Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/230

 Your Committee, in their Report of the 18th of July 1820, state as follows:

"The attention of your Committee has been directed to the claim of Mr. John Loudon M'Adam for public remuneration, contained in his petition referred to them by the House.

"Your Committee apprehend, that the ability, industry and zeal of Mr. M'Adam in his successful pursuit of the best means for constructing roads are become matters of general notoriety. It appears that Mr. M'Adam first directed the public attention to this important fact, that angular fragments of hard materials, sufficiently reduced in size, will coalesce or bind, without other mixture, into a compacted mass of stone nearly impenetrable to water, which being laid almost flat, so as to allow of carriages passing freely upon all parts of the road, will wear evenly throughout, not exhibiting the appearance of ruts or of any other inequalities. This principle, once brought under notice, may appear sufficiently obvious; but Mr. M'Adam has had the honour at much expense of labour, of time, and of his private fortune, to bring it into practice on an extensive scale.

"Your Committee are therefore clearly of opinion, that Mr. M'Adam is entitled to re