Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/49

 Parliament in every Session, for extension of powers and increase of tolls; setting forth that without such aid the debts cannot be paid, nor the roads kept in repair. In the Session of Parliament 1815, thirty-four such petitions were presented; and in the Session of 1816, thirty-two; all which bills were passed as a matter of course; the petitioners being only required to prove the actual necessity to the Committee, but no enquiry seems to have been made as to the cause of that necessity.

An efficient, uniform and constant controul of the expenditure of road funds, and an annual report of the result to Parliament would enable the House of Commons to form a judgment, whether the deficiency proceeded from inadequacy of the means, or from improvident expenditure; and thereby that Honourable House would be enabled to use means for preventing the growing amount of debt, which the petitions presented each Sessions sufficiently shew to be increasing to an alarming degree; and which, being incurred under the authority of Parliament, must ultimately become a claim upon the justice of the country.

Upon consideration of this important subject it appears, that a review of the turnpike laws has become indispensable, for the purpose of