Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/162

 upon the several parishes, which were called forth by the former surveyor.

Do you know the value of that statute duty?—Not having had occasion to call it forth, I am unable precisely to answer the question; but the parishes are wealthy, and the statute labour must form a very considerable amount.

I presume the comparative smallness of the expense which you incurred for materials must have arisen from making use of the old materials upon the road, by lifting them according to the plan which your father has described?—That was the case.

In what state did you find the executive department of these roads when you took charge of them?—I found at Epsom a person as surveyor, who had been an underwriter at Lloyd's Coffee-house, at a salary, as I am informed, of sixty pounds per annum, and who was permitted to keep the carts and horses, and do the cartage for the trust. At Reading, I found an elderly gentleman as the surveyor, who was also one of the commissioners, at a salary of twenty or thirty pounds per annum. I found at Cheshunt three surveyors, the trust being divided into three districts. One of the surveyors was an infirm old man, another a carpenter, and another a coal-merchant. I found on the Wades-mill trust three surveyors also, and the trust divided into three districts; one of these surveyors was a very old man, another a publican at Buckland, and the other a baker at Backway, with a salary of fourteen shillings a week each. I found on the Royston road a publican as surveyor there; and I found at Huntingdon a bedridden old man who had not been out of the house for several months, and who had been allowed by the commissioners to apply to a carpenter in the town for assistance, and to whom the commissioners allowed twenty pounds per annum; this person, who accompanied me in the survey of the roads, stated, that he