Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/146

 Do you think a controlling power established in the metropolis, to communicate on the subject throughout the kingdom, would be an advantageous establishment?—I think it would be a very profitable and desirable establishment.

Looking to the revenues and to practical advantages?—Looking to the revenues, practical advantages, and to the dissemination of information.

Would you propose their having a power of suspending officers in certain cases?—Certainly, till the pleasure of the commissioners was known; on any gross instance of misconduct or negligence.

Would not you propose they should report occasionally the state and condition of the roads, and also the state of the finances of each trust?—I should think the state of the finances ought to be reported in some way every year, that they might reach parliament, either by counties, or by some means the least expensive and least troublesome; and I think such a report of the finances, annually, would be a great means of preventing mis-*application of the public funds; and it would create a comparison between one part of the country and another, that would be useful in checking misconduct.

Then you do not think there is, at present, a sufficient protection of the road revenue of the kingdom against dishonest or ignorant practices?—I think the road revenue is less protected than any other part of the public expenditure; and, though it is very large, it may be considered, I think, almost unprotected, under the present system of law.

Have you any loose guess in your own mind, as to the extent of the revenue throughout the kingdom, raised for the purpose of maintaining roads?—I have been led to guess a million and a quarter a year, as the toll revenue; from the circumstance of there being five-and-twenty thousand miles of turnpike road in England and Wales.

That is an increasing revenue?—It is certainly increasing very