Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/53



The foregoing Remarks on Roads cannot be better concluded than by the following Extract from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons in 1811.

"The many important advantages to be derived from amending the highways and turnpike roads of the kingdom need hardly be dwelt upon. Every individual in it would thereby find his comforts materially increased, and his interest greatly promoted. By the improvement of our roads, every branch of our agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry would be materially benefited. Every article brought to market would be diminished in price; the number of horses would be so much reduced, that by these, and other retrenchments, the expence of FIVE MILLIONS would be annually saved to the public. The expence of repairing roads, and the wear and tear of carriages and horses, would be essentially diminished; and thousands of acres, the produce of which is now wasted in feeding unnecessary horses, would be devoted to the production of food for man. In short, the