Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/208

 bill; and it was intended that the same should have been brought before parliament in the present session, but the clerk to the trustees having omitted to put the notice required by the standing orders of parliament upon the sessions-*house door, at the Michaelmas sessions, the trustees resolved to defer presenting their petition until the next session.

In what respect does the bill which you have prepared differ from the generality of local turnpike acts?—Many of the clauses of the bill are not so remarkable for originality, as their combination is calculated to produce extensive benefit to the country, by conferring larger powers than have heretofore been given to any one body of trustees; among others, it empowers the trustees to appoint committees, and make bye-laws; it binds them to provide a fund for buying up outstanding securities; and to pay off the further sums proposed to be raised under the new act, within the term of the act; the tolls on wheel carriages are made referrible to the breadth of the fellies, and description of wheel, and to the weight drawn, rather than to the number of horses, drawing, and are founded on a statement which I had the honour of delivering to a Committee of the House of Commons in 1809. The standing orders of parliament require that on or before the 30th of September next, preceding any application to parliament for any Turnpike Act, a plan &c. of the roads proposed to be made or altered, shall be deposited with the clerk of the peace. It often happens, that in the Committee alterations are made in the proposed line, when the plan deposited becomes mere waste paper; the seventy sixth clause of this bill provides for the depositing of a plan, &c. last determined upon, with the clerk of the peace, signed by the Speaker, and being an authentic document can be referred to with safety. The bill also provides for the making of commodious footpaths by the sides of the roads. And as the paving, cleansing, lighting,