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

by John Loudon McAdam

Various are the plans which have been brought under their consideration for altering the general constitution of the laws affecting the management of Turnpike Roads, proposing either to annex the superintendence and patronage to some of the existing departments of Government, or to constitute a new Board of Commissioners expressly for this object.

Your Committee forbear to detail the reasons which induce them to withhold their recommendation from any of these plans, whatever advantages they might afford in unity or vigour of management.

They are of opinion, that many important reasons exist for leaving generally the direction of the affairs of the different turnpike trusts in the hands of their respective Commissioners, whose experience, character and interest, afford the best pledges of ability, attention and economy. If your Committee think it necessary to propose, in one respect, an interference with their appointments, it by no means proceeds from any distrust of their judgment or integrity.

The duties of a head surveyor demand suitable education and talents. These qualifications must be fairly remunerated; and it is evident, that the limited extent of the funds of Turnpike Trusts, in general, do not afford the means of paying to such an officer an adequate salary. The difficulty might in many instances be obviated by voluntary associations, but where the system is wished to be universal, it ought not to be left to so precarious a dependence.

The plan to which your Committee, after full consideration, are disposed to give the preference, is that of empowering the magistrates of every county, assembled in quarter sessions, to appoint one or more surveyors general, who shall have the superintendence and management of the turnpike roads within the county, under the authority and direction of the Commissioners of the different trusts. It is not necessary at present to enter on the detailed regulations by which the executive duties of such an officer should be prescribed, so as to keep them under the deliberative control of the Commissioners, whose meetings he should attend, and to whom he should uniformly report on the improvements and alterations he may wish to recommend within their trusts.

Your Committee are of opinion, that the most eligible mode of paying the salary of this officer would be by an uniform rate per mile upon all the roads within the county; to be fixed by the magistrates at quarter sessions, and paid from the funds of the respective trusts.

The success of this plan of appointing general county surveyors will, in a great degree, depend upon the firmness evinced by the magistrates, in laying aside every consideration of personal favour, and impartially looking to integrity, talents, and energy of character, as the recommendations for office; some skill in the science of an engineer should also be regarded as a valuable qualification.

Your Committee have manifested their general disinclination to any interference with the honourable and gratuitous discharge of the functions of the Commissioners of Turnpike Trusts; in one instance, however, they are disposed to depart from the principle which they have recommended. A full consideration of the evidence relative to the defective state, and injudicious management of the roads round the Metropolis, and of the advantages which would accrue from a consolidation of the numerous small Trusts into which they are most inconveniently divided, induce your Committee to express to the House their strong recommendation, that a special Act of Parliament may be passed for uniting all the Trusts within a distance of about ten miles round London under one set of Commissioners. It is to these roads that the heaviest complaints made by the coachmasters, and the surveyor of mail coaches under the post-office, principally apply; and whether an improvement is to be effected by the importation of flint, and other common materials, or by laying granite pavement in the centre or sides of the roads, it is evident that, “the measure to be performed in an economical and efficient manner, must be done upon an extended scale it must become one interest, directed by one select body of men, of weight, ability, and character.”

It is the object of the recommendation of your Committee to render the roads round the Metropolis a pattern for the kingdom, by the introduction of the most judicious system of formation and repair, which will thus be brought under general inspection; and the spirit of improvement, radiating from this centre, may be expected to spread with rapidity throughout the country, and to diffuse “those incalculable public and private advantages,” which a former Committee anticipated from the accomplishment of this great national object.

Your Committee are deeply sensible of the consideration due to the persons whose property is invested in the funds of these Trusts, as well as to those who now act as Commissioners. They are perfectly aware of the jealousy with which the House may view any proposition for the creation of new offices of patronage and profit; and they do not disguise their conviction, that it will be found expedient to remunerate those efficient Commissioners who are expected to devote their time to the performance of active duties.