Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/15

 The state of the public roads, the alarming amount of an increasing debt, the loose and neglected state of the accounts of the several Trusts, are the best proofs of the defects of the system, and of its comparative inefficiency.

The returns made to Parliament by the several Trusts in the kingdom (defective as they are) afford matter for serious reflection. England alone, is divided into 955 little Trusts which may be considered, in fact, as hostile to each other; while it is evident that unity of action is of vital importance among Commissioners of the same branch of the public service, for effecting the great object of their appointment. While therefore each of those small communities is liable to be biassed by individual interest or feeling, it will hardly be deemed inexpedient to recommend some central control over the District Commissioners, that may have the effect of regulating the eccentricity of their measures, as well as giving their views, in many instances, a better direction. This central control will be most beneficially established in each