of that county have paid off the other creditors, dividing theloss among themselves.
Such is become the difficult}' of obtaining money to borrowupon the security of tolls, that, in the turnpike act about to beapplied for by the county of Perth , (and the same measure willprobably obtain legal sanction, in the general enactment as toturnpikes, at present under consideration), recourse is to be hadto the mode of forced loan, by powers to be vested in trustees,(comprehending every landed proprietor rated at 100/. Scots va-luation), of assessing all lands connected with the road, in pro-portion to the benefit they shall be adjudged, by arbiters, to re-ceive from it; for the amount of which assessment, they shall beobliged to accept, as their security, of the toll-duties, assignedto them as preferable creditors.
Under such circumstances, the exemption of mail Coachesfrom payment of toll, seems a most discouraging and injudiciousenactment of the Legislature , directly militating against everybind of improvement. These carriages are of all others the mostdestructive to roads, both from their weight, and the exertion ofthe horses in dragging the machine with the required velocity.But, instead of equitably paying a higher rate of toll, in propor-tion to the greater wear they occasion, they are not only totallyexempted, but, by diminishing the demand for posting, they cutoff a principal source of the revenue from tolls. It has beensaid, that some trustees have had it in contemplation to with-draw from the ruinous expense of repairing roads occupied bywail coaches, which cut off so great a part of the funds for suchrepairs, though occasioning, by their wear, a demand for greaterfunds. Fortunately, that impolitic exemption has been lately abo-lished.
Of the Roads in the Highlands of Scotland ,
from the wide extent of the Highlands of Scotland , in pro-portion to their population, and the great stretch of road neces-sary in order to obtain access to market, either for the produc-tions of their fisheries, or of their thinly interspersed arable soil,■t is evident, that such a country could never have been render*ed pervious, so as to have its resources brought to avail, by sta*tnte-labour, or by money borrowed upon the security of tolls. *
In 1803, therefore, the liberality of Government was extend-'d to the Highlands , for the purpose of giving access to theirimprovement, by means of roads and bridges. The country to■which this bounty is applied, is marked in the maps annexed tome several reports presented to Parliament by the Commissioners.
In 1788 and 1789, the propriety of the interference of Government to thatw as strongly pointed out'by George Dempster , Esq. of Dunnichen, ih‘s. discourses in capacity of director to a Society, about that time instituted, for"iulding the Fisheries of Scotland.—.(.See Living Characters.) ■ •
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