Remarks on the Present System of Road Making: With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the EvidenceMcAdam, John Loudon
History
Remarks on the Present System of Road Making: With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the Evidence
McAdam, John Loudon
Macadam roads; Roads -- Great Britain
Would you alter the trusts?—That would be a great advantage, if the
trusts could be consolidated; but there are objections to that, and very
serious objections.
Local objections?—Yes, such as the debt upon each trust.
Do you propose the appointment of those overseers to be with the present
commissioners of the roads?—Certainly.
Do you propose any general inspection to be established over the whole
system of road-making?—I should think it a public advantage if there was
some inspection or controlling power in some quarter or other, to
prevent the general surveyors from being improperly appointed; but
whether that controlling power should emanate from the government, or
the authorities in the county, I am not a judge.
Do you think a controlling power established in the metropolis, to
communicate on the subject throughout the kingdom, would be an
advantageous establishment?—I think it would be a very profitable and
desirable establishment.
Looking to the revenues and to practical advantages?—Looking to the
revenues, practical advantages, and to the dissemination of information.
Would you propose their having a power of suspending officers in certain
cases?—Certainly, till the pleasure of the commissioners was known; on
any gross instance of misconduct or negligence.
Would not you propose they should report occasionally the state and
condition of the roads, and also the state of the finances of each
trust?—I should think the state of the finances ought to be reported in
some way every year, that they might reach parliament, either by
counties, or by some means the least expensive and least troublesome;
and I think such a report of the finances, annually, would be a great
means of preventing mis-application of the public funds; and it would
create a comparison between one part of the country and another, that
would be useful in checking misconduct.
Then you do not think there is, at present, a sufficient protection of
the road revenue of the kingdom against dishonest or ignorant
practices?—I think the road revenue is less protected than any other
part of the public expenditure; and, though it is very large, it may be
considered, I think, almost unprotected, under the present system of
law.
Have you any loose guess in your own mind, as to the extent of the
revenue throughout the kingdom, raised for the purpose of maintaining
roads?—I have been led to guess a million and a quarter a year, as the
toll revenue; from the circumstance of there being five-and-twenty
thousand miles of turnpike road in England and Wales.
That is an increasing revenue?—It is certainly increasing very much; I
think the revenue has been increased by the increase of travelling, and
particularly stage-coaches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account