=THE AUTHOR=. INTRODUCTION. The present very defective state of the Turnpike Roads and Highways in the United Kingdom, and the continual and apparently unlimited increase of the Toll Duties, are the considerations, which have given rise to the publication of the following remarks. Of the value of the information contained in them, the intelligent reader will be the most competent judge; the author can only venture to assure him, that the few facts brought forward in the course of the work have been most carefully authenticated; that the opinions advanced are the result of much thought, and patient investigation; that whatever may appear theoretical, has, for the most part, been already reduced to practice; and that where practice has been wanting, a long experience of the evils arising from the present system, and not the mere love of innovation, has been the motive for the suggestion of the remedies proposed. These, however, the author gladly submits to the good sense and candour of the public; only requesting, in the words of a celebrated writer, that whoever favors him with a perusal, will not judge by a few hours reading of the labours of nearly thirty years. In the following chapters, the subject of Roads will be considered under three principal heads: THE MODE OF MAKING ROADS; THE COMMISSIONERS, AND OFFICERS EMPLOYED UNDER THEM, FOR THIS SERVICE, and THE CARE OF THE FINANCES: Which has appeared to the Author the most clear and comprehensive arrangement. _REMARKS ON ROADS._ PART FIRST. _THE MODE OF MAKING ROADS._ The modes of making and repairing Roads are so various in the different parts of the kingdom, that it would be an endless task to attempt a particular account of each. It may, however, be possible to give a general idea of them, according to the materials produced in each part of the country. In the neighbourhood of London, the roads are formed of gravel; in Essex and Sussex, they are formed of flint; in Wilts, Somerset, and Glocester, limestone is principally used; in the North of England, and in Scotland, whinstone is the principal material; and in Shropshire and Staffordshire, large pebbles mixed with sand. Excellent roads may be made with any of these materials. The gravel of which the roads round London are formed is the worst; because it is mixed with a large portion of clay, and because the component parts of gravel are round, and want the angular points of contact, by which broken stone unites, and forms a solid body; the loose state of the roads near London, is a consequence of this quality in the material, and of the entire neglect, or ignorance of the method of amending it.