Can you give any information as to the total amount of general debt on the roads now existing in England and Wales? After inquiring by all the means that an unauthorized individual could do in different parts of the country, and ascertaining, as nearly as I could, the amount of debt upon a great number of trusts; I have been inclined to believe that the debt at present amounts to about seven millions in England and Wales. Are you of opinion that any considerable advantage might be derived in the management of the roads, by a commutation for the statute labour?—Yes; I think very great advantage would be derived by the public, if the statute labour were commuted for money, and that, if it were commuted at a very low rate; if it were one half of the real value of the work, I should think, the roads would be more benefited by it in general through the country. Is it the general practice in Scotland, under any act of parliament, to commute statute labour for money?—All the acts of parliament I am acquainted with in Scotland, have commuted it; one in the county I belong to, commuted it twenty years ago with very great advantage. You have mentioned that the commissioners of the Westminster bridge road required you to employ a considerable number of paupers; the Committee wish to know whether it is the general practice, in your observation, to employ paupers upon roads?—I have always found that in every place where the improvement of the roads has been commenced, under any advice given by me, it has been desired very much by the inhabitants that the people unemployed (not, perhaps, paupers that generally receive parish relief, but those people who come to ask for relief, because they cannot get work) should be employed on the road; and it has been very much my wish to gratify that desire by giving them work, not by the day, but by the piece, because that has generally put them off the parishes; the moment they get work to do, by which they can get their bread, and without which they cannot get their bread, they quit the parish. Is it not the practice, in trusts where you have not been concerned, to employ paupers, or very old labourers?—I have found in all the trusts that have sent to me to take advice, that the labourers have been a great number of them very inefficient men; and the excuse generally given for that is, that those people would come to the parish if they were not sent to the roads. Is the pay of those men proportionably low with their abilities to work?—I have not found that to be the case. I have found that those poor, miserable men, who can do very little, have been getting considerable wages, and in that way a considerable sum has been wasted. In point of practice, then, the road revenue is made to act as a poor fund?—Precisely so; I think the road revenue has gone to the assistance of the poor in that way.