Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/91

 Commissioners, whose meetings he should attend, and to whom he should uniformly report on the improvements and alterations he may wish to recommend within their trusts.

Your Committee are of opinion, that the most eligible mode of paying the salary of this officer would be by an uniform rate per mile upon all the roads within the county; to be fixed by the magistrates at quarter sessions, and paid from the funds of the respective trusts.

The success of this plan of appointing general county surveyors will, in a great degree, depend upon the firmness evinced by the magistrates, in laying aside every consideration of personal favour, and impartially looking to integrity, talents, and energy of character, as the recommendations for office; some skill in the science of an engineer should also be regarded as a valuable qualification.

Your Committee have manifested their general disinclination to any interference with the honourable and gratuitous discharge of the functions of the Commissioners of Turnpike Trusts; in one instance, however, they are disposed to depart from the principle which they have recommended. A full consideration of the evidence relative to the defective state, and injudicious management of the roads round the