Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/120

 And have under your care a considerable district of the turnpike roads in that neighbourhood?—Yes, about one hundred and eighty miles of road in that neighbourhood.

How long has your attention been particularly directed to the state of the public roads of the kingdom generally, and the means of their improvement?—About twenty-five years.

Are you a professional civil engineer?—No.

Be pleased to state to the Committee the general state of the turnpike roads at the time you first directed your attention to them, about twenty years ago?—I think the state of the roads twenty years ago, was worse generally than at present, and in particular places much worse. If the Committee would indulge me, I would mention what first led me to these considerations. On my first arriving from America in the year 1783, at the time the roads were making in Scotland (their Turnpike Acts being in operation about twenty years at that time,) very many of their roads were unmade. I was then appointed a commissioner of the roads, and had occasion in that capacity to see a great deal of road-work.

Where?—In Scotland. This first led me to inquire into the general method of road-making, and the expense of it. Since that period, I have been mostly in Bristol, where I was also appointed a commissioner of the roads; the very defective state of which could not fail to attract my attention. I was induced to offer myself to the commissioners, to take charge of the roads as a surveyor, because I found it impossible for any individual commissioner to get the roads put into a situation of being, mended with any prospect of success; and no individual could incur the expense of making experiments on a great scale. The roads of Bristol were accordingly put under my direction in the month of January 1816.

That was when you were appointed surveyor?—Yes, I have travelled at various times, during the lost twenty years, to ascertain which are the best roads, and which the best means of