in the Appendix annexed, as well as to that of his son, and of different Commissioners who had witnessed the success of his plans.