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The surveys being all allotted at the expence of the Treasury,the Commissioners considered it as unjustifiable to incur this ex-pense, either where the road applied for seemed to be of no generaladvantage, or when there appeared little probability of the roadbeing executed by the applicants coming forward with their halfof the expense.
In regard to the preference to be given to applications, theCommissioners uniformly had an eye to what was most exten-sively useful; and in this view, one leading consideration was,whether or not the proposed lines connected with the existingmilitary roads, which extend northward till they terminate atthe great vale of the Highlands, where the Caledonian Canal iscarried across the island, in the line of the military forts.
No ornament of bridges, or approaches, was allowed.
The gentlemen of the several counties came at first forward tomeet the Commissioners, in raising the moiety required to be ad-vanced, by pvivate contributions. But as, upon such a system,the weight of the expense rested exclusively upon the public-spi-rited, it was soon found necessary to obtain private county actscf Parliament , enabling the counties to assess toe lands for themoiety; and, from what lias been Stated in regard to the countyact applied for by Perth , the maxim (no doubt equitable, thoughdifficult of application) seems to be adopted, and nyay probablybecome general, that each proprietor should be assessed in pro-portion to the immediate advantage to be reaped by his lands.
Tolls on some of the roads and bridges, for the reimbursementof the private moiety furnished to meet the public advance, whenproposed, were at first rejected by the Commissioners, unless theCommissioners should be empowered to dra w pro rata of their ad-vance, to be applied to the purposes of their trust. But afterwards,it appears they considered themselves as authorised to concur intheir advance for such roads and bridges, provided the purchase-money (at a fair valuation) of the toll or pontage, should be de-duced from the moiety 7 to be advanced by them. Such applica-tion for authority to levy toll or pontage, seems also not to h*.vebeen objected to, on condition that a certain proportion of the re-venue was to be set aside exclusively, for the purpose of uphold-u g the road or bridge.
Under the salutary operation of these regulations, it appearsfrom the report in April 1809, that there had then been contract-ed for, 358 miles 41 yards of road ; and securities for the county
The Commissioners complain of their having felt it unavoidable, in their re-sponsible situation, to give the contract always to the lowest ofierer, through"inch, frequently, distress unavoidably arose, which they could not remedy,though they frequently regretted it. To insist rigorously and invariably upon<he exactfuliilment of the specifications, they found indispensable. And it were“oil, if, in all contracts under public trusts, such uniform rigour were to doWay every reliance upon lenity; bating, no doubt, allowance for such accidents45 tou ld not possibly be foreseen.