Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/204

 remote corners and parishes, where it appears most to be wanted; but I much question the propriety of such a revolution as would lessen the interest, which, in their present situation, the commissioners ought to feel in the repair of their roads, and the consequence which the appointment tends to give them.

If country road-surveyors are appointed throughout the kingdom, the nomination might be with the commissioners of the county, and if friendship or local interest is supposed to operate too far, the nomination, or the examination previous to election, or the veto after it, might be with the central or other board, the members of which might be supposed not to be connected with the individual, in the same way as pilots and the masters of men of war are examined by the elder brethren of the Trinity House. And sub-surveyors or surveyors of parishes, might in the same manner be appointed, or undergo an examination by the county commissioners and county surveyor, to qualify them to be elected; for it is to be lamented, that in cases where parishes have, from the reasons I have mentioned, made the office of road-surveyors permanent, with a salary: the election being popular, has fallen, not upon the candidate who was really the best qualified, but probably upon some honest decayed tradesman, who, having proved himself unable to manage his own business, which he ought to have known the best, has thereby, and by his long residence, qualified himself for managing a public business, of which he probably knows nothing, but whether he does, or does not, rarely enters into the consideration of the majority of the voters.

In what manner do you think the extra toll for overweight ought to be regulated; whether by the weight, or by the number of horses used, without regard to the weight?—I think by the weight most certainly; unless the object is