Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/205

 to discourage the breed of small horses, and encourage the over-loading and straining, of horses of all sizes. The number of horses is a very imperfect measure, or rather no measure at all of the injury done to the roads; for a load of three tons, drawn by one horse, injures the road as much, to say the least of it, as if two horses were used. It is not out of place to mention the extreme disproportion between the penalties for overweight, and the injuries which they are meant to compensate for, or to prevent; particularly when this over-loading is the effect of ignorance, which is almost always the case. When the tolls are in the hands of trustees, the penalty is almost always reduced; a proof that that fixed by law is exorbitant; but when the tolls are farmed, and the trustees do not reserve the power of mitigating the penalty, the poor carman has less chance of being saved perhaps from ruin.

Jovis, 1º die Aprilis, 1819.

Mr. James Dean, called in; and Examined.

What is your profession?—I am a land agent and civil engineer, and am occasionally employed to solicit bills in parliament as an agent.

Where do you reside?—I reside in London about half the year, and the other half in Devonshire.

As an engineer, have you had the means of becoming acquainted with the roads of the kingdom?—About twenty years since, I had the appointment of surveyor to the trustees of the turnpike roads from Oxford to Henley upon Thames, and from Dorchester to Abingdon, in Berkshire; since then I have been employed about several roads in Devonshire and Cornwall, and, latterly, in surveying and