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

Mr. James Dean, called in; and Examined.

What is your profession?—I am a land agent and civil engineer, and am occasionally employed to solicit bills in parliament as an agent.

Where do you reside?—I reside in London about half the year, and the other half in Devonshire.

As an engineer, have you had the means of becoming acquainted with the roads of the kingdom?—About twenty years since, I had the appointment of surveyor to the trustees of the turnpike roads from Oxford to Henley upon Thames, and from Dorchester to Abingdon, in Berkshire; since then I have been employed about several roads in Devonshire and Cornwall, and, latterly, in surveying and reporting on an extensive district of the roads in Somersetshire.

From the observations which you have made in this employment, are you able to give the Committee any information as to the best mode of improving the roads of the kingdom generally?—The first and most obvious improvement is to shorten distances; but even that must be governed by circumstances often of a local nature; a sound foundation, and the contiguity of good stone or gravel to a road, should not be overlooked in choosing a new line, or departing from an old one. In forming a new line in a level country, the transverse section should approach as near as possible to the form of the accompanying sketch No. 1, and in a hilly country to that of No. 2; in the former, the water from one half the road would be carried into a ditch on the field side, and that of the other half into a ditch between the footpath and hedge-bank. When it is necessary to form a road on the side of a hill, the ditch should be on the higher side of the road, where it will receive the water falling from the high ground, and so keep the foundation of the road dry. I have figured the breadths of a good average turnpike road on sketch No. 1, but the breadth will frequently depend upon circumstances of a local nature. Near to great towns, it would be highly advantageous if the centre of the road, for about twelve feet in width, were to be paved with hard well-squared stones, nine inches deep, and the sides made with hard rubble stones or gravel. I need scarcely mention, that in applying the materials to a new line of road, the stones should be broken into pieces of an uniform size, as near as may be; that the larger should be laid of nearly an equal depth over the whole surface of the road, and the smaller, mixed with gravel, should be placed upon them. The repairing of roads should be conducted in the same manner as far as it is practicable; but, after all, the only sure way of getting good roads is, for the trustees to employ men of education and science as their surveyors. In a few instances, where this has been done, the best consequences have resulted, and in no case is if more conspicuous than in the neighbourhood of Bristol, where Mr. MᶜAdam is the surveyor.

Will not a consequent impediment arise to the employment of men of education and of superior ability as surveyors, from the smallness of the funds upon small trusts or districts?—For that reason, I would recommend the consolidation of the several trusts, in each county, into one general trust, under the authority of one general act of parliament, leaving the adoption, however, of the acts to the discretion of the several trusts respectively in each county, making it compulsory only on the minority, at the expiration of a time to be limited, when a majority in amount of toll shall call for its adoption, and after insertion in the provincial papers and London Gazette.

Supposing parliament to adopt your suggestion as to the passing of such an act, and supposing that afterwards the trusts of none of the counties should adopt it as a general trust, would there be any objection to the act being so framed as to admit of adoption by such of the trusts as might prefer it to incurring the expense of a renewal of their then local acts?—I do not think there would be any well founded objection to an act made capable of being so applied; and I am of opinion, that the making it optional on trustees to adopt it or not, would render the measure extremely popular, and in the end be highly beneficial to the country.

Have you not lately prepared a bill for the trustees of an extensive trust in Somersetshire, including in it nearly all the improvements which you would recommend to be introduced into a general turnpike act?—I have prepared such a bill; and it was intended that the same should have been brought before parliament in the present session, but the clerk to the trustees having omitted to put the notice required by the standing orders of parliament upon the sessions-house door, at the Michaelmas sessions, the trustees resolved to defer presenting their petition until the next session.

In what respect does the bill which you have prepared differ from the generality of local turnpike acts?—Many of the clauses of the bill are not so remarkable for originality, as their combination is calculated to produce extensive benefit to the country, by conferring larger powers than have heretofore been given to any one body of trustees; among others, it empowers the trustees to appoint committees, and make bye-laws; it binds them to provide a fund for buying up outstanding securities; and to pay off the further sums proposed to be raised under the new act, within the term of the act; the tolls on wheel carriages are made referrible to the breadth of the fellies, and description of wheel, and to the weight drawn, rather than to the number of horses, drawing, and are founded on a statement which I had the honour of delivering to a Committee of the House of Commons in 1809. The standing orders of parliament require that on or before the 30th of September next, preceding any application to parliament for any Turnpike Act, a plan &c. of the roads proposed to be made or altered, shall be deposited with the clerk of the peace. It often happens, that in the Committee alterations are made in the proposed line, when the plan deposited becomes mere waste paper; the seventy sixth clause of this bill provides for the depositing of a plan, &c. last determined upon, with the clerk of the peace, signed by the Speaker, and being an authentic document can be referred to with safety. The bill also provides for the making of commodious footpaths by the sides of the roads. And as the paving, cleansing, lighting, watching, &c. of the liberty or borough of * * * * is placed in the trustees of the roads, the trustees are empowered to rate the inhabitants, and are also empowered to light the streets, &c. with gas, and to allow gas to be taken from their mains for the lighting of private dwellings, manufactories, &c.; so that in all probability the latter indulgence may pay the greater part, if not the whole, of the expense of lighting the public lamps. The ninety-third clause empowers the trustees to pave, light and watch any town, village or place through, which the roads pass, upon application of two-thirds of the inhabitants, and is in my view extremely important.

Have you any further suggestions to offer to the Committee that would tend to the improvement of the roads, or the laws relating to them?—Upon the subject of turnpike roads, and of wheel-carriages generally, I am of opinion that such a spirit of improvement has gone forth as, with the assistance of judicious legislative enactments, will in a few years carry both to a state of very great perfection; but I cannot close these remarks without observing on the injurious effect which the large fees paid to the higher officers of both houses of parliament has upon the growing improvements of the country, by preventing a recurrence to parliament to remove obstacles which the prejudice of some will not, and the incapacity of others cannot permit. The periodical expenses of renewing turnpike acts is really enormous, when it is considered that between the fees of parliament on the one hand, and a two month’s residence in London of the country solicitor, to manage the business, besides a parliamentary agent in town to assist him, four or five hundred pounds are soon swallowed up; but I also feel it right to suggest, that if parliament would allow affidavits to be made before two magistrates in the county, of the notices directed by the standing orders of parliament, having been duly given, of plans and of books of reference being lodged with the clerk of the peace, and of the names of the persons assenting to, dissenting from, or being neuter in respect of any proposed new road, the solicitor need not remain in town more than three days, and the expenses, except in cases of opposition, need not exceed 200l.