Gass T E\4-sS 
 Book ^"B>6S 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 HISTORY, CHARACTER AND UTILITY; 
 
 EEISG THE 
 
 SUBSTANCE OF TWO LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 VOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF ALBANY. 
 
 BY S. DE WITT BLOODGOOD. 
 
 ALBANY : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY OLIVER STEELE 
 J. 3Iunscll, P r inter . 
 
 1838. 
 
INSCRIBED 
 TO THE YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION 
 
 OP THE CITY OF ALBANY, 
 
The writer of this, having been struck 
 with the importance of giving that class 
 of internal improvements, called roads, a 
 due share of public consideration, at a time 
 when so many projects are on foot, some 
 of them addressed to the cupidity of specula- 
 tion, others to advance the common welfare, 
 recently attempted to investigate the sub- 
 ject, and to form some general opinions of its 
 history, and characteristics. 
 
 No where could this information be ob- 
 tained in the desired shape. And it was 
 only after long and laborious researches 
 that the scanty facts were obtained which 
 form the groundwork of this little treatise. 
 
 Modern engineers have rather embodied 
 their own experience in works relating to 
 
VL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 particular projects under their charge, than 
 discussed the general tendency of the sys- 
 tem. Sir Henry Parnell, of the Institution 
 of Civil Engineers, in London, has given 
 us the most valuable work we possess of 
 a general character, but he has not at- 
 tempted to enter into those details which 
 were found interesting enough, in our 
 opinion, to justify their collection in the 
 following pages. 
 
 If a general view of the subject, if its 
 literary as well as mechanical history is 
 worthy of being rescued from the dust of 
 centuries, the writer hopes that his humble 
 efforts will not be entirely in vain. 
 
 Albany^ October^ 1838. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 It is conceded that no age of the world 
 was ever marked by a greater regard for 
 the useful than that in which we live. The 
 monuments of antiquity, grand and impres- 
 sive even in their ruins, seem as often to have 
 been erected through caprice as for utility. 
 The pyramids survive triumphantly the ra- 
 vages of time, but why such a vast expense 
 was incurred of labor and of money, is one 
 of the problems yet to be solved, and one 
 that overtasks the most willing antiquarian. 
 In our own time all popular pursuits appear 
 to be influenced, if not directed, by a regard 
 for the human condition and the desire of 
 making it more in accordance with the true 
 objects of life. The projector who cannot 
 (apparently at least) demonstrate this to be 
 the purpose of his schemes, is sure to be 
 without patronage, and almost without hear- 
 
8 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 ers. Even those articles of fancy and taste, 
 once the exclusive property of the rich and 
 great, but now obtained and enjoyed by the 
 community at large, make their appeal to 
 some principle of utility as their chief recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 It is from this tendency of the age, that so 
 much investigation, so much research, so 
 much talent, has been displayed in popular 
 forms, and sought each its reward in the 
 practical advantages it conferred through a 
 new medium on a new auditory. And it 
 is from the consciousness of the truth of this 
 feature of our times, that we venture to pass 
 over more amusing themes, for one which is 
 intimately connected with the comfort of in- 
 dividuals and the prosperity of nations. 
 
 The history of roads, those means of land 
 communication, indispensable to civiliza- 
 tion ; without which mankind, and even those 
 of the same country, would live strangers to 
 each other ; the absence of which is a sure 
 evidence of barbarism, and whose mainten- 
 ance and preservation are infallible tests of 
 national prosperity, is a field vast enough 
 for the ambition of the most successful 
 writer. As at intervals these researches 
 were prosecuted, they grew in interest and 
 magnitude, and it is regretted after all that 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, y 
 
 the following pages will only present an out- 
 line of a subject, connected with the most 
 remarkable periods of antiquity, their social, 
 commercial and political relations, and which 
 in our own time has assumed a still more im- 
 portant and interesting character. 
 
 When the celebrated Dr. Johnson de- 
 clared, as he was whirled along in a post 
 chaise over the beautiful roads of England, 
 that he was enjoying one of the greatest 
 pleasures of life, he overlooked the happi- 
 ness, which the existence of good roads con- 
 fers on those who do not travel, but who re- 
 ceive at their own doors, all that necessity 
 demands, all that comfort requires, all that 
 taste can sigh for. Human existence is plea- 
 sant or painful as its wants are satisfied or 
 denied, and of course that system of internal 
 communication which provides for them, be- 
 comes one of the first cares of civilized soci- 
 ety, one of the great objects of all intelligent 
 legislation. 
 
 In the savage state, the entire freedom of 
 the individual, that natural liberty which 
 does away with all restraints of law, and all 
 subjection of our passions to reason, is ac- 
 companied by the most miserable depend- 
 ence on circumstances. Nature, whose gifts 
 2 
 
10 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 when cultivated and enjoyed, becomes the 
 kind mother of the industrious and the pro- 
 vident, is to uncivilized man, at best but a 
 fickle friend, and oftentimes a relentless en- 
 emy. 
 
 The wind which fills the canvass of the 
 deep laden bark, and bears to its destined 
 port the rich and useful products of other 
 lands, tears down the wigwam of the sav- 
 age and leaves him exposed and shelterless. 
 The prosperous gale becomes the pitiless 
 blast. The early and the latter rain which 
 makes the husbandman rejoice in the bounty 
 of Providence ; which fills the reservoir, and 
 impels the untiring wheel of the manufactur- 
 er, inundates the habitation of the aboriginal, 
 swells the flood, over which he would pass, 
 and deprives him of the scanty sustenance 
 derived from his spear and his bow. Man 
 in this state of existence becomes a wander- 
 er. He must go to the tree or the fountain, 
 to the lake or the hill side, where for a time 
 he satiates his hunger and quenches his thirst. 
 As the supply diminishes, at the greatest 
 personal inconvenience he is obliged to seek 
 some other spot where he may prolong his 
 life. His food must be run down on the prai- 
 rie from the herds, which nomades like him- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 11 
 
 self, have a wild and uncertain existence, or 
 drawn at times from ice-bound lakes, with 
 slow and painful exertion. The tribe of 
 which he is a member cannot establish their 
 residence any where permanently, if they 
 would. Their sustenance must be sought, 
 where it can be found, since it cannot be 
 conveyed to them, and their surplus for 
 the moment, hid in the earth for future ne- 
 cessity, generally becomes the prey of other 
 tribes, or of the quick scented animals, which 
 follow on the trail. Life is consumed in a 
 struggle for life, and the nobler qualities of 
 our nature have no time for expansion, and 
 no place for improvement. Without perma- 
 nence of habitation and constant facilities for 
 intercommunication, no progress in civiliza- 
 tion can be counted on. 
 
 All travellers tell us that the native tribes 
 of uncivilized lands, are constantly exposed 
 to the horrors of starvation ; while political 
 economists appeal triumphantly in their ar- 
 guments in favor of commercial intercourse, 
 to the fact that in refined and civilized na 
 tions, famine is now unknown. The start- 
 ling and affecting pictures such as are pre- 
 sented to us by Captain Back, and Wash- 
 ington Irving, in their most recent works, of 
 
12 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 the frequent horrors which attend the north- 
 ern and northwestern tribes, and arise from 
 the scantiness or uncertainty of their sup- 
 plies of food, are unfortunately too common, 
 and the eye of humanity cannot glance at 
 the great mass of mankind, and notice the 
 millions and millions of our race living in 
 anarchy, in poverty, and in ignorance, with- 
 out shedding a tear of compassion over their 
 strange and hapless destiny. Nor is it 
 merely in regard to the physical condition 
 of man, that the absence of intercommunica- 
 tion as enjoyed in civilized countries, is so 
 great a misfortune. To the early settler 
 who finds the dangerous river, the stormy 
 flood, and the trackless forest interposing in- 
 superable obstacles to the transportation of 
 food, and to the poor savage who after kil- 
 ling his game, is unable to carry it to the 
 tent where his wife and children are dying 
 of hunger, other and more valuable benefits 
 are denied by the absence of those improve- 
 ments which distinguish the civilized state. 
 Animal existence most concerns the barba- 
 rian, but among men in civilized life, it is but 
 an accessary to the growth of the higher 
 principles of our nature. In a constant 
 struggle against the elements for the"support 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. .13 
 
 of life, its nobler objects are lost sight of, or 
 unappreciated, and it is a matter of fact, 
 that those nations are most degraded, whose 
 means of subsistence are the most precari- 
 ous. It would be a curious subject of en- 
 quiry to ascertain and compare the relative 
 degrees of civilization to be found in those 
 countries, which are partially or wholly defi- 
 cient in the means of intercommunication. A 
 table might be formed with considerable ac- 
 curacy which would shew their actual con- 
 dition by means of this test. The most bar- 
 barous people will be found to be those, 
 among whom the system of roads, bridges 
 and canals, and the facilities of transporta- 
 tion are unknown. On the contrary, the 
 most enlightened and the most prosperous, 
 are those whose inhabitants live in the clos- 
 est connections, social and commercial, whose 
 territory is intersected in all directions by 
 well constructed and densely thronged ave- 
 nues, and whose means of travel and of 
 trade, have bound its inhabitants in friend- 
 ship, and the ties of interest. 
 
 Let us elucidate this principle by reference 
 to well known facts. Even to civilized na- 
 tions, those indeed having extensive domains, 
 and great political connections, it will be 
 
14 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 found applicable. We are all familiar with 
 the history and resources of Spain. That 
 country which by turns has been the thea- 
 tre of Roman, Moorish and Gallic conquest, 
 though the land of the olive and the vine, and 
 the home of the richly freighted galleons, is 
 still the scene of ignorance and poverty. It 
 has not improved the advantages, nor over- 
 come the disadvantages of nature. "No man" 
 says a recent distinguished traveller, " but 
 a botanist can travel with any pleasure 
 through the barren tracts of old Castile." 
 The easy prosecution of internal improve- 
 ments is unquestionably rendered difficult 
 by the character of the surface, but the Spa- 
 nish government at one time projected a 
 grand canal to connect the Mediterranean 
 with the Bay of Biscay, by the route of As- 
 turias, old Castile and Arragon. Only a 
 small portion of this work was ever finished, 
 and the transactions connected with it are 
 of course very limited. This is almost a so- 
 litary effort on their part to facilitate their 
 internal navigation. The main roads to the 
 capitol and some of the chief towns, are kept 
 in good order, as a well understood matter 
 of necessity, but the general communications 
 of the country, and those by which the trans- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 15 
 
 portation of goods is effected, are little else 
 than the imprinted footsteps of the weary 
 mules, upon the rough rocks which they are 
 compelled to climb. The consequences of this 
 state of things are apparent in the difficulty 
 and danger of conveying merchandize from 
 one part of Spain to the other, the heavy 
 and ruinous charges made by the carriers 
 for their services, the temptations to plunder 
 afforded by the insecurity of the routes, and 
 the scarcity, and dearness of a vast propor- 
 tion of the articles indispensable to the com- 
 forts of life. 
 
 On a recent occasion, when a supply of 
 grain was required by the government at 
 Madrid, it took 30,000 horses and mules to 
 transport 480 tons of wheat from old Castile 
 to that city. On a good turnpike road, this 
 would have easily been accomplished by one 
 sixth of that number of animals; on a canal 
 at a speed of four miles an hour, by about 
 fifteen, on a rail way, by the exertions of two 
 locomotive engines of the first class. 
 
 The city of Cadiz though founded 1200 
 years before the Christian era, contains even 
 now but 60,000 inhabitants, and though ad- 
 mirably situated for foreign trade and so far 
 coming within the general law which causes 
 
16 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 the rise of towns and cities, and which we 
 shall presently notice, yet for the want of pro- 
 per channels of communication with the inte- 
 rior, and the oppressive duties charged upon 
 articles of merchandize every time they 
 change hands, it never can become as popu- 
 lous or important as those great European 
 and American towns which are centres of in- 
 numerable avenues, the points in which the 
 vivifying rays of commerce are concentrated. 
 On the other hand, Switzerland, a moun- 
 tainous and sterile country, with only about 
 19,000 square miles of territory and 2,000,- 
 000 of inhabitants, while Spain possesses an 
 area of 179,000 square miles and 41,000,000 
 of inhabitants, is essentially prosperous, in 
 consequence of its internal communications, 
 and the facilities they afford for traA^elling, 
 and the export of domestic industry. The 
 celebrated military road called the Simplon, 
 which wall preserve the memory of Napo- 
 leon, longer perhaps than even his famous 
 battles, has produced the most important 
 commercial advantages to the Helvetians. 
 Another over the Splugen, the work of the 
 Austrians since the death of Napoleon, and 
 designed to facilitate the communication be- 
 tween Lombardy and the Tyrol has also had 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 17 
 
 the most decided influence on their prosperi- 
 ty. The two cantons of Uri and Tessino 
 completed about seven years since, a fine 
 avenue over St. Gothard, and indeed good 
 roads are every where carried to the very 
 tops of the Swiss mountains. Industry has 
 thus found an outlet, and the very attrac- 
 tions of the scenery thus rendered accessible 
 to the curious, form an item of the national 
 prosperity that would scarcely be believed, 
 were it not for unquestionable evidence. 
 
 The condition of society under a system 
 of intercommunication rises at once to the 
 highest degree of refinement, and the great- 
 est equality of advantages. The most dis- 
 tant places, are to all desired intents, com- 
 pletely united. The products of every na- 
 tion, the fruits of every clime, come within 
 reach of all. The pleasures of social inter- 
 course, the beneficial discoveries of science, 
 the offerings of genius, and the works of art, 
 become part and parcel of his enjoyment, 
 who lives within the circle of civilization, 
 penetrated by these lines of commercial in- 
 tercourse. The inhabitants of the torrid 
 and the temperate zones, exchange with ea- 
 gerness the surplus of their respective pro- 
 ducts. No one need be beyond the reach of 
 3 
 
18 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 sympathy or companionship. The loneliest 
 inhabitant, whose possession is crossed by a 
 canal or rail-road, becomes in fact a citizen 
 of the world. 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck with the 
 moral effect of such a state of things. The 
 bonds of human fellowship become closer 
 and dearer to us, the friendly relations which 
 Christianity teaches us, are strengthened and 
 maintained. 
 
 " The kindred sons of men 
 
 Live brothers like, in amity combined." 
 
 Before we proceed to examine the history 
 of roads, it may be well to glance briefly at 
 the principles to which they owe their origin, 
 and some of the benefits of their construc- 
 tion. It is evident, on the discovery or early 
 settlement of any country, that the first ef- 
 forts of the founders to establish colonies, 
 are made at the sea side, or on the banks 
 of navigable rivers. These are the only 
 localities easily accessible to foreign com- 
 merce, or the trade of the interior, and thus 
 all great cities and towns generally owe 
 their rise to their facilities for water com- 
 munication. This fact is pointed out by all 
 political economists, and in this necessity, 
 they recognize the choice usually first made 
 by colonists. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 19 
 
 When a city or town is thus established, 
 its subsequent growth still depends on the 
 ease with which it can be approached, and 
 the extent of country which can readily find 
 there an outlet for its productions. In bar- 
 barous ages, the protection of a castle and 
 the favor of a chieftain sometimes congrega- 
 ted men in hamlets beneath a lordly battle- 
 ment, but where civilization extends her ae- 
 gis over her followers, men cannot be kept 
 together in large masses, for the mere and 
 single purpose of personal safety. They re- 
 sort to populous towns, and towms become 
 populous because they are the marts of en- 
 terprise. Here, we see the advantages of the 
 subdivision of labor, and the increased pro- 
 duction and sale of those articles which min- 
 ister to our real or im aginary wants. Here, 
 industry moves on the largest scale, the arts 
 flourish in the highest degree, and the com- 
 forts of life are most easily attainable. In 
 the competition of intelligence and talent, 
 great designs are brought forward to public 
 observation, great public benefits are secured, 
 and the highest rewards held out to perseve- 
 rance and industry. Talent generally re- 
 pairs to the largest theatre of action ; and 
 the eagerness of adventure, and the rapid 
 
20 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 advancement of enterprise, draw crowds of 
 combatants into the already thronged arena. 
 
 When cities become so large however, as 
 to require new and more steady supplies, 
 than at their outset, — whether for manufac- 
 ture, export or subsistence, then it is the ex- 
 tension and improvement of internal commu- 
 nications become indispensible to further 
 prosperity. There seems to be a reciprocal 
 action. Towns require the construction of 
 roads, and roads lead to the increase of 
 towns. They are the artificial substitutes 
 for water communication, and by bringing 
 the productions of the surrounding country 
 to market, induce competition, and give the 
 citizen his necessary supplies, at cheaper 
 rates, and in more convenient quantities. 
 
 The surrounding country becomes equally 
 benefitted. The remote sections are brought 
 upon an equality with those nearer, by the re- 
 duction of the expense and difficulty of land 
 carriage, and thus gain a market they could 
 not otherwise profitably visit. I^ands that 
 could not before be worked with any prospect 
 of sufficient remuneration, become valuable to 
 their owners and beneficial to the public. The 
 influence that large towns exercise upon agri- 
 cultural pursuits, is well understood. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 21 
 
 "In those districts," says a modern writer, 
 '• which carry on a communication with the 
 markets of trading towns, the husbandmen 
 are busy and skilful, the farmers industri- 
 ous, the land is managed to the best advan- 
 tage and double the quantity of grain or 
 herbage (articles ultimately converted into 
 human provision) raised from it, of what 
 the same soil yields in remoter and more neg- 
 lected parts of the country." "Agriculture 
 never arrives at any considerable, much less 
 its highest degree of perfection, when not 
 connected with trade, that is, when the pro- 
 duce is not increased by the consumption of 
 trading cities." Nor are the benefits confer- 
 red by these " greatest of all improvements" 
 confined exclusively in their operation, to 
 town and country only. They are equally 
 striking, by the effect they produce in the 
 relations between district and district. Ar- 
 ticles of necessity however bulky, are easily 
 transported to be manufactured or consum- 
 ed. The products of the soil, of the rivers, 
 and the mountains, are interchanged at will, 
 and the gifts of heaven which w"ould oth- 
 erwise often be unappreciated and unim- 
 proved become the valuable resources of the 
 human family. 
 
22 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 The diminution of the expense of trans- 
 portation is also an important consideration, 
 since all the saving effected in the cost of 
 transportation to market, is so much profit 
 left in the pocket of the producer. 
 
 The advantage of being able to convey 
 any required product, to the place where it 
 is in demand, and within the period of its 
 greatest value, lessens the risk of produc- 
 tion, and gives certainty to the calculations 
 of industry. In the conveyance of news and 
 of private correspondence, the utility of roads 
 is strikingly evident, and particularly that 
 of rail ways, a simple yet admirable inven- 
 tion which leaves the most remarkable ef- 
 forts of the ancients far behind. The sepa- 
 ration of friends and relations becomes almost 
 nominal, the sympathies of life are uninter- 
 rupted by distance, and all the joys of affec- 
 tion and the sweets of remembrance multi- 
 ply in the pleasing assurances, which their 
 swift messenger, so faithfully conveys to the 
 absent. 
 
 In a military point of view, good roads 
 are of essential service. It is too apparent 
 to need any proof, that the rapid transmis- 
 sion of troops from one point to another is of 
 the highest importance to any belligerent 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 23 
 
 country. If during the second war of in- 
 dependence, our present system of canals 
 and rail roads had been established, im- 
 mense savings might have been made in the 
 expense of transportation; and the same num- 
 ber of men might have been used oftener at 
 different points and doubled in efficiency. In 
 any future contest, the advantages w^ill be 
 perceived in the most striking manner. 
 
 These topics at which we have only 
 glanced, are fruitful subjects for reflection, 
 and deserve a more deliberate examination 
 than our limit enables us to give them. 
 
 The early history of roads is somewhat 
 obscure. In tracing it out, we naturally 
 turn to the oldest records in the hands of 
 men, to see what is there said of them. 
 The commerce of the east appears to have 
 been carried on by means of ships and ca- 
 ravans, and allusions to these are frequent 
 in the early writers. We find that the 
 Egyptians pursued the retreating Israelites 
 with chariots, which is perhaps the most 
 ancient notice we have of their general use. 
 Among the Jews the absence of commercial 
 regulations, in the laws promulgated by Mo- 
 ses, was doubtless owing to the necessity of 
 keeping that people separate as much as 
 
24 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 ' possible from the idolatrous nations around 
 
 them. 
 
 In the time of Solomon immense numbers 
 of these chariots were imported from Egypt. 
 The numbers are stated with precision by 
 the early historians, and the fact of their 
 use, in default of other evidence, would be 
 conclusive as to the existence and maintain- 
 ance of public roads. Two great routes 
 from Palestine to Egypt, the one along the 
 Mediterranean from Gaza to Pelusium, and 
 another from the same place to the Arabi- 
 an gulf, are spoken of as being constantly 
 thronged by travellers. 
 
 On the downfal of the Israelites after 
 the death of Solomon, occasioned by various 
 causes foreign and domestic, Tyre became 
 the emporium of the eastern world. Besides 
 her foreign commerce which was already so 
 extensive as to have attracted the attention 
 of the inspired prophets, and to have pro- 
 cured for her the title of " a merchant of the 
 people for many isles," her internal trade 
 was of the greatest extent. Her principal 
 connections were with Egypt, Assyria, and 
 the Caucasian countries, while the tin of 
 Britain and the silks of China were also 
 found in her marts. When the walls of 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 25 
 
 Rome were so diminutive that they could be 
 easily leaped over, Tyre was in the " blaze 
 of her fame." While her vessels whitened 
 the adjacent seas, her caravans threaded 
 the interior. The trade of Phenicia has gi- 
 ven occasion to some very profound research- 
 es of which the pages of Heeren furnish a 
 masterly example. The celebrated city of 
 Petra, recently so well described by our 
 countryman Mr. Stevens, became a city of 
 immense wealth, from the mere circumstance 
 of the meeting of the caravan roads in its vi- 
 cinity, and its being the emporium for the 
 supplies of Arabia. 
 
 Babylonia or Chaldea, a province of As- 
 syria, which also like its later rival Tyre 
 has yielded to time and prophecy, was also 
 remarkable for its commerce, and the nume- 
 rous commercial roads, by which the city of 
 Babylon gathered in the products of sur- 
 rounding countries. One celebrated route 
 ran along the southern boundary of the de- 
 sert between Persia and Medea to the Cas- 
 pian Gates, a celebrated Asiatic defile ; and 
 thence along the Hyrcanian and Parthian 
 mountains to Bactria. It is said to have been 
 used by Alexander in his celebrated expedi- 
 tion against the Bactrians, and is styled by 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 Arrian a Greek geographer, the great mili- 
 tary road. The principal commercial route 
 from Babylon to India was in part the 
 same, but at Aria it took an easterly di- 
 rection and afterwards divided into three 
 branches. Other roads are mentioned which 
 ran to the Mediterranean, and to important 
 towns in Asia Minor. Semiramis, who if not 
 the founder of Babylon, was the creator of 
 its commerce and its splendor, particularly 
 directed her attention to the construction of 
 roads and bridges, which according to Stra- 
 bo were of " wonderful structure." 
 
 There is evidence of the existence of re- 
 gularly constructed roads in Asia of great 
 extent, divided into stations, at w^hich the 
 most spacious inns were erected for the se- 
 curity of travellers. That from Susa a sea 
 port of Tunis to Sardis, a town a little east 
 of Smyrna, traversed a distance of 312 miles, 
 and had no less than 111 of these caravan- 
 seras. 
 
 Among the eastern nations celebrated for 
 their internal commerce, was Arabia, situa- 
 ted between the Red sea, the Persian gulf 
 and the Mediterranean, and thus peculiarly 
 situated to enjoy a carrying trade. 
 
 The principal mode adopted by the Asia- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 27 
 
 tic and African merchants for the transport- 
 ation of merchandize, was that of caravans, 
 and the use of them has continued to this 
 very day. Travellers who describe them, 
 present us a picture of eastern customs, 
 which carries back the mind to the earli- 
 est periods of Eastern history. The camel, 
 that ship of the desert, the gift of heaven to 
 eastern nations alone, still forms their chief 
 dependence in their internal trade. Those 
 who w^ish to learn the details of caravan 
 travelling, will find them fully described by 
 Niebuhr, and Buckhardt, 
 
 The routes now followed in Africa, are no 
 less than seven in number, occupying from 
 30 to 119 days, and traversed frequently by 
 as many as 2000 camels. The principal ar- 
 ticles of traffic are Indian goods, slaves, gold 
 dust, drugs and ivory. The principal cara- 
 van route is from Nubia to Cairo. Another 
 is that from Damascus to Mecca, and Cairo 
 to Mecca. Into the great caravans, smaller 
 ones are continually merging as they move 
 along, and the mixture of business and reli- 
 gion allowed by the Koran, keeps Asia and 
 Africa dusty with the feet of merchant pil- 
 grims. The limits necessarily assigned to 
 this treatise, compel us to turn wdtli reluc- 
 tance from this interesting portion of the 
 subject. 
 
28 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 The states of Greece, which are always 
 the favorite haunts of the classical antiqua- 
 rian, do not furnish the same field to the 
 utilitarian, as to the lover of the fine arts. 
 Something is to be allowed to their peculiar 
 position, when it is known that their trade 
 was chiefly maritime, and their roads were 
 of secondary consequence. We have am- 
 ple descriptions of their temples, their fleets, 
 their public men, their domestic manners, 
 and their foreign wars, but it is almost im- 
 possible to ascertain with minuteness the 
 character of their inland communications. 
 The road from Athens to the Pireus, its 
 artificial sea port, and the sacred road to El- 
 eusis are often alluded to, and the former is 
 particularly described. There was plenty of 
 material for the construction of roads. The 
 quarries still remain, out of which, though 
 towns and cities were for ages hewn, as ma- 
 ny more might yet be constructed. Contin- 
 ental Greece appears to have been a collec- 
 tion of basins of level land surrounded by 
 lofty and romantic mountains. Each basin 
 shut out from the other, seemed naturally to 
 form an independent territory, and commu- 
 nicated only by the natural outlets through 
 the mountains. The roads ran through these 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 29 
 
 defiles, and over the plains, very much as they 
 now do. Indeed from their present character 
 and appearance, we are led to infer that they 
 were generally causeways of stone rather 
 roughly laid, with a narrow surface. 
 
 Tournefort however tells us, that he found 
 in the island of Cos, now Stanco, in the Ege- 
 an sea, a road that ran from lolis to Carthea, 
 paved with regular polygons, supported by 
 a strong wall, and this again protected by 
 immense blocks of coping. He succeeded in 
 tracing it for three miles. The roads lead- 
 ing from Athens to the country, were bor- 
 dered with statues and monumental erec- 
 tions in honor of the great men of the coun- 
 try. There, the effigies of the illustrious met 
 the eye of the traveller, and reminded him, 
 if he had forgotten it, of the respect due to 
 great and virtuous actions. 
 
 Pausanias a celebrated traveller of Cappa- 
 docia who flourished in the second century, 
 and left behind him a description of Greece 
 made from personal observation, gives us 
 many particulars of a highly interesting na- 
 ture. He mentions the road leading from 
 the Academy to one of the gates of the city, 
 as being lined with public sepulchres. Not 
 the least of those thus honored with monu- 
 
30 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 merits at the public charge, was Thrasybu- 
 lus, the conqueror of the thirty tyrants, who 
 for this service boldly planned, and bravely 
 executed, refused to receive any other re- 
 ward, than two twigs of the olive entwined 
 in a simple wreath. The names of Pericles, 
 of ApoUodorus, Timotheus, Zeno, Nicias and 
 Aristogiton, all highly interesting and dis- 
 tinguished characters, were also found by the 
 traveller inscribed with equal care in the 
 same vicinity. Among other roads men- 
 tioned by him. is one which ran from the 
 forum in Sparta to another place called 
 Booneta, celebrated as the Aphetean road,* 
 so named after a port of Thessaly, upon 
 which, Ulysses ran a race against other 
 competitors, and won the hand of the far 
 famed and faithful Penelope. 
 
 Perhaps there was no part of Greece 
 where a good road would have been more 
 advantageous to the country, than across 
 the isthmus of Corinth. On looking at the 
 map it will be perceived, that such a road 
 would cut off a tedious navigation round the 
 Morea, uniting the gulfs of Lepanto and 
 Egina. The distance across is only four or 
 five miles, and the ancients traversed it in 
 preference to sailing round. Nero it is said, 
 
 *NoTE.— Now Fetio. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 31 
 
 attempted to cut a canal through the isth- 
 mus, but had only proceeded with the work 
 for half a mile, when some disturbances at 
 Rome prevented him from executing his de- 
 sign. Some fears were entertained by co- 
 temporary engineers, if such they might be 
 termed, that the waters of the Ionian sea 
 were higher than those of the Egean, and 
 would overflow the islands in the gulf of Egi- 
 " na, as well as the low land of the isthmus. 
 Corinth, which principally benefitted by this 
 inland traflSc, became possessed of immense 
 wealth, and a decided influence over the 
 other Grecian states. When the Romans 
 sacked it, 146 years before the Christian era, 
 they were astonished at the vastness of their 
 booty. 
 
 As these warlike people extended their 
 conquests to that part of the world already 
 accustomed to the sway of foreigners, they 
 carried with them the spirit of coloniza- 
 tion. Greece was made a province, and was 
 governed by a pro consul. Roads, as will 
 presently be noticed, were immediately con- 
 structed of such durability as to have lasted 
 to the present day. That from Beirout to 
 Mount Lebanon, built by the emperor Aure- 
 lius, and called the Vi Antonina, is still to be 
 
32 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 traced, and the inscriptions commemorative 
 of the event, may yet be seen engraved on 
 the mountain heights along which it passes. 
 Although the political economy of the 
 Grecian states is but imperfectly known in 
 those particulars which are connected with 
 our subject, yet occasionally we find vesti- 
 ges of customs, and relics of history, which 
 enable us to grope our way with some de- 
 gree of certainty. So the artist pronounces 
 from the foot, that it is Hercules whose sta- 
 tue is before him, and the geologist, from 
 the scattered fragments of the fossil fish 
 determines its structure and habits, when 
 thousands of years ago it swam " the wa- 
 ters like a thing of life." The care of the 
 streets and highways in Thebes must have 
 been committed to persons who were cho- 
 sen for that purpose, although it is diflicult 
 to tell in what manner they exercised their 
 duties. For on one occasion, its ungrateful 
 citizens by way of exhibitiug their contempt 
 for their countryman Epaminondas, elected 
 him a telearch, or cleaner of the streets, 
 one of the lowest of their public offices. 
 That illustrious person, pronounced by Ci- 
 cero one of the greatest men of any age or 
 nation, who had bled at Leuctra, and led his 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 33 
 
 countrymen to victory, was so unfortunate 
 as to be unsuccessful in an attack upon Co- 
 rinth, and thus lose their favor. He, who re- 
 sisted the rich presents of a Persian monarch, 
 though he lived a life of poverty and self de- 
 nial, had not so secured the favor of the fickle 
 crowd, as to escape their persecution and 
 denunciation. Instead of complaining of the 
 appointment which was intended to cover 
 him wath contempt, he immediately entered 
 upon its duties. In his opinion, even the hum- 
 blest office claimed a faithful execution, and 
 it is the province of genius to touch nothing 
 that it does not adorn, Epaminondas, by this 
 manly conduct, not only won the repentant 
 love of the Thebans, but so elevated the 
 character of the despised telearch, that the 
 place afterw^ards was eagerly sought for, as 
 a mark of honor, and the public favor.* 
 
 The Roman roads are almost as familiar 
 to the moderns, as those of their own times. 
 When the whole world, as then known, was 
 tributary to Rome, and her Eagles had been 
 planted on the confines of Europe, Asia, and 
 Africa, she took care to construct and main- 
 
 *The new Greek government has recently employed itself in 
 making a McAdamised road to the Pireus which is well spoken 
 of. 
 
 5 
 
34 TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 tain roads in every country she had con- 
 quered. In the time of Augustus, the lim- 
 its of the empire on the west, were the 
 Atlantic ocean, on the east the Euphrates, 
 on the north the Danube and the Rhine, 
 on the south the cataracts of the Nile, the 
 African desert and the chain of Atlas. In- 
 deed, every known country except ancient 
 Caledonia, had yielded to her sway. The 
 brave Highlanders, they could not subju- 
 gate. Every lake was a Thrasymene, ev- 
 ery pass a Thermopylae. 
 
 It is not strange that with this boundless 
 supremacy of the empire, the most lofty pre- 
 tensions were made by her citizens. To 
 maintain that supremacy, roads were es- 
 teemed essentially necessary, and by them 
 was kept up a constant communication with 
 the remotest outposts. They were built at 
 a vast expense, and kept up with unremit- 
 ting care. We have minute details of the 
 mode of their construction. Generally they 
 were built of pebbles and gravel, or of large 
 and unequally sized stones, something like 
 our flagging, or of regular strata of different 
 materials. Then there was a layer of bro- 
 ken tile or earthern ware set in cement, 
 then a bed of mortar, then an upper coat of 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 35 
 
 hard material often consisting of large irre- 
 gular polygons. These were so neatly joined 
 together as to seem almost like one stone.* 
 The width of these roads was usually about 
 fourteen feet. They were elevated above 
 the surface of the adjacent ground, and com- 
 manded a view of the country. On each 
 side was a path of large stones, called a mar- 
 gin, intended for foot passengers, and edged 
 with curb stones which kept them from be- 
 ing used by carriages. The line of direc- 
 tion was as straight as possible, rarely devi- 
 ating even to avoid hills or marshes. Thir- 
 ty-one of these roads more impoi'tant than 
 any others, terminated in the city, and their 
 point of union in the forum was marked by 
 the erection of a gilt pillar, called Millia- 
 rum Aureum, and placed there by the em- 
 peror Augustus. Singular to relate, and in 
 strong confirmation of the Roman historians, 
 this very pillar was discovered in 1823 in 
 
 *Some moderns describe with greater particularity the different 
 kinds of roads in use among the Romans. Thus the stratas vias 
 were only pebbles and gravel. 
 
 The vias silice stratas, paved with large unequal stones, were a 
 kind of flagged pavement, and the great military roads contained the 
 various strata of material already mentioned. The following tech- 
 nical terms are also given by the road builders to the different parts 
 of the same road : stahimen, or foundation, ruderatio, the tile, nuc- 
 leus the mortar, summa crusta the surface. 
 
36 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 that very forum. The public roads were 
 called Consular or Pretorian, because con- 
 structed under the direction of Consuls and 
 Pretors at the public expense. The private 
 ways were styled agrarian or vicinal. The 
 miles were marked off by stones, numbered 
 from the gates of the city, and in consequence 
 the Latin word lapis, a stone, became syno- 
 nymous with mile. 
 
 From the great roads, others were made 
 leading to unimportant places, to farms and 
 villas. In order to secure the comfort of 
 travellers, seats and stepping stones were 
 placed at short intervals along the route, 
 while taverns called caupones diversorise, 
 and post houses called mansiones, or mu- 
 tationes, were established about five miles 
 apart. At the latter, as many as forty hors- 
 es were kept at the expense of the govern- 
 ment, for the transmission of intelligence, or 
 the accommodation of those travellers who 
 obtained the permission of the proper autho- 
 rities, in a document called a diploma. In 
 later times, two wheeled chariots called bi- 
 gas, were maintained on the roads for the 
 same purpose, and ancient paintings are pre- 
 served, in which the mode of driving them, 
 and the positions of the passengers are spirit- 
 edly represented. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 37 
 
 Such was the system prevailing in the 
 management of these highways, that it was 
 an easy matter to travel upon them one hun- 
 dred miles a day. So late as the time of The- 
 odosius, a magistrate of high rank called Ce- 
 sarius went post from Antioch to Constanti- 
 nople with such rapidity that it w^as made a 
 matter of public record. He began his jour- 
 ney at evening, and reached Cappadocia 165 
 miles distant the next day. He arrived at 
 Constantinople on the noon of the sixth 
 day, having in that time travelled 665 miles. 
 The influence of a government, which could 
 thus rapidly issue or enforce its mandates, 
 must have been overwhelming. 
 
 The supervision of these roads was en- 
 trusted to men of the highest rank. Augus- 
 tus made those about the capitol his parti- 
 cular care, and pretors, attended by lictors, 
 superintended the paving in person. Nor 
 was the Emperor, the first of the Caesars who 
 did so, for the great Julius acted as an over- 
 seer, and in that capacity as the colleague of 
 another noble Roman. 
 
 The classics are full of references to this 
 subject. Pliny in one of his epistles to Pon- 
 tius, speaks of the high satisfaction which 
 he derived from the appointment of his 
 
38 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 friend to the surveyorship of the Emilian 
 way. Statius a poet of the time of Nero 
 and Domitian, alludes in his Sylvae to the 
 similar appointment of a friend, in terms of 
 congratulation. Among those of his poems 
 which have come down to us, one upon the 
 Domitian way, a branch of the Appian, con- 
 tains besides a large portion of flattery of the 
 emperor, a very exact account of the process 
 of road making, and a glowing eulogy of its 
 advantages. The lines in the commence- 
 ment of the poem describe the first efforts 
 of the laborers in a very animated manner, 
 and allude to the noise they necessarily oc- 
 casion. 
 
 " Quis duri silicis gravis que ferri 
 Immanus sonus equori propinquam, 
 Saxosae latus Appiae replevit ?" 
 
 In the fiftieth line he breaks forth thus : 
 
 ' ' O quantae pariter manus laborant, 
 Hi cedunt nemus, exuuntque montes 
 Hi ferro scopulos trabesque levant, 
 Illi saxa ligant opusque texunt, 
 Cacto pulvere sordido que topho." 
 
 These expressions almost exactly describe 
 the modern operation of grading and paving. 
 Nor is it singular that the Roman govern- 
 ment was so successful in its public works, 
 when it interested its citizens directly in 
 their construction, by paying them liberally 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 39 
 
 for the labor of their slaves, besides creating 
 avenues on which the spoils of conquest 
 were to be returned, for division among the 
 people. 
 
 The Appian way, so celebrated as to be 
 styled Regina Viarum Longarum, was cal- 
 led after the name of its constructor, Appius 
 Claudius Coecus. This is not the person 
 whose name has come down to us in con- 
 nection with that of the hapless Virginia, but 
 a noble Roman, who won the confidence of 
 his countrymen by his patriotism and elo- 
 quence, and who lives in the verse of Ovid 
 and the prose of Tully. It was he, who in 
 his old age and in its infirmity of health, dis- 
 suaded the people from accepting an inglo- 
 rious peace w^ith Pyrrhus. Yet illustrious 
 as he was, for the qualities which they most 
 admired, the peaceful honors of the Appian 
 way have outlasted all the rest. This work 
 is the reflector, which has shed the light of 
 his memory and example through the long 
 vista of years. 
 
 The road was constructed several hun- 
 dred years before the Christian era, if we 
 may judge from corresponding events, and 
 ran from the Porta Capena, now the modern 
 gate of St. Sebastian, to Capua a distance of 
 
40 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 about 130 miles, then the limit of the Roman 
 territory. It was afterwards continued as far 
 as Brundusium ; and to Julius Cajsar this ex- 
 tension is generally attributed. Its whole 
 length was about 342 miles. It was paved 
 with the hardest flint, and the v/hole dis- 
 tance was marked out by small columns, at 
 a mile's distance from each other, called ter- 
 mini. At Sinuessa, a maritime town of 
 Campania, celebrated for its thermal springs 
 and mineral waters, it branched off into the 
 Domitian way, and led to Baise, Neapolis 
 and Pompeii, at which latter place, it has 
 been brought to light and become the pro- 
 perty of modern research. The Appian way 
 crossed the Pontine marshes, and necessarily 
 required the greatest attention and frequent 
 repairs. In the year before Christ, 158^ it 
 was very extensively repaired. A stone in 
 the tower of Triponti, still records the fact 
 that the emperor Trajan expended money 
 for a similar purpose ; and as late as the time 
 of Pius VI. the road was kept in excellent 
 condition throughout the papal territories. 
 The exhumation of Pompeii and Hercula- 
 neum, after a thousand years interment be- 
 neath the the lava of Vesuvius, has exposed 
 to modern curiosity a perfect picture of an- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 41 
 
 cient life and manners. New light has been 
 thrown upon arts long since forgotten, and 
 even the subject now under discussion has 
 been benefitted by the discovery. 
 
 Let the reader says a modern writer, 
 who has furnished us with the most graphic 
 description of Pompeii, suppose himself 
 passing this road, then as he approaches the 
 city, both sides of the way for nearly a fur- 
 long before he reaches it, are occupied by 
 tombs and public monuments, according to 
 the Roman custom, intermixed with shops in 
 front of which were arcades. The chariot 
 way is narrow, seldom exceeding ten feet in 
 width, except within the gate at the com- 
 mencement of the great street where it is 
 upwards of twenty feet across. The foot- 
 ways are two or three feet wide, and eleva- 
 ted from eight inches to a foot above the 
 road having a curb and guard stones. The 
 traveller passing through the street of tombs 
 enters the city by the gate of Herculaneum. 
 Here a long tortuous street presents itself to 
 his view, having on either side broken walls 
 of lava stuccoed and decorated with arabes- 
 ques and paintings mingled with the pecu- 
 liar letters then in use. The streets are 
 paved with large irregular pieces of lava 
 
42 
 
 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 joined neatly together, in which the chariot 
 wheels have worn ruts still plainly discerni- 
 ble. In some places they are an inch and 
 a half deep, and in the narrow streets follow 
 one track. Where the streets are wider, 
 the ruts are numerous, and irregular. In 
 those places where numerous pieces of lava 
 met in one point, and in process of time a 
 hole was made, the injury was repaired with 
 pieces of ,iron which still remain in the an- 
 gles. In most places the streets were so 
 narrow that they might be crossed with one 
 stride, w^here they were wider, a raised stone 
 was placed in the centre of the crossing 
 place. The Flaminian way was another of 
 these famous roads, constructed by the con- 
 sul Flaminius who was killed- at the battle 
 of Thrasymene. It extended to Arimenum 
 a city of Umbria, at the mouth of the Arime- 
 nus, 180 miles from Rome. The gate of mo- 
 dern Rome opening upon this road is the 
 Porta del Populo, though not occupying pre- 
 cisely the site of the old gate. This was the 
 great route along the Adriatic. Where it 
 crossed the river Nar about sixty miles from 
 Rome, there was a bridge with an arch of 
 150 feet span, and 100 rise, which was pro- 
 nounced by Addison the stateliest ruin in 
 Italy. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 43 
 
 Besides these, the other principal roads 
 were the Aurelian leading along the Medi- 
 terranean from Rome to Nice. The Clau- 
 dian which branched from the Fiaminian at 
 the Pons Mulvius, now the Ponte Molle, ce- 
 lebrated as the scene of the death of the ty- 
 rant Maxentius. Thence it reached and 
 united with the Aurelian at Lucca. The 
 Emilian led from Placentia to Ariminum, 
 the modern Rimini. The Valerian, pass- 
 ed through the Sabine territory to the Ger- 
 man colony of the Marsi, who for a long- 
 time resisted the Roman arms. On this 
 was situated th« celebrated villa of Maecen- 
 as. The Latinian was a road of sixteen 
 miles in length leading to Mount Albanus, 
 where those singular consular sacrifices, cal- 
 led the Feriae Latinee took place, and the 
 triumphant generals sometimes led their ar- 
 mies in solemn procession. The Cassian 
 way, which went from Rome to Florence, 
 is still the principal route across the Cam- 
 pagna. The Salarian was another avenue 
 into the Sabine country by means of which 
 the citizens received their supplies of salt. 
 Another road was the Ardetina, a branch of 
 the Appian, and it led to the town of Ardea, 
 near the coast; another the Labicana, and 
 
44 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 Prenestina, which ran to Preneste, a town in 
 Latium twenty-one miles from Rome, cele- 
 brated for its oracle and temple. Another 
 was the Nomentana, leading to a Sabine 
 town of the same name, whence the luxuri- 
 ous derived much of their wine. It was to 
 the Sacred Mount, visible from this road, 
 that the people of Rome withdrew, when 
 they revolted against the Patricians, and from 
 which they returned when admonished by 
 the well composed fable of Menenius Agrippa. 
 Besides these, were the Tusculan or Cam- 
 panian way, leading out of the modern gate 
 of St. John's to Tusculum, and the Ostian 
 which connected the city with the port at 
 the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles dis- 
 tant. This is now a place for the banish- 
 ment of criminals, but in consequence of the 
 changes effected by the river and the sea, it 
 is no longer a maritime place. 
 
 All these roads were more or less adorned 
 with tombs and monuments, long since de- 
 spoiled either by barbarian conquerors, or 
 relentless antiquarians. The description al- 
 ready given of the street of Tombs in Pom- 
 peii, is supposed to be generally applicable 
 to all the principal urban roads of Italy. The 
 tombs of the dead, mingled with the gay re- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 45 
 
 sidences of the living. Monuments, porticos, 
 seats and statues, blended life and death so 
 closely, it seemed as if the spirits of the old 
 Romans after the termination of their corpo- 
 real existence, returned to mingle in the bu- 
 sy throngs they had left behind. 
 
 We have already noticed the custom of 
 having post horses on the great roads, and 
 that carriages were subsequently introduced, 
 Tiiese were after the Greek model. The 
 Roman ladies were much accustomed to 
 sedan chairs, the curtains of which were 
 of skin or cloth, and the windows of mica. 
 They reclined on pillows, and were carried 
 about by their slaves. There were also lit- 
 ters drawn by mules. When horses were 
 driven before chariots, they were harnessed 
 abreast of each other, and Nero who vaunt- 
 ed of his talents as a fiddler, boasted also of 
 having driven ten horses side by side at the 
 Olympic games. Sleds, or carriages without 
 wheels were generally used in rustic life. 
 
 Sometimes four wheeled carriages were 
 employed to carry females to the public ex- 
 hibitions, and were called pilentse, but these 
 were not in ordinary use. Those built for 
 speed had but two wheels, and were called 
 Citia. 
 
46 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 It would be entirely useless to extend this 
 portion of our discussion. Those desirous 
 of studying the details of Roman travelling, 
 will refer to those classic writers familiar to 
 every student. Almost all modern travel- 
 lers in Italy give some account of the an- 
 cient roads, and volumes might yet be, as 
 volumes have been written on this feature 
 of Roman enterprise. 
 
 The grandeur of the empire, and the vast- 
 ness of its influence have furnished themes 
 for the ablest historic pens, and nothing is 
 more certain than the fact, that what the va- 
 lor of the Romans won in the field, their sa- 
 gacity retained for them by the construction 
 of roads. 
 
 Even now one of the first fruits of the 
 French conquest in Africa, is the discovery 
 of a Roman military road, which the con- 
 querors intend to turn to their own advan- 
 tage, and as the means of making a new sea 
 port for Constantina instead of Bona, which 
 has hitherto been used as such. 
 
 The translation of the Roman power to 
 the banks of the Bosphorus, led naturally 
 to the abandonment of the public works of 
 which we have treated. Political consider- 
 ations involve too often all other interests. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 47 
 
 It is ill vain that industry or patriotism ex- 
 ert their influence against misgovernment. 
 Misgovernment brings all to ruin, and Impe- 
 rial Rome, drawing her supplies from a sub- 
 jugated world, could not at last repair the 
 prodigal waste of even the few who control- 
 led her destinies. 
 
 The contrast between her days of magni- 
 ficence and her decline is beautifully painted 
 by a modern writer. 
 
 The sea is white with sails 
 Innumerable, wafting to the shore 
 Treasures untold ; the vale, the promontories 
 A dream of glory. Temples, palaces 
 Called up as by enchantment, aqueducts 
 Among the groves and glades rolling along, 
 Rivers on many an arch high over head; 
 And in the centre, like a burning sun, 
 The Imperial City. 
 »#*«■»«*« 
 
 Once more we look, and all is still as night ; 
 All desolate. Groves, temples, palaces. 
 Swept from the sight, and nothing visible 
 Amid the sulphureous vapors that exhale, 
 As from a land accurst, save here and there 
 An empty tomb, a fragment like the limb 
 Of some dismembered giant. In the midst 
 A city stands, her domes and turrets crowned 
 With many a cross ; but they that issue forth 
 
48 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 Wander like strangers who had built among 
 The mighty ruins, silent, spiritless : 
 And on the road, where once we might have met 
 Csesar and Cato, and men more than kings, 
 We meet, none else, the pilgrim and the beggar. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 49 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 When the seat of emph-e was transferred 
 from the Tiber to the Bosphorus, the power 
 and resources of the imperial city declined, 
 and her roads, bridges and aqueducts went 
 to decay. These monuments of her great- 
 ness fell beneath the hand of time and the 
 ruthlessness of invasion ; and though they 
 had indirectly favored the propagation of 
 Christianity, and the historians of the church 
 admit the facilities of communication afford- 
 ed by them, they were suffered to remain un- 
 repaired, and the distant provinces, and the 
 remote population that had felt the energies 
 of the great central power, were now left to 
 their own resources, and their own opinions. 
 
 Darkness gradually overspread the world, 
 and for a time, covered with its gloomy pall 
 the literature, the arts, and the trophies of 
 former ages. The human intellect, although 
 visited by the day-spring from on high, with- 
 drew from the consideration of the true ob- 
 jects and responsibilities of life, to lose itself 
 in dreamy abstractions, and gave up the 
 
 7 
 
50 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 realities of exis^tence for a philosophy of sha- 
 dowless images. The natural repugnance 
 of the Christians of those days to the works 
 of heathen art, which is supposed by some to 
 have hastened their decay, was not a little 
 aided by a decree of the Council of Carthage, 
 which in the year 398, prohibited the read- 
 ing of secular books by the clergy. Physical 
 science could not prosper in such a state of 
 things, and a ''jargon of mystical philoso- 
 phy half fanaticism and half imposture, a 
 barren and inflated philology," if we may 
 credit the historians of that day, character- 
 ized this period. After the introduction of 
 monkery, says Hallam, and its unsocial the- 
 ory of duties, the serious and reflecting part 
 of mankind on whom science mostly relies, 
 was turned to habits which, in the most 
 favorable view, could not quicken the intel- 
 lectual energies. 
 
 The final settlement of barbarous nations 
 in Gaul, Spain and Italy, consummated the 
 ruin of those arts by which Rome had be- 
 come the mistress of the world. 
 
 One of the legacies which she had left to 
 her distant provinces was her roads. The 
 island of Britain had her share, and their po- 
 sition is well known to antiquarians. Indeed 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 51 
 
 there is a book extant, called the Iter Brit- 
 tanicum, attributed to the Emperor Antino- 
 us, which is an itinerary, containing the 
 names and direction of the roads in that 
 island. It was this emperor who distin- 
 guished himself as a restorer of the public 
 works, and the rebuilder of public edifices; 
 and who declared that he preferred the pre- 
 servation of one citizen to the death of a 
 hundred enemies. These British roads serv- 
 ed principally as a means of communication 
 between the military posts. It is the gene- 
 rally received opinion among the antiqua- 
 rians, that the southern part of the island 
 was crossed in various places by four great 
 roads, and these are well known and par- 
 ticularly described, as the Fosse, Watling 
 St., Ermine St., and the Ikenild. 
 
 The Fosse commenced at Totness, in De- 
 vonshire, and ran to Bristol, Cirencester, Co- 
 ventry, Leicester, Newark and Lincoln. 
 
 Watling St. commenced at Dover and 
 proceeded through Kent by the way of Can- 
 terbury to London ; thence northwardly to 
 Edgeware, St. Albans, Dunstable, Stony 
 Stratford, and along the western boundary 
 of Leicestershire ; it crossed the Fosse near 
 Bosworth, and terminated at York and Ches- 
 
52 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 ter le Street in Durham. Some persons ima- 
 gine that it was subsequently continued to 
 Caithness in Scotland. 
 
 The Ermine St., ran from St. Davids, 
 Wales, to Southampton, crossing the Fosse in 
 its way. 
 
 The Ikenild is supposed to have com- 
 menced on the eastern coast of England, 
 then to have crossed Watling St. at Dunsta- 
 ble, and to have proceeded thence north- 
 wardly through Staffordshire to the west 
 coast.* 
 
 The remains of old Roman roads are now 
 frequently discovered in England, and it is a 
 singular fact and worthy of notice, that Sir 
 Christopher Wren, when preparing to erect 
 the church of St. Mary-le-bone, found one of 
 these causeways eighteen feet below the sur- 
 face of the ground ; and so exceedingly firm 
 was its texture, and so firmly cemented its 
 material, that he actually erected the tower 
 of the church upon it, as the best foundation 
 he could possibly obtain. 
 
 These roads were constantly traversed by 
 the military, who had their stations erected 
 
 " In the United Service Journal for January, 1836, is an account 
 of a recent survey of a Roman road frora Silchester, made by Bome 
 officers of the Royal Military College. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 53 
 
 at proper distances, to preserve their sup- 
 plies. Some of these points became marts 
 of trade, and it is conceded by the early his- 
 torians of England, that these works of the 
 Romans materially benefitted their country, 
 and gave an impetus to the national in- 
 dustry. 
 
 France, then Gaul, was also traversed in 
 every quarter by these military roads, which 
 are fully treated of in the French Encyclo- 
 pedia. One of them crossed the mountains 
 of Auverne, and reached Aquitaine ; another 
 followed the Meuse to the German ocean ; an- 
 other went through Burgundy, Champagne, 
 and Picardy to Boulogne ; another extended 
 along the Rhone and stopped at Marseilles. 
 All these were connected, by numerous 
 branch roads, and their ruins are still dis- 
 cernible to the eye of the traveller. 
 
 The departure of the Romans from these 
 countries, was the signal for intestine com- 
 motions, and bloody invasions by foreign 
 enemies hitherto held in check by the terror 
 of the Roman name. They had in conse- 
 quence neither time nor ability to keep up 
 the communications wiiich had for several 
 hundred years been established by their con- 
 querors. It would be a tedious task to fol- 
 
54 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 low the ancient Britons through their suc- 
 ceeding history. The sway of their Druid 
 priests, and the ignorance in which they 
 kept the people, tended as mucii to the down- 
 fall of the nation, as the hundred years of 
 war, which ended in their complete subjuga- 
 tion. It is not strange that their roads, their 
 walls and their towns almost ceased to exist. 
 Imagine, for a moment that such a series of 
 misfortunes as these were the lot of our own 
 country, and where would the future histo- 
 rian find the monuments of our greatness. 
 If one disastrous fire effaces a large portion 
 of the most valuable quarter of a city within 
 our own observation and in our brief day, 
 what must be the effect of a century of blood- 
 shed and conflagration'? Britain, says the 
 eloquent Gibbon, was for a time lost among 
 the fabulous islands of the ocean. 
 
 It is ascertained with considerable cer- 
 tainty, that previous to the conquest by the 
 Romans, the natives had trackways, called 
 in their language, post-ways and ridge-ways. 
 They were neither paved nor faced with 
 gravel, but were covered with turf. Narrow 
 roads were called passes, and in order to 
 render them secure to travellers, the woods 
 which skirted them were cut down, The 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 55 
 
 Romans are said to have adopted some of 
 these routes. 
 
 A discussion has prevailed to some extent 
 as to the fact whether at this period any 
 other mode of transportation vs^as adopted, 
 than that of pack-horses ; but the best au- 
 thorities are strenuous in the affirmative. The 
 internal trade of the country, as may be im- 
 agined, was very trifling for many hundred 
 years, although local regulations were made 
 to encourage it, such as the establishment of 
 weekly markets and mints in the principal 
 towns. It is a remarkable circumstance that 
 the most important part of the trade consist- 
 ed in the sale of slaves taken in their domes- 
 tic wars. The nearest relatives did not hesi- 
 tate when they had the opportunity, to sell 
 each other into captivity, and slave mer- 
 chants visited England as late as the time of 
 the Roman conquest, to purchase its sons and 
 daughters for the Spanish and African mart, 
 for those of Italy, and still nearer home, for 
 those also of Ireland. 
 
 The slave trade of our own time is not 
 more cruel in its character, nor is it conduct- 
 ed with greater energy, than that was to 
 which we refer. William of Malmsbury 
 says, it was a custom which seemed to be 
 
56 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 natural to the people, and the biographer of 
 a pious prelate of that time, speaks of the 
 horrors and iniquities of the traffic with such 
 warrnth, as to call forth the indignation of 
 every honest breast. The sale of some very 
 fine looking young men in the city of Rome, 
 gave Gregory the Great the first idea of send- 
 ing missionaries to their native country. 
 
 In 1285, and not till then, did the subject 
 of roads become sufficiently important to at- 
 tract the attention of the government, when 
 the first act was passed in relation to them. 
 
 In 1346, Edward the third was empowered 
 to levy a toll on carts or carriages going from 
 St. Giles in the field to Temple bar. In the 
 time of Henry VIII. an attempt was made 
 to procure the improvement of the roads, by 
 compelling the parishes through which they 
 passed to keep them in repair by rates levied 
 on land-holders, and labor enforced on others. 
 An essential improvement also took place in 
 the reign of Philip and Mary, w^hen the an- 
 nual appointment of rdad surveyors was au- 
 thorised to be made by the inhabitants. 
 Some further alterations were then made to 
 the existing laws, by Mary and Elizabeth, 
 and in the time of James I., and Charles I. 
 and II. the system of toll-gates was adopted 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 57 
 
 ill consequence of the increase of travel, 
 which injured the roads without furnishing 
 the necessary means of repair. The first 
 toll was exacted in the reign of Charles 
 II. upon persons travelling on the great 
 northern road. This for a time proved to 
 be an unpopular measure. The people rose 
 and pulled down the gates, and an armed 
 force was ordered out to maintain the law. 
 The landholders remonstrated against tolls, 
 because in their opinion they reduced the 
 value of their property; — a notion which 
 experience soon corrected. But though the 
 owners of the soil saw their error, yet as late 
 as the reign of George II,. it was necessary 
 to prevent the pulling down of toll bars by 
 declaring it to be a felony. A multitude of 
 enactments followed from time to time, but it 
 was not till after 1760 that turnpikes be- 
 came general. Between that year and 1774 
 452 turnpike acts were passed, and between 
 1785 and 1809 no less than 1062 more. The 
 details of the system by which they are ma- 
 naged, are fully given by numerous writers 
 on the subject, and copious extracts are giv- 
 en in the latter part of this treatise. Parnell, 
 Dupin, Edgeworth and McCulloch, are parti- 
 8 
 
58 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 cularlj worthy of the study of those who 
 would thoroughly understand the legislative 
 history of roads in England. Notwithstand- 
 ing all that had been done, down to the mid- 
 dle of the last century they were almost im- 
 passable for wheel carriages. As these have 
 been modified from the original forms into 
 their present elegant and convenient shape, 
 by the progress of refinement and the im- 
 provement of the public roads, a glance 
 at their progress may not be uninteresting. 
 Some authorities contend, that for many 
 hundred years after the departure of the 
 Romans, nothing but pack horses were used 
 for the conveyance of goods, and that wheel 
 carriages were unknown. This is not so. 
 A particular account of no less than six dif- 
 ferent kinds of vehicles is preserved — The 
 Benna, Petoritum, Currus, Covinus, Essed- 
 um, and Rheda. The Benna was used by 
 travellers, and the Currus was the common 
 waggon of the country, appropriated to ag- 
 ricultural and mercantile purposes. The 
 others were chiefly of a military character. 
 The Essedum is mentioned in Caesar's Com- 
 mentaries, and its peculiar form was adapt- 
 ed to the mode of fighting then habitual with 
 the Britons. An animated description of an 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 59 
 
 ancient war chariot is to be found in Ossian, 
 in which he styles it " the flame of death." 
 Besides the usual method of travelling on 
 horseback, litters were also in vogue. Sub- 
 sequently the queens of the different small 
 kingdoms into vdiich England was for a time 
 divided, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of the 
 car or chariot, and one of them is said to 
 have hung up in a bag, with her most es- 
 teemed relics, that in which she occasionally 
 rode. These machines must have been ve- 
 ry rude of construction however, when the 
 greatest improvement made on them by the 
 Saxons is said to have been the substitution 
 of a hammock swung between four posts 
 mounted on wheels upon which the passen- 
 ger reclined. In some of the earliest spe- 
 cimens of English poetry we find mention 
 made of the chare, or charat then in use. 
 There are accounts of coaches as early as 
 1253, and it is recorded that in 1380, when 
 the celebrated Wat Tyler rose against the 
 crown, Richard II. fled from the tower 
 in a covered carriage called a whirlicote. 
 Q,ueen Catharine, one of the unhappy wives 
 of Henry VIII., was carried to the corona- 
 tion in a litter, followed by her ladies in co- 
 vered chariots. 
 
60 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 The general introduction of coaches into 
 England is attributed to queen Elizabeth, 
 who patronized a German or Hollander, by 
 the name of Boonen, a coach builder from 
 the continent. For the honor of the inven- 
 tion there are as many national claims pre- 
 ferred as there were for the birth place of 
 Homer. With a singular sort of favor, this 
 princess not only bought his coaches but 
 made him her coachman, and the appearance 
 of her equipage thus driven, was thought 
 worthy of being preserved by an engraving. 
 It was first used by her when she went to St. 
 Paul's to return thanks for the destruction 
 of the Armada. From the extreme of scarci- 
 ty, these vehicles became so numerous as to 
 become nuisances. In 1636, no less than 
 6000 of them, it is said, jolted about the 
 streets of London. The satirists of the time 
 inveighed loudly against them, and Taylor, 
 the water poet, in particular, complained of 
 the withdrawal of so many persons from 
 their former employment to become through 
 the witchcraft of the coach, " butterfly pa- 
 ges, trolling footmen, and hard drinking 
 coachmen." Although it was for a long 
 time considered effeminate in men to ride 
 about in coaches, yet it seems to have been 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 61 
 
 a matter of some importance in the then fa- 
 shionable world, to see who could drive the 
 greatest number of horses before them. It 
 is gravely chronicled that in 1619 when the 
 Duke of Buckingham had driven six horses 
 in hand, he was outdone by a nobleman who 
 proceeded through the streets of London 
 with eight. The surprise of the citizens at 
 this feat of daring, added to his celebrity, al- 
 though it was already that of " the Percy's 
 high born race." 
 
 Down to the time of James I. the judges 
 rode to court on horseback, and the Lord 
 Mayor who now rejoices in his coach and 
 barge, was also obliged to play the eques- 
 trian, but with a vaulting ambition that of- 
 ten over leaped itself and fell on the other 
 side. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott who drew many of his 
 most pleasing descriptions from facts which 
 lay in tradition, or lived chiefly in domestic 
 history, has given an account of a coach 
 in the time of Charles 11., which is to be 
 found in his admirable novel of " Old Mor- 
 tality." 
 
 The Lord Lieutenant of the county, says 
 he, a personage of ducal rank, alone pre- 
 tended to the magnificence of a wheel car- 
 
62 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 riage, others covered with tarnished gilding 
 and sculpture, in shape like the vulgar picture 
 of Noah's ark, drawn by eight long tailed 
 Flanders mares, carrying eight insides and 
 six outsides. The insides w^ere their graces 
 in person, two maids of honor, two children, 
 a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral re- 
 cess, formed by a projection at the door of 
 the vehicle, and called from its appearance 
 the boot, and an equerry to his grace en- 
 sconced in a corresponding contrivance on 
 the opposite side. A coachman and three 
 postillions who wore short swords, and tie 
 wigs with three tails, having blunderbusses 
 slung behind them and pistols at the saddle 
 bow, conducted the equipage. On the foot 
 board behind this moving mansion house, 
 stood or rather hung in triple pile, six lac- 
 quies in rich liveries armed up to the teeth." 
 
 As further illustrations of the manners of a 
 nation whose progressive importance has been 
 so dependent on roads, the various vehicles 
 used on state occasions would furnish an amu- 
 sing picture. Were we to pursue all the by- 
 paths which lead from our main subject, it 
 would be impracticable to confine ourselves 
 within the limits to which we are prescribed. 
 
 It seems that coaches were only first let 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 63 
 
 to hire as late as 1625, and that the practice 
 originated with an old naval captain of the 
 name of Baily ; and the next year a follower 
 of the Duke of Buckingham obtained from 
 Charles II. the privilege of keeping Sedan 
 chairs. A valuable chapter of statistics 
 might be furnished on this topic as well as 
 the preceding. Connected with the improve- 
 ment of the roads was that of stage coaches, 
 which as a public benefit, have from time to 
 time attracted the public attention. Their 
 speed gradually increased as the roads be- 
 came better. For example, the first that 
 ran between Edinburgh and Glasgow, in 
 the year 1 678, a distance of forty-four miles 
 occupied six days in going and returning : 
 now the journey is performed in four hours. 
 In 1706 the stage coaches went from Lon- 
 don to York in four days, and now they per- 
 form the distance in twenty-four hours. In 
 1712 it took thirteen days to travel by coach 
 from London to Edinburgh, and now it re- 
 quires but forty hours! In 1760 travellers 
 were two whole days in going from London 
 to Brighton, now they are only about five 
 hours. One of the greatest triumphs of mo- 
 dern times is that of rapid and safe travel- 
 ing. The difficulties formerly attending it 
 
' 64 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 are alluded to constantly by the writers of 
 those days. I.eavmg out of the account, the 
 dangers which arose from the frequency of 
 thefts, murder and highway robbery, which 
 according to Hallam, became almost the na- 
 tional crime of England during the middle 
 ages, we find that the bad condition of the 
 roads had a serious effect on the national 
 prosperity, and on individual comfort. Hav- 
 ing illustrated by a quotation from Scott, 
 the character of a coach in the time of one 
 of the Stuarts, it may be well to introduce 
 the description of a journey made by some 
 illustrious personages, as late as the time of 
 queen Anne. When a royal visiter from 
 Spain attempted to pay a visit to Prince 
 George of Denmark her husband, he found 
 its accomplishment almost impossible. " We 
 set out, says the narrator of the expedition, 
 at six in the morning by torch-light, to go 
 to Petworth, and did not get out of the 
 coaches, only, when we were overtU7med or 
 stuck fast in the mire ! His highness's body 
 coach would have suffered very much if the 
 nimble boors of Sussex had not frequently 
 poised or supported it with their shoulders, 
 from Godalming almost to Petworth. The 
 last nine miles of the way cost us six hours 
 to conquer them, and indeed we had never 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 65 
 
 done it, if the king had not several times 
 lent us a pair of his horses out of his own 
 coach." 
 
 It seems this^ Petwortli road was no bet- 
 ter a long time afterwards, for when a Duke 
 of Somerset proposed to travel upon it at a 
 certain day, a letter was sent in advance 
 directing the keepers and persons who knew 
 the holes and sloughs " to come to meet him 
 with lanterns and long poles to keep him 
 on his way." The Sussex roads then bad 
 to a proverb, are now famous for their ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 In 1739 two persons undertook a journey 
 from Glasgow to London on horseback, and 
 they found nothing but narrow causeways 
 until they came within 110 miles of the 
 metropolis. 
 
 They encountered strings of pack horses 
 thirty and forty at a time, carrying goods, 
 the leader of the train being equipped with 
 a bell to warn travellers coming in an oppo- 
 site direction and these were generally ob- 
 liged to draw on one side into the ditches so 
 that the train could pass. 
 
 We have noticed the various characters 
 of the roads and of the vehicles used upon 
 9 
 
66 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 thenij at different periods of tiaie. The ac- 
 commodations furnished by the way side re- 
 quire a passing notice. Industrious anti- 
 quarians have not failed to trace out all 
 their peculiarities. At first, private dwel- 
 lings were used for lodging places and hous- 
 es of refreshment. Religious establishments 
 were also compelled to entertain travellers 
 if their hospitality was demanded. In the 
 first part of Shakspeare's play of Henry IV. 
 the first scene of the second act is laid in an 
 inn-yard at Rochester, where in the brief 
 dialogue between two carriers, many of 
 the characteristics of the inland traffic of the 
 time are given with graphic skill. In the 
 opening chapter of Kenilworth, the modern 
 Shakspeare, has given an equally vivid de- 
 scription of the host, the fare and the guests 
 which were to be found in the time of Eli- 
 zabeth congregated under the roof of such 
 as Silas Gosling of the Bonny Black Bear. 
 
 From the specimens thus far given of the 
 roads with their concomitants in England 
 during the middle ages, we may judge very 
 accurately of the state of them on the con- 
 tinent. Ex uno disce omnes. From the past 
 we now turn to the present time. Let us 
 now examine their present condition through- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 67 
 
 out Europe, before we pa,ss to the important 
 considerations connected with recent dis- 
 coveries in the form and management of 
 roads. The roads of England and Wales 
 are now computed to be upwards of 24,000 
 miles in length so far as they are turnpiked. 
 And the extent of the common and private 
 roads in the United Kingdom is estimated at 
 100,000 miles. The public roads are of the 
 finest description, being constructed on sci- 
 entific principles, and designed by eminent 
 engineers The plan of construction, so far 
 as material is concerned, is generally that 
 of Mr. McAdam, although the notions of Mr. 
 Telford as to the necessity of having a non 
 elastic foundation seem now to prevail among 
 the English engineers. 
 
 Great care is taken to leave a perfect 
 drainage by means of deep ditches commu- 
 nicating with the streams and natural out- 
 lets of the country. These it is held, should 
 be sunk at least three feet below the sur- 
 face of the road, and wherever the water is 
 likely to lie on^the surface from the nature 
 of the slopes, or route, cross chains are al- 
 ways provided. 
 
 The cuttings through hills are carefully 
 made not merely for the purpose of keeping 
 
68 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 the banks in their places, but to allow the 
 wind and sun to have the greatest effect 
 and therefore a slope of two feet horizon- 
 tal to one perpendicular is strongly recom- 
 mended. 
 
 It is also usual to protect these slopes by 
 covering them with sods. No improvement 
 says a writer on this subject, will be found 
 greater than keeping the surfaces of the 
 roads above the level of the adjacent land. 
 A convex surface seems to be the most in 
 use, though there are strong objections to 
 it, and the idea does not generally prevail. 
 The materials for a good road are various. 
 Greenstone, granite, sandstone, and lime- 
 stone are all adopted according to circum- 
 stances. A mass of valuable information on 
 this head, has from time to time been elicit- 
 ed in the examinations made by committees 
 of the House of Commons, of competent en- 
 gineers, and by the various experiments un- 
 dertaken to ascertain the best arrangement 
 of the material. A dry foundation and lay- 
 ers of clean hard broken stone appear to be 
 the chief object of the English road makers. 
 They state that all those imperfectly formed 
 with pebbles or gravel, on a loose founda- 
 tion, soon wear out, for the reason that they 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 69 
 
 expand readily with heat, and throw up the 
 stones, or else absorb moisture, and loosen 
 them. In short that the consequent wear 
 and tear of the material lead to the destruc- 
 tion of the road and a constant outlay to keep 
 them in proper order. All kinds of pave- 
 ments have also been proposed in reference 
 to this subject. Patent after patent has 
 been taken out for the purpose of securing 
 some supposed advantage. 
 
 As one of the natural consequences of the 
 formation of roads, pavements became ne- 
 cessary, particularly in cities, where the con- 
 venience of a dense population requires that 
 the public avenues should be kept in a pas- 
 sable condition, and also on those routes 
 where the transportation of goods with the 
 least practicable difficulty became a matter 
 of importance to purchasers and consumers. 
 
 It is a singular fact however, as has al- 
 ready been incidentally seen, that the high- 
 ways of the ancients were much oftener 
 paved than the streets of their cities. 
 
 According to Isidorus, Carthage was the— \| 
 first town in which pavements were intro- ' ^ 
 duced, and her example was followed by 
 her subsequent rival Rome. The exact time 
 at which the latter adopted this improventis 
 
 / 
 
70 TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 still ill doubt, and it has been a grave mat- 
 ter of inquiry not fully decided by the anti- 
 quarian critics. A passage in Livy is as yet 
 uninterpreted in relation to this subject, al- 
 though that historian speaks explicitly in 
 other places of the pavement in the vicinity 
 of the ox market, the Temple of Venus, and 
 the Temple of Mars. 
 
 The city of Jerusalem has been supposed 
 to have been paved from some circumstan- 
 ces in its history, and from a proposition 
 mentioned by Josephus, as having been 
 made by the Jevs^s to Agrippa, w^hich was 
 to employ the ^vorkmen for that object, af- 
 ter they had completed the rebuilding of the 
 temple. 
 
 All writers agree that of the modern cities 
 Cordova in Spain, was the first which was 
 paved, and that it was so improved in the 
 year 850 by the Caliph Abdorrahman. One 
 of the proofs that this prince was an enlight- 
 ened man, is the fact that he favored trade, 
 improved its avenues, and supplied his capi- 
 tal with water in leaden pipes. 
 
 The city of Paris was not paved even in 
 part until the twelfth century, and as late 
 as 1614 many principal streets were still in 
 their original state. Even now they are not 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS- 71 
 
 in as perfect condition as the refinement of 
 the age, and the comfort of pedestrians re- 
 quire. Other large French towns followed 
 the example of the metropolis, and it is as- 
 serted by historians of that country, that af- 
 ter the system of pavements became general 
 many dangerous maladies almost entirely 
 disappeared. London was not paved until 
 the end of the eleventh century, and then 
 only in part. As the wealth of the city in- 
 creased, these improvements were extended, 
 and favored by different monarchs, Berlin 
 was first paved in 1679, and other continen- 
 tal towns progressively adopted the system. 
 The regulations of the police which follow^ed 
 its adoption in different countries, though in 
 many respects curious, are not sufficiently 
 important to justify their introduction into 
 this treatise. 
 
 To practical readers it may how^ever, be 
 interesting to glance at the different kinds 
 of pavements now in use. Some of the ci- 
 ties of Italy afford fine examples of the art. 
 The tracks for wheel carriages are composed 
 of large blocks of limestone or sandstone, 
 some of them at Florence weigh several 
 tons. Tlie streets of Naples are laid with 
 immense rectangular pieces of basalt at 
 
72 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 least six inches thick, laid in cement, forming 
 a solid and smooth surface. Those of mo- 
 dern Rome are also paved with basaltic 
 cubes set in mortar, each furnishing a sur- 
 face of ten inches square. 
 
 In Russia, blocks of wood have been used, 
 and successfully for the same object, and a 
 similar experiment has been made in the 
 city of New- York which thus far has been 
 satisfactory. 
 
 There are no less than twenty-one kinds 
 of paving used in England, well known 
 to scientific road makers in that country.* 
 One of the most celebrated is the Leith walk 
 of Edinburgh formed of ashler. 
 
 In street paving at the present day, the 
 following rules are adopted as being the re- 
 sult of study and experience. 
 
 All small based, or wedged shaped stones 
 must be rejected, and all clayey particles in 
 the stratum on which the stones are to be 
 bedded, should be removed. The bed of the 
 road should be well hardened by ramming 
 and treading. An uniform elevation of the 
 paving stones should be carefully studied, 
 and also as great an uniformity in size. 
 Single corners of broad or large stone should 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 78 
 
 never be laid across a street, as they form 
 a belt which does great injury to carriages 
 when passing over it. On the same princi- 
 ple, any courses of small stones laid in the 
 same way, sink down and form a trench 
 equally destructive. The pavement when 
 laid down, should also be well rammed down. 
 The object is smoothness, stability and im- 
 perviousness to water, and as these are 
 gained, the excellence of the pavement is 
 established. 
 
 One of the most recent improvements, if 
 such it may yet be considered, is the in- 
 troduction of a composition of asphaltum, 
 which is poured hot from a cauldron upon 
 the stratum of earth, previously prepared 
 for it, and becomes hard and impermeable. 
 Enough is not yet known of its durability 
 to justify any opinion as to the probability 
 of its coming into general use. 
 
 Besides the various processes recommend- 
 ed for the formation of roads, there are 
 many for keeping them clean and in repair, 
 and while the loss of material from wear and 
 tear is obvious to the eye, calculations have 
 been made with great accuracy, to ascertain 
 what loss is sustained by carriages used 
 10 
 
74 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 upon them and what is the comparative 
 ease of draught upon various kinds of roads. 
 
 The draught of a waggon weighing 21 
 cwt. on a well made pavement as indicated 
 in a newly invented dynamometer of Mr. 
 McNeil, is 331bs. or in other words, the 
 force used to draw tlie waggon over that 
 portion of road is 331bs; over a broken 
 stone surface of flint, 651bs ; over a gravel 
 road, 1471bs. ; over a broken stone road on 
 a rough pavement foundation, 461bs. ; over 
 a broken stone surface upon a bottom of 
 concrete, 461bs. 
 
 The English turnpike roads are under 
 the care of trustees appointed by act of 
 parliament, who are authorized to borrow 
 money for their construction or repair, on a 
 mortgage security of the tolls. These tolls 
 are sometimes put up to be sold by auction, 
 and some of the single gates about London 
 have brought under the hammer, as large a 
 sum as $15,000 a year. In 1829 the turn- 
 pike debt was over 27 millions of dollars. 
 The annual expenditure for repairs was 
 above 7 millions and a half of dollars. The 
 income was about 6 millions of dollars. The 
 chief objection to the trustee system of 
 supervision, is that the trustees are often too 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 75 
 
 numerous and do not always act in concert. 
 These appoint surveyors who manage the 
 details. The common roads are still work- 
 ed by the inhabitants of the parish, w^ho 
 appoint their surveyors, as in early times. 
 The best road in England is said to be that 
 from London to Holyhead, although crossing 
 the most rough and mountainous places in 
 Wales, and it has been made the special 
 subject of parliamentary inquiry. In the 
 constant reports and examinations annually 
 made in the British Commons on the inter- 
 nal improvements of the empire, the most 
 interesting facts are continually developed. 
 The effect of the construction of new roads 
 has thus been found to be beneficial beyond 
 all expectation. The face of the covmtry 
 in certain districts of Ireland has been com- 
 pletely changed within a few years, by si- 
 milar improvements. New villages have 
 sprung up, and the inhabitants have found 
 out that industry and enterprize are prefer- 
 able to discomfort and idleness. 
 
 Mr. Telford on a similar occasion bore 
 witness to similar changes effected in Scot- 
 land. "I consider" said he, "these improve- 
 ments some of the greatest blessings ever 
 conferred on any country. £200,000 ex- 
 
76 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 pended in fifteen years has changed the mor- 
 al habits of the great working class for the 
 better, and has advanced the country at least 
 one hundred years." 
 
 At the risk of trespassing upon the pa- 
 tience of our readers we cannot omit this 
 opportunity of paying a humble tribute to 
 the memory of Mr. Telford. 
 
 This extraordinary man was an example of 
 the triumph of genius over the usual diflScul- 
 ties of life. It is somewhat singular, that 
 the most eminent practical engineers have 
 been those who were destitute of what is 
 termed a classical education. Like Brindley, 
 he was destitute of collegiate honors. The 
 son of a humble mechanic of Dumfries in 
 Scotland, he commenced his career in the 
 work shop of a stone mason, and during the 
 leisure he could snatch from the hours of 
 repose, he might have been seen sitting in 
 the kitchen of a humble cottage, reading his 
 favorite books by the glimmering light of a 
 turf fire. At this time his skill as a work- 
 man, and his taste for poetry were remarked 
 by his acquaintances, and as soon as his 
 apprenticeship expired, he repaired to Edin- 
 burgh, to prosecute with unremitting dili- 
 gence, the science of architecture. In 1782, 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 77 
 
 at which time he was 25 years of age, he 
 went to London under the patronage of Sir 
 William Pulteney, a native of his own par- 
 ish, and a personage whose name is well 
 known in this state. 
 
 His talents there found a field worthy of 
 their exertion, and after superintending some 
 public works, highly to the satisfaction of 
 his employers, the government, he received 
 a valuable appointment as a mark of its 
 favor, which he retained to the time of his 
 death. ^ 
 
 From this time his fame was established. 
 He was consulted by the engineers of other 
 nations, and astonished his own country- 
 men by the vastness of his designs, and the 
 perfect accuracy of their execution. His 
 most admired works are the road from 
 London to Holyhead, and its celebrated 
 bridge over the straits of Menai, connect- 
 ing the island of Anglesea with the Welch 
 coast. This was erected on the principle of 
 suspension, and exceeded in magnitude any 
 similar work in the known world. Under 
 it passed without inconvenience the "masts 
 of the tallest frigates." When we consider 
 the immense weight of iron, more than 2000 
 tons which had to be suspended in order to 
 
78 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 sustain the roadway, and the frightful ele- 
 vation at which the work was executed, 
 we may well believe what the projector 
 often declared, that it cost him more intense 
 thought than any other he had ever under- 
 taken. 
 
 The Caledonian canal was another of the 
 monuments of his talent. So were the St. 
 Catharine docks, the Highland roads and 
 bridges, the canals of Salop, numerous ac- 
 queducts, and the internal water communi- 
 cations of Sweden, connecting the Baltic and 
 the North sea. Indeed nothing of any mo- 
 ment w^as attempted, having reference to 
 the public works of his own country, with- 
 out his advice or co-operation. 
 
 It is pleasing to think that with all this 
 flush of popularity, and this eminence of re- 
 putation, he preserved his natural simplicity 
 of character, and was not less esteemed for 
 his private worth than his public services. 
 
 During the constant pressure of business, 
 he found time to teach himself the Latin, 
 French and German languages, and to be- 
 come an accomplished algebraist. 
 
 Having known from experience the me- 
 lancholy truth, " slow rises worth by poverty 
 depressed," although he himself had boldly 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 79 
 
 soared above its influence, by the unconquer- 
 able energy of his own mental resources, 
 he became the well known patron of indi- 
 gent merit, and was the means of raising 
 many excellent individuals to well deserved 
 distinction. He died in 1834 at his resi- 
 dence in Westminster, and his remains 
 were honored with a resting place in the 
 Abbey. 
 
 Who can reflect on the useful career of 
 such a man, without giving it a decided 
 preference over those empty and deceptive 
 pursuits, which minister solely to ambition 
 without giving any real claim to the respect 
 and admiration of mankind. And what 
 young man need be discouraged at his onset 
 in life, if he has within him, the determina- 
 tion to succeed, and the consciousness of 
 unyielding integrity. Thus armed, he may 
 bid defiance to difficulties, overcome " the 
 proud man's scorn, the rich man's contume- 
 ly," and rise to the station in life for which 
 his talents have rendered him worthy. If 
 the heart of a single person who reads this 
 should haply be nerved to new exertions 
 by the hasty sketch of a great and a good 
 man, we will not regret the moments we 
 have snatched from the main subject for 
 this brief digression. 
 
80 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 The roads in Scotland are now highly 
 spoken of. They are said to have improved 
 much more rapidly than those of England. 
 They are managed by local trustees, or 
 government commissioners, are made either 
 at private or the public expense, and some- 
 times both. In the time of Cromwell, his 
 well known partizan General Wade, by 
 means of his soldiery, commenced two cele- 
 brated roads into the Highlands from Crief in 
 Perthshire, an important pass. They were 
 250 miles in extent and were finally com- 
 pleted in 1737. They ran, however, over 
 such a rugged and difficult country as to be 
 continually out of repair, and the people 
 were too poor to keep them in order. These 
 early military roads extended no further 
 north than the Moray frith and along the 
 Caledonian glen. 
 
 The wide and extensive country beyond, 
 intersected by arms of the sea, mountain 
 streams and innumerable ravines, was al- 
 most without any means of intercourse. A 
 very striking proof of this is found in the 
 fact that the counties of Caithness and 
 Sutherland were not required to return ju- 
 rors to the northern circuit at Inverness. 
 Thus were civilization and the administra- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 81 
 
 tion of justice retarded by the neglect of 
 internal improvements, a circumstance too 
 often forgotten by those who are opposed to 
 their progress. This state of things attracted 
 the attention of the British parliament, which 
 resolved to extend the benefits of the road 
 system through every part of the Highlands. 
 In 1803 the commissioners appointed under 
 an act of the national legislature commenced 
 operations, and in the words of a writer con- 
 nected with the superintendence of the com- 
 mission, " a change was effected in the state 
 of the Highlands perhaps unparalleled in the 
 same space of time in the history of any 
 country." 
 
 The expense was met by legislative ap- 
 propriations and local contributions. Up- 
 wards of 875 miles of road and 1117 bridges 
 were the result of this effort of the government. 
 Mr. Telford, the engineer under whose mas- 
 terly direction the work was conducted, 
 gained much of his reputation by the scien- 
 tific arrangement of his grades and his tho- 
 rough system of draining. Some of the con- 
 sequences of this splendid scheme of internal 
 improvement may be briefly stated, and they 
 hold out to the sceptical and the ignorant, 
 the best possible proofs of the advantage 
 and propriety of similar projects elsewhere. 
 11 
 
82 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 It was not till 1806 that stage coaches 
 were regularly established in the Highlands, 
 and the former absolute solitude of her ro- 
 mantic glens is now enlivened by the pre- 
 sence of hundreds and thousands of delight- 
 ed travellers ; and everywhere, commodious 
 houses of entertainment have been erected, 
 and the facilities of intercourse enlarged. 
 The effects upon the agriculture and inter- 
 nal trade of the country have gone hand in 
 hand with these facilities of intercommuni- 
 cation. Large crops of wheat are raised 
 in places formerly untilled. Droves of cat- 
 tle, neat habitations, and cheerful farm- 
 houses now meet the eye, where once was 
 all a waste. The value of land in the 
 north has risen beyond all expectation. 
 The estates of Chisholm, (only one instance 
 out of many) have risen in value since 1785, 
 from $3,500 to $25,000 per annum. 
 
 Besides these national roads, there are 
 others made by districts, and statute labor, 
 which have latterly greatly increased. The 
 labor may be commuted for in money. The 
 Scottish highways which are not turnpiked 
 are managed by boards of magistrates, con- 
 sisting of justices of the counties convened 
 annually, who appoint the subordinate offi- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 83 
 
 cers and decide all questions connected with 
 the subject. The defects of this system 
 however, are sufficient to have induced most 
 of the counties to obtain acts of parliament 
 appointing trustees, and investing them with 
 the sole authority of construction and ma- 
 nagement. 
 
 The periodical reports of the commission- 
 ers for these Scottish roads, are among the 
 most interesting documents of their kind, 
 and afford conclusive evidence of the utility 
 of roads even when constructed in the most 
 unpromising localities. These reports and 
 others of a similar character have for many 
 years been made the subject of parlia- 
 mentary examination, and the mass of in- 
 formation promulgated by this means has 
 led to the most important results. As an 
 evidence of the minuteness and character of 
 these investigations, it is worthy of notice 
 that the commission of 1808 undertook to 
 ascertain the best form of wheels to favor 
 the draught of horses, and preserve the 
 roads from injury. Civil engineers, post- 
 masters, stage coach proprietors, coach ma- 
 kers, cartwrights were all examined on the 
 points most familiar to themselves. In 1819 
 a general report was made by a committee 
 
84 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 of the House of Commons, containing the 
 most important facts, and confirming the 
 advantages of the new system of construc- 
 tion over the old. 
 
 The roads of France are generally straight, 
 but have been constructed with little refer- 
 ence to grade. Their breadth varies from 
 thirty to seventy feet, the middle portion is 
 generally paved with stones six, eight, or 
 ten inches square, the foundation having 
 first been prepared and drained. Some are 
 built of rubble stone upon a plan adopted 
 by Turgot previous to the revolution. The 
 cross roads are scarcely anything but nar- 
 row lanes shaded with shrubbery ; and most 
 of the second class roads are badly paved, 
 or merely covered with gravel. They are 
 almost impassable during some part of the 
 year. On either side of the road a space 
 is generally left unpaved, and long formal 
 rows of trees comprise the vista. The de- 
 partment of bridges and roads has the di- 
 rection of construction and repair, and suras 
 are voted by the Chambers to be expended 
 under their supervision. In 1830 the ex- 
 penditure for repairs amounted to nine mil- 
 lion of dollars. In 1828 the royal roads 
 extended a distance of 8631 leagues, and 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 85 
 
 the departmental at 7704, while in that year 
 the expenditure on the royal roads alone 
 were upwards of twenty millions of dollars. 
 Previous to the revolution, the old system 
 of the Corvee remained in force, which was 
 the obligation of the inhabitants to work 
 upon the roads or pay a certain amount of 
 money for the same object. It was the 
 subject of so much complaint as to have 
 been abolished at that period. Sir Henry 
 Parnell in his recent treatise, says that after 
 all the efforts of the French statesmen, the 
 system of management is still imperfect, and 
 that some plan of legislation is jet to be 
 devised by which "good roads may be made 
 not only from one town to another, but into 
 and through every commune in France." M. 
 Dupin complains equally of the system, al- 
 though that of his own country. Before even 
 a basket of stones can be laid down on a de- 
 partmental road, it is necessary that an es- 
 timate of the expense should appear in the 
 budget of the arrondisement, then of the de- 
 partment, and then be submitted to the bu- 
 reau of Paris, which after due consideration 
 is returned whence it came, and an engineer 
 from the public school, an institution under 
 the Home Department and maintained at 
 
86 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 the public expense, is directed to proceed 
 at his leisure and execute the repair. 
 
 The roads of Italy are well spoken of by 
 travellers, and are generally kept in good 
 order. In Milan, the tracks for the wheels 
 are made of smooth stones. Some of those 
 which cross the Alps are really wonderful. 
 That of Mount Cenis renders a passage easy 
 which was once a dangerous and difficult 
 undertaking. It is a matter of doubt with 
 the antiquarians whether the route was 
 known to the ancients. Charlemagne cros- 
 sed the mountain when he attacked the 
 Lombards, and since then it has been well 
 known. Napoleon, who on more than one 
 occasion seemed to have that emperor be- 
 fore him as a model, resolved in 1802, to 
 open a safe and durable road between Pied- 
 mont and Savoy, and the col or neck of 
 Mount Cenis, so called from its being the 
 neck or lowest depression in the main ridge 
 allowing a passage, was chosen as the most 
 feasible route. The French engineers pro- 
 jected it with great skill, and a carriage 
 road of thirty miles in length, and from 
 eighteen to thirty feet wide was made, at 
 an expense of one million and a half dollars, 
 and by the labor of 3000 men working five 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 87 
 
 months in the year for upwards of seven 
 years. In 1815 this hitherto desolate and 
 almost unfrequented pass, was thronged by 
 16,000 carriages and 34,900 mules and hor- 
 ses. Above the wild and romantic plain of 
 St. Nicolo, it pierces a rock of granite for 
 the distance of 650 feet. Houses of refuge 
 twenty-six in number, are maintained by the 
 income from tolls, and are provided for the 
 benefit of travellers overtaken by fogs and 
 snows, during which bells are continually 
 rung to guide the steps of the wanderer. 
 These houses, in the time of Napoleon, were 
 tenated by a body of men called canton- 
 niers who repaired the road, but the number 
 is now reduced by the Sardinian govern- 
 ment to fifty. 
 
 Another famous mountain road is that of 
 Mount Genevre, which in 1802 was but a 
 mule path. It is now in excellent order^ 
 and has been much used since 1804. An 
 obelisk commemmorative of this work was 
 defaced by the Austrians in 1817. There 
 are several other roads in use, as that of St. 
 Gothard, not so well maintained, though cele- 
 brated for its associations ; but without such 
 peculiarity as to demand a particular descrip- 
 tion. The Simplon, however, must not be for- 
 
88 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 gotten. This is the most celebrated of them 
 all. It crosses the Sempione, a mountain 10,- 
 327 feet in height, and was the result of the 
 genius of Napoleon, who constructed it at the 
 joint expense of France and Italy. It is thir- 
 ty-six miles long, and twenty-five feet wide, 
 with so gentle a grade as to allow the hea- 
 viest wagons to pass up and down without 
 difficulty. It is carried over precipices, deep 
 gulfs, high bridges, and through the solid 
 rock itself The grand gallery over the 
 Frassinone is 683 feet long, and the road 
 may be described as a series of galleries 
 and grottos ascending to a height of 6,000 
 feet above the level of the sea. Some of 
 the gorges of the mountains through which 
 it passes, are full of what the French term 
 the "lovely horrors" of scenery. The views 
 at different parts, whether towards Italy or 
 Switzerland, are represented as truly mag- 
 nificent, and numerous artists have seized 
 upon them to give interest to their portfolios, 
 or the annuals which are now produced in 
 so masterly a manner. There are here also 
 the houses of refuge and the cantonniers as 
 on the route of Mount Cenis. Mr. Cooper, 
 who has lately published a graphic ac- 
 count of his tour in Switzerland, and par- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 89 
 
 tlcularly mentions his ascent and descent 
 of the Simplon, speaks rather disparagingly 
 of the work, and as being excessively and 
 unworthily praised. Yet his admiration 
 breaks out at times in spite of himself, and 
 he admits that he felt a sensation of wonder 
 amid this wild and awe-inspiring scenery, 
 which he approached upon a road with a 
 surface as smooth as any floor. 
 
 Another traveller who preceded him a 
 few years, Mariana Starke, whose name is 
 connected with an itinerary almost as fa- 
 mous as that of Antoninus, speaks in warm- 
 er language than Mr. Cooper, of places real- 
 izing "the chaos of Milton and the inferno 
 of Dante." We must also acknowledge, 
 says the fair tourist, " that men who in de- 
 fiance of such obstructions as these, could 
 form a road exempt even from the appear- 
 ance of danger, capable of braving the most 
 furious storms, resisting the giant hand of 
 time, and conducting human beings, cattle 
 and every kind of carriage quickly and safe- 
 ly during all seasons of the year, through 
 regions of eternal snow, deserve in point of 
 genius to be ranked not only with, but 
 above the ancient Romans." 
 12 
 
90 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 It is a circumstance disgraceful to human- 
 ity, that on the downfall of Napoleon, his 
 relentless enemies attempted to destroy the 
 road, lest it should keep his memory in the 
 minds of men, and thus prove a monument 
 which should outlast the brass and marble 
 of legitimate thrones ! 
 
 Mr. Rogers in his beautiful poem of Italy, 
 describes among other things, the passes 
 over Mount Cenis and the Simplon, and soft- 
 ens down into the picturesque, what others 
 would have treated as the terrific and won- 
 derful. 
 
 Like a silver zone 
 Flung- about carelessly, it shines afar, 
 Catching the eye in many a broken link, 
 
 In many a turn and traverse, as it glides. 
 ***** 
 
 Yet thro' its fairy course go where it will, 
 The torrent stops it not, the rugged rock 
 Opens and lets it in, and on it runs, 
 Winning its easy way from clime to clime, 
 Thro' glens locked up before." 
 
 The roads of Spain have been already al- 
 luded to in this treatise, as well as those of 
 Switzerland for the sake of illustrating a prin- 
 ciple of political economy. It may be well 
 to add to what was there said, that they are 
 in a miserable condition, and even the royal 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 91 
 
 roads save in the vicinity of the great towns, 
 are no better. From Madrid to Burgos 
 there are two good roads ; there is another 
 from Valladolid to Santander, and another to 
 Bilboa. A diligence is now said to ply be- 
 tween Saragossa and Barcelona. The funds 
 appropriated to their repairs are derived from 
 tolls and local taxes, and amount to $450,- 
 000 per annum. The Edinburgh Review 
 for July 1832, says that with the exception 
 of a few high roads, (such as we have no- 
 ticed) and which are sufficiently insecure, 
 " there exists scarce a wagon or cart track 
 through Spain, In Salamanca after a suc- 
 cession of abundant harvests, the wheat has 
 been left to rot because it would not repay 
 the cost of carriage." 
 
 The roads of Portugal are of the same 
 character. In Germany the roads resemble 
 those of France, except that little or no 
 pains are taken with the foundation, and of 
 consequence they are full of ruts and often 
 impassable. 
 
 The Dutch on the other hand are very 
 particular in the construction of theirs. The 
 bed of the roads is carefully prepared, a 
 cement of mortar is laid down, and upon 
 this, bricks called clinkers are placed, with 
 
92 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 their greatest diameters at right angles to 
 the line of the road. The smoothness of 
 these surfaces is much admired. An annual 
 income of over one million of florins is de- 
 rived from them by the government. It is 
 said that the German and Prussian roads 
 are cut up into ruts, and that it is a common 
 contrivance to have the axles of their car- 
 riages so made, as to be enlarged or dimi- 
 nished at pleasure, to suit the tracks used 
 in different provinces. 
 
 Mr. Russell the author of a late tour 
 through Germany, states that the establish- 
 ment of mails, called schnell wagons or 
 velocity coaches, which travel at the rate 
 of five or six miles an hour, at first caused 
 considerable excitement. The ordinary di- 
 ligence of the country is of a similar charac- 
 ter with the roads. The luggage is placed 
 behind on a flooring or projecting platform, 
 nearly as long as the vehicle itself, and is 
 piled up and secured with chains in total 
 disregard of the centre of gravity. This 
 process completed, the guard pays it no 
 further attention. Six persons travel inside 
 and two outside. The low roof, the straight 
 backs of the seats and the invariable ac- 
 companiment of tobacco smoke, with a speed 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 93 
 
 of three miles an hour, are said to make a 
 journey so disagreeable as to produce loath- 
 ing ever after at the very recollection. 
 
 In these countries as in France, the tra- 
 velling on the public roads is under the 
 direction of the government, and very strict 
 regulations exist as to the kind of carria- 
 ges, the number of horses, and of the pas- 
 sengers. Among some items of informa- 
 tion in these regulations, are mentioned the 
 places where the carriage wheels are to be 
 greased, and the fee that is to be paid on 
 the occasion by the surprised traveller. AH 
 the guide books contain the rules of posting 
 but they are so minute and various, that it 
 would weary the patience of the reader to 
 attempt their enumeration. 
 
 The roads of Sweden are said to be 
 excellent and equal to those of England. 
 They are constructed of stone with which 
 the country abounds, and are laid out by 
 skilful engineers. In Russia internal im- 
 provenjents are going on, although they 
 are not yet very widely disseminated. The 
 arts of war appear to be most in favor 
 with the government. A few roads are 
 made on scientific principles, but the high 
 road from St. Petersburgh to Moscow is 
 
94 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 only an elevated causeway of timber in 
 one long unvarying line, over marsh and 
 river, forest and field; and as it is construct- 
 ed of logs joined together, it is in many 
 places extremely rough. The trade of the 
 interior is chiefly conducted by means of 
 the rivers and canals during the few months 
 they are navigable, or in winter by the use 
 of sleds, over roads impassable at other 
 seasons. One of the consequences of this 
 state of things is very long credits to mer- 
 chants living in the interior, because they 
 cannot reach the commercial ports without 
 great inconvenience and loss of time, and 
 therefore they rarely come. 
 
 The roads of South America are scarcely 
 to be considered such, and are only really 
 good in the vicinity of very large towns. 
 The traffic of the interior is carried on by 
 the tedious aid of mules. The roads of some 
 of the Eastern nations, such as China and 
 of the Asiatic Islands, as already stated, 
 are not Avithout interest in the eyes of trav- 
 ellers, but throw little light on the scientific 
 or commercial portion of our subject. 
 
 The roads of our own country have es- 
 sentially changed their character within a 
 few years past. They were passable in 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 95 
 
 summer and winter from the very nature of 
 the soil and the climate, but in the spring 
 and autumn, they were proverbially bad. 
 Happily for us our numerous lakes and riv- 
 ers, afforded facilities for transportation and 
 travel to such a degree, as to make the 
 evils of land carriage much more tolerable 
 than they would otherwise have been. Ac- 
 counts are preserved of journies made in 
 the 17th century, between the then princi- 
 pal towns of our country, which required 
 the exercise of so much patience, and con- 
 sumed so much time, as to make the effort 
 almost an act of heroism on the part of the 
 travellers. 
 
 After the year 1803 a great many turn- 
 pike roads were constructed throughout the 
 northern states. 
 
 The state of Connecticut incorporated 
 a large number, and the cost of their con- 
 struction varied from ^500 to $2280 a mile. 
 This was the expenditure on the road from 
 New Haven to Hartford. 
 
 The income in 1809 was eleven per cent 
 on the capital expended, as appears from 
 an elaborate report of Mr. Gallatin, then 
 secretary of the treasury of the United 
 States. 
 
96 TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 The roads of Massachusetts were more 
 expensive, some of them cost no less than 
 $14,000 per mile. Those to Salem, New- 
 buryport and Providence w^ere of the best 
 class. The grades were carefully adjusted 
 at an angle no where exceeding 5 deg., and 
 the surface was covered with broken stone. 
 A speed of ten miles an hour was usual 
 with the coaches on these lines. The route 
 from Boston to Newburyport was the ad- 
 miration of travellers: where an expense of 
 $400,000 was incurred on a distance of but 
 thirty-two miles. 
 
 In our own state the mania for turnpikes 
 became excessive. During a period of seven 
 years, sixty-seven companies were incorpo- 
 rated, with a capital of five millions of dol- 
 lars, and liberty to construct three thousand 
 miles of road. 
 
 Since 1810, upwards of two hundred and 
 and sixty more have been incorporated with 
 large capitals. 
 
 The direction of these roads was towards 
 the lakes and along the rivers of the inte- 
 rior. Some of them were very expensive, 
 sucli as that between Albany and Schenec- 
 tady, which was made at an expense of 
 $10,000 per mile and upwards, the actual 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 97 
 
 cost of those in the interior averaged much 
 less, generally not exceeding $2500, or $3,- 
 000 per mile. Some of them were very 
 profitable. The road from Utica to Canan- 
 daigua paid for many years a handsome 
 profit to the stockholders. Generally they 
 have never remunerated their proprietors, 
 nor paid much more than the expense of 
 actual repairs. 
 
 By the revision of the statute lavs^s of 
 this state, a complete code for the regulation 
 of turnpikes and highways has been put in 
 operation. 
 
 There is a large number of provisions in 
 relation to turnpikes, as will be seen by 
 reference to the law contained in the ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 Some of the principal features are as 
 follows : 
 
 After the incorporation is obtained, the 
 road is to be laid out by three commission- 
 ers appointed by the governor, having no 
 interest in any turnpike, and not being re- 
 sidents of the county through which the 
 road is to pass. 
 
 The width is prescribed to four rods, ex- 
 cept in unavoidable circumstances, and nev- 
 13 
 
98 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 er less than twenty-two feet. The material 
 is also prescribed; stone, sound wood, or oth- 
 er hard substance, well compacted and suffi- 
 ciently deep to secure a good foundation, 
 the surface to be faced with gravel or bro- 
 ken stone of nine inches deep, rising with a 
 gradual arch in the centre. 
 
 The law regulates the ditches, milestones, 
 guide boards, the assessments for land taken, 
 the tolls, the tire of carriages and other 
 matters of a similar nature. All persons 
 going to church, or a funeral, their usual 
 grist mill or black-smith shop, to their phy- 
 sician, to court as a witness or juror, to 
 an election or town meeting, and those lir- 
 ving within one mile of a gate if passing on 
 their own business, all state and national 
 troops, are exempted from paying tolls. 
 The common roads or highways of the state 
 are regulated by one hundred and thirty- 
 two sections of the Revised Statutes and 
 subjected to the control of commissioners 
 and overseers of highways. ' The commis- 
 sioners have power to lay out and discon- 
 tinue roads, to divide towns into districts, 
 to assess road labor on land owners and 
 resident males of the age of twenty-one 
 years. The overseers have the special du- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 99 
 
 ties of superintendents. Many other provi- 
 sions exist for the maintenance and govern- 
 ment of the roads, to which w^e must refer 
 those vv^ho wish fully to understand the 
 details. 
 
 New Jersey, under the same impetus, un- 
 dertook the construction of turnpikes. The 
 great thoroughfare was between Trenton 
 and Brunswick. Here the angle of ascent 
 was not greater than three degrees in any 
 place. The expense averaged about $2,- 
 500 per mile. Another was extended from 
 Brunswick to Easton on the Delaware, but 
 long before its completion, the original funds 
 of the company were exhausted. 
 
 Pennsylvania did not hold back at this 
 period. Numerous ''stone" roads were made 
 throughout the state. The Bristol and 
 Trenton, the German and Perkiomen, the 
 Lancaster, Columbia and Pittsburg roads 
 were all considered important public works. 
 To some of these the state made subscrip- 
 tions of money and of credit. The angles 
 of the grades were about four degrees. 
 Some of the roads cost ^10,000 per mile, and 
 others 14,000. The tolls received were not 
 enough to pay the interest and cost of re- 
 pairs. It appears that the lower stratum 
 
100 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 of these roads was generally broken stone 
 of the diameter of five inches. The one 
 above it of half that diameter, and the two 
 in some instances were nearly thirty inches 
 thickness. The surface of the roads had a 
 slight convexity, and was sometimes covered 
 at top with gravel. Whatever the defects 
 of construction might be in view of the pre- 
 sent received systems of Telford and McAd- 
 am, the Pennsylvania roads enjoyed a high 
 reputation, and the metropolis felt their good 
 effects, in the great extension of her internal 
 trade, the enhanced value of her property, 
 and the increased magnitude of her re- 
 sources. 
 
 The roads of Maryland were also pushed 
 forward with great spirit. Some of them 
 cost $2,000, some $7,000 and others $10,000 
 a mile on an average. The great road was 
 that of Frederickton, designed to divert the 
 western trade, and by connection with the 
 Cumberland road to reach the navigable 
 waters of the Ohio. The principles of con- 
 struction were the same as those adopted 
 in Pennsylvania. South of the Potomac 
 but little was effected, and up to the present 
 time, with the exception of a few rail-roads, 
 the Southern states have not done much to 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 101 
 
 increase their home trade, or the facilities 
 of intercommunication. 
 
 The Cumberland road which runs from 
 a town in Maryland on the Potomac to 
 Wheeling on the Ohio, was made at the 
 expense of the nation, and cost them ^1,- 
 800,000. As late as the year 1831 the 
 enormous sum of $200,000 and upwards, 
 w^as appropriated to its repair. The utility 
 of this road is no longer doubted, and though 
 it is debated whether the constitution con- 
 tains any authority for its construction, yet 
 annual expenditures are still authorized in 
 the face of the objection, for the improve- 
 ment of this and other roads in the western 
 and southern states. In an able report of 
 the committee on roads and canals made to 
 the House of Representatives in 1822, and 
 attributed to the pen of Judge Hemphill of 
 Pennsylvania, the constitutional power of 
 Congres sis there ably, though only inciden- 
 tally asserted. 
 
 In the message of Governor De Witt Clin- 
 ton to the legislature of this state in the 
 year 1818, he remarked the imperfections of 
 the then existing turnpike laws of our own 
 state, and stated that the condition of the 
 roads was a "subject of general and well 
 founded complaint." 
 
102 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 In his message the following year, he par- 
 ticularly calls upon the legislature to en- 
 courage the construction of roads, " as an 
 incumbent duty and a beneficial exercise of 
 power." Again in 1820, he urged on their 
 attention the establishment of roads and 
 bridges, by all the motives which suggested 
 themselves to his powerful and comprehen- 
 sive mind. So far from exhibiting himself 
 as the exclusive friend of canals, it will be 
 found on examination, that the subject of 
 roads was with him a constant source of so- 
 licitude and a frequent theme of solicitation. 
 To his influence, we may indeed attribute 
 most of the reforms which took place in the 
 existing laws with reference to this subject. 
 
 The present generation do not realise all 
 the greatness of De Witt Clinton. A de- 
 gree of familiarity with his person, a know- 
 ledge of his want of political address, and 
 prejudices embittered by party strife have 
 made us less sensible of his merit than we 
 should have been, had his position in public 
 life been entirely independent of popular 
 caprice. But though he was doomed to ex- 
 perience many of the severer ills of life, and 
 to suffer the consequences of being in ad- 
 vance of the age, its information and its 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 103 
 
 opinions, though he went to his grave with 
 a consciousness that his labors and his poli- 
 cy, were not all fully appreciated, posterity, 
 that impartial judge, will do hira justice; and 
 the state of New- York will one day feel 
 that its highest glory, and its proudest hoast 
 are these, that here was his birth place, 
 here his sphere of action. Mere politicians 
 may wax and wane through their phases of 
 official greatness, but the name of Clinton 
 shall survive place and placemen, to be the 
 veneration and love of all succeeding time. 
 The increase of our population, however, 
 required additional facilities, not to be ob- 
 tained by the slow operation of wagon trans- 
 portation. The long trains drawn by six 
 or eight horses, occupying several weeks in 
 a journey, now performed with the heaviest 
 articles in a few days, were not characteris- 
 tic of our citizens, nor adapted to the neces- 
 sities of our country. The canals, those 
 honorable monuments of the well directed 
 energies, and the well sustained credit of 
 our state, supplied the more urgent demands 
 of commerce. These after fertilizing and 
 enriching our western domain, pour into the 
 public coffers an imperial revenue. But the 
 later adoption of rail-roads has made the 
 
104 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 system of intercommunication perfect. With 
 their usual energy, the American people 
 have seized upon it at once, and in this we 
 have already outstripped our competitors, 
 and surpassed our teachers. 
 
 This invention distinguishes modern times 
 from all others. The ancients have been 
 considered by enthusiastic classicists, as the 
 true mental giants, and the moderns but 
 dwarfs in comparison. But it has been well 
 remarked that if the moderns are dwarfs, 
 they have mounted on the shoulders of their 
 predecessors, and have attained, therefore, 
 a much greater elevation. It is very singu- 
 lar however, that the greatest improvements 
 are resolvable into the simplest elementary 
 principles. In statuary, for instance, the 
 perfection of the art consists in its close 
 resemblance to the simplicity of nature. 
 Some of the finest improvements in mecha- 
 nics owe their origin to the contrivances of 
 the animal frame; and rail-roads that seem 
 about to revolutionize the relations of socie- 
 ty, and " annihilate time and distance" (as 
 once was the prayer of romantic love,) are 
 resolvable into the simple effects of smooth- 
 ness and hardness, two of tiie most familiar 
 of the qualities of matter, To these the 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 108 
 
 power of steam has at last been made ap- 
 plicable, and it finds a limitless field for its 
 operations. 
 
 The subject of rail roads has called forth 
 so many writers whose works are within 
 every one's reach, that the attempt to treat 
 it other than in a general way, would now 
 be but a loss of time. Suffice it to say, that 
 they have existed in England since 1676, if 
 not earlier, although their real utility re- 
 mained unsuspected until a few years past. 
 Of course they were originally of the rudest 
 character, and used principally for the trans- 
 portation of coals from the mines to some 
 place of shipment. One hundred years af- 
 terwards they were improved at the Shef* 
 field collieries by the addition of iron plates 
 to the w^ooden rails. In 1797 stone founda- 
 tions for the superstructure were adopted by 
 Mr. Barnes at the New-Castle mines, and in 
 18Q0, they were used in Derbyshire. The 
 first clear manifestation of their utility was 
 evident in 1825 through the successful opera- 
 tions of the Stockton and Darlington rail- 
 wayj and in 1830 the Liverpool and Manches- 
 ter road went into operation, surpassing in all 
 respects the warmest anticipations of it» 
 14 
 
106 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 friends. Other great roads have since been 
 completed in England, particularly that be- 
 tween London and Birmingham. Some small 
 ones are in successful operation in Ireland, 
 and the plan of a grand route across the island 
 from Valentia, the projected port of the At- 
 lantic steam packets, is also under discussion. 
 They have been introduced into France, Bel- 
 gium, and Russia, and will probably become 
 universal throughout Europe. 
 
 A considerable number have been con- 
 structed in our own country, and are in suc- 
 cessful operation. It would be needless to 
 take up time by a minute description of the 
 American rail roads, since the encyclope- 
 dias, guides, and pocket books of the coun- 
 try, abound with details, maps and profiles of 
 all the most celebrated. 
 
 An important and as yet an unsettled con- 
 troversy has arisen abroad in relation to the 
 comparative merits of rail roads and canals, 
 and the debate was at one time equally 
 warm in the United States. Tables have 
 been constructed by which it is shewn that 
 at a speed under three miles an hour, the ad- 
 vantages of horse power upon canals is as 4 
 to 3 in favor of the latter. Above that ve- 
 locity the advantages rapidly increase in fa- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 107 
 
 vor of rail roads. At a rate of twenty miles 
 an hour they are preferable to canals in the 
 ratio of 5 to 1. Over turnpikes they have a 
 still more decided advantage, the item of fric- 
 tion alone being twenty times less, according 
 to Dr. Lardner, on the one than the other. 
 
 The developement however of a new law 
 of resistance, inferred from actual experi- 
 ments made, in Scotland upon the canals of 
 that country, had a tendency to make spe- 
 culators more wary for a time in the pur- 
 chase of rail- way shares. We say for a time 
 only, because the confidence in rail-ways is 
 now greater than ever, and England will be 
 soon traversed by them in all directions. 
 
 In 1830 a species of light craft, made of 
 sheet iron, and called swift boats, were con- 
 structed to ply at a speed of nine and a half 
 miles an hour, upon the Paisley canal, where 
 at this time, an average speed of ten miles is 
 said to be maintained. The canal is shal- 
 low, narrow and crooked, and only twelve 
 miles in length. The boats are seventy feet 
 long, five feet six inches broad, the roofs are 
 of wood covered with oiled canvass, and the 
 hulls are formed of light iron ribs and plates. 
 They usually carry seventy passengers, but 
 sometimes have as many as one hundred and 
 
108 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 ten. The entire cost of each is $625, and 
 the value of the two horses that draw them 
 in stages of four miles each, is $250 a pair. 
 They travel this distance in twenty-two 
 minutes, and each team performs its route 
 about four times a day. It is asserted that 
 the actual cost of each boat, including in- 
 terest of capital, deduction for sinking fund, 
 wear and tear, and indeed every item of ex- 
 pense, is but £2 2s. 4d, per day, while the 
 receipts at a penny per mile for each passen- 
 ger in the best cabin, alone amount to £4 
 per day. 
 
 Experiments were carefully made by Mr. 
 McNeill, the author of a work on the resist^ 
 ance to the passage of boats on canals and 
 other bodies of water, to ascertain the truth 
 of the long received law that the resistance 
 is as the square of the velocity. By the use 
 of his dynamometer, the speed of an iron 
 passage boat weighing three and a half tons 
 and drawn by two horses, at the rate of ten 
 miles and a fraction of a half mile per hour 
 indicated a resistance of 285 lbs. and a frac^ 
 tion over, when by the old theory it should 
 have been 429 lbs. The cause of this dis- 
 parity is explained by the emergence of the 
 boat from the water, but this has not been 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 109 
 
 mathematically demonstrated. One result 
 developed itself as a consequence of this 
 new principle, that a horse could do 270 per 
 cent more work on a canal than is allowed 
 by Tredgold, and 750 per cent more than al- 
 lowed by Wood. The attendant ripple of 
 these boats is said not to be greater than 
 that of a canal boat moving at the rate of 
 four miles an hour. The system of light 
 boats has been introduced in England, after 
 having been successfully tried on the princir 
 pal canals of Scotland. 
 
 In a very entertaining and useful work re- 
 cently published by Sir George Head, a bro- 
 ther of Sir Francis, the performance of the 
 English boats is particularly stated. The 
 Arrow, built after the Scotch model, and 
 drawing but twelve inches of water with 
 forty passengers and all their luggage, plies 
 on the Carlisle and Annan canal at the uni- 
 form rate of ten miles an hour. 
 
 Two similar boats, the Waterwitch and 
 Swiftsure, ran upon the canal from Preston 
 to Kendall, and accomplished a distance 
 of fifty-seven miles, passing seven or eight 
 locks, in seven hours. In these instances, he 
 describes the fatigue of the horses as being 
 distressing and injurious in the extreme, 
 
110 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 and he seems to think that the injury done 
 them a great and decided draw-back to the 
 supposed gain of speed. 
 
 Although the advantages of rail-ways in 
 the transportation of passengers and light ar- 
 ticles are well understood, and indeed much 
 more than these are claimed for them by 
 very eminent writers, many things are yet 
 to be tested before their maximum effect 
 can be realized. As an example, engineers 
 yet differ whether it is best to concentrate 
 the inequalities of a grade in one part of the 
 line of road, or spread them over the whole. 
 Whether stationary engines are most econo- 
 mical and convenient, or whether additional 
 locomotive power should generally be em- 
 ployed in their stead. Some eminent per- 
 sons contend that where the inclination ex- 
 ceeds twenty-one feet in a mile, the same 
 power will transport a weight either way 
 equally well, and is the same that would 
 be necessary for an equal distance on a 
 level rail-way. Where speed is preferable 
 to other considerations it is best unqestiona- 
 bly to use locomotive engines to the full 
 extent of their capability. Dr. Lardner es- 
 timated its limit of usefulness to a grade of 
 fifty feet in the mile, and contends that 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. Ill 
 
 beyond that stationary engines are neces- 
 sary. Tliis however is denied. Satisfac- 
 tory experiments have been made in this 
 country to show that grades of much greater 
 elevation may be successfully worked by 
 locomotives of American construction. Mr. 
 Baldwin of Philadelphia has produced them 
 of sufficient power to ascend an inclined 
 plane of 2745^ feet, having an elevation of 
 187fo feet in that distance, being upwards of 
 350 feet in a mile, at full speed, with a train 
 of cars containing passengers. The details 
 of that experiment not being within reach, 
 it may be well to refer to a similar one 
 made by an engine manufactured by Mr. 
 Norris of Philadelphia, upon the same plane. 
 It ascended with two cars and sixty-three 
 passengers in three minutes and fifteen se- 
 conds. The gross weight including engine 
 and tender was 48,500 lbs. On descending, 
 eighty more passengers were added to the 
 load, and yet the engine and train were found 
 perfectly under control, and were three 
 times brought to a dead stop at the plea- 
 sure of the engineer, and to the astonish- 
 ment of all present. Several of our most 
 important rail-ways are graded in some parts 
 of their lines as high as eighty feet to the 
 
112 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 mile, and are in successful operation. The 
 great western rail-way to connect Boston 
 and Albany is graded on this principle. It 
 is not proper however to consider this sub- 
 ject as entirely settled, since the opinions of 
 scientific men are still at variance in relation 
 to it 
 
 Another consideration connected with the 
 construction of rail-ways has not been suffi- 
 ciently attended to, the necessity of having 
 the best preliminary surveys. If after a line 
 is marked out, a better one is discovered, an 
 absolute loss to the proprietors will have 
 accrued by the difference of the cost of con- 
 struction, and the wear and tear of trans- 
 portation, which might have been avoided. 
 Many of our roads have been laid out too 
 hastily. A very high degree of talent is 
 necessary in this department of civil engi- 
 neering, and scientific attainments of the 
 most profound character will find themselves 
 fully employed. The mathematician here 
 finds the value of his previous studies. He 
 is called upon to put in practice his know- 
 ledge of curves, of resistance, of gravity, and 
 motion. How beneficial the change of this 
 direction of his studies. Too often employ- 
 ed in calculations, which have tended to 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 113 
 
 render the bullet more certain and the shell 
 more deadly, he now traces out the lines 
 of a peacefully travelled road, where the 
 quiet pursuits of life are hastened to a pros- 
 perous conclusion. 
 
 A good engineer is not only a theorist 
 but a practical man. He ascertains the 
 amount of transportation ascending and de- 
 scending, the character of the country, the 
 nature of the soil, its products, the facility 
 of material, of draining, the necessity if 
 any of deflections in the line of his road, the 
 number and location of the curve^s, and each 
 particular involves the most extensive and 
 careful calculations. 
 
 The details of construction have also their 
 questions. The best kinds of rails, their 
 weight and form, the most suitable guage 
 the strength of the various materials, the 
 form of embankments, of viaducts, the best 
 sidelongs or turnouts, require great experi- 
 ence and skill in the engineer. 
 
 When the road is finished, then come oth- 
 er embarrassments. The force of effective 
 traction, of friction, the form, stability and 
 power of locomotive engines, present them- 
 selves for consideration. Volumes are writ- 
 ten on these points and there is yet room for 
 15 
 
114 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 more. There are upwards of sixty different 
 kinds of locomotive engines known to sci- 
 entific men; and their various pretensions 
 and the principles of their construction are 
 subjects of continued interest. It is indeed 
 astonishing to think what a field has been 
 opened to research by the application of 
 steam to the propulsion of locomotive and 
 marine engines, A recent writer of emi- 
 nence excused himself for entering upon the 
 subject, by hinting, how much was yet to be 
 reduced to general principles, in the opera- 
 tions of rail-way engines. Thus the pres- 
 sure of steam in the boilers, hitherto thought 
 to be invariable in the same engine, the in- 
 dications of the safety valve, the pressure of 
 steam in the cylinders, the evaporating pow- 
 er, the lead of the slide, or in other words, 
 the amount of opening left in the induction 
 valves purposely to produce an easier and 
 swifter motion of the piston rods, a rule of 
 equation determining the practical power of 
 an engine, the velocity and load of a loco- 
 motive, the form of the wheels best adapted 
 to passing curves^ their size as best adapted 
 to speed, and the consumption of fuel, are 
 matters not fully understood and not yet per- 
 fectly systematised. In time these and oth- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 115 
 
 er difficulties will have been overcome by 
 talent and experience. 
 
 That a constantly high rate of interest 
 can be expected from investments in rail 
 roads is we believe an error which time will 
 rectify. Under the best possible manage- 
 ment, the expenses can never be brought to 
 an invariable standard. Such must be the 
 number of agents, such the necessity of con- 
 stant renovation, such the casualties, and 
 such the wear and tear of the operating 
 power, that entire certainty can not be ex- 
 pected. But few cases have occurred where 
 the outlay has kept within the estimates of 
 the engineers. Perhaps this is all for the 
 best. For did any one pursuit of men as- 
 sure unerringly a higher profit than the rest, 
 all would make it their business. 
 
 No investment contrived by human inge- 
 nuity ever produced uniform results. Even 
 the gold finder often ascertains to his satis- 
 faction that his is a losing occupation. So of 
 rail roads. Their utility will commend them 
 to the favor of the public, and if they should 
 fall below the standard of profit which the 
 sanguine have assigned them, they will be- 
 come the property of capitalists who seek 
 less returns for their money, than the mere 
 
116 TREATIS^E ON ROADS. 
 
 speculator, or he owned by the States in 
 which they are constructed. These can 
 afford to overlook the mere advantage of 
 income, in the general prosperity they dif- 
 fuse among the people. 
 
 But there are other Adews of this subject 
 which are equally striking in a political 
 sense. 
 
 The vast increase of rail-ways as the 
 most useful and expeditious mode of con- 
 veyance, will tend in a great degree to the 
 neglect of the turnpikes and country roads. 
 This will, in fact, subject the business and 
 convenience of the public to the rules and 
 regulations of private companies ; for if the 
 existing highways become impassable from 
 neglect, or through the superiority of rail- 
 way conveyances in their neighborhood, 
 either they must be kept in repair by the 
 few who continue to use them, which may 
 prove a heavy burthen, or else the public 
 should have some control over the rail-ways 
 which they are thus in a measure compelled 
 to travel. It is therefore a wholesome pro- 
 vision in some charters, that the roads au- 
 thorised by them, may become public pro- 
 perty at a future day, upon repayment of 
 the capital, with an interest of ten or fifteen 
 per cent per annum. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 117 
 
 The permanency of these structures is a 
 question much agitated. In Europe they 
 are much more expensively constructed than 
 in our own country, and some of the staunch 
 advocates of legitimate thrones, and the 
 political ascendancy of an aristocracy of 
 church and state, contend that the slight- 
 ness of our rail road structures, is the result 
 of our institutions, and the constitution of 
 our society. They say that our rail roads 
 are projected in the consciousness of the 
 uncertainty of our government, and that our 
 "lives, laws, securities, private engagements, 
 public treaties, religion, morality and all, 
 float upon the uncertain will and irresistible 
 passions of the multitude." 
 
 This is a superficial remark. The reasons 
 which operate on the minds of capitalists are 
 these, that to make an investment in a rail- 
 way which should not bring a rate of inter- 
 est equal to that ordinarily received from 
 other investments, would be an act of folly, 
 and such a one as no English capitalist 
 would make in his own country. The se- 
 cret with us lies in the deficiency of capital. 
 When we have acquired as much private 
 wealth as England, and a low rate of inter- 
 est becomes universal, then our rail-ways 
 
lis TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 will be built at as great an expense as hers, 
 but not before. An outlay which will here 
 return ten per cent, would bring but two, if 
 the expense of construction were increased 
 five-fold. 
 
 That the instability of our institutions does 
 not affect this question, is evident from the 
 expenditures every where made on our pub- 
 lic buildings, bridges, churches and canals. 
 And those British writers who assert that 
 we look with " admiration and envy" on 
 those institutions of theirs which protect 
 " the property of the few from the Briarian 
 fingers of the many," forget one grand prin- 
 ciple of our institutions, which is that the 
 many have no inducement to plunder the few; 
 no unequal or unjust laws compel them to be 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water to a 
 privileged order, or to give place to the arti- 
 ficial creations of society, which have no real 
 or just foundation. Property must be more 
 secure here than in any other country of the 
 world, because it cannot be taken away by 
 taxation without consent of the owners, and 
 because it is the interest of every citizen, 
 that his own earnings should be protected, 
 in order that he himself may acquire proper- 
 ty. This a principle seated so deeply in hu- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 119 
 
 man nature as not to allow any doubt upon 
 the subject. 
 
 On the contrary, in that country where its 
 wealth lies in a few hands, and by its very 
 institutions and laws must be there for 
 ever retained, where the majority of its peo^ 
 pie are condemned to hopeless poverty, there 
 is far greater danger of the insecurity of pro- 
 perty than any other. Nothing but an out- 
 let to the mass of the discontented by emi^ 
 gration and colonization has kept, or can 
 keep such a country from revolution. 
 
 To return from this digression, it follows- 
 that if the public interests should prove to 
 be impaired by this practical monopoly of 
 the right of way, and by the fixing of the 
 time, the place and the mode of travelling, 
 at the option of the carriers rather than the 
 carried, it is urged that they should in some 
 way be regulated by the public authorities 
 and subjected to scientific control. 
 
 The Columbia rail road, which is the pro^- 
 perty of the State of Pennsylvania and i& 
 under the direction of the sate authorities,, 
 now pays its incidental expenses, and the 
 interest of the capital. It has proved of 
 vast importance to the public even at a time* 
 when its receipts were not remunerating, and 
 
120 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 it must continue to be an important tho- 
 rough-fare. 
 
 Another consideration connected with the 
 subject, is tlie question of the successful ap- 
 plication of steam to the propulsion of car- 
 riages upon turnpike roads, and the effect 
 this may have on rail-ways. Many such en- 
 gines have been built, and some have actual- 
 ly plied for months together. Treatises writ- 
 ten by confident inventors have been pub- 
 lished from time to time, asserting their ad- 
 vantages, and the certainty of success, and 
 parliamentary inquiries have been made at 
 great length to ascertain the truth of these 
 pretensions. 
 
 It may be safely predicted of this branch 
 of locomotion, that much yet remains to be 
 accomplished before it can compete even on 
 the best turnpikes, with locomotion upon 
 rail- ways. 
 
 Having now briefly discussed our subject, 
 it may be expedient to allude to one other 
 consideration, that of the unceasing opposi- 
 tion, which men of contracted views offer to 
 the extension of the general system of inter- 
 nal improvement. This opposition is as old 
 as civilization, and perhaps is a useful ingre- 
 dient in the composition of society. Were 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 121 
 
 there no gravity, and no friction, the very 
 tendencies of matter would become danger- 
 ous, and were there no croakers and no 
 sceptics, we should perhaps be the creatures 
 of imagination and of hope. Still as there 
 is enough of doubt in the world, to keep 
 down the enthusiasm of genius, especially 
 where it attempts to erect its fabrics with 
 the wealth of others, the friends of society 
 and the advocates of internal improvement 
 must not relax their efforts, nor their argu- 
 ments, if they w^ish to see the march of im* 
 provement continue. It may therefore safe* 
 ly be laid down as an axiom, that whatever 
 creates business, facilitates intercourse, and 
 unites communities, tends to their comfort 
 and advantage, and confers benefits upon 
 men, of value infinitely beyond an esti- 
 mate in dollars and cents. No statesman, 
 ho people, no government can go wrong in 
 thus consulting the public good. Every 
 measure founded on this basis, will stand 
 the "test of scrutiny and time." 
 
 Nor is another consideration unworthy of 
 
 notice, that the expenditure of money in 
 
 public improvements is not a loss of the 
 
 amount expended, nor is a debt based on a 
 
 16 
 
122 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 productive work an evil of the character it 
 has been assumed to be. The opponents of 
 the Erie canal talked of the State debt it 
 was about to create, as a measure of cer- 
 tain destruction to the prosperity of the peo- 
 ple. They did not understand that vis me- 
 dicatrix in political economy, by which such 
 expenditures of capital are replaced; nor 
 knew that the voluntary contributions of 
 trade, commerce, and travel upon our estab- 
 lished thoroughfares make up in a short 
 time, sums equal to the most liberal outlay 
 of capital. 
 
 The Erie canal has not only repaid its 
 cost, and furnished means for other improve- 
 ments, while it also remains the property of 
 the public, but the very money which it cost 
 that public, has, to more than an equal 
 amount been gained in the enhancement of 
 values in its vicinity, in the increased profit 
 of land, the establishment of towns and ci- 
 ties, mills and manufactories, and the em- 
 ployment furnished a large and increasing 
 population. 
 
 It is possible another objection may be 
 taken to the prosecution of works of inter- 
 nal improvement — that they have a ten- 
 dency to increase unequally the wealth of 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 123 
 
 certain portions of tlie community. The 
 philosophy of some minds is to oppose all 
 measm'es, which appear to remunerate capi- 
 tal as well as labor. 
 
 This is an unworthy spirit in a country 
 where labor becomes capital sooner than in 
 any other in the world. Let us suppose that 
 the most radical of the Roman agrarians 
 were amongst us, and could induce us to 
 adopt his theory in its widest sense. 
 
 Suppose our roads and canals were blot- 
 ted from our maps, and each citizen lived 
 exclusively for himself. However independ- 
 ent in his feelings, or desirou>s of remaining 
 so, he would find his own ingenuity and 
 personal exertion insufficient to supply some 
 of his most urgent w^ants : nor is this all, he 
 could not find leisure, even if he had ingenui- 
 ty. He must either forego at once the ac- 
 customed enjoyments of life, or be content 
 with an existence no better than semi-bar- 
 barous. A bad crop or a sick family would 
 plunge him into the deepest distress. Did 
 he seek employment as a means of relieving 
 his wants, he would be compelled to await 
 his remuneration at the pleasure of his em- 
 ployer, who would be equally dependent on 
 his own labor, or his expected crop. For no 
 
124 TREATISE ON ROADS. 
 
 man could have a supply on hand, the ac- 
 cumulation of property being contrary to 
 the fundamental principles of agrarianism. 
 
 The unavoidable tendency of this state of 
 things would be to reduce the motives of 
 men to the mere object of obtaining food 
 and clothing, and any attempt to surpass 
 their neighbors in the abundance or quality 
 of either, would also be resented as an at- 
 tempt to create wealth in an undue degree, 
 
 Upon tracing out the inevitable conse-- 
 quences of this principle, we perceive that 
 ignorance and squalid poverty would pos^^ 
 sess the land, the intellectual would yield to 
 the physical, and all the high impulses of 
 our nature be sacrificed to but little better 
 than animal instinct. 
 
 We have examples of semi-barbarism, 
 teaching us its degradation in the annals of 
 almost every nation. The nearer we go 
 back to periods, when internal improve- 
 ments were unknown, and the objects of 
 men were mere existence, the more degrad- 
 ed do we find their condition. 
 
 In the times of the early Britons who re- 
 trograded in civilization after the departure 
 of the Romans, it is evident that though 
 they were unquestionably actuated by a 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 125 
 
 high love of freedom, they never knew its 
 real advantages. Ignorant of the arts of 
 peace, and the benefits of a commercial 
 system, they were compelled in their deal- 
 ings with each other to rely on what was 
 termed animal money, as the medium of 
 exchange. So little had they advanced 
 in the arts of life, that they graduated 
 a scale of prices for their domestic ani- 
 mals, which were received in payment of 
 their debts. It is not worth while to allude 
 to the nature of such a currency as this, and 
 its utter inapplicability to the wants of a 
 refined and intelligent people. However 
 much the system of credit may be derided, 
 we imagine no one at the present day 
 would advocate the adoption of "animal 
 money." 
 
 While other nations boast of their anti- 
 quity, we rejoice in the strength of our 
 youth, and in the energy of our purpose. 
 
 Others may point to their piles of mason- 
 ry, which have occupied centuries in con- 
 struction, and quote their ruins as the proofs 
 of early civilization. We aim at no such 
 distinction. We are for making life, brief 
 as it is, the means of infinite good, and 
 giving to its ordinary limits, opportunities, 
 
126 TREATISE ON ROADS, 
 
 privileges and enjoyments, wiiich mere an- 
 tiquity could never give. 
 
 The opening of communications is one of 
 the first duties of any country which desires 
 to increase its wealth, its resources and its 
 power. Without them, no permanent ad- 
 vances can be made. 
 
 Let our course then be onward. If all 
 we have accomplished as a nation, or as 
 communities is but the work of yesterday, 
 let us not forget that it is equally in our 
 power, to have a bright to-day, and a still 
 more glorious to-morroio. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 In order to render the foregoing treatise more gen- 
 erally useful than it would otherwise be, this appen- 
 dix is added, containing some particulars in relation 
 to the subject discussed, which could not be conven- 
 iently inserted in any other place. 
 
 PAVEMENTS. 
 
 The following are the different kinds of pavements 
 known and described in the works of English road 
 makers. 
 
 1. Pebble paving, used in ornamental design, done 
 with kidney shaped stones, obtained from Guernsey, 
 and when well laid, extremely durable. 
 
 2. Rag paving, with stone obtained from Maidstone, 
 Kent, whence the name Kentish Ragstone. There 
 are square stones of this material for coach tracks and 
 footways. This kind of paving was once much used 
 in London. 
 
 17 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 3. Purbeck pitchers. Stones from 6 to 10 inches 
 square, and 5 deep, brought from the island of Pur- 
 beck, and used in Court yards. 
 
 4. Square paving : being of cubical stones of bkie 
 whynn — called Scotch paving — out of use. 
 
 5. Scotch granite : used for the London road pave- 
 ments. 
 
 6. Guernsey and Herm blue granite. Extensive 
 quarries are now opened to supply the London mar- 
 ket. The stones are dressed in form of a prismoid, 
 and laid with the ends down, bedded in gravel. 
 
 7. Purbeck paving, of blue stone in large surfaces 
 2i inches thick, used for flags. 
 
 8. Yorkshire paving, of large dimensions, imper- 
 vious to water, and unaffected by frost. 
 
 9. Ptyegate or fire stone paving : used for hearths, 
 stoves and ovens. 
 
 10. New Castle flags : about 2 feet square and 2 
 inches thick, for out door offices. 
 
 11. Portland paving — from Portland: sometimes 
 interspersed with black dots. 
 
 12. Swedland paving : a black slate dug in Leices- 
 tershire, much used in paving halls and party color 
 paving. 
 
 13. Marble paving : party colored, mosaic, or plain. 
 
 14. Flat brick paving : laid in sand and mortar, or 
 grouted. 
 
 15. Brick-on-edge paving. 
 
 16. Bricks laid in herring-bone fashion. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 131 
 
 17. Bricks set endwise. 
 
 18. Paving bricks prepared specially for the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 19. Ten inch tiles. 
 
 20. Foottiles- 
 
 21. Clinkers: used in stables. 
 
 Nor are these all : numerous inventions applicable 
 to these and other materials, all have their reputation 
 and supporters. 
 
 ASPHALTUM. 
 
 The mineral bitumen used for the composition of 
 cement, is procured chiefly from the Lower Rhine, 
 from the Pare in the Department of Ain, and from the 
 Puy de la poix, from the Puy de dome. Boiled Coal 
 tar will do as well. In these localities, is found the 
 limestone impregnated with bitumen, which gives 
 consistency to the cement. It is well dried, ground 
 to powder, sifted and stirred while hot, in about one- 
 fifth its weight of melted asphaltum, contained in a 
 cast iron boiler. Dry chalk or bricks, ground or sift- 
 ed will do as well. As some of this paste is made 
 homogeneous, it is lifted out with an iron shovel and 
 spread in rectangular moulds, fastened on a surface of 
 smoothed planks covered with sheet iron, the sides of 
 the moulds being smeared with a thin coat of loam 
 paste to prevent adhesion. When the composition 
 cools, it is removed by an oblong spatula of iron, and 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 is then in the form of bricks 18 inches long, 12 broad, 
 4 thick, of the weight of 70 lbs. each. 
 
 URE. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF ORDINARY ROADS. 
 
 So much has recently been written, and so much 
 said in order to enlighten the public mind on the 
 subject of roads, that little remains to be done but to 
 follow out the principles and practice of the most ap- 
 proved Engineers of the old world. 
 
 The subject presents itself in the following form : 
 - Laying out of a Road. The first duty of the 
 Surveyor is personally to inspect the proposed line 
 and the country through which it passes. 
 
 It may be laid down as a rule that the best line be- 
 tween the two given points, is that which is shortest, 
 most level and most easy of execution. This is vari- 
 ed sometimes by the consideration of the cost of re- 
 pairs, the amount of traffic to pass over it, the natural 
 obstructions, such as hills, vallies and rivers. 
 
 In laying out a road for the transportation of coun- 
 try produce merely, due estimates must be made of the 
 burthen to be carried, with the usual power of draught. 
 
 On public roads, speed may be considered as the 
 principal object in the calculation of the levels. 
 
 Lines of road must not be made too tortuous, even 
 to gain ease of draught, for there is danger to carri- 
 ages from the suddenness of their turns, and the dan- 
 ger of collision. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 133 
 
 The true method of finding out the proper line of 
 road, is to ascertain and mark at proper distances the 
 straight hne : then, a search on either side of it for a 
 better line, is easy and practicable ; and may be made 
 with greater economy, in all respects. 
 
 A competent surveyor should be employed to run 
 the line, furnished with proper instruments and ma- 
 terials. The memoranda of the field book should be 
 protracted and laid down on a large scale. Some en- 
 gineers recommend the adoption of 66 yards to the 
 inch for the ground plan, and 30 feet to the inch for 
 the vertical section. On the latter, should be marked 
 the horizontal distances in miles, and the vertical 
 heights in feet. 
 
 Calculations should be made of the cubic yards of 
 earth to be removed : the grades should be carefully 
 adjusted ; the strata examined, and the character of 
 the materials at hand for the work. 
 
 According to Stevenson, and we believe to all 
 the most scientific road engineers, a level straight 
 road is decidedly the best. He says, "in an uphill 
 draught, a carriage may be conceived as in a state of 
 being continually lifted by increments proportional to 
 its use or progress upon the road. Every one knows 
 that on a stage of twelve miles, the post-boy generally 
 saves, as it is termed, at least half an hour, upon the 
 level road ; because on it he never requires to slacken 
 his pace, as in going uphill. Now, if he, or his com- 
 pany, would agree to take the same time to the level 
 road, that they are obliged to take on the undulating 
 one, the post-master would find no difficultv in detar- 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 mining which side of the argument was in favor of 
 his cattle. With regard to the fatigues or ease of the 
 horses, Mr. Stevenson upon one occasion submitted 
 the subject to the consideration of a medical friend, 
 (Dr. John Barclay of Edinburgh, no less eminent for 
 his knowledge, than successful as a teacher of the 
 science of comparative anatomy,) when the Doctor 
 made the following answer: — 'My acquaintance 
 with the muscles, by no means enables me to explain 
 how a horse should be more fatigued by travelling on 
 a road uniformly level, ttian by travelling over a like 
 space upon one that crosses heights and hollows ; but 
 it is demonstrably a false idea, that muscles can al- 
 ternately rest, and come into motion, in cases of this 
 kind. The daily practice of ascending heights, it has 
 been said, gives the animal wind, and enlarges his 
 chest. It may also, with equal truth, be affirmed, that 
 many horses lose their wind under this sort of train- 
 ing, and irrecoverably suffer from imprudent attempts 
 to induce such a habit.' In short, the Doctor ascribes 
 < much to prejudice originating with the man, con- 
 tinually in quest of variety, rather than the horse, 
 who, consulting only his own ease, seems quite un- 
 conscious of Hogarth's Line of Beauty.' " — Report on 
 the Edinburgh Railway. 
 
 A dry foundation, and clearing the road from 
 water, are two important objects, which, accord- 
 ing to Walker, [Minutes of evidence before a Comjnit- 
 tee of the House of Commons, 1819,) ought to be kept 
 in view, in lining out roads, « For obtaining the first 
 of these objects, it is essential that the line for the road 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 135 
 
 be taken so that the foundation can be kept dry, either 
 by avoiding low ground, by raising the surface of the 
 road above the level of the ground on each side of it, 
 or by drawing off the water by means of side drains. 
 The other object, viz. that of clearing the road of wa- 
 ter, is best secured by selecting a course for the road 
 which is not horizontally level ; so that the surface of 
 the road may, in its longitudinal section, form in some 
 degree, an inclined plane : and when this cannot be 
 obtained, owing to the extreme flatness of the country, 
 an artificial inclination may generally be made. — 
 When a road is so formed, every wheel-track that is 
 made, being in the line of the inclination, becomes a 
 channel for carrying off the water much more effec- 
 tually than can be done by a curvature in the cross 
 section, or rise in the middle of the road, without the 
 danger or other disadvantages which necessarily at- 
 tend the rounding of the road much in the middle. 
 I consider a fall of about one inch and a half in ten 
 feet, to be about a minimum in this case, if it is at- 
 tainable without a great deal of extra expense. 
 
 The ascent of kills, it is observed by Marshal, 
 is the most difficult part of laying out roads. — 
 According to theory he, says, an inclined plane of 
 easy ascent, is proper ; but as the moving power on 
 this plane is "neither purely mechanical, nor in a suf- 
 ficient degree rational, but an irregular compound of 
 these two qualities, the nature and habits of this pow- 
 er" require a varied inclined plane, or one not a uni- 
 form descent, but with levels or other proper places of 
 rest. According to the road act, this ascent or de- 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 scent should not exceed the rate or proportion of one 
 foot in height to thirty -five feet of the length thereof, 
 if the same be practicable, without causing a great in- 
 crease of distance. 
 
 All crossings, intersections, and ahuttings of 
 toads should be made at right angles, for the ob- 
 vious purpose of facilitating the turning from one road 
 to the other, or the more speedily crossing. Where 
 roads cross each other obliquely, or where one road 
 abuts on another at an acute angle, turning in or 
 crossing can only be conveniently performed in one 
 direction. 
 
 In laying out a road over a hill or moitntaifi 
 of angular figure and considerable height, much 
 practical skill, as well as science, is requisite. In or- 
 der to preserve a moderate inclination, or such a one 
 as will admit of the descent of carriages without lock- 
 ing the wheels, a much longer line will be required 
 than the arc of the mountains. In reaching the sum- 
 mit or the highest part to be passed over, the line 
 must be extended by winding or zig-zaging it along 
 the sides, so as never to exceed the maximum degree 
 of steepness. This may occasion a very awkward 
 appearance in a ground plan, but it is unavoidable in 
 immense works. 
 
 In laying out a road towards a river, stream, 
 ravine, or any place requiring a bridge or embank- 
 ment, an obvious advantage results from approaching 
 them at right angles ; and the same will apply in re- 
 gard to any part requiring tunnelling or crossing by 
 an aqueduct, &c. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 137 
 
 The loidth is obviously determinable by the 
 nature and extent of the traffic : every road should be 
 made sufficiently broad to admit two of the largest 
 sized carriages which are in use in the country or dis- 
 trict to pass each other ; and highways, and roads near 
 towns, should be made wider in proportion to their 
 use. The maximum and minimum can only be de- 
 termined by experience ; sixty feet is the common and 
 legal width of a turnpike-road in Britain, and this in- 
 cludes the footpath. 
 
 The strength of a road depends on the nature 
 of the material of which it is formed, and of the 
 basis on which it is placed. A plate of iron or stone, 
 of the road's width, placed on a compact dry soil, 
 would comprise everything in point of strength ; but 
 as it is impracticable to employ plates of iron or stone 
 of such a size to any extent, recourse is had to a stra- 
 tum of small stones or gravel. The great art, there- 
 fore, is to prepare this stratum, and place it on the 
 basis of the road, as that the effect may come as near 
 as possible to a solid plate of material. To accom- 
 plish this, the stones or gravel should be broken into 
 small angular fragments, and after being laid down of 
 such a thickness as experience has determined to be 
 of sufficient strength and durability, the whole should 
 be so powerfully compressed by a roller, as to render it 
 one compact body, capable of resisting the impression 
 of the feet of animals and the wheels of carriages in 
 a great degree, and impermeable by surface water. — 
 But the base of the road may not always be firm and 
 compressed ; in this case, it is to be rendered so by 
 18 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 drainage, artificial pressure, and perhaps in some 
 cases by other means. 
 
 The durability of a road, as far as it depends on 
 the original formation, will be in proportion to the 
 solidity of its basis ; the hardness of the material of 
 which the surface-stratum is formed ; its thickness, 
 and the size and form of the stones which compose it. 
 The form and size of the stones which compose the 
 surface-stratum, have a powerful influence on a road's 
 durability. If their form is roundish, it is evident 
 they will not bind into a compact stratum ; if they are 
 large, whether the form be round or angular, the stra- 
 tum cannot be solid ; and if they are of mixed sizes and 
 shapes, though a very strong and solid stratum maybe 
 formed at first, yet the wheels of carriages and the feet 
 of animals operating with unequal effect on the small 
 and large stones, would soon derange the solidity of 
 the stratum to a certain depth ; and, consequently, by 
 admitting rain and frost to penetrate into it, accelerate 
 its decay. A constant state of moisture, even without 
 any derangement of surface, contributes to the wear- 
 ing of roads by friction : hence one requisite to dura- 
 bility is a free exposure to the sun and air, by keeping 
 low the side fences ; and another is keeping a road 
 clear of mud and dust — the first of which acts as a 
 sponge in retaining water, and the second increases 
 the draught of animals, and of course their action on 
 the road. Both the strength and durability of a road 
 will be greater when the plate or surface-stratum of 
 metals is flat or nearly so, than when it is rounded on 
 the upper surface : first, because no animal can stand 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 139 
 
 upright on such a road with a regular bearing on the 
 soles of its feet ; and, secondly, because no wheeled 
 carriage can have a regular bearing, except on the 
 middle or crown of the road. The consequence of 
 both these states is the breaking of the surface of the 
 plate into holes from the edges of horses' feet, or ruts 
 from the plough-like effect of wheels on the lower side 
 of the road, or the reiterated operation of those which 
 pass along the centre. 
 
 The smoothness of a road depends on the size 
 of the stones, and on their compression, either by 
 original rolling or the continued pressure of wheels. 
 The continued smoothness of a road during its wear 
 depends on small stones being used in every part of 
 the stratum: for if the lower part of it, as is generally 
 the case in the old style of forming roads, consists of 
 larger stones, as soon as it is penetrated by the wheels 
 or water from above, these stones will work up and 
 produce a road full of holes and covered with loose 
 stones. 
 
 T7ie wear or decay of roads takes place in con- 
 sequence of the friction, leverage, pressure, grind- 
 ing, and incision of animals and machines, and the 
 various effects of water and the weather. 
 
 SUBJECT II. 
 McADAM'S THEOEY AND rRACTICE OF ROAD-MAKIiVO. 
 
 McAdam agrees with other engineers that a 
 good road may be considered as an artificial flooring, 
 
140 APPENDlSr. 
 
 forming a strong, solid, smooth-surfaced stratum, suf- 
 ficiently flat to admit of carriages standing upright on 
 any part of it, capable of carrying a great weight, and 
 presenting no impediment to the animals or machines 
 which pass along it. In forming this flooring, Mc- 
 Adam has gone one step beyond his predecessors, in 
 breaking the stone to a smaller size than was before 
 practiced, and in forming the entire stratum of this 
 small-sized stone. By the former practice a basement 
 of large stones is first laid; then stones a degree 
 smaller ; and, lastly, the least size on the surface. It 
 is in this point of making use of one small size of 
 stones throughout the stratum, that the originality of 
 McAdam's plan consists, unless we add also his asser- 
 tion, " that all the roads in the kingdom may be made 
 smooth and solid in an equal degree, and to continue 
 so at all seasons of the year." It is doubted by some, 
 whether this would be the case in the northern dis- 
 tricts at the breaking up of the frosts, and especially 
 in the case of roads not much in use, and consequent- 
 ly consisting of a stratum less consolidated, and more 
 penetrable by water. McAdam, probably, has much 
 frequented public roads in view. " The durabihty of 
 these," he says, "will, of course depend on the 
 strength of the materials of which they may be com- 
 posed ; but they will all be good while they last ; and 
 the only question that can arise respecting the kind 
 of materials is one of duration and expense, but never 
 of the immediate condition of the roads." [Remarks 
 on Roads, (j^c. p. 11.) The following observation of 
 Marshal is worthy of remark, as tending to confirm, 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 141 
 
 to a certain extent, the doctrine of McAdam : — " It 
 may seem needless to repeat, that the surface of a road 
 which is formed of well broken stones, binding gravel, 
 or other firmly cohesive materials, and which is much 
 used, presently becomes repellant of the water which 
 falls upon it ; no matter as to the basis on which they 
 are deposited, provided it is sound and firm enough 
 to support them." 
 
 McAdam's theory of road-making may be com- 
 prised in the following quotation from his Report 
 to the Board of Agriculture, (vol. vi. p. 46): — 
 ''Roads can never be rendered perfectly secure until 
 the following principles be fully understood, admit- 
 ted, and acted upon : namely, that it is the native soil 
 which really supports the weight of trafiic ; that while 
 it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight 
 without sinking, and that it does, in fact, carry the 
 road and the carriages also ; that this native soil must 
 previously be made quite dry, and a covering impen- 
 etrable to rain must then be placed over it, to preserve 
 it in that dry state ; that the thickness of a road should 
 only be regulated by the quantity of material neces- 
 sary to form such impervious covering, and never by 
 any reference to its own power of carrying weight. — 
 There are some exceptions to this rule ; a road of 
 good naturally binding gravel may be laid on a sub- 
 bed of bog earth, which, from its tenacity, will carry 
 all kinds of carriages for many years." 
 
 The erroneous opinion so long acted upon, 
 and so tenaciously adhered to, that by placing a 
 large quantity of stone under the roads, a remedy will 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 be found for the sinking into wet clay or other soft 
 soils ; or, in other words, that a road may be made 
 sufficiently strong.^ artificially, to carry heavy carri- 
 ages, though the sub-soil be in a wet state, and by 
 such means to avert the inconveniences of the natural 
 soil receiving water from rain or other causes has 
 produced most of the defects of the roads of Great 
 Britain. At one time, McAdam had formed the opin- 
 ion that this practice was only a useless expense ; but 
 experience has convinced him that it is likewise posi- 
 tively injurious. 
 
 If strata of stone of various sizes be placed as a 
 road, it is well known to every skilful and observant 
 road-maker, that the largest stones will constantly 
 work up by the shaking and pressure of the traffic ; 
 and that the only mode of keeping the stones of a road 
 from motion is, to use materials of a uniform size 
 from the bottom. In roads made upon large stones as 
 a foundation, the perpetual motion, or change of po- 
 sition of the materials, keeps open many apertures, 
 through which the water passes. 
 
 Roads placed upon a hard bottom, it has also been 
 found, wear away more quickly than those which 
 are placed upon a soft soil. This has been apparent 
 upon roads where motives of economy or other causes 
 have prevented the road being lifted to the bottom at 
 once ; the wear has always been found to diminish, 
 as soon as it was possible to remove the hard founda- 
 tion. It is a known fact, that a road lasts much long- 
 er over a morass, than when made over a rock. The 
 .evidence produced before the committee of the House 
 
TREAtlSE ON ROADS. 143 
 
 of Commons, showed the comparison on the road be- 
 tween Bristol and Bridgwater, to be as five to seven 
 in favor of the wearing on the morass, where the road 
 is laid on the naked surface of the soil, against a part 
 of the same road made over rocky ground. 
 
 The common 2^ractice, on the formation of a new 
 road, is, to dig a trench below the surface of the 
 ground adjoining, and in this trench to deposite a 
 quantity of large stones ; after this, a second quantity 
 of stone, broken smaller, generally to about seven or 
 eight pounds weight : these previous beds of stone are 
 called the bottoming of the road, and are of various 
 thickness, according to the caprice of the maker, and 
 generally in proportion to the amount of money placed 
 at his disposal. On some new roads, made in Scot- 
 land in the summer of 1819, the thickness exceeded 
 three feet. That which is properly called the road is 
 there placed on the bottoming, by putting large quanti- 
 ties of broken stone or gravel, generally a foot or eigh- 
 teen inches thick, at once upon it. Were the materials 
 of which the road itself is composed properly selected, 
 prepared, and laid, some of the inconveniences of this 
 system might be avoided ; but in the careless way in 
 which this service is generally performed, the road is 
 as open as a sieve, to receive the water, which pene- 
 trating through the whole mass, is received and re- 
 tained in the trench, whence the road is liable to give 
 way in all changes of weather. 
 
 A road formed on such principles, has never effect- 
 ually answered the purpose which the road-maker 
 should constantly have in view; namely, to make a 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 secure level flooring, over which carriages may pass 
 with safety and equal expedition at all seasons of the 
 year. 
 
 The first operation in making a road should be 
 the reverse of digging a trench. The road should 
 not be sunk below, but rather raised above, the ordi- 
 nary level of the adjacent ground ; care should be 
 taken, at any rate, that there be a sufficient fall to take 
 off the water, so that it should always be some inches 
 below the level of the ground upon which the road is 
 intended to be placed : this must be done, either by 
 making drains to lower the ground ; or if that be not 
 practicable, from the nature of the country, then the 
 soil upon which the road is proposed to be laid must 
 be raised by addition, so as to be some inches above 
 the level of the water. 
 
 Having secured the soil from urmer-water^ the 
 road-maker is next to secure it from rain water, by a 
 solid road made of clean dry stone or flint, so selected^ 
 prepared, and laid, as to be perfectly impervious to 
 water ; and this cannot be efiected unless the greatest 
 care be taken that no earth, clay, chalk, or other mat- 
 ter, that will hold or conduct water, be mixed with 
 the broken stone ; which must be so prepared and 
 laid, as to unite with its own angles into a firm, com- 
 pact, impenetrable body. 
 
 The thickness of such road is immaterial, as to its 
 strength for carrying weight ; this object is already 
 obtained by providing a dry surface, over which the 
 road is to be placed as a covering or roof, to preserve 
 it in that state ; experience having shown, that if wa- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 145 
 
 ter passes through a road, and fills the native soil, the 
 road, whatever majrbe its thickness, loses its support, 
 and goes to pieces. In consequence of an alteration 
 in the line of the turnpike road, near Rownham Fer- 
 ry, in the parish of Ash ton, near Bristol, it has been 
 necessary to remove the old road. This road was 
 lifted and re-laid very skilfully in 1806; since which 
 time, it has been in contemplation to change the line, 
 and consequently it has been suffered to wear very 
 thin. At present it is not above three inches thick in 
 most places, and in none more than four; yet on re- 
 moving the road, it was found that no water had pen- 
 etrated, nor had the frost affected it during the winter 
 preceding, and the natural earth beneath the road was 
 found perfectly dry. 
 
 Improvement of Roads, continues McAdam, " up- 
 on the principle I have endeavored to explain, has 
 been rapidly extended during the last four years. It 
 has been carried into effect on various roads, and with 
 every variety of material, in seventeen different coun- 
 ties. These roads being so constructed as to exclude 
 water, consequently none of them broke during the 
 late severe winter, (1819—20); there was no inter- 
 ruption to travelling, nor any additional expense by 
 the post-office in conveying the mails over them, to 
 the extent of upwards of one thousand miles of roadi 
 
 On McAdciTn's theory the only practical road-ma- 
 ker who has published his opinion is Paterson of 
 Montrose. He says, (^Letters and Communicatioris., 
 §*c. 1822), "These certainly ought to be considered 
 as the grand first principles of road-making." He 
 commends McAdam's reasoning on the principles; 
 19 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 but objects, as we think with reason, to his drainage 
 of three or four inches, as being insufficient. He adds, 
 however, that though he considers McAdam's system 
 as erroneous and defective in draining and preparing 
 the road for the materials, yet, in regard to the mate- 
 rials themselves, the method of preparing and putting 
 them on, and keeping the road free from ruts by con- 
 stant attention, has his entire approbation. These 
 principles, however, he adds, "are 7iot neio ; but have 
 been acted upon before. In regard to small breaking, 
 he certainly has had the merit of carrying that mode 
 to greater extent than any other individual that I have 
 heard of; and the beneficial effects arising from it 
 have consequently been more extensively seen and 
 experienced." (^Letters on Road- Making, p. 49.) 
 
 One of the most important and most obviously cor- 
 rect of these principles, is that which requires a road 
 to be made of such a degree of substance, as shall be 
 in a due proportion to the weight and number of the 
 carriages that are to travel over it. 
 
 But although this is, in appearance, a self-evident 
 proposition, in practice no rule is so universally vio- 
 lated. 
 
 Let the construction of any turnpike road, of one 
 commonly considered as among the best, be properly 
 examined ; that is, let measure be taken of the quan- 
 tity of hard-road materials that compose the crust of 
 the road over the subsoil, and it will almost universal- 
 ly be found that it consists of only from three to five, 
 or six inches in thickness. Whereas, instead of this 
 weak and defective system of road-making, it may be 
 laid down as a general rule, that on every main road 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 147 
 
 where numerous heavy waggons and heavy loaded 
 stage coaches are constantly travelling, the proper 
 degree of strength which such a road ought to have 
 cannot be obtained except by forming a regular foun- 
 dation constructed with large stones, set as a rough 
 pavement, with a coating of at least six inches of 
 broken stone of the hardest kind laid upon it ; and 
 further, that in all cases where the subsoil is elastic, 
 it is necessary, before the foundation is laid on, that 
 this elastic subsoil should be rendered non-elastic by 
 every sort of contrivance ; such, amongst others, for 
 instance, as perfect drainage, and laying a high em- 
 bankment of earth upon the elastic soil, to compress it. 
 
 The right understanding of this principle of road- 
 making, which requires roads to be constructed with 
 four or five times a greater body or depth of materials 
 than is commonly given to them, is of such great im- 
 portance, that it is requisite to illustrate and estabhsh 
 the grounds on which it rests ; first, by reference to 
 the laws of science concerning moving bodies, and 
 secondly, by reference to experiments, which accu- 
 rately prove the force of traction on difierent kinds of 
 roads. 
 
 As a carriage for conveying goods or passengers 
 when put in action becomes a moving body, in the 
 language of science, the question to be examined and 
 decided is, how a carriage, when once propelled, can 
 be kept moving onwards with the least possible quan- 
 tity of labor to horses, or of force of traction? 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton has laid it down as a general 
 principle of science, that a body, when once set in 
 motion, will continue to move uniformly forward in 
 
148 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 a Straight line by its momentum, until it be stopped by 
 the action of some external force. This proposition 
 is admitted and adopted by all natural philosophers as 
 being perfectly true, and therefore, in order to apply 
 it to roads, it is necessary to enquire what kinds of 
 external force act in a manner to diminish and destroy 
 the momentum of carriages passing over them. With 
 respect to these external forces, the general doctrine 
 is, that they consist of 1st, collision : 2d, friction ; 3d, 
 gravity ; and 4th, air. 
 
 1st, The effect of collision is very great in dimin- 
 ishing the momentum of carriages ; it is occasioned 
 by and is in proportion to the hard protuberances and 
 other inequalities on the surface of a road. These 
 occasion, by the resistance which they make to the 
 wheels, jolts and shocks, which waste the power of 
 draught, and considerably check the forward motion 
 of a carriage. 
 
 2d, Friction has a very great influence in checking 
 the motion of a carriage ; for, when the wheels come 
 into contact with a soft or elastic surface, the friction 
 which takes place operates powerfully in obstructing 
 the tendency of the carriage to proceed ; the motion 
 forwards is immediately retarded and would soon 
 cease if not renewed by the efforts of the horses. 
 The " resistance," Professor Leslie says, " which fric- 
 tion occasions, partakes of the nature of the resistance 
 of fluids ; it consists of the consumption of the mov- 
 ing force, or of the horses' labor, accasioned by the 
 soft surface of the road, and the continually/ dej)ress- 
 ing of the spongy and elastic sub-strata of the 
 road." 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 149 
 
 An ivory ball, set in motion with a certain velocity 
 over a Turkey carpet, will suffer a visible relaxation 
 of its course; but, with the same impelling force, it 
 will advance further if rolled over a superfine cloth ; 
 still further over smooth oaken planks ; and it will 
 scarcely seem to abate its velocity over a sheet of 
 pure ice. 
 
 This short explanation of the nature and eiliects of 
 collision and friction is sufficient to show, that smooth- 
 ness and hardness are the chief qualities to be secur- 
 ed in constructing a road. But perfect smoothness 
 cannot be obtained without first securing perfect hard- 
 ness, and therefore the business of making a good 
 road may be said to resolve itself into that of securing 
 perfect hardness. 
 
 With the view of taking the right course for secur- 
 ing this object, the first thing a road trustee or engi- 
 neer should do, is to form a correct notion of what 
 hardness is ; because the common habit of overlook- 
 ing; this circumstance has been the source of _srreat 
 error in forming opinions upon the qualities of differ- 
 ent kinds of roads. 
 
 Gravel roads, for instance, to which an appear- 
 ance of smoothness is given by incurring a vast ex- 
 pense in scraping them, and patching them with thin 
 layers of very small gravel, are very commonly de- 
 clared to be perfect, and unequalled by any other 
 kind of road. But if the best gravel road be com- 
 pared with one properly constructed with stone ma- 
 terials, the hardness of the former will be found to 
 be greatly inferior to that of the latter, and the error 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the advocates of smooth-looking gravel roads will 
 be immediately made manifest. 
 
 By referring to works of science, it will be seen 
 that hardness is defined to be that property of a body 
 by which it resists the impression of other bodies 
 which impinge upon it ; and the degree of hardness 
 is measured by the quantity of this resistance. If 
 the resistance be so complete as to render it totally 
 incapable of any impression, then a body is said to 
 be perfectly hard. 
 
 Now this hardness is the hardness which a road 
 ought to have as far as it is practicable to produce it, 
 and it is the chief business of a scientific road maker 
 to do every thing necessary to produce it. For this 
 purpose, when making a new road, he should first 
 select or establish a substratum of soil or earth that 
 is not spongy or elastic, for the bed of the road ; and 
 then he should so dispose the materials of which the 
 crust of the road is to consist, as to form a body suf- 
 ficiently strong to oppose the greatest possible quan- 
 ity of resistance to the weight of heavy carriages 
 passing over it. 
 
 That an elastic subsoil is unfit for a road is evi- 
 dent from the nature of the resistance occasioned by 
 friction, as above described by professor Leslie, and 
 from the terms of the definition of hardness; for 
 however strong the crust of materials may be which 
 is formed over such a subsoil, it will not be capable 
 of opposing a perfect resistance to a heavy moving 
 body. The moving body will sink more or less in 
 proportion as the subsoil is elastic, and the hardness 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 15 L 
 
 of the road will be imperfect in proportion as this 
 sinking takes place ; so that nothing can be more 
 necessary, as a preliminary step in making a new 
 road, than to take every possible precaution to avoid 
 elastic subsoils, or to destroy the elasticity as much 
 as possible, when no other can be found. 
 
 After the engineer has prepared a proper substra- 
 tum of earth for the bed of a road, he next must 
 construct a crust of road materials in such a man- 
 ner that, when consolidated, it shall possess such 
 degree of hardness as will not admit the wheels of a 
 carriages to cut or sink into it. For this purpose it 
 will not be sufficient to lay upon the prepared bed of 
 earth merely a coating of broken stones, for the car- 
 riages passing over them will force these next the 
 earth into it, and, at the same time press much 
 of the earth upwards between the stones ; this will 
 take place to a great degree in wet weather, when 
 the bed of earth will be converted into soft mud by 
 water passing from the surface of the road through 
 the broken stones, into the bed of the road. In this 
 way a considerable quantity of earth will be mixed 
 with the stone materials laid on for forming the crust 
 of the road, and this mixture will make it extremely 
 imperfect as to hardness. It might be possible, in 
 some measure, to cure this defect by laying on a suc- 
 cession of coatings of broken stones ; but several of 
 these will be necessary, and, after all, in long contin- 
 ued wet weather, the mud will continue to be press- 
 ed upwards from the bottom to the surface of the 
 stones. If even a coating of from sixteen to twenty 
 inches of stones be laid on, it will produce only a 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 palliative of the evil. So that this plan of making a 
 road will be not only very imperfect, but at the same 
 time very expensive. 
 
 Mr. Telford's plan, which has completely succeed- 
 ed on the Holyhead road, the Glasgow and Carlisle 
 road, and several other roads in Scotland, of making 
 a regular bottoming of rough, close-set pavement, is 
 a plan that secures the greatest degree of hardness 
 that can be given to a road ; it is also attended with 
 much less expense than when a thick coating of 
 broken stones is used ; for six inches of broken 
 stones is sufficient when laid on a pavement, and the 
 pavement may be made of any kind of common 
 stone. 
 
 By laying the stones in making the bottoming 
 with their broadest face downwards, and filling up 
 the interstices closely with stone chips well driven in, 
 the earthy bed of the road cannot be pressed up so 
 as to mix with the coating of broken stones. This 
 coating, therefore, when consolidated will form a sol- 
 id uniform mass of stone, and be infinitely harder 
 than one of broken stones, when mixed with the 
 earth of the substratum of the road. It is by pro- 
 ceeding in the way here recommended that the fric- 
 tion of wheels on a road will be reduced as much 
 as possible. 
 
 To comprehend thoroughly the great importance 
 of making a regular and strong foundation for a road, 
 it should be borne in mind, that roads are structures 
 that have to sustain great weights, and violent per- 
 cussion ; the same rules therefore ought to be follow- 
 ed in regard to them as are followed in regard to oth- 
 er structures. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 153 
 
 In building edifices which are to support great 
 weights, whether a church, a house, or a bridge, the 
 primary and indispensible consideration of the arch- 
 itect is to obtain a permanently firm and stable foun- 
 dation ; well knowing that unless this be first sub- 
 stantially made, no future dependence can be placed 
 on the stability of the intended superstructure : but 
 this most requisite precaution has but recently been 
 attended to in the formation of roads, and only on 
 those roads in Scotland, and between London and 
 Holyhead, which have been under the direction of 
 Mr. Telford. 
 
 If the foundation of a road be not sufficient and 
 equal to the pressure it has to sustain, the whole fab- 
 ric, though in other respects ever so well constructed, 
 must fail in permanent stability, and the hardness of 
 it will be imperfect from its elasticity. 
 
 DRAINAGE. 
 
 In properly constructing this part of the business 
 of road-making, great care is necessary. The ut- 
 most judgment of the skilful surveyor will be called 
 into action to enable him to make the best use of the 
 natural facilities of the country, and to overcome the 
 obstructions that he will sometimes meet with. In 
 passing over flat land, open main drains, cut on the 
 field side of the fences, must communicate with the 
 natural watercourses of the country ; they should be 
 three feet deep below the level of the bed of the road, 
 one foot wide at bottom, and five feet wide at top. 
 20 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 If springs rise in the site of the road, or in the slopes 
 of deep cuttings, stone or tile drains should be made 
 into them. In cutting, small drains technically call- 
 ed mitre drains, should be formed ; the angle, depend- 
 ing on the inclination of the road, should not exceed 
 one inch in 100, They should be 9 inches wide at 
 bottom, 12 inches at top, and 10 inches deep. Accor- 
 ding to the inclinations of a road, and from the form 
 and wetness of the country, cross drains of good ma- 
 sonry should be built under the road, having their ex- 
 tremities carried under the road fences. One of these 
 should be built wherever water would lie ; and when 
 the road passes along the slope of a hill, great num- 
 bers are necessary to carry off the water that collects 
 in the channel of the road on the side next the high 
 ground. Various descriptions of drains are made in 
 every situation where necessary, and the preserva- 
 tion of the surface of the road secured by giving it a 
 proper convexity in its cross section. 
 
 The proper convex form is particularly essential 
 on hills, in order that the water may have a tendency 
 to fall from the centre to the sides. The side chan- 
 nels, and all the road drains should be repaired at 
 the approach and at the end of winter, and daily 
 attention given to their being free from obstruction. 
 If roads, by a proper system of drainage, be kept 
 dry, they will be maintained in a good state, and at 
 proportionally less expense. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 155 
 
 CUTTINGS. 
 
 When it is necessary to make a deep cutting 
 through a hill, the slopes of the banks should never 
 be less, except in passing through stone, than two feet 
 horizontal to one foot perpendicular ; for though sev- 
 eral kinds of earth will stand at steeper inclinations, a 
 slope of two to one is necessary for admitting the 
 sun and wind to reach the road. The whole of the 
 green sod and fertile soil on the surface of the land 
 cut through, should be carefully collected and reser- 
 ved, in order to be laid on the slopes immediately af- 
 ter they are formed. If enough of these cannot be 
 procured, the slopes should be strewed with mould, 
 and sown with hay-seeds. When stones can be got, 
 the slopes should be supported by a wall raised two 
 or three feet high, at the bottom of them. These 
 walls prevent the earth from falling from the slopes 
 into the side chanels of the road, and add very much 
 to the finished and workmanlike appearance of a 
 road. It is sometimes advisable, particularly if an 
 additional quantity of earth be wanted for an em- 
 bankment, to make the slopes through the cuttings 
 on the south side of a road of an inclination of three 
 horizontal to one perpendicular, in order to secure 
 the great advantage of allowing the sun and wind to 
 reach more freely the surface of the road. In dis- 
 tricts of country where stones abound, expense in 
 moving earth and purchasing land may be avoided, 
 by building retaining walls, and filling between them 
 with earth. In rocky and rugged countries, this is 
 generally the best way of obtaining the prescribed 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 inclinations. In forming a road along the face of a 
 precipice, a wall must be built to support it. The 
 difficulty of forming a road in such a place, is not so 
 great as may be imagined, for the face of a precipice 
 is seldom vertical, and if the inclination should be half 
 a foot vertical to one foot horizontal, this will admit 
 of a retaining wall being built. By building such a 
 wall, say 30 feet high, and cutting 10 feet at that 
 height into the rock, and filling up the space within 
 the wall, a road of sufficient breadth will be obtained. 
 In forming the bed for the road, material care should 
 be taken, except where cutting into the surface is 
 wholly unavoidable, in order to obtain the proper 
 longitudinal inclinations, to elevate the bed with 
 earth, two feet at least, above the natural surface of 
 the adjoining ground : by following this course, the 
 road will not be affected by water running under or 
 soaking into it from the adjoining land. In arrang- 
 ing the inclinations, they should be obtained by em- 
 banking, where that is practicable, in preference to 
 cutting. Almost all old roads across flat and wet 
 land are sunk below the adjacent fields : this has ari- 
 sen from the continued wearing of them, and carry- 
 ing away the mud. 
 
 No improvement is more generally wanting, than 
 new forming these roads, so as] to raise their surfaces 
 above the level of the adjoining land. This would 
 greatly contribute to the hardness of them, to econo- 
 my in keeping them in repair, and enabling horses to 
 work with the advantage of having sufficient air for 
 respiration. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 157 
 
 EMBANKMENTS. 
 
 Great care is necessary in making- high embank- 
 ments. No person should be entrusted with these 
 works who has not had considerable experience. 
 The base should be formed, at first, to its full breadth ; 
 the earth laid on in regular courses or layers, if 
 not more than four feet in thickness, of a concave 
 form, and no fresh course should be deposited 
 until the preceeding one is firm and consolidated. 
 The slopes at which cuttings and embankments can 
 be safely made entirely depend on the nature of the 
 soil. In the London and plastic clay formations, it 
 will not be safe to make the slopes of embankments 
 or cuttings, that exceed 4 feet high, with a steeper 
 slope than three to one. In chalk or marl, the slopes 
 will stand 1 to 1. In solid sandstone, at | to 1, or 
 nearly vertical. Before quitting this subject, it is 
 proper to remark, that in every instance of deep cut- 
 tins:, the greatest pains should be bestowed in exam- 
 ining the character of the material to be removed : 
 much difficulty will be avoided by proceeding in this 
 way ; but on the whole, the best general rule to fol- 
 low, is always to lay out a line of road, so as to 
 avoid, as much as possible, deep cuttings and high 
 embankments ; they are always attended with great 
 expense, and are unavoidably liable to many objec- 
 tions." — Sir H. Farnell. 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 MATERIALS, ETC. 
 
 The breadth of roads should vary according to cir- 
 cumstances. In the vicinity of large towns, where the 
 traffic is considerable, the road should, in our opin- 
 ion, be not less than sixty feet between the fences. , 
 Where there is less traffic, fifty feet will be sufficient. 
 The whole breadth should, in these cases be metalled^ 
 or laid with broken stones. Near London, and 
 other large towns and cities, perhaps 70 feet is 
 not too great a width, and a footpath should be provi- 
 ded on each side. " The road," says Mr. Telford, 
 in a specification for the Holyhead road, " is to be 
 30 feet wide, exclusive of footpaths, with a fall of 
 6 inches from the centre to the side channels." The 
 bed of the new road being prepared for the reception 
 of the materials, should, if of a wet or spongy nature, 
 be well ' rammed'' with chips of stone ; In some situ- 
 ations it is advisable to lay a stratum of hand-laid 
 stones, of from 5 to 7 inches in depth, with their 
 broadest ends placed downwards, and the whole 
 built compactly together. On this is to be laid the 
 ' TYietal^ or broken stones, to the depth of at least 8 
 inches, broken of a uniform size, so as to form a sol- 
 id and compact body. To insure uniformity in the 
 size of the broken stones, various tests have been 
 suggested ; perhaps the most simple is, that every 
 piece shall pass through a ring of 21 inches in diame- 
 ter. On this body of metal, no binding or gravel 
 should be used ; the angular sides of the metal soon 
 lock into each other, and form a smooth surface. 
 In the selection of road-metal, we prefer the several 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 159 
 
 varieties of green-stone. The best kinds of these 
 are less friable than granite, when broken into small 
 pieces. It is, however, often necessary, for want of 
 better materials, to use sandstone, common limestone, 
 and chalk, even in districts where there is a great 
 deal of traffic ; in some instances, where coal is abun- 
 dant, sandstone is reduced to a vitreous mass in 
 kilns erected by the road side ; but all such road-met- 
 al is now used very sparingly in the formation of 
 modern roads, and confined chiefly to the bridle 
 tracks. 
 
 " Well-made roads, formed of clean, hard, broken 
 stone," observes Mr. Macneill, "placed on a solid 
 foundation, are very little affected by changes of at- 
 mosphere ; weak roads, or those that are imperfectly 
 formed with gravel, flint or round pebbles, without 
 bottoming, or foundation of stone pavement or con- 
 crete, are, on the contrary, much affected by changes 
 of the weather. In the formation of such roads, and 
 before they become bound or firm, a considerable por- 
 tion of the sub-soil mixes with the stone or gravely 
 in consequence of the necessity of putting the gravel 
 on in thin layers : this mixture of earth or clay, in 
 dry, warm seasons, expands by the heat, and makes 
 the road loose and open ; the consequence is, that 
 the stones are thrown out, and many of them are 
 crushed and ground into dust, producing considera- 
 ble wear and diminution of the materials. In wet 
 weather, also, the clay or earth mixed with the stones 
 absOrbes moisture, becomes soft, and allows the stones^ 
 to move and rub against each other, when acted upoB 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 by the feet of horses or wheels of carriages. This at- 
 trition of the stones against each other wears them 
 out surprisingly fast, and produces large quantities 
 of mud, which tend to keep the road damp, and by 
 that means increase the injury." 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 161 
 
 ROADS ABOUT ALBANY. 
 
 The principal roads about Albany are from the 
 east, the north and west. The river snpphes all the 
 wants of commerce from the south. The road to 
 Troy, though not strictly constructed on the McAdam 
 principle h as proved of great benefit to the city. The 
 travelling has increased beyond all calculation, and 
 thousands visit us, who were deterred from doing so 
 by the badness of the old road, during many months 
 in the year. The roads from the east by the way of 
 Bath and Greenbush are turnpikes, and have all the 
 faults and inconveniencies of our common roads. 
 Though not profitable to their proprietors, they are 
 beneficial to the public. Their sphere of attraction is 
 however limited. It is said that the business of the 
 country west of Brainard's bridge is principally trans- 
 acted elsewhere than in this city. On the other, 
 Sandlake is probably the boundary of the circle in 
 that direction. The old Schenectady turnpike, though 
 its usefulness is lessened by the construction of the 
 Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road, has been of great 
 service to this city, and is an honorable memorial of 
 its early enterprize. The roads towards Cherry Val- 
 ley and to the south-western villages of this county, 
 are important avenues, but it is said their condi- 
 tion for a great part of the year is such as to direct 
 much of our former business to places lower down 
 on the west bank of the river. Upon personal inqui- 
 ry I am told that the travelling on the Albany and 
 21 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 Delaware turnpike has latterly fallen off, and that 
 much of the traffic once connected with it has also 
 been diverted to places below this city. The Mo- 
 hawk and Hudson Rail Road, though it has been un- 
 fortunate in many particulars, is still of the utmost 
 importance to our city, and any opposition which tends 
 to impair its utility, must be considered as highly dis- 
 advantageous to the interests of this community. 
 Without presuming to meddle with its concerns, we 
 cannot disguise the opinion, that a new stem brought 
 into the city, as by competent engineers it is confident- 
 ly asserted may be done, which shall enable the com- 
 pany to dispense with the animal power they are now 
 obliged to use in addition to that of steam, is the chief 
 remedy which is to be applied to the evils under 
 which it languishes. 
 
 One of the most important routes which has been 
 projected in reference to our city, is that which is to 
 form the western termination of the Railway from 
 Boston via Worcester to the state line. To the line, 
 it is now actually in process of construction, and it re- 
 mains to be seen, whether we will permit either the 
 city of Troy or Hudson to step in and carry off the 
 eastern trade from us or not. An existing company 
 has been unable to obtain suflicient funds to construct 
 the western part of the line, and sometime ago solicit- 
 ed a subscription from the corporation of the city in 
 aid of its funds. Various circumstances and the pe- 
 culiar embarrassments of the times have as yet ren- 
 dered any other step inadmissible than a preliminary 
 survey, and the necessary negociations for the land 
 over which it is to pass. Reports have been made, 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 1G3 
 
 meetings held, and calculations published in relation 
 to this work. As long ago as 1829, a gentleman of 
 Boston, Mr. William Jackson, made an appeal to the 
 mechanics of that city in behalf of this enterprise in 
 the shape of a lecture, which deservedly went through 
 two large editions. He assumed the ground, that a 
 railway with double tracks between Boston and Alba- 
 ny, would be like the making of another Hudson riv- 
 er, and the creation of a trade "of great value to Bos- 
 ton, but still greater to Albany." 
 
 Two hundred and eighty thousand barrels of flour 
 are annually consumed in Boston. The saving to 
 that city, in the prices asked for this article at seasons 
 when the supply is cut off by the closing of the navi- 
 gation, or any accidental interruption, he asserts 
 would in a short time pay for the construction of the 
 road. The eastern trade of Vermont, in his opinion, 
 would follow this, in preference to its present over- 
 land route. He also estimated that the rise on the 
 real estate of Boston alone would equal three millions 
 of dollars. The number of passengers in that year, 
 between Boston and Albany was 23,000, which ac- 
 cording to experience, would be increased three fold, 
 if not four fold in number. The scope of his argu- 
 ment in a political and moral point of view, was still 
 more striking. 
 
 The recent calculations of intelligent persons in 
 this city, demonstrate its utility in a striking manner, 
 and to these we would refer all who wish to under- 
 stand the subject. Would any Albanian hesitate in 
 his support of a project of a second Hudson river, could 
 such a stream have its termination at Boston, and its 
 
164' APPENDIX. 
 
 sources here ? It is to be presumed not ; yet such iu 
 effect will be the effect of the Rail Road to that 
 city. In fact, the two towns would rapidly approxi- 
 mate in population and resources. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 165 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF ROADS. 
 
 BETON. 
 
 Immense sums have been expended in France ; 
 and by the tenor of an article in Le Courier des 
 Etats Ufiis, of February 26, 1 discover that these en- 
 terprises are pursued with increasing energy, but, by 
 other concurrent sources, of information, we discover 
 that they are by no means confined to France ; Bel- 
 gium, Germany, the Swiss Cantons, Austria, and Rus- 
 sia, all partake, more or less, of this renewed spirit of 
 enterprise. Austria, indeed, has the honor to have 
 constructed the first railroad of any conseG]uence on 
 continental Europe. This road extends about 150 
 English miles from Budweiss, in Bohemia, through 
 the mountains of Bohemia Wald, to Lintz, in Upper 
 Austria, and on the Danube. Another great line of 
 railroad has been also designed in Austria, which is 
 to extend about j^^e hundred miles, from Yienna, over 
 Northern Hungary, to Brody, on the northeastern 
 border of Austrian Poland. Application has again 
 been made to the Emperor of Russia, and favorably 
 received, to construct another railroad of near four 
 hundred miles, from Brody to Odessa, on the Black 
 Sea. 
 
 The very conception of such improvements would 
 not have been dared even thirty years ago ; they are, 
 in their conception alone, independent of even the for- 
 mation of plans for completion, proof of a most aston- 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 ishing- change in the mmds of mankind on continen- 
 tal Europe as to the rational appUcation of their ener- 
 gies and means. A few years past a railroad was 
 projected of about four or five miles in length, in 
 Germany, between Nuremberg and Furth, and in the 
 French paper alluded to we have the following : 
 
 « They inform us from Nuremberg that the railroad 
 (le chemin de fer) called the Louis has been comple- 
 ted about three years. Since the 7th of December, 
 1835, there have passed 1,3.57,285 on this road be- 
 tween Furth and Nuremberg, and the receipts have 
 amounted to 177,443 florins, (^71,000.) And two cir- 
 cumstances deserving the most particular mention are, 
 that, during three years' use the rails have not receiv- 
 ed appreciable damage, nor has a single accident put 
 human life in danger." 
 
 The Austrian and Bavarian roads many may re- 
 gard as small beginnings, but they are successful in 
 their operations, and, therefore, morally speaking, 
 they are extremely important examples in the heart 
 of highly civilized communities, and have excited to 
 similar enter prize on a much more extensive scale. 
 The northern part of Italy, or that part occupied by 
 the Po and its confluents, is in an eminent degree fa- 
 vorable to the construction of railroads, and from the 
 source already drawn on we have the following : 
 
 '' The Constitution (statuis) of the Milan and Ye- 
 nice Railroad have been approved by the Austrian 
 Government, and the work is to be commenced in the 
 ensuing spring, (1839.) It is certain that the com- 
 merce between Milan and Genoa will be diverted into 
 the new channel from Venice ; which latter city be- 
 
TREATISE ON KOADS. 167 
 
 ing a free port, colonial articles can be obtained there 
 on better terms than at Genoa. The cars, it is sup- 
 posed, will occupy about eight hours between Milan 
 and Yenice ; price of passage for persons, one franc, 
 18| cents." 
 
 The distance from Genoa to Milan is about eighty 
 Eno-lish miles, and from Milan to Venice one hundred 
 and sixty. 
 
 My reasons for requesting a place in the National 
 Intelligencer are partly stated, but I was also induced 
 by the following. The original, I may observe, is 
 preceded by several very forcible observations on the 
 great advantages to be derived from the propulsion by 
 steam of carriages on common roads ; and I may also 
 premise that the substance called Beton is in fact an 
 an artificial pudding stone or amygdaloid.* 
 
 "Of all the enterprises formed to obtain this result, 
 {moving carriages on coimnon roads,) there is one 
 which appears to demand public attention in tlie 
 highest degree ; that is, Beton roads. Such roads ap- 
 pear to us destined to resolve that great question in 
 social economy which is now, above all others, of 
 
 * Professor D. H. Malian, of the Military Academy, New-York, 
 in his excellent Treatise on Civil Engineering, gives at page 24 the 
 following components to form Beton: 
 
 Hydraulic lime, unslaked 0,30 
 
 Sand, middling 0,30 
 
 Cement, common clay 0,30 
 
 Gravel, course 0,20 
 
 Chippings of stone 0,40 
 
 This compound would be a true artificial pudding stone, and, no 
 doubt, would admit of other components and proportions, and calls 
 for extended experiments on both its composition and uses. 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 paramount interest, that is, to construct, at moderate 
 expense, routes admitting facile transport, by steam 
 power. 
 
 " A company for the construction ot roads in Beton 
 has recently been formed at Paris, under the direction 
 of the honorable M. Garcias, member of the Chamber 
 of Deputies, from the Eastern Pyrenees. 
 
 " The roads which this company proposes to con- 
 struct are to be formed by two different modes of pro- 
 ceeding: 
 
 " 1st. On land purchased from individuals. 
 
 '<2d. Along the sides of roads already formed. 
 
 "In the first mode, the expense, liberally estimated, 
 would be 170,000 francs per league, about $12,000 
 per English mile; whilst the second mode will not 
 demand an expenditure exceeding 80,000 francs 
 (|15,000) per league, (5,550 the English mile.) The 
 speed, based upon numerous experiments, is calcula- 
 ted at a mean of six leagues per hour, about 16 Eng- 
 lish miles." 
 
 In the United States the difference of expense be- 
 tween the two modes would probably be kss than in 
 France. The article goes on as follows : 
 
 " These roads are to be composed of a zone of Beton 
 from 15 to 20 tenths of a metre (| to f of a foot Eng- 
 lish) in thickness, equally spread over a surface of 2 J 
 metres, (8 2-lOth English feet) in width, and without 
 track or jutting. 
 
 " The construction of these roads demands none of 
 the expensive and lengthened studies requisite for con- 
 structing railroads. It has been established, experi- 
 mentally, that the Beton, shortly after being placed, 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 169 
 
 can support the heaviest carriages without breach or 
 depression ; and that, in less than one year, several 
 lines of road may be brought into full use, and this 
 advantage is already felt in all its force. The admin- 
 istrative expense, as also that of repairing, is insig- 
 nificant when compared with railroads. Again : the 
 Beton roads, to the advantages of celerity, economy of 
 construction, and price of transport^ add all the other 
 conditions required at present with so much ardor." 
 
 Changing the names of places, the latter part of the 
 preceding quotation would apply to the United States 
 with a force augmented in intensity in proportion to 
 the immense difference in extent of territory compa- 
 red to that of France. 
 
 It may be remarked as amongst the most extraor- 
 dinary facts in history, that roads have been amongst 
 the most neglected of all those improvements necessa- 
 ry to the inter-communication of mankind. It has 
 not yet been a century since any considerable atten- 
 tion was paid to roads, even in the most densely inhab- 
 ited sections of Europe. Another circumstance con- 
 nected with this vital subject may be noticed : that is, 
 the fact that the three monarchs of modern Europe 
 most eminent for military talent and success in war, 
 Peter I. of Russia, Frederick II. of Prussia, and Napo- 
 leon, were all still more eminent for their attention to 
 internal improvements. The canal connexion be- 
 tween the Baltic and Wolga has contributed to swell 
 the fame of Peter ; the connexions between the Elbe, 
 Oder, and Vistula have done like service to the name 
 of Frederick, whilst the fame of Napoleon is drawn in 
 lines ineffaceable over the Alps. Were it not for the 
 22 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 canals of New- York, the name of De Witt Clinton 
 might fade away with those of others whose fame 
 rests on mere pohtical works. But the man who con- 
 tributed most to form a water communication be- 
 tween the Atlantic tides and the inland sea of Erie 
 can only be forgotten in the grave of History itself. — 
 Nat Intelligencer. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 171 
 
 TRAVELLING AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 
 
 The following brief summary of a recent journey 
 from New- York to New-Orleans, contrasted with one 
 made in 1800, will perhaps be interesting, and serve 
 to illustrate the modern improvement in travelling. 
 
 IN 1800. 
 
 "April 3d. Left New- York in ferry boat for Jersey 
 city. Took two-horse coach and got to Philadelphia 
 the fourth day at 4 P. M. Left Philadelphia next 
 morning in a one-horse chaise, with the mail bag be- 
 hind, for Lancaster, where we arrived the third day. 
 At Lancaster bought a horse, and after a nine days' 
 journey through the forests, reached Pittsburg. Here, 
 with some others, 1 bought for eighteen dollars, a flat 
 boat, in which we took our departure for New-Or- 
 leans, floating with the current. After divers adven- 
 tures and escapes from great peril by land and water, 
 we reached Natchez in fifty-seven days after leaving 
 Pittsburg, and New-Orleans city in thirteen days 
 thereafter, having been from New- York on the jour- 
 ney eighty-four days, which our friends in New-Or- 
 leans 4id say was an expeditious voyage. My own 
 personal cost on the way was, in sum total, £27 lis. 
 4id." ^ 
 
 IN 1839. 
 
 Left New- York Monday, January gist, at 6 A. M. 
 in railroad cars at Jersey city. Arrived at Philadel- 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 phia at ten minutes past 12. Time, 6 hours and 10 
 minutes. — Cost, ,^4. 
 
 At 2 left Philadelphia in cars for Baltimore. Arri- 
 ved at 8 P. M. Time, 6 hours.— Cost, $4. 
 
 Left Baltimore next afternoon, at 4, in mail chariot 
 for Wheeling. Arrived at Wheeling 5 minutes be- 
 fore 12 Saturday noon. Time 43 hours and 50 min- 
 utes.— Cost, $23. 
 
 Left Wheeling next morning, in accommodation 
 stage for Cincinnati. Arrived at Cincinnati in 59 
 hours and 30 minutes. Cost, $24.50. 
 
 Left Cincinnati at 10 next morning, in the mail 
 boat Pike, and at 10 at night reached Louisville. 
 Time, 12 hours.— Cost, $4. 
 
 Left Louisville next morning at 11, in steamer Di- 
 ana, and reached Natchez the sixth day. Time, 149 
 hours.— Cost, $35. 
 
 Left Natchez same day, and reached New-Orleans 
 the next evening. Time, 30 hours. — Cost, $10. 
 
 Incidental expenses at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cin- 
 cinnati, and Louisville, $10. 
 
 Total 306 hours 30 minutes.— Cost, $114.50. 
 
 Thus making 12 days, 18 hours, and 30 minutes, 
 the time of travel between New- York and New-Or- 
 leans. Difference between 1839 and 1800, in time, 
 about 71 days. Difference in expense, about $25 in 
 favor of 1839. 
 
 N. B. This last journey was made in the winter 
 season. In the summer months it can be performed 
 for $80, and in less time. The above includes every 
 item, both of expense, "feed and fare." — Natchez 
 Courier. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 173 
 
 CANALS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The following calculations will show the immense 
 wealth created in England by the spirit of association 
 and of enterprise, which is developed with so much 
 difficulty amongst other nations. It presents a com- 
 parison between the first cost of shares in each re- 
 spective canal, and of the profit realized on stock, ac- 
 cording to the actual returns : 
 
 First cost. Value of stock. 
 
 Canal of Coventry - ster'g £100 £750 
 
 '• of Mersey - - 100 720 
 
 " ofConford - - 100 410 
 
 " of Leeds and Liverpool 100 470 
 
 " of Monmouthshire - 100 195 
 
 " of Trent and Mersey, 
 
 one-quarter of part 50 650 
 
 " of Longborough - 142 2,200 
 
 " of Clamorganshire 172 290 
 
 « ofWarwick& Hampton 100 215 
 
 " of Stroudwater ^ 150 500 
 
 '^ of Shrewsbury - 125 250 
 
 " of Birmingham - 17 240 
 
 " of Stafford & Worcester 140 550 
 
 The capital employed in the prosecution of these 
 canals increased, as their utility and the benefits to be 
 derived from them were made known, to the surpri- 
 sing point at which they are at the present day, being 
 a quintuple 'profit. One hundred pounds sterling 
 invested in such stock yields to its proprietor an inte- 
 rest of more than five times that amount, and a reve- 
 nue in proportion. 
 
174 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 
 
 •c*i 
 
 fO 
 
 <»1 
 
 
 
 1-J, 
 
 
 
 e/\ 
 
 "'^ 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 -Vi 
 
 <iJ 
 
 <:i-> 
 
 « 
 
 00 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 OJ 
 
 
 
 
 
 !3 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 S5 C> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 S 
 
 O 35 O i^ oo aj 1^ O C O ^ vS o o o o c: o 
 •t;^ i--^ c^ 05 05 c t-- o o c » — o o o o_ o_ o 
 rfco o'-^'iri^ w CO — "«rc'crro"o cTo'io'sTo" 
 
 Ot <^^<» 10 'T^CO i^ '"^^'^ -'-^ '—^Ct^ ^. o «> o__co_ 
 
 00" J^-"^" — Ttc'in xTt-T,— " r-Tc^'c'cft-' co" totn 
 
 CO O CI c 
 }^ GO CO t>. 
 
 C3 05 ^ l^ 
 
 l> 05 c^ 
 
 CO Tj^-^ 
 
 t^ CO! 
 CO vO 
 
 a ^ 
 
 
 000 
 o c o 
 
 O 00 o~ 
 O C-l o 
 
 10 r-< O 
 
 ■^ . T— I-l 
 
 o'o'o'o'o" 
 lO c; o CO o 
 
 CO -^ CO J> o 
 
 ssoooocoo 
 o>ci 000000 
 
 C3COOOOOOO 
 
 o~ tff o~ T^ c£ o" o' o" 
 oooiOOr-oino 
 
 l~ 00 lf5 '-'„'^ C5 i> 03 
 
 ift"«o'~f-rcc'of* i»* 
 
 ooooodooo 
 
 COiOOOOCOO 
 
 c o__ o^ o__ ^„R, ° R, ■=> 
 o'o'o'cTo'o o^o cT 
 ooC500oo>no 
 
 OOCOC>CDino030 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 fi r3 ^-^ .« '" 
 
 JT ^ -TD S — ■ 
 
 
 ^(a^SSS>MOWS£H«<SS^-<^ 
 
TREATISE OIV llO^^DS. 175 
 
 LAWS OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 Art. I. — Of the officers entrusted with the care and 
 superintendence of Inghways and bridges; and 
 their general jiowers and duties. 
 
 Section. 1. The commissioners of highways in 
 the several towns in this state, shall have the care and 
 superintendence of the highways and bridges therein ; 
 and it shall be their duty, 
 
 1 . To give directions for the repairing of the roads 
 and bridges, within their respective towns : 
 
 2. To regulate the roads already laid out, and to 
 alter such of them as they^ or a majority of them, 
 shall deem inconvenient r 
 
 3. To cause such of the roads used as highways, 
 as shall have been laid out but not sufficiently descri- 
 bed, and such as shall have been used for twenty years 
 but not recorded, to be ascertained, described and en- 
 tered of record in the town clerk's office : 
 
 4. To cause the highways, and the bridges which 
 are or may be erected over streams intersecting high- 
 ways, to be kept in repair : 
 
 5. To divide their respective towns into so many 
 road districts as they shall judge convenient, by wri- 
 ting under their hands, to be lodged with the town 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 clerk, and by him to be entered in the town book : 
 such divisions to be made annually, if they shall think 
 it necessary, and in all cases to be made ten days be- 
 fore the annual town meeting : 
 
 6. To assign to each of the said road districts, such 
 of the inhabitants liable to work on highways, as they 
 shall think proper, having regard to proximity of res- 
 idence as much as may be : and, 
 
 7. To require the overseers of highways, from time 
 to time and as often as they shall deem necessary, to 
 warn all persons assessed to work on highways, to 
 come and work thereon, with such implements, carri- 
 ages, catde or sleds as the said commissioners or any 
 one of them, shall direct. 
 
 § 2. The commissioners of highways shall have 
 power, in the manner, and under the the restrictions 
 hereinafter provided, to lay out on actual survey, such 
 new roads in their respective towns as they may deem 
 necessary and proper ; and to discontinue such old 
 roads and highways, as shall appear to them, on the 
 oaths of twelve freeholders of the same town, to have 
 become unnecessary. 
 
 § 3. The commissioners of highways of each town, 
 shall render to the board of town auditors at their an- 
 nual meeting for auditing the accounts of town offi- 
 cers, an account in writing, stating, 
 
 1. The labor assessed and performed in such town : 
 
 2. The sums received by such commissioners for 
 fines and conimutations,and all other moneys received 
 under this Chapter : 
 
 3. The improvements which have been made on 
 the roads and bridges in their town, during the year 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 17*7 
 
 immediately preceding such report, and an account of 
 the state of such roads and bridges : and, 
 
 4. A statement of the improvements necessary to 
 be made on such roads and bridges, and an estimate 
 of the probable expense of making such improve- 
 ments, beyond what the labor to be assessed in that 
 year, will accomplish. 
 
 § 4. The commissioners of highways of each town 
 shall deliver to the supervisor of such town, a state- 
 ment of the improvements necessary to be made on 
 the roads and bridges, together with the probable ex- 
 pense thereof; which supervisor shall lay the same 
 before the board of supervisors at their next meeting. 
 The board of supervisors shall cause the amount so 
 estimated, to be assessed, levied and collected, in such 
 town, in the same manner as other town charges ; but 
 the monies to be raised in any such town, shall not 
 exceed in any one year, the sum of two hunderd and 
 fifty dollars. 
 
 § 5. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of 
 highways of each town, to cause mile-boards or stones, 
 to be erected, where not already erected, on the post 
 roads, and siich other public roads in their town, as 
 they may think proper, at the distance of one mile 
 from each other, with such fair and legible inscrip- 
 tions as they may think proper. 
 
 § 6. It shall be the duty of the overseers of high- 
 ways in each town, 
 
 1. To repair and keep in order the highways with-^ 
 in the several districts for which they shall have been 
 elected : 
 
 2. When so required by the commissioners of high- 
 
 23 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 ways, or any one of theiHj to warn all persons assessed 
 to work on the highways in their respective districts, 
 to come and work thereon : 
 
 3. To cause the noxious weeds on each side of the 
 highway within their respective districts, to be cut 
 down or destroyed twice in each year, once before the 
 first day of July, and again before the first day of 
 September ; and the requisite labor shall be consider- 
 ed highway work : and, 
 
 4. To collect all fines and commutation money, 
 and to execute all lawful orders of the commissioners. 
 
 § 7. It shall be the further duty of the overseers of 
 highways, once in every month, from the first day of 
 April until the first day of December, to cause all the 
 loose stones lying on the beaten track of every road 
 within their respective districts, to be removed ; and 
 to cause the monuments erected or to be erected, as the 
 boundaries of highways, to be kept up and renewed, 
 so that the extent of such roads may be publicly 
 known. 
 
 § 8. When the quantity of labor assessed on the in- 
 habitants of any road district by the commissioners, 
 shall be deemed insufiicient by the overseer of such 
 district to keep the roads therein in repair, it shall be 
 the further duty of such overseer, to make another as- 
 sessment on the actual residents in such district, in 
 the same proportion, as near as may be, and not ex- 
 ceeding one third of the number of days assessed in 
 the same year by the commissioners on the inhabi- 
 tants of such district ; and the labor so assessed by an 
 overseer, shall be performed or commuted for, in like 
 manner as if the same had been assessed by the com- 
 missioners of highways. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 179 
 
 § 9. The commissioners of highways of each town, 
 shall cause guide-posts, with proper inscriptions and 
 devices, to be erected at the intersections of all the 
 post-roads in their town, and at the intersectioii of 
 such other roads therein as they may deem necessary. 
 
 § 10. It shall be the duty of the overseers ot high- 
 ways of each town to maintain and keep in repair, at 
 the expense of the town, such guide-posts as may have 
 been erected by order of the commissioners, within 
 the limits of the districts for which they shall hav0 
 been respectively elected or appointed, 
 
 § 11. The commissioners of highways, whenever 
 they shall think it necessary or useful, may direct and 
 empower any overseer of highways, in their respect- 
 ive towns, to procure a good and sufficient iron or 
 steel-shod scraper, and plough, or either of them, for 
 the use of his load district ; to be paid for, by the mo^ 
 neys arising from commutations and fines within sucli 
 district. 
 
 § 12. In case such moneys shall be insufficient for 
 the purpose, the deficiency shall be assessed by the 
 overseers upon the inhabitants of the districts, in the 
 proportion they are respectively assessed on the as- 
 sessment roll of said town ; and if any one so assess- 
 ed, shall neglect or refuse to pay such assessment, the 
 same may be sued for and recovered by the overseer. 
 
 § 13. If any overseer shall be employed more days 
 in executing the several duties enjoined on him by 
 this Chapter, than he is assessed to work on the high- 
 way, he shall be paid for the excess at the rate of sev- 
 enty-five cents per day, and be allowed to retain the 
 Bame out of the moneys which may come into his 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 hands for fines under this Chapter ; but he shall not 
 be permitted to commute for the days he is assessed. 
 
 § 14. If any person chosen to the office of overseer 
 of highways, shall refuse to serve, or if his office shall 
 become vacant, the commissioners of highways of the 
 town, shall, by warrant under their hands, appoint 
 some other person in his stead ; and the overseer so 
 appointed, shall have the same powers, be subject to 
 the same orders, and liable to the same penalties, as 
 overseers chosen in town meetings. 
 
 § 15. The commissioners making the appointment, 
 shall cause such warrant to be forthwith filed in the 
 office of the town clerk, who shall give notice to the 
 person appointed as in other cases. 
 
 § 16. Every overseer of highways who shall refuse 
 or neglect either, 
 
 1. To warn the people assessed to work on the 
 highways, when he shall have been required so to 
 do, by the commissioners, or either of them : 
 
 2. To collect the moneys that may arise from fines 
 or commutations : or, 
 
 3. To perform any of the duties required by this 
 chapter, or which may be enjoined on him by the 
 commissioners of highways of his town, and for the 
 omission of which, a penalty is not hereinafter pro- 
 vided : 
 
 Shall, for every such refusal or neglect, forfeit the 
 sum of ten dollars, to be sued for by the commission- 
 ers of highways of the town ; and when recovered to 
 be applied by them in making and improving the 
 roads and bridges therein. 
 
 § 17. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 181 
 
 highways of each town, whenever any person resir 
 dent in their town shall make complaint that any 
 overseer of highways in such town has refused or ne- 
 glected to perform any of the duties enumerated in 
 the last preceding section, and shall give or offer to 
 such commissioners, sufficient security to indemnify 
 them against the costs which may be incurred in pro- 
 secuting for the penalty annexed to such refusal or 
 neglect, forthwith to prosecute such overseer for the 
 offence complained of. 
 
 § 18. If such commissioners of highways shall rer 
 fuse or neglect to prosecute for such penalty, they shall 
 in every such case, forfeit the sum of ten dollars, to 
 be recovered by the person who shall have made such 
 complaint, and given or offered such security. 
 
 Art. II. — Of the persons liable to work on high^ 
 waySy and the making of assessments therefor. 
 
 § 19, Every person owning or occupying land in 
 the town in which he or she resides, and every male 
 inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years residing 
 in the town, when the assessment is made, shall be 
 assessed to work on the public highways in such 
 town ; and the lands of non-residents, situated in such 
 town, shall be assessed for highway labor, as herein- 
 after directed. 
 
 § 20. The commissioners of highways of each town 
 shall meet within eighteen days after they shall be 
 chosen, at the place of town meeting, on such day as 
 they shall agree upon, and afterwards at such other 
 times and places as they shall think proper. 
 
 § 21. Each of the overseers of highways shall de- 
 
182 APPENDIX. 
 
 liver to the clerk of the town, within sixteen days af- 
 ter his election or appointment, a list subscribed by 
 such overseer, of the names of all the inhabitants in 
 his road district, who are liable to work on the high- 
 ways. 
 
 § 22. The commissioners of highways in each 
 town, at their first or any subsequent meeting, shall 
 make out a list and statement of the contents of all 
 lots, pieces or parcels of land within such town, own- 
 ed by non-residents therein, every lot so designated 
 shall be described in the same manner as is required 
 from assessors, and its value shall be set down oppo- 
 site to such description, such value shall be the same 
 as was affixed to such lot in the last assessment roll 
 of the town ; and if such lot was not separately valu- 
 ed in such roll^ then in proportion to the valuation 
 which shall have been affixed to the whole tract of 
 which such lot shall be a part. 
 
 § 23. The town clerk shall deliver the lists filed by 
 the overseers, to the commissioners of highways of 
 the town ; who sball proceed, at their next meeting, 
 ,or at some subsequent meeting, to ascertain, estimate 
 and assess the highway labor to be performed in their 
 town, the then ensuing year. 
 
 § 24. In making such estimate and assessment the 
 ^commissioners shall proceed as follows : 
 
 1. The whole number of days' work to be assessed 
 in each year shall be ascertained, and shall be at least 
 three times the number of taxable inhabitants in such 
 ifcown. 
 
 2. Every male inhabitant being above the age of 
 twenty -one years, (excepting ministers of the gospel 
 
ITREATISE ON ROADS, 183 
 
 and priests of every denomination, patipers, and idiots 
 and lunatics,) shall be assessed at least one day. 
 
 3. The residue of such day's work shall be appor- 
 tioned upon the estate, real and personal, of every in- 
 habitant of such town, as the same shall appear by 
 the last assessment roll of the said town, and upon 
 each tract or parcel of land, of which the owners are 
 non-residents, contained in the list made as aforesaid : 
 
 4. If, after such apportionment, there shall be any 
 deficiency in the number of days' work determined- 
 by the commissioners to be performed in their town, 
 the then ensuing year, such deficiency shall be assess- 
 ed upon the estates, real and personal, of the inhabit- 
 ants of the town, and upon each tractor parcel of 
 land of which the owners are non-residents, according 
 tathe last assessment roll : 
 
 5. The commissioners shall afiix to the name of 
 each person named in the list furnished by the over- 
 seers, and also to the description of each tract or par- 
 cel of land contained in the list prepared by them of 
 non-resident lands, the number of days which such 
 person or tract shall be assessed for highway labor, a& 
 herein directed, and the commissioners shall subscribe 
 such lists and file them with the town clerk. 
 
 §25. Lands of non-residents within any town, oc- 
 cupied and improved by the owner or owners, or his 
 or their servants or agents, shall be liable to the same 
 assessments for highways as if the owner or owners^ 
 were residents. 
 
 § 26. The real property of non-resident owners, im- 
 proved or occupied by a servant or agent, shall be 
 subject to assessment of highway labor, and at the 
 same rate as the real property of resident owners. 
 
184 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 27. The commissioners shall direct the clerk of 
 the town to make a copy of each list, and shall sub- 
 scribe such copies ; after which, they shall cause the 
 several copies to be delivered to the respective over- 
 seers of highways of the several districts in which the 
 highway labor is assessed. 
 
 § 28. The names of persons left out of any such list, 
 and of new inhabitants, shall from time to time be 
 added to the several lists, and they shall be rated, by 
 the overseers in proportion to their real and personal 
 estate, to work on the highways, as others rated by 
 the commissioners on such lists, subject to an appeal 
 to the commissioners. 
 
 § 29, Whenever any non-resident owner shall con- 
 ceive himself aggrieved by the assessments of any 
 commissioners of highways, in carrying into effect the 
 provisions of this Article, it shall be lawful for such 
 owner, or his agentj within thirty days after such as- 
 sessment, to appeal to any three judges of the court of 
 common pleas of the county in which such land is 
 situated. 
 
 § 30. It shall be the duty of such judges within 
 twenty days thereafter, to convene and decide on such 
 appeal, the said owner or agent giving notice to the 
 commissioners of the time of the meeting of the 
 judges ; and their decision, or that of any two of them, 
 shall be final and Conclusive in the premises. Each 
 judge shall be entitled to receive for his services on 
 such appeal, two dollars for each day he may be em- 
 ployed thereon, to be paid by the party appealing, if 
 the proceedings of the commissioners and overseers 
 shall be affirmed ; but if reversed or modified favora- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 185 
 
 ble to the party appealing, to be levied and paid as 
 part of the contingent expenses of such town. 
 
 § 31. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of 
 highways of each town, to credit such persons as live 
 on private roads, and work the same, so much on ac- 
 count of their assessments, as such commissioners 
 may deem necessary to work such private road ; or to 
 annex such private roads to some of the highway 
 districts. 
 
 § 32. Whenever the commissioners of highways 
 shall assess the occupant, for any land not owned by 
 such occupant, they shall distinguish in their assess- 
 ment listSj the amount charged upon such land, from 
 the personal taX) if any, of the occupant thereof. 
 But when any such land shall be assessed in the name 
 of the occupant, the owner thereof shtill not be assess- 
 ed during the same year to work on the highways on 
 account of the same land. 
 
 § 33. Whenever any tenant of any land for a less 
 term than twenty-five years, shall be assessed to work 
 on the highways, for such land, pursuant to the last 
 preceding section, and shall actually perform such 
 work, or commute therefor, he shall be entitled to a 
 deduction from the rent due, or to become due from 
 him, for such land, equal to the full amount of such 
 assessment, estimating the same at the rate of sixty- 
 two and a half cents per day ; unless otherwise pro- 
 vided for by covenant or agreement, between such 
 tenant and his landlord. 
 
 24 
 
186 APPENDIX. 
 
 Art. III. — Of the duties of overseers in regard to 
 the performance of labor iqjon highways ; and 
 for the performance of such labor or the commu- 
 tation therefor. 
 
 § 34. It shall be the duty of the overseers of high- 
 ways, to give at least twenty-four hours' notice to all 
 persons assessed to work on the highways, and resi- 
 ding within the limits of their respective districts, of 
 the time and place, when and where they are to ap- 
 pear for that purpose, and with what implements; 
 but no person being a resident of the town, shall be 
 required to work on any highway, other than in the 
 district in which he resides, unless he shall elect to 
 work in some district where he has any land ; and 
 in such case he may, with the approbation of the 
 commissioners of highways, apply the work assessed 
 in respect to such land, in the district where the 
 same is situated. 
 
 § 35. It shall be the duty of the several overseers of 
 highways, to notify the agent of every non-resident 
 landholder, whose lands are assessed, (if such agent 
 reside in the town where such assessment is made) 
 of the number of days such non-resident is assessed, 
 and of the time when, and the place where the labor 
 is to be performed ; which notice shall be given at 
 least five days previous to the time appointed. 
 
 § 36. If the overseer cannot ascertain that such non- 
 resident has an agent within such town, he shall affix 
 a written notice on the outer door of the building in 
 which the last town meeting in such town was held 
 containing a list of the names of such non-residents, 
 when known, and a description of the tracts of land 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 187 
 
 comprised in his list, together with the number of 
 days' labor, assessed on each tract, and a specifica- 
 tion of the time when and the place where such la- 
 bor is to be performed ; which notice shall be posted 
 at least twenty days before the time appointed for 
 performing such labor. 
 
 § 37. Every person liable to work on the high- 
 ways, shall work the whole number of days for 
 which he shall have been assessed ; but every such 
 person, other than an overseer, may elect to commute 
 for the same, or for some part thereof, at the rate of 
 sixty4wo and a half cents for each day : in which 
 case, such commutation money shall be paid to the 
 overseer of highways, of the district in which the per- 
 son commuting shall reside, to be applied and expend- 
 ed by such overseer in the improvement of the roads 
 and bridges in the same district. 
 
 §38. Every person intending to commute for his 
 assessment, or for any part thereof, shall, within 
 twenty-four hours after he shall be notified to appear 
 and work on the highways, pay the commutation 
 money for the work required of him by such notice ; 
 and the commutation shall not be considered as com- 
 plete until such money be paid. 
 
 § 39. Every overseer of highways shall have pow- 
 er to require a team ; or a cart, wagon or plough, 
 with a pair of horses or oxen, and a man to manage 
 them 5 from any person having the same within his 
 district, who shall have been assessed three days or 
 more, and who shall not have commuted for his as- 
 sessment ; and the person furnishing the same upon 
 such requisition, shall be entitled to a credit of three 
 days for each day's service therewith. 
 
188 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 40. Every person assessed to work on the high- 
 ways and warned to work, may appear in person 
 or by an able bodied man as a substitute ; and the 
 person or substitute so appearing, shall actually work 
 eight hours in each day, under the penalty of twelve 
 and a half cents for every hour such person or substi- 
 tute shall be in default, to be imposed as a fine on the 
 person assessed. 
 
 § 41. If any such person or his substitute shall, af- 
 ter appearing, remain idle, or not work faithfully, or 
 hinder others from working, such offender shall, for 
 every offence, forfeit the sum of one dollar. 
 
 § 42. Every person so assessed and duly notified, 
 who shall not commute, and who shall refuse or ne- 
 glect to appear as above provided, shall forfeit for ev- 
 ery day's refusal or neglect, the sum of one dollar. 
 If he was required to furnish a team, carriage, man 
 or implements, and shall refuse or neglect to comply, 
 he shall be fined as follows : 
 
 1. For wholly omitting to comply with such requi- 
 sition, three dollars for each day : 
 
 2. For omitting to furnish a cart, v/agon or plough, 
 one dollar for each day : 
 
 3. For omitting to furnish a pair of horses or oxen, 
 one dollar for each day : 
 
 4. For omitting to furnish a man to manage the 
 team, one dollar for each day. 
 
 § 43. It shall be the duty of every overseer of high- 
 ways, within six days after any person so assessed 
 and notified, shall be guilty of any refusal or neglect 
 for which a penalty or fine is prescribed in this Title, 
 unless a satisfactory excuse shall be rendered to him 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 189 
 
 for such refusal or neglect, to make complaint on oath, 
 to one of the justices of the peace of the town. 
 
 § 44. The justice to whom such complaint shall be 
 made, shall forthwith issue a summons directed to 
 any constable of the town, requiring him to summons 
 such delinquent, to appear forth\vith before such jus- 
 tice, at some place to be specified in the summons, to 
 shew cause why he should not be fined according to 
 law for such refusal or neglect ; which summons shall 
 be served personally, or by leaving a copy at his per- 
 sonal abode, 
 
 § 45. If, upon the return of such summons, no suf- 
 ficient cause shall be shown to the contrary, the jus- 
 tice shall impose such fine as is provided in this Title 
 for the oflence complained of, and shall forthwith is- 
 sue a warrant under his hand and seal, directed to 
 any constable of the town where such delinquent shall 
 reside, commanding him to levy such fine, with the 
 costs of the proceedings, of the goods and chattels of 
 such delinquent. 
 
 § 46. The constable to whom such warrant shall 
 be directed, shall forthwith collect the moneys there- 
 in mentioned. He shall pay the fine when collected, 
 to the justice who issued the warrant, who is hereby 
 required to pay the same to the overseer who entered 
 the complaint, to be by him expended in improving 
 the roads and bridges in the district of which he is 
 overseer. 
 
 § 47. Every penalty collected for a refusal or neglect 
 to appear and work on the highways, shall be set off" 
 against the assessment upon which it was founded, 
 estimating every dollar collected as a satisfaction for 
 one day's work. 
 
190 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 48. The acceptance by an overseer of any excuse 
 for refusal or neglect, shall not in any case, exempt 
 the person excused from commuting for, or working, 
 the whole number of days for which he shall have 
 been assessed during the year. 
 
 § 49. Every overseer of highways shall, on or be- 
 fore the first day of October, in each year, make out 
 and deliver to the supervisor of his town, a list of all the 
 lands of non-residents, and of persons unknown, which 
 were taxed on his lists, on which the labor assessed 
 by the commissioners of highways has not been paid, 
 and the amount of labor unpaid ; and the said over^ 
 seer, previous to delivering such list, shall make and 
 subscribe an affidavit thereon, before some justice of 
 the peace of such town, that he has given the notice 
 required by the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth section of 
 this Title, and that the labor for which such land is 
 returned, has not been performed 
 
 § 50. If any overseer shall refuse or neglect to deliv- 
 er such list to the supervisor, as provided in the last 
 preceding section, or shall refuse or neglect to make 
 the affidavit as therein directed, he shall, for every 
 such offence, forfeit the sum of five dollars, and also 
 the amount of tax or taxes for labor remaining unpaid, 
 at the rate of sixty-two and a half cents for each day ; 
 to be recovered by the commissioners of highways of 
 the town, and to be applied by them in making and 
 improving the roads and bridges in such town. 
 
 § 51. It shall be the duty of the supervisors of the 
 several towns, to receive the lists of the overseers of 
 highways, when delivered pursuant to the preceding 
 forty-ninth section, and to lay the same before the 
 board of supervisors of the county. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 191 
 
 § 52. It shall be the duty of such board at their next 
 meetmg, to cause the amount of such arrearages of 
 labor, (estimating a day's labor at sixty-two and a half 
 cents) to be levied on the lands so returned, and to be 
 collected in the same manner that the contingent 
 charges of the county are levied and collected, and to 
 order the same, when collected, to be paid over to the 
 commissioners of highways of the town, to be by them 
 applied to the construction and improvement of the 
 roads and bridges in the district, for whose benefit the 
 labor was originally assessed. 
 
 § 53. Every overseer of highways shall, on the se- 
 cond Tuesday next preceding the time of holding the 
 annual town meeting, in his town within the year for 
 which he is elected or apppointed, render to one of 
 the commissioners of highways of the town, an ac- 
 count in writing, verified by his oath, [which the com- 
 missioners of highways are authorized to administer,] 
 and containing, 
 
 1. The names of all persons assessed to work on 
 the highways in the district of which he is overseer : 
 
 2. The names of all those who have actually work- 
 ed on the highways, with the number of days they 
 have so worked : 
 
 3. The names of all those who have been fined^ 
 and the sums in which they have been fined : 
 
 4. The names of all those who have commuted^ 
 and the manner in which the moneys arising from 
 fines and commutations have been expended by him : 
 
 5. A list of all lands which he has returned to the 
 supervisor for non-payment of taxes, and the amount 
 of tax on each tract of land so returned. 
 
192 ' APPENDIX. 
 
 § 54. Every such overseer shall also then and there 
 pay to the commissioner, all moneys remaining in 
 his hands unexpended, to be applied by the commis- 
 ioners in making and improving the roads and bridges 
 in the town, in such manner as they shall direct. 
 
 § 55. If any overseer shall refuse or neglet to ren- 
 der such account, or if having rendered the same, he 
 shall refuse or neglect to pay any balance which may 
 then be due from him, he shall, for every such offence, 
 forfeit the sum of five dollars, to be recovered with 
 the balance of moneys remaining in his hands, by the 
 commissioners of highways of the town, and to be ap- 
 plied in making and improving the roads and bridges. 
 It shall be the duty of the commissioners of highways 
 to prosecute for such penalty in every instance in 
 which no return is made. 
 
 § 56. Whenever it shall appear from the annual re- 
 turn of any overseer of highways, made in pursuance 
 of the fifty-third section of the sixteenth Chapter of 
 Title first of the First Part of the Revised Statutes, 
 that any person who was assessed to work on the 
 highways, (other than non-residents,) has neglected to 
 work the whole number of days to him assessed, and 
 has not commuted for, or otherwise satisfied such defi- 
 ciency, then it shall be the duty of the commissioners 
 of highways to re-assess such deficiency to the person 
 so delinquent, at the next assessment of work for high- 
 way purposes, and to add to it his annual assessment* 
 
 § 57. Such re-assessment shall not exonerate any 
 overseer of highways from any penalty which he may 
 have incurred under the sixteenth section of the last 
 aforesaid Chapter. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 193 
 
 Art. IV. — Of the laying out of j^uhlic cmd private 
 7'oads, and of the alteration or discontinuance 
 thereof. 
 
 § 58. Every person liable to be assessed fbr high- 
 way labor, may apply to the commissioners of high- 
 ways of the town in which he shall reside, to alter or 
 discontinue any road, or to lay out any new road. 
 Every such application shall be in writing, addressed 
 to the commissioners, and signed by the person ap- 
 plying. 
 
 § 59. Whenever the commissioners of highways 
 shall lay out, alter or discontinue any road, either up- 
 on application to them or otherwise, they shall cause 
 a survey to be made of such road, and shall incorpo- 
 rate such survey in an order to be signed by them, 
 and to be filed and recorded in the office of the town 
 clerk, who shall note the time of recording the same. 
 
 § 60. It shall be the duty of the town clerk, when- 
 ever any order of the commissioners, for laying out, 
 altering or discontinuing a road shall be received by 
 him, to post a copy of such order on the door of the 
 house where the town meeting is usually held; and 
 the time hereinafter limited for appealing from any 
 such order, shall be computed from the time of re- 
 cording the same. 
 
 § 61. No public or private road shall be laid out 
 through any orchard or garden, without the consent 
 of the owner thereof, if such orchard be of the growth 
 of four years or more, or if such garden have been 
 cultivated for four years or more, before the laying 
 out of such road. Nor shall any such road be laid 
 out through any buildings ; or any fixtures or erec- 
 25 
 
194 APPENDIX. 
 
 tions for the purpose of trade or manufactures j or any 
 yards or enclosures necessary to the use and enjoy- 
 ment thereof ; without the consent of the owner. 
 
 § 62. No highway shall be laid out through enclosed, 
 improved or cultivated land, without the consent of the 
 owner or occupant thereof, unless certified to be ne- 
 cessary by the oath of twelve reputable freeholders of 
 the town, in the manner hereinafter provided. 
 
 § 63. Every person who shall apply for the laying 
 out of a highway through any such land shall cause 
 notices in writing to be posted up at three of the most 
 public places of the town, specifying, as near as may 
 be, the route of the proposed highway, the several 
 tracts of lands through which the same is proposed 
 to be laid, and the time and place at which the free- 
 holders will meet to examine the ground. Every 
 such notice shall be posted up at least six days before 
 the time specified therein for the meeting of the free- 
 holders. 
 
 § 64. If twelve reputable freeholders of the town, 
 not interested in the lands through which the road is 
 to be laid, nor of kin to the owner thereof, shall ap- 
 pear at the time and place specified in the notice, they 
 shall then be sworn by [a justice of the peace or] any 
 officer authorized to administer oaths, well and truly 
 to examine and certify, in regard to the necessity and 
 propriety of the highway applied for. 
 
 § 65. They shall then personally examine the route 
 of such highway, and shall hear any reason that may 
 be offered for or against laying out the same. If they 
 shall be of opinion that such highway is necesary 
 and proper, they shall make and subscribe a certifi- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 195 
 
 cate in writing to that effectj which shall be deliver- 
 ed to the commissioners of highways of the town. 
 
 § 66. Before the commissioners shall determine to 
 lay out the highway so applied for and certified, they 
 shall cause notice in writing to be given to the occu- 
 pant of the land through which the road is to run, of 
 the time and place at which they will meet to decide 
 on the application. The notice shall be served by 
 delivering the same to such occupant, or if he be ab- 
 sent, by leaving the same at his dwelling-house ; and 
 in either case, at least three days before the time of 
 meeting. 
 
 § 67. The commissioners shall meet at the time 
 specified in the notice, and shall hear any reasons 
 that may be oifered for or against laying out the high- 
 wayv If they shall determine to lay out such high- 
 way, they shall make out and subscribe a certificate 
 of such determination, describing the road so laid out, 
 particularly, by routes and bounds and by its courses 
 and distance, and shall deposite the same with the 
 town clerk. 
 
 § 68. The damages sustained by reason of the lay- 
 ing out and opening such road may be ascertained by 
 the agreement of the owner and the commissioners o^^ 
 highways, provided such damages do not exceed 
 twenty-five dollars; and unless such agreement be 
 made, or the owner of the land shall in writing re- 
 lease all claims to damages, the same shall be assess- 
 ed in the manner prescribed in the next section, be- 
 fore such road shall be opened, or worked,, or used. 
 Every such agreement and release shall be filed in 
 the town clerk's office, and shall forever preclude such 
 owner from all further claim for such damages. 
 
196 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 69. On the application of the commissioners of 
 highways, or of the owner of the land through which 
 such road is laid out, to any two justices of the peace 
 of the town, they shall issue their warrant to some 
 constable of some other town of the same county, 
 neither interested, nor of kin to any person interest- 
 ed, in the land through which the road is laid out ; 
 directing him to summon twelve disinterested free- 
 holders, residing in some other town than that in 
 which such road is laid out. and not of kin to the 
 owner of such land, to assess the damages sustained 
 by the laying out such road ; and shall therein spe- 
 cify the time and place at which the jury shall meet. 
 
 §70, Upon such freeholders appearing, the justices 
 who issued the warrant, shall draw by lot, six of the 
 names of the persons attending, to serve as a jury ; 
 and the first six persons drawn, who shall be free 
 from all legal exceptions, shall be the jury to assess 
 the said damages. 
 
 § 71. In all cases of the assessment of such dama- 
 ges, the persons by whom the assessment is to be 
 made, shall view and examine the premises ; and be- 
 fore making their determination, the freeholders ma- 
 king the same, shall be sworn well and truly to deter- 
 mine and assess such damages. 
 
 § 72. The verdict of the jury assessing such dama- 
 ges, shall be received and certified by the two justices 
 who issued the warrant for summoning them, and 
 shall be delivered by them to the commissioners of 
 highways of the town. 
 
 § 73. Such commissioners shall cause a copy of the 
 said verdict, with a statement of the charges and ex- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 197 
 
 penses, to be delivered to the supervisor of the town, 
 who shall lay the same before the board of supervisors 
 of the county. The board shall have power to ex- 
 amine into the principles on which such assessment 
 shall have been made, and into the fairness and jus- 
 tice thereof, and to increase or reduce the damages, 
 as in their judgment shall be just and reasonable. 
 
 § 74. The amount of damages, as finally settled by 
 the board of supervisors, or as liquidated by the com- 
 missioners of highways, as provided in the sixty- 
 eighth section of this Title, together with the charges 
 of the commissioners of highways, justices, surveyors 
 and other persons or officers employed in making the 
 assessment, shall be levied and collected in the town 
 within which the highway shall be situated. The 
 moneys so collected, shall be paid to the commission- 
 ers of highways of the same town, who shall pay to 
 the owner the sum assessed to him, and appropriate 
 the residue to satisfy the charges. 
 
 § 75. Where any person shall be the owner of any 
 land over which any highway shall run, and such 
 highway shall be discontinued, in whole or in part, 
 by reason of some other road to be established and 
 laid out under this Title, through the lands of the 
 same person, the persons who shall assess the dama- 
 Sfes shall take into calculation the value of the road so 
 discontinued, and the benefit resulting to such person 
 by reason of such discontinuance, and shall deduct 
 the same from the damages assessed for the opening 
 and laying out such new road ; and thereupon the 
 owner of the land may enclose so much of the high- 
 way so discontinued, as shall belong to him. 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 76. When the commissioners of highways of any 
 town shall disagree with the commissioners of any 
 other town in the same county, relating to the laying 
 out of a new road, or the alteration of an old road, 
 extending into both towns ; or when the commission- 
 ers of a town in one county shall disagree with the 
 commissioners of a town in another county, relative 
 to laying out a new road, or altering an old road, 
 which shall extend into both counties ; the commis- 
 sioners of both towns shall meet together at the re- 
 quest of either disagreeing commissioners, and make 
 their determination upon such subject of disagree- 
 ment. 
 
 § 77. Whenever it shall become necessary to have 
 a highway upon the line between two towns, such 
 highway shall be laid out by two or more of the com- 
 missioners of highways of each of said towns, either 
 upon such line, or as near thereto as the convenience 
 of the ground will admit ; and they may so vary the 
 same either to the one or the other side of such line, 
 as they may think proper. 
 
 § 78. It shall be the duty of the same commission- 
 ers, when they lay out such highway, to divide it into 
 two or more road districts, in such manner, that the 
 labor and expense of opening, working and keeping 
 in repair such highway, through each of the said dis- 
 tricts, may be equal as near as may be, and to allot 
 an equal number of the said districts to each of the 
 said towns. 
 
 § 79. Each district shall be considered as wholly 
 belonging to the town to which it shall be allotted, 
 for the purpose of opening and improving the road, 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 199 
 
 and for keeeping it in repair; and the commissioners 
 shall cause such highway^ and the partition and al- 
 lotment thereof, to be recorded in the office of the 
 town clerk in each of their respective towns. 
 
 § SO. All highways heretofore laid out upon the 
 line between any two towns, shall be divided, allotted, 
 recorded and kept in repair, in the manner above di- 
 rected. 
 
 § 81. "Whenever application shall be made to the 
 commissioners of highways of any town, for a private 
 road, they shall summon twelve disinterested freehold- 
 ers of the town where the land through which such 
 road is proposed to be laid out, is situated, to meet on 
 a day certain ; of which day, notice shall be given to 
 the owner or occupant of such land. Such freehold- 
 ers, when met, shall be sworn as above provided, and 
 shall then proceed to view the lands through which 
 such road is applied for. 
 
 § B2. If they shall determine that such road is ne- 
 cessary, they shall make and subscribe a certificate in 
 manner aforesaid, and the commissioners shall there- 
 upon lay out the road, and cause a record thereof to 
 be made in the town clerk's office. The damasfes of 
 the owner of the land through which such road shall 
 be laid out, shall be ascertained or asssessed in like 
 manner as if the same was a public highway, and 
 such damages shall be paid by the person applying 
 for the road. 
 
 § 83. Every such private road, when so laid out, 
 shall be for the use of such applicant, his heirs and 
 assigns ; but not to be converted to any other use or 
 purpose, than that of a road. Nor shall the occupant 
 
200 APPENDIX. 
 
 or owner of the land through, which said road shall 
 be laid out, be permitted to use the same as a road, 
 unless he shall have signified his intention of so ma- 
 king use of the same, to the jury or commissioners, 
 who ascertained the damages sustained by laying out 
 such road, and before such damages were so ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 § 84. All public roads to be laid out by the commis- 
 sioners of highways of any town, shall not be less 
 than three rods wide, and all private roads shall not 
 be more than three rods wide. 
 
 § 85. Whenever application shall be made for the 
 discontinuance of an old road, on the ground that it 
 has become useless and unnecessary, the commission- 
 ers of highways, to whom such application shall be 
 made, shall summon twelve disinterested freeholders 
 of the town, to meet on a day certain, to consider 
 such application. Such freeholders when met, shall 
 be sworn well and truly to examine and certify in re- 
 gard to the propriety of such discontinuance. 
 
 § 86. They shall then proceed to view such road, 
 and if they shall be of opinion that the same is use- 
 less and unnecessary, they shall make and subscribe 
 a certificate in writing to that effect, which shall be 
 delivered to the commissioners of highways, who 
 shall thereupon proceed to decide upon such applica- 
 tion. 
 
 § 87. All applications, certificates and other papers 
 relating to the laying out, altering or discontinuing 
 of any road, shall be filed by the commissioners of 
 highways, as soon as they shall have decided there- 
 on, in the office of the town clerk of the town. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 201 
 
 § 88. Every person who shall conceive himself ag- 
 grieved by any determination of the commissioners 
 of highways, either in laying out, altering or discon- 
 tinuing, or in refusing to lay out, alter or discontinue 
 any road, may at any time within sixty days there- 
 after, appeal to any three of the judges of the court 
 of common pleas of tlie county, in which such road 
 is situated. But an appeal by one person, and a de- 
 cision thereon, shall not conclude nor affect the 
 rights of any other person, who shall appeal within 
 the limited period. 
 
 § 89. The judges to whom the first appeal from 
 any such determination shall be made, shall have ex- 
 clusive jurisdiction of all appeals from the same de- 
 termination, to the end that their decision when made 
 may embrace the whole subject ] and for this purpose 
 they shall suspend all proceedings upon the appeal 
 first made, and upon all other appeals received by 
 them from such determination, until the time limited 
 for such appeals shall have expired. 
 
 § 90. Every such appeal shall be in writing, ad- 
 dressed to the judges, and signed by the party appeal- 
 ing. It shall briefly state the ground upon which it is 
 made, and whether it is brought to reverse entirely 
 the determination of the commissioners, or only to re- 
 verse a part thereof; and in the latter case, it shall 
 specify what part, 
 
 § 91. It shall be the duty of the judges to whom the 
 appeal is made, to proceed thereon as soon as may be 
 convenient. Where the determination appealed from 
 was against an application for laying out, altering or 
 discontinuing a road, the judges shall give notice to 
 26 
 
202 APPENDIX. 
 
 the commissioners by whom such determination was 
 made. Where the appeal is from a determination in 
 favor of an appUcation for laying out, altering or 
 discontinuing a road, the notice shall be given to the 
 commissioners, and to one or more of the applicants 
 for such road. In all cases, the notice shall specify 
 the time and place, at which the judges will convene 
 to hear the appeal. 
 
 §92. Every such notice shall be served at least 
 eight days before the time mentioned therein, by de- 
 livering the same to one of the commissioners whose 
 determination is appealed from, or by leaving the 
 same at his dwelling-house. If the notice be also di- 
 rected to an applicant, it shall be served in the same 
 manner. 
 
 § 93. It shall be the duty of the judges to convene 
 at the time and place mentioned in the notice, and to 
 hear the proofs and allegations of the parties. They 
 shall have power to issue process to compel the attend- 
 ance of witnesses, and may adjourn from time to time, 
 as may be necessary. Their decision, or that of any 
 two of them, shall be conclusive in the premises, and 
 every such decision, shall be reduced to writing, be 
 signed by the judges making it^ and be filed by them 
 in the office of the town clerk of the town, who shall 
 record the same. 
 
 § 94. Every such judge shall be entitled to receive 
 two dollars for every day employed in the hearing 
 and the decision of such appeal, to be paid by the par- 
 ty appealing where the determination of the commis- 
 sioner shall be affirmed ; but where it is reversed, to 
 be a charge against the comity. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 203 
 
 § 95. Where an appeal shall have been made from 
 a determination of commissioners refusing to lay out 
 or alter a road, and the judges shall reverse such, de- 
 termination, such judges shall lay out or alter the 
 road, applied for ; and in doing so, shall proceed in 
 the same manner in which commissioners of higrh- 
 v^ays are directed to proceed, in the like cases. Such 
 road shall be opened by the commisssioners of the 
 town, in the same manner as if laid out by themselves. 
 
 § 96. In case the office of any one of the judges to 
 whom such appeal shall be made, shall become va- 
 cant before the determination of such appeal, it shall 
 be the duty of the remaining judges named therein, 
 to associate with themselves another of the judges of 
 the same court, who shall act with them in all subse- 
 quent proceedings, in the same manner as if he had 
 been originally named in such appeal. 
 
 § 97. No road which has been fixed by the decision 
 of the judges on an appeal to them, shall be discontin- 
 ued or altered, so long as such judges, or either of 
 them shall continue in commission, except by the or- 
 der of the same judges, or such of them as continue 
 in commission, joined with such other judge or judges, 
 as shall be necessary to make three ; such additional 
 judge or judges, to be selected by the person applying 
 for the discontinuance or alteration. 
 
 § 98. If no one of the said judges shall continue in 
 commission, such application shall be made to any 
 three of the judges of the same court, not having any 
 interest in the road so desired to be discontinued or 
 altered. 
 
 § 99. No application made under either of the two 
 
204 APPENDIX. 
 
 last preceding sections, shall be acted upon by the 
 judges, unless the same be accompanied by a certifi- 
 cate, signed by the commissioners of highways of the 
 town in which the road is situated, stating their ap- 
 probation of such application ; and before the judges 
 decide thereon, they shall proceed to view the road, 
 so desired to be discontinued or altered. They shall 
 be entitled to the same compensation as above pro- 
 vided, to be paid by the applicant. 
 
 § 100. Whenever the commissioners of highways 
 shall have laid out any public highway, through any 
 enclosed, cultivated or improved lands, in conformity 
 to the provisions of this Title, and their determination 
 shall not have been appealed from, they shall give 
 the owner or occupant of the land through which 
 such road shall have been laid, sixty days' notice in 
 writing, to remove his fences. If such owner shall 
 not remove his fences within the sixty days, the com- 
 missioners shall cause such fences to be removed, and 
 shall direct the road to be opened and worked. 
 
 § 101. If the determination of the commissioners 
 shall have been appealed from, then the sixty days' 
 notice shall be given, after the decision of the judges 
 upon such appeal, shall have been filed in the office 
 of the town clerk of the town. 
 
 § 102. The acts and doings of the commissioners 
 of highways of the several towns in this state, or of 
 any two of them, in laying out, altering or discon- 
 tinuing any road or highway, since the first day of 
 December, one thousand eight hundred and five, and 
 prior to the fourteenth day of April, one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-six, are confirmed from 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 205 
 
 the last mentioned day ; provided such commission- 
 ers, or any two of them, shall have caused a survey 
 of such roads or highways to be filed and recorded in 
 the office of the town clerk of the town. But such 
 confirmation shall not affect any decision of the 
 judges of the court of common pleas, made prior to 
 the fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hun, 
 dred and twenty-six, confirming or reversing the 
 determination of the said commissioners; nor any 
 appeal from such determination, made within six 
 months after that day ; nor any suits or proceedings 
 which on that day were pending, at law or in equity. 
 
 § 103. Every public highway already laid out, that 
 shall not have been opened and worked within six 
 years from the time of its being so laid out, and every 
 such highway hereafter to be laid out, that shall not 
 be opened and worked, within the like period, shall 
 cease to be a road for any purpose whatever. 
 
 § 104. All public highways now in use, heretofore 
 laid out and allowed by any law of this state, of 
 which a record shall have been made in the office of 
 the clerk of the county or town ; and all roads not 
 recorded, which have been or shall have been used 
 as public highways, for twenty years or more ; shall 
 be deemed public highways, but may be altered in 
 conformity to the provisions of this Title. 
 
 § 105. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of 
 highways, to order the overseers of highways to open 
 all roads to the width of two rods at least, which they 
 shall judge to have been used as public highways for 
 twenty years. 
 
206 APPENDIX. 
 
 Art. V. — Regulations and iitcnalties concerning' 
 
 the ohstructions of highway s^ and encroachments 
 
 thereon. 
 
 § 106. Whoever shall obstruct any highway, or 
 shall fill up or place any obstruction in any ditch 
 constructed for draining the water from any highway, 
 shall forfeit for every such offence, the sum of five 
 dollars. 
 
 § 107. In every case where a highway shall have 
 been laid out, and the same has been or shall be en- 
 croached upon by fences, erected by any occupant of 
 the land through or by which such highway runs, 
 the commissioners of highways of the town, shall, if 
 in their opinion it be deemed necessary, order such 
 fences to be removed, so that such highway may be 
 of the breadth originally intended. The commission- 
 ers making the order, shall cause the same to be re. 
 duced to writing, and signed. They shall also give 
 notice in writing, to the occupant of the land, to re- 
 move such fences within sixty days. Every such or- 
 der and notice shall specify the breadth of the road 
 orginally intended, the extent of the encroachment, 
 and the place or places in which the same shall be. 
 
 § 108. If such removal shall not be made, within 
 sixty days after the service of such notice, the occu- 
 pant to whom the notice shall be given, shall forfeit 
 the sum of fifty cents for every day, after the expira- 
 tion of that time, for which such fences shall continue 
 unremoved. 
 
 §109. If the occupant to whom notice is given, 
 shall deny such encroachment, the commissioners, or 
 some one of them, shall apply to any justice of the 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 207 
 
 peace of the county, for a precept directed to any con- 
 stable of the town, to summon twelve freeholders 
 thereof, to meet at a certain day and place, to be spe- 
 cified in such precept, and not less than four days after 
 the issuing thereof, to inquire into the premises. The 
 constable to whom such precept shall be directed^ 
 shall give at least three day's notice to the commis- 
 sioners of highways of the town, and to the occupant 
 of the land, of the time and place at which such free- 
 holders are to meet. 
 
 § 110. On the day specified in the precept, the jury 
 so summoned, shall be sworn by such justice, well 
 and truly to inquire whether any such encroachment 
 has been made, and by whom. Such witnesses a§ 
 may be produced by either party, shall also be sworn 
 by such justice ; and the jury shall hear the proofs 
 and allegations which may be produced and submit-^ 
 ted. 
 
 § 111. If the jury find that any encroachment has 
 been made, they shall make and subscribe a certificate 
 in writing, stating the particulars of such encroach- 
 ment, and by whom made ; which shall be filed in 
 the ofiice of the town clerk. The occupant of the 
 land, whether such encroachment shall have beers 
 made by him, or by any former occupant, shall re- 
 move his fences within sixty days after the filing of 
 such certificate, under the penalty provided in the on© 
 hundred and eighth section of this Title. He shall 
 also pay the costs of such inquiry ; and if the same 
 shall not be paid within ten days, the justice shall is- 
 sue a warrant for the collection thereof, in the man- 
 ner provided in the forty-fifth section of this Title. 
 
208 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 113. If tlio jury find that no encroachment has 
 been made, they shall so certify, and shall also ascer- 
 tain and certify the damages which the then occupant 
 shall have sustained by such proceeding; which, to- 
 gether with the costs thereof, shall be paid by the 
 commissioners, and shall be a charge in their favor 
 against the town by which they shall have been 
 elected. 
 
 § 113. No persoh shall be required to remove any 
 fence under the preceding provisions of this Article, 
 except between the- first day of April and the first day 
 of November in any year. 
 
 § 114. If any tree shall Fall, or be fallen by any per- 
 son from any enclosed land into any highway, any 
 person may give notice to the occupant of the land 
 from which such tree shall have fallen, to remove the 
 same within two days. If such tree shall not be re- 
 moved within that time, but shall continue in such 
 highway, the occtipant of the land shall forfeit the 
 sum of fifty cents for every day thereafter, until such 
 Iree shall be removed. 
 
 § 115. In case any person shall cut down any tree 
 "on land not occupied by him, so that it shall fall into 
 any highway, river or stream, unless by the order and 
 tjonsent of the occupant, the person so offending, shall 
 forfeit to such occupant, the sum of one dollar for ev- 
 -ery tree so fallen, and the like sum for every day the 
 •same shall remain in such highway, river or stream. 
 
 § 116. Whoever shall cut, or cause to be cut down, 
 any tree, so that the same shall fall into any river or 
 stream, which now is or hereafter shall be declared a 
 public highway, and shall not remove the same out 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 209 
 
 of such river or stream, within twenty-four hours 
 thereafter, shall forfeit five dollars for every tree so 
 cut down and left remaining. 
 
 § 117. No swinging or other gates shall be allowed 
 on any public highway, laid out by virtue of this 
 Title, or which has heretofore been laid out, other 
 than such public highways as run through lands 
 liable to be overflowed by the waters of the adjacent 
 rivers or streams, in such manner as to remove the 
 fence thereon. 
 
 § 118. Such gates shall be erected and kept in good 
 repair, by the overseers of highways of the town, at 
 the proper costs and charges of the occupant of the 
 land, for whose benefit the same shall be erected. 
 
 §119. If more than one gate shall be erected, and 
 the intermediate land between the gates, at the extre- 
 mities of such lands, shall be in the occupation of 
 more than one person benefitted by such gates, the 
 whole charge of erecting and keeping the same in re- 
 pair-j shall be borne by all the occupants benefitted 
 thereby, in proportion to the extent of land each oc- 
 cupies adjoining the highway, between the gates at 
 the extremities aforesaid. 
 
 § 120. The overseer of every road district in which 
 such gates shall be, shall, on or before the first day of 
 November in every year, make out and file with the 
 town clerk, a statement of the charges incurred in the 
 erection or repairing of such gates, with the name of 
 the person bound to defray the same ; which account 
 shall be verified by the oath of such overseer. If 
 more than one person is liable to defray such charges, 
 the statement shall also contain an apportionment 
 27 
 
210 APPENDIX. 
 
 thereof between such persons, stating the amount to 
 be paid by each. 
 
 § 121. The overseer shall, within ten days after 
 filing the statement, demand of every person bound 
 to pay such charges, or to contribute thereto, the sum 
 due from him according to such statement ; and if any 
 person shall refuse or neglect to pay such moneys 
 within six days after demand, it shall be the duty of 
 the overseer to make complaint to a justice of the 
 peace of the town, and the like proceedings shall be 
 had for the recovery of such moneys, as in the recov- 
 ery of fines, for refusing or neglecting to work on the 
 highways. 
 
 § 122. The commissioners of highways shall file an 
 account of such gates in the town clerk's office ; and 
 if any person shall open any such gate, and shall not, 
 immediately after having passed the same, close it, or 
 shall wilfully or unnecessarily ride over any grounds 
 adjoining the road on which such gates shall be per- 
 mitted, he shall forfeit to the party injured, treble 
 damages. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 211 
 
 TURNPIKE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Art. 1. — Of the mode of incorporating Turnpike 
 
 Comjyanies, and of the choiee and powers of the 
 
 directors. 
 
 Section 1. All such persons as shall hereafter be 
 incorporated by an act of the legislature, for the pur- 
 pose of making a turnpike road, shall be a body cor- 
 porate, by the name given in the act of incorporation ; 
 and as such, they and their successors shall have 
 power to purchase, hold and enjoy such real and per- 
 sonal estate, not exceeding the amount to be prescri- 
 bed in such act, as shall be necessary to fulfil the ends 
 of their incorporation. 
 
 § 2. Each of the persons who shall be named in 
 such act, as a commissioner for receiving subscrip- 
 tions, shall furnish himself with a book for that pur- 
 pose, which shall be kept open for two years, unless 
 one-sixth of the whole number of shares shall be soon- 
 er subscribed. 
 
 § 3. Each subscriber shall pay to the commissioner 
 receiving his subscription, and at that time, on each 
 share that he shall subscribe, one-tenth of the sum 
 fixed in the act of incorporation, as the amount of one 
 share, and the residue to the president and directors 
 to be elected, at such time and place, as they shall 
 from time to time require. The shares subscribed 
 shall be deemed and considered to be personal estate. 
 
 § 4. As soon as one-sixth part of the whole number 
 
312 APPENDIX. 
 
 of shares fixed in such act, as the capital of the corpo^ 
 ration, shall have been subscribed, the commissioners 
 shall, by advertisement to be published in two of the 
 public newspapers printed nearest to the route of the 
 road, give at least thirty days' notice, of the time and 
 place, when and where, the subscribers shall meet te 
 choose directO'rs. 
 
 § 5, At the election so appointed, the commission- 
 ers present shall preside ; and the subscribers present, 
 or their proxies, by a plurality of votes, shall elect by 
 ballot nine stockholders, to be directors of the corpo-^ 
 ration for the ensuing year. 
 
 § 6. The commissioners shall- deliver their respect- 
 ive subscription books, to the directors so chosen afi 
 their first meeting, and shall then pay over to such 
 directors, the moneys received by them, respectively, 
 on such subscriptions. 
 
 § 7. An election for directors shall thereafter be an- 
 nually held, on the same day of the same month on 
 which the first election was held ; and at each elec- 
 tion, including the first, the stockholders present, by 
 a plurality of votes, shall elect by ballot, three per- 
 sons, to preside at the next succeeding election. 
 
 § 8. If an annual election shall not be held on the 
 day fixed by law, it shall be held in the same manner, 
 and with the like effect, on some early day, to be ap- 
 pointed by the directors then in ofiice, who shall give 
 and publish the same notice thereof, as is required in 
 respect to the first election ; and who after the day on 
 which such election ought to have been held, shall be 
 incapacitated from doing any act as directors, except 
 such as may be necessary to give effect to the election 
 so to be appointed. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 213 
 
 § 9. The persons presiding at each election, shall 
 immediately after receiving the ballots, openly esti- 
 mate the votes, and thereupon make and subscribe a 
 certificate of the result. Of the first election, they 
 shall make a return to the directors chosen, at their 
 first meeting thereafter. 
 
 § 10. Each stockholder, in person or by proxy, 
 shall, at each election, be entitled, on the shares then 
 held by him, to one vote for each share, to the num- 
 ber of ten, and for every five shares above that num- 
 ber, to one additional vote. 
 
 § 11. Five directors shall be a board for the trans- 
 action of business, and the acts of a majority of the 
 board shall bind the corporation. 
 
 § 12. The directors, at their first meeting after their 
 election, shall elect by ballot one of their number as 
 president. 
 
 § 13. The board shall supply every vacancy that 
 may occur in. the office of a director, and the person 
 chosen shall hold his office until the next annual 
 election. They shall also supply from the directors, 
 every vacancy that shall occur in the office of presi- 
 dent; and one of the members present shall be cho- 
 sen by a plurality of votes, to preside at every meeting 
 of the board, from which the president shall be absent. 
 
 § 14. The president and directors shall have power, 
 and it shall be their duty, 
 
 1. To meet from time to time, at such place as they 
 may deem expedient : 
 
 2. To make such by-laws, rules and regulations, as 
 in their judgment, the affairs of the corporation shall 
 require : 
 
214 APPENDIX. 
 
 3. To appoint such subordiuatG officers, artists and 
 workmen, as they shall deem necessary to execute the 
 business of the corporation : 
 
 4. To continue to receive subscriptions of shares, 
 until their whole capital stock shall be subscribed, un- 
 less it shall have been ascertained, that a less sum 
 will be sufficient to fulfil the ends of their incorpora- 
 tion : 
 
 5. To demand at such time and in such proportion 
 as they shall see fit, from the respective stockholders, 
 the sums of money due on their respective shares, 
 under pain of the forfeiture of such shares, and of all 
 previous payments thereon, to the corporation : 
 
 6. To declare by a by-law in what manner and 
 under what restrictions, the shares of their capital 
 stock shall be transferrable : 
 
 7. To construct, complete, and keep in constant 
 repair, the road, with all the necessary buildings and 
 appurtenances, for the making of which they shall 
 have been incorporated : 
 
 8. To keep a fair and just account of all tolls re- 
 ceived, and of all moneys disbursed, and deducting- 
 costs and charges, to make and declare a dividend of 
 the clear profits and income of the road, among the 
 stockholders, on the first Tuesday of May, and the 
 first Tuesday of November, in every year : 
 
 9. To publish a notice of each dividend, in one or 
 more of the public newspapers printed nearest to the 
 route of the road, and of the time and place of the 
 payment thereof, and to pay the same accordingly : 
 
 10. To report to the comptroller, within six months 
 after the road shall be completed, an account of the 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS, 215 
 
 expenses of its construction, and to exhibit annually 
 to the comptroller, an account of the sums arising 
 from the tolls, of the disbursements and of the divi- 
 dends actually made within the year. 
 
 § 15. Every company so incorporated shall cea§e t& 
 be a body corporate, 
 
 1, If within two years from their incorporation',' 
 they shall not have commenced the construction ot 
 the road described in the act of incorporation : and 
 
 2. If within five years from such incorporation j 
 such road shall not be completed according to the 
 provisions of this Title, and of the act of incorpora- 
 tion. 
 
 § 16. Every such corporation may be dissolved by 
 the legislature, when by the income arising from tolls, 
 it shall have been compensated for all moneys expend- 
 ed in purchasing, making, repairing and taking care 
 of its road, and have received in addition thereto, an 
 average annual interest at the rate of ten per cent ; 
 and on such dissolution, all the rights and property of 
 such corporation, shall vest in the people of this state. 
 
 Art. II. — Of the construction of the road, and of the 
 appraisement of damages. 
 
 § 17. The road directed to be made by each com- 
 pany so incorporated, shall be laid out by three, or 
 any two of three, commissioners to be appointed by 
 the governor: such commissioners must not be inte- 
 rested in any turnpike road, nor live in a county 
 through which the road directed shall pass. 
 
 § 18. It shall be the duty of such commissioners, 
 1. To lay out the road directed, without favor or 
 
216 APPENDIX. 
 
 partiality, according to their best judgment and un- 
 derstanding, in such manner as shall best promote 
 the objects of the corporation, and the interests of the 
 public I 
 
 2. To cause to be made an accurate map of their 
 survey of such road, in every county through which 
 it shall pass, designating therein the several particu- 
 lar points near or through which it passes, and to de- 
 posit and jfile such map in the office of the clerk of the 
 county. 
 
 § 19. Each commissioner, for each day he shall be 
 necessarily employed in the performance of such du^ 
 ty, shall receive the sum of three dollars, to be paidj 
 together with the expenses of surveys and maps, by 
 the corporation to which the road shall belong. 
 
 § 20. Such road shall be constructed by the presi- 
 dent and directors of such corporation, in the manner 
 following : 
 
 1. It shall be laid out not less than four rods widej 
 and twenty-two feet of such width shall be bedded 
 with stone, gravel, sound wood, or other hard sub- 
 stance, well compacted, and of sufficient depth to se- 
 cure a good and solid foundation : 
 
 2. It shall be faced with gravel or broken stonCj of 
 ^ depth not less than nine inches, in such manner as 
 to secure a firm and even surface, rising in the mid- 
 dle by a gradual arch : 
 
 3. The ditches on each side thereof shall, when 
 practicable, be so made, as to render easy the passing 
 of sleighs therein, and shall be so formed as to permit 
 carriages conveniently to pass on and off' the turnpike, 
 where it shall be intersected by other roads. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 217 
 
 4. It shall be made of such width as may be practi- 
 cable, not less than twenty-two feet in any one place; 
 and without a ditch on the lower side in each place 
 where, on account of the steepness of side-hills or 
 rocks, it cannot, in the opinion of the commissioners, 
 be made of the full width above required : 
 
 5. The lower side, where it shall not be of full 
 width, shall be furnished with a strong and sufficient 
 fender or railing, of the height of at least- four feet 
 above the surface of the road along which such fender 
 shall be constructed. 
 
 §21. A mile stone or post shall be erected and 
 maintained by the corporation on each mile of the 
 road, on which shall be fairly and legibly marked or 
 inscribed, the distance of such stone or post from the 
 place of the commencement of the road ; and when 
 such road shall commence at the end of any other 
 road, having mile stones or posts, on which the dis- 
 tance from any city or town is marked, a continuation 
 of that distance shall in like manner be inscribed. 
 
 § 22. A guide post shall also be erected at the inter- 
 section of every public road, leading into or from the 
 turnpike, on which shall be inscribed the name of the 
 place to which such intersecting road leads, in the di- 
 rection to which the name on the guide post shall 
 point. 
 
 § 23. No director of the corporation to which it shall 
 belong, shall be concerned directly or indirectly in 
 any contract for the making or working of the road, 
 or any part thereof, during the time he shall be a di- 
 rector. 
 
 § 24. No contractor for the making of such road, or 
 28 
 
218 APPENDIX. 
 
 any part thereof, shall make a new contract for the 
 performance of his work, or any part thereof, other 
 than by hiring hands, teams, carriages or utensils, to 
 be superintended and paid by himself, unless such 
 new contract and its terms be laid before the board of 
 directors, and be approved by them. 
 
 § 25. After the road shall have been laid out by the 
 commissioners, the president and directors of the com- 
 pany to which it shall belong, may agree with the 
 owners of the land through which it shall pass, for 
 the purchase of so much thereof as shall be necessary 
 for the making of the road, and the accommodation 
 of gates, toll-houses, and other works thereto belong- 
 ing. 
 
 § 26. In every case where the owner of land so re- 
 quired, shall be absent from the county, or shall not 
 from any cause be capable in law, so to agree, or shall 
 refuse to agree, the value of such land, and the dama- 
 ges to the owners, shall be ascertained, in the man- 
 ner following : 
 
 J. One of the judges not interested in the road, of 
 the court of common pleas of the county in which the 
 land shall be situated, upon application of the presi- 
 dent and directors, shall by an instrument in writing, 
 signed by him, appoint three freeholders of the coun- 
 ty, not inhabitants of any town through which the 
 road shall pass, and not interested in the road or lands 
 to be appraised, as appraisers. 
 
 2. The president and directors shall give notice to 
 the appraisers of their appointment, and the apprais- 
 ers, or any two of them, shall thereupon name a day 
 for meeting on the land, and performing the duties re- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 219 
 
 quired of them ; which day shall not be more than 
 twenty, nor less than ten days, from such notice of 
 their appointment. 
 
 3. The president and directors shall give at least 
 ten days' notice to the owners of the land required, of 
 the time and place of meeting, so appointed by the ap- 
 praisers ; but if any such owner be absent, or subject 
 to any legal disability to contract, a copy of such no- 
 tice may be left at the dwelhng-house of such owner, 
 or at some public place on the Jands to be appraised. 
 
 4. Each appraiser, before he shall proceed to exe- 
 cute his trust, shall take and subscribe in writing, be- 
 fore a justice of the peace in the county, the oath or 
 affirmation prescribed in the constitution of this state. 
 
 5. The appraisers shall then proceed to view the 
 premises, and without favor or partiality, to assess the 
 damages sustained by the respective owners of the 
 lands deemed necessary by the president and direct- 
 ors, to be taken and appropriated for the road. 
 
 6. They shall make an inquisition, under their 
 hands and seals, or the hands and seals of any two of 
 them, describing such land, and stating the amount of 
 damages, if any, which each owner of lands or im- 
 provements so taken and appropriated, has sustained, 
 or will sustain, in consequence thereof: 
 
 7. The inquisition shall be acknowledged by the 
 appraisers signing it, before one of the judges of the 
 county in which the lands are situated, and so ac- 
 knowledged, shall be filed by them, together with 
 their oath or affirmation of office, in the clerk's office 
 of such county, within thirty days after it shall have 
 been made, to be by such clerk recorded in a book for 
 recording deeds, at the expense of the corporation. 
 
220 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 27. The president and directors, upon payment 
 of the several sums so assessed as damages, in the in- 
 quisition so made, or upon making a legal tender 
 thereof, when the moneys shall be refused, shall be 
 entitled to enter on the lands described in the inquisi- 
 tion, and shall have and hold the same, to them, their 
 successors and assigns forever. 
 
 § 28. If on any parcel of the lands so described, 
 there shall be no person then living, authorized to re- 
 ceive the damages assessed for such parcel, and such 
 damages shall not have been lawfully demanded, 
 within ten days after the filing of such inquisition, the 
 president and directors may enter thereon, without 
 payment or tender of such damages ; but subject to 
 such payment whenever the same shall be thereafter 
 lawfully required. 
 
 § 29. Such president and directors shall not enter 
 on and take possession of any public highway, until 
 it shall have been appraised and paid for, in the same 
 manner as private property, and the amount apprais- 
 ed for each highway so taken, shall be paid to the 
 commissioners of highways in the town to which it 
 shall belong, to be by them applied in improving the 
 roads in such town. 
 
 § 30. Whenever an appraisement shall be made of 
 the lands on any old road, used as such by prescrip- 
 tion, on which a turnpike shall be laid out, the ap- 
 praisers shall set down the value of the soil and of the 
 improvements, and the moneys paid by any town for 
 making such improvements, in separate sums ; and 
 the sum for which the soil is appraised shall be paid 
 to the owners thereof, and the value of the improve- 
 
TREATISE ON ROAI>S, 221 
 
 merits, and the sums paid therefor, by any town, shall 
 be paid to the commissioners of highways of the town 
 in which such old road shall be situated. 
 
 § 31. The president and directors procuring the ap- 
 pointment, shall pay to the judge for appointing ap- 
 praisers, one dollar, and to each appraiser, two dollars 
 for every day he shall be necessarily employed in his 
 duties as such. 
 
 Art. III. — Of tolls, mid their collection. 
 
 § 32. As soon as the president and directors of any 
 company incorporated under this Title shall have 
 completed their road, or any ten miles thereof, they 
 shall give notice thereof to the governor, who shall 
 thereupon appoint three discreet freeholders, not in- 
 terested in any turnpike, to view the road as descri- 
 bed in the notice, and to report to him, in writing, 
 whether the same is completed in a workmanlike 
 manner, according to the requisitions of this Title, 
 and of the act of incorporation. 
 
 §33. If such report shall be in the affirmative, it 
 shall be the duty of the governor, by license under 
 his hand, and the privy seal of the state, to permit 
 the president and directors to erect so many gates and 
 turnpikes on the road reported, as- shall be sufficient 
 for the collection thereon, of the tolls authorized by 
 law. 
 
 § 34. The president and directedrs shall then ap- 
 point toll-gatherers to collect, at each gate so erected, 
 from the persons using the road, such toll as shall be 
 authorized in their act of incorporation. 
 
 §35. Each toll-gatherer may detain and prevent 
 
222 APPENDIX. 
 
 from passing through his gate, the persons riding, 
 leading or driving animals or carriages subject to toll, 
 until they shall have paid respctively the tolls author- 
 ized by law. 
 
 §36. No tolls shall be collected at any gate of any 
 company incorporated under this Title in either of 
 the fallowing cases ; 
 
 1. From any person passing to or from public wor- 
 ship, or a funeral ; to or from a grist mill for grinding 
 of grain for family use ; or to or from the blacksmith's 
 shop to which he usually resorts for work there to be 
 done. 
 
 2. From any person going for a physician or mid- 
 wife, or returning from such errand ; going to or re- 
 turning from court when legally summoned as a juror 
 or witness ; going to or returning from a militia train- 
 ing, which by law, he is required to attend ; or going 
 to a town meeting or election at which he is entitled 
 to vote, for the purpose of giving such vote, and re- 
 turning therefrom : 
 
 3. From any person residing within one mile of 
 the gate at which toll is demanded, unless he shall be 
 employed in the carriage or transportation of the prop- 
 erty of other persons, not so residing: 
 
 4. From troops in the service of this state, or of the 
 United States. 
 
 § 37. From carriages having wheels, of which the 
 tire or track is, 
 
 1, Twelve inches wide, no tolls : 
 
 2, Nine inches wide, one-fourth only of the tolls 
 otherwise payable : 
 
 3, Six inches wide, one-half only of such tolls, 
 Shall be collected. 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 223 
 
 § 38. It shall be the duty of the president and di- 
 rectors, to affix and keep up, at or over each gate, in 
 some conspicuous place, so as to be conveniently 
 read, a printed list of the rates of toll demandable at 
 such gate. 
 
 Art. IV. — General 2^rovisions emhracing coiyord-' 
 
 tions now existing. 
 
 § 39. In each county of this state, in which there is 
 or shall be any turnpike road, there shall be not less 
 than three, nor more than five inspectors of turnpikes^ 
 neither of whom shall be interested in any turnpike 
 within the state. 
 
 § 40. Tire persons appointed to such office, shall be 
 the inspectors of all the turnpike roads within their 
 county, except in cases where, by the act of incorpo- 
 ration, a special provision for the inspection of the 
 road is made. But where the president, directors and 
 company of any turnpike shall have refused or ne- 
 glected to obtain the appointment of inspectors of their 
 road, or when there shall be no inspectors of such 
 road in office, or those in office shall refuse or neglect 
 to serve when called upon, the county inspectors; 
 shall, in respect to such turnpike, exercise all the 
 powers conferred by this Article, until inspectors for 
 such road shall be appointed according to the act in- 
 corporating the same, and until such inspectors shall 
 accept their appointment and agree to serve. 
 
 § 41. It shall be the duty of each inspector to whom 
 a complaint in writing shall be made, that a turnpike 
 road, or a part of such road, in his county is out of 
 repair, without delay to view and examine the road 
 
224 APPENDIX. 
 
 complained of; and if he shall find such complaint to 
 be just, he shall give notice in writing of the defect, 
 to the toll-gatherer, ot person attending the gate near- 
 est to each place out of repair, and in such notice, 
 may, in his discretion, order such gate to be thrown 
 open ; but no inspector or inspectors shall order such 
 gate to be opened, unless a notice in writing shall 
 have been served on the gate-keeper nearest to the 
 place out of repair, particularly describing such place, 
 at least three days previous to making such order. 
 
 § 42. Immediately after the service of such notice, 
 each gate ordered to be thrown open, shall be opened ; 
 nor shall it be again shut, nor any toll be collected 
 thereat, until one of the inspectors for the county, 
 shall have granted a certificate, that the road is in 
 sufficient repair, and that such gate ought to be closed. 
 
 § 43. Whenever any part of a turnpike road shall 
 be out of repair, and the gate to which it has relation, 
 is situated in an adjoining county for which inspect^ 
 ors shall have been appointed, such inspectors, upon 
 a complaint in writing, shall view and examine the 
 road complained of, and proceed thereon according 
 to the provisions of this Article, in like manner as if 
 the road so complained of was within the county 
 \vhere such gate is situated. 
 
 § 44. Every keeper of a gate ordered to be thrown 
 open, who shall not immediately obey such order, or 
 who shall not keep open such gate until a certificate 
 permitting it to be closed shall be granted, or who, 
 during the time such gate ought to be open, shall hin- 
 der or delay any person in passing, or take or demand 
 any tolls from any person passing, shall, for each of- 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 225 
 
 fence, forfeit the sum of ten dollars to the party ag- 
 grieved. 
 
 § 45. It shall be the duty of each inspector, who, 
 upon due examination, shall have discovered a turn- 
 pike road within his county to be out of repair, or 
 that any gate theron is placed in a situation contrary 
 to law, to give notice in writing of such defect or de- 
 fault, to one or more of the directors of the company 
 to which such road shall belong. 
 
 § 46. In such notice, he shall require the defective 
 road to be repaired, or the gate improperly placed to 
 be removed, within a certain time to be fixed in the 
 notice ; and in his discretion, may order, that in the 
 mean time, the gates on such road, or such of them 
 as he shall specify, be thrown open. 
 
 § 47. If the requisitions of such notice be not obey- 
 ed, it shall be the duty of such inspector, to make im- 
 mediate complaint to the attorney- general, or the dis- 
 trict attorney for the county, whose duty it shall be to 
 prosecute the delinquent company, in the name of the 
 people of this state. Such corporation, if convicted 
 of having suffered their road to be out of repair, or 
 having placed one or more of the gates thereon in a 
 situation contrary to law, shall be fined in a sum not 
 exceeding two hundred dollars. 
 
 § 48 To each inspector of turnpikes, who shall view 
 a turnpike road upon complaint made to him, shall be 
 allowed the sum of two dollars for each day spent by 
 him in the performance of such duty. If he shall ad- 
 judge the road viewed to be out of repair, such fees 
 shall be paid by the company to which the road shall 
 29 
 
226 APPENDIX. 
 
 belong ; otherwise, they shall be paid by the party 
 making the complaint. 
 
 § 49. Such fees, when payable by the company,, 
 shall be paid by the toll-gatherer nearest the road ad- 
 judged out of repair, on demand,and out of the tolls 
 received or to be received by him ; and may be recov- 
 ered, with costs, of such toll-gatherer, if he shall ne- 
 glect or refuse to make such payment. 
 
 § 50. Every toll-gatherer, who, at any turnpike 
 gate, shall unreasonably hinder or delay any traveller 
 or passenger liable to the payment of toll, or shall de- 
 mand and receive from any person more toll than by 
 law he is authorized to collect, shall for each offence, 
 forfeit the sum of five dollars to the person aggrieved. 
 
 §51. Whenever a judgment is obtained against a 
 toll-gatherer for a penalty, or for damages, for acts 
 done or omitted to be done by him in his capacity of 
 toll-gatherer, and goods and chattels of the defendant 
 to satisfy such judgment cannot be found, it shall be 
 satisfied by the corporation whose officer he shall be ; 
 and if, on demand, payment be refused by the corpo- 
 ration, the amount thereof may be recovered, with 
 costs, of such corporation. 
 
 § 52. The president and directors of every turnpike 
 corporation created or to be created, may from time to 
 time commute with any person, whose place of abode 
 shall adjoin or be near to their road, for the toll pay- 
 able at the nearest gate on each side of such place of 
 abode ; but no such commutation shall be for a longer 
 time than one year, and it may be renewed at the end 
 of each period for which it shall be made. 
 
 § 53. Whenever the day of election for directors of 
 
TREATISE ON ROADS. 227 
 
 any such corporation shall happen on a Sunday, such 
 election shall be held on the day next following. 
 § 54. Every person who shall, 
 
 1. Wilfully break, cut down, deface or injure any 
 mile stone or post, on any turnpike road : or, 
 
 2. Wilfully break or throw down any gate or turn- 
 pike on such road : or, 
 
 3. Dig up or spoil any part of such road, or any 
 thing thereunto belonging: or, 
 
 4. Forcibly or fraudulently pass any gate thereon, 
 without having paid the legal toll : 
 
 For each offence, shall forfeit to the corporation in- 
 jured, the sum of twenty five dollars, in addition to 
 the damages resulting from his wrongful act. 
 
 § 55. Every person who, to avoid the payment of 
 the legal toll, shall, with his team, carriage or horse, 
 turn out of a turnpike road, or pass any gate thereon, 
 on ground adjacent thereto, and again enter on such 
 road, shall for each offence forfeit the sum of five dol- 
 lars to the corporation injured. 
 
 § 56. No hoist-gate shall be erected on any turn- 
 pike, unless it be suspended by a chain and weight 
 equally balanced, so as to require manual force to 
 raise and lower such gate ; and every tiurnpike com- 
 pany violating this provision, shall forfeit five dollars 
 for every twenty-four hours such gate shall remain 
 erected, to any person who will prosecute for the 
 same, not being a director, stockholder or agent of 
 such company. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 The intelligent reader will have perceived several typographical 
 errors in the foregoing pages. Among these are the following : 
 
 Page 69, line 4th, ?qx material, read materials. Same page bot- 
 tom line, for improventis, read improvement is. Page 119, for sate, 
 read state. Page 173, for Conford read Cronif'ord : for Longlo- 
 rough, read Loughborough : for Clamor ganshire, read Glamorgan- 
 shire: for Warwick and Bampton, read IFancick and Napion, <&c. 
 
 LHBJa'3Q 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper procesi 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: April 2004 
 
 PreservationTechnologiej 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIOI 
 
 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724) 779-21 1 1