[7]. Since this Essay was written, I have visited England, and have found, on a journey of many hundred miles, scarcely twenty miles of well-made road. In many parts of the country, and especially round London, the roads are in a shameful condition. This must strike the public; and sooner or later the good sense of the English nation will feel the necessity of adopting some means of improvement.
Edgeworth’s Essay, Preface, p. 7.
In Ireland, the cross roads are generally better than the great roads, and comparing all the roads in that country with the roads in England, the shameful inferiority of the latter would evidently appear.
Edgeworth’s Essay, p. 46.
The Author has abstained from any notice of the parish roads; although their condition and the state of their funds, are more deplorable than that of the turnpike roads. The Legislative enactments for their maintenance and repair are so inadequate to the object, that they may be considered as being placed almost out of the protection of the law.
There can be no apparent good reason, why, such a distinction should be made between the two description of roads; and their being both placed under the care of the Commissioners, with the benefit of the scientific direction of a General Surveyor, would ensure an equal improvement of the parish roads.
The foregoing Remarks on Roads cannot be better concluded than by the following Extract from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons in 1811.
“The many important advantages to be derived from amending the highways and turnpike roads of the kingdom need hardly be dwelt upon. Every individual in it would thereby find his comforts materially increased, and his interest greatly promoted. By the improvement of our roads, every branch of our agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry would be materially benefited. Every article brought to market would be diminished in price; the number of horses would be so much reduced, that by these, and other retrenchments, the expence of FIVE MILLIONS would be annually saved to the public. The expence of repairing roads, and the wear and tear of carriages and horses, would be essentially diminished; and thousands of acres, the produce of which is now wasted in feeding unnecessary horses, would be devoted to the production of food for man. In short, the public and private advantages, which would result from effecting that great object, the improvement of our highways and turnpike roads, are incalculable; though from their being spread over a wide surface, and available in various ways, such advantages will not be so apparent as those derived from other sources of improvement, of a more restricted and less general nature.”