ROAD LEGISLATION.

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be, they are, as has been already stated more thanonce, extremely imperfect, in comparison withwhat they ought to be.

In respect to the lines of direction, it has beenobserved that they are every where extremelyfaulty. They have commonly been carried overall the hills between the points of communication,whereas they might have been kept on compa-ratively level ground along the valleys of thecountry.

While the most magnificent improvements havebeen going forward in all other kinds of publicworks, displaying the .greatest efforts of humanskill, and a rapid advancement in the science ofcivil engineering, scarcely any road can be pointedout, except a few which have been put under themanagement of civil engineers, that is not defectivein the most essential particulars.

Who is to blame for this ? Not the government,because the business has not been in its hands.The leading men of the commercial and manufac-turing classes, who have been chiefly concerned informing companies for making canals, docks, bridges,and other splendid improvements, are not to blame,for they have been too generally excluded from thebusiness of road management. Nor are the civilengineers of Great Britain to blame, because theyhave seldom been consulted: on the contrary, thisprofession has been too commonly deemed, byturnpike trustees, as something rather to be avoided,than as useful and necessary to be called to theirassistance.