Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/144

 At what rate per mile would be the expense of such an improvement, supposing the road thirty feet wide?—About 528l. or 530l.

Is not a road constructed with a road-way of sixteen feet breadth of solid materials, and with six feet on each side of that with slighter materials, a sufficient road for the general purposes of country travelling?—Yes; and generally the roads round Bristol are made with stone, about the breadth of sixteen feet.

In your former answer respecting materials, you made use generally of the term roads "round London," to what extent did you mean to convey the idea of that improvement?—I should think that the river, and the facility of the canals, might in all places allow you to carry the improvement ten miles round London; and perhaps where the canals or rail-ways come through the country, you might carry the improvement farther.

Has not the system of road management at present practised, the effect of repressing efforts for acquiring skill and exertions of science, as connected with the business of road-making?—I think it has.

Will you explain in what way?—Because the surveyors at present appointed are not required to have any particular skill in their business before they are appointed; but the appointment generally takes place to provide for some person a situation; and the want of superior officers over the sub-surveyors is the means of preventing those sub-surveyors from acquiring a knowledge necessary to execute their duties under an officer who would know whether they were able to execute them or not.

You mean that there is a not a sufficient degree of inspection and control provided by the legislature over the conduct of the surveyor of the roads?—I think so.

Do you conceive that a more scientific system of management of roads is wanted universally?—I do.

Do not you conceive that the want of this scientific system