The lands which are inclosed may be appropriated by the same Act of
Parliament to the bank and undertakers, upon condition of performance,
and to be forfeit to the use of the several parishes to which they
belong, in case upon presentation by the grand juries, and reasonable
time given, any part of the roads in such and such parishes be not kept
and maintained in that posture they are proposed to be. Now the lands
thus settled are an eternal security to the country for the keeping the
roads in repair; because, they will always be of so much value over the
needful charge as will make it worth while to the undertakers to preserve
their title to them; and the tenure of them being so precarious as to be
liable to forfeiture on default, they will always be careful to uphold
the causeways.
Lastly, _What profit to the undertakers_. For we must allow them to
gain, and that considerably, or no man would undertake such a work.
To this I propose: first, during the work, allow them out of the stock
£3,000 per annum for management.
After the work is finished, so much of the £5,000 per annum as can be
saved, and the roads kept in good repair, let be their own; and if the
lands secured be not of the value of £5,000 a year, let so much of the
eight years’ tax be set apart as may purchase land to make them up; if
they come to more, let the benefit be to the adventurers.
It may be objected here that a tax of £30,000 for eight years will come
in as fast as it can well be laid out, and so no anticipations will be
requisite; for the whole work proposed cannot be probably finished in
less time; and, if so,
The charge of the county amounts to £240,000
The lands saved eight years’ revenue 40,000
£280,000
which is £13,000 more than the charge; and if the work be done so much
cheaper, as is mentioned, the profit to the undertaker will be
unreasonable.
To this I say I would have the undertakers bound to accept the salary of
£3,000 per annum for management, and if a whole year’s tax can be spared,
either leave it unraised upon the country, or put it in bank to be
improved against any occasion—of building, perhaps, a great bridge; or
some very wet season or frost may so damnify the works as to make them
require more than ordinary repair. But the undertakers should make no
private advantage of such an overplus; there might be ways enough found
for it.
Another objection lies against the possibility of inclosing the lands
upon the waste, which generally belongs to some manor, whose different
tenures may be so cross, and so otherwise encumbered, that even the lords
of those manors, though they were willing, could not convey them.
This may be answered in general, that an Act of Parliament is omnipotent
with respect to titles and tenures of land, and can empower lords and
tenants to consent to what else they could not; as to particulars, they
cannot be answered till they are proposed; but there is no doubt but an
Act of Parliament may adjust it all in one head.
What a kingdom would England be if this were performed in all the
counties of it! And yet I believe it is feasible, even in the worst. I
have narrowly deserved all the considerable ways in that unpassable
county of Sussex, which (especially in some parts in the wild, as they
very properly call it, of the county) hardly admits the country people to
travel to markets in winter, and makes corn dear at market because it
cannot be brought, and cheap at the farmer’s house because he cannot
carry it to market; yet even in that county would I undertake to carry on
this proposal, and that to great advantage, if backed with the authority
of an Act of Parliament.
I have seen in that horrible country the road, sixty to a hundred yards
broad, lie from side to side all poached with cattle, the land of no
manner of benefit, and yet no going with a horse, but at every step up to
the shoulders, full of sloughs and holes, and covered with standing
water. It costs them incredible sums of money to repair them; and the
very places that are mended would fright a young traveller to go over
them. The Romans mastered this work, and by a firm causeway made a
highway quite through this deep country, through Darkin in Surrey to
Stansted, and thence to Okeley, and so on to Arundel; its name tells us
what it was made of (for it was called Stone Street), and many visible
parts of it remain to this day.
Now would any lord of a manor refuse to allow forty yards in breadth out
of that road I mentioned, to have the other twenty made into a firm,
fair, and pleasant causeway over that wilderness of a country?
Or would not any man acknowledge that putting this country into a
condition for carriages and travellers to pass would be a great work?
The gentlemen would find the benefit of it in the rent of their land and
price of their timber; the country people would find the difference in
the sale of their goods, which now they cannot carry beyond the first
market town, and hardly thither; and the whole county would reap an
advantage a hundred to one greater than the charge of it. And since the
want we feel of any convenience is generally the first motive to
contrivance for a remedy, I wonder no man over thought of some expedient
for so considerable a defect.