REPORT.

THE SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to take into consideration the Petition

of Mr. MᶜADAM, and to report to the House, whether any and what

further pecuniary Grant shall be made to him, either by way of

payment of his Expenses or as a remuneration for his Services, for

having introduced into practice an improved System of constructing

and repairing the PUBLIC ROADS of the Kingdom, or for the management

of the Funds applicable to the same;—HAVE, pursuant to the Order of

the House, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed

upon the following REPORT:

In presenting to the House the result of their inquiry into the claim

preferred by Mr. MᶜAdam for a compensation for his services, in

consequence of his having devised and introduced into practice an

improved and economical system of repairing, making and managing the

Turnpike Roads of the Kingdom; your Committee will notice, in the first

place, the proceedings which have taken place upon this subject previous

to the institution of the inquiry in which they have been engaged.

It appears from the correspondence and documents obtained from the

Treasury, as well as from the Reports of former Committees of the House,

appointed to inquire into the state of the Highways of the Kingdom, that

the first application made by Mr. MᶜAdam for payment of his expenses,

and remuneration for his services, was in November 1819. This

application was referred by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s

Treasury, by letter, to the Postmasters General, for explanation and

information; who, in reply, transmitted a Report from Mr. Johnson, the

Superintendent of Mailcoaches, stating as follows:—

“As I travel rapidly over great distances, and my attention is usually

much occupied with the immediate business of the office, I cannot speak

with accuracy about particular and local alterations; but I feel myself

well warranted in stating, that whenever I have found any thing done

under Mr. MᶜAdam’s immediate direction, or by his pupils, or even in

imitation of his plan and principles, the improvement has been most

decisive, and the superiority over the common method of repairing roads

most evident; and, as Superintendent of Mailcoaches, I have abundant

reason to wish that Mr. MᶜAdam’s principles were acted upon very

generally: if they were, a pace which in winter, or any bad weather,

cannot be accomplished without difficulty, would become perfectly easy;

to say nothing of the comfort and safety of the traveller, and the

credit to humanity in lessening the labour of the animals. I may add,

although so much has been accomplished, the Postmasters General could

still expedite the conveyance of the Mails, and bring the arrangement of

the Posts nearer to perfection, if the Roads were universally as much

improved as the practice of Mr. MᶜAdam’s plan would effect.

(Signed) CHA. JOHNSON.”

_General Post Office,_ }

_Dec. 8, 1819._” }

“As one instance of the benefit of Mr. MᶜAdam’s improvement, I beg to

mention that the Mail last winter lost ten, fifteen, and twenty minutes,

in passing from Staines to Bagshot; but now the time is exactly kept.

(Signed) C. J.”

And the Post Masters General also concluded their Report to the Treasury

by observing, “That with respect to the road near Staines, to which he

alludes, we had found it necessary to give notice of indictment, which

has been prevented by the Commissioners resorting to Mr. MᶜAdam’s

assistance and advice, which has produced the excellent road mentioned

by the Superintendent.

“The Road from Newbury, through Reading, to Twyford, has been so much

improved, that the Mailcoach has been better enabled to keep its time

than heretofore, and we are convinced that if the roads near London were

improved in a similar manner, considerable advantages would be obtained

to the correspondence in general, but particularly in places from ninety

to one hundred miles distant.”

In February, the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury received

a representation from several noblemen and gentlemen, urging in very

strong terms the claim of Mr. MᶜAdam to remuneration for the services he

had rendered to the Public. This document, as well on account of the

grounds upon which the remuneration is stated to have been merited, as

also from its having been so numerously and respectively signed, well

deserves the attention of the House. Mr. Harrison, by desire of their

Lordships, transmitted this certificate with a letter to the Postmasters

General; in which, amongst other observations, and alluding to the

recommendation in favour of Mr. MᶜAdam before mentioned, he writes as

follows:—“These testimonials are of so highly respectable a nature from

the station and character of the individuals who have signed them, and

are so decisive as to the merit, not only of the system itself, but also

of Mr. MᶜAdam’s personal labours and exertions in reducing it into

practice; and as to the great advantages which the Public have already

derived therefrom on several important lines of road in different parts

of the Kingdom, that my Lords could not hesitate a moment in affording

to any application, which Mr. MᶜAdam may be advised to make to

Parliament for remuneration for these services, their perfect and entire

concurrence.”

And the Postmasters General in the same letter are directed, after

taking into their consideration these testimonials, together with any

subsequent information they may have acquired, to report whether the sum

of 2,000_l._ or any other sum might, in their opinion, be advanced to

Mr. MᶜAdam, to relieve him from the difficulties under which he then

laboured, and until the pleasure of Parliament shall be obtained; to

which the Postmasters General reply by letter of 23d February 1820, in

still stronger terms of commendation of the services of Mr. MᶜAdam,

stating that “they consider Mr. MᶜAdam’s system of making and repairing

roads as deserving of every encouragement, that its beneficial results

are acknowledged in every part of the various districts of the country

where the trustees of roads have availed themselves of his assistance

and suggestions, that he has in the most disinterested manner given

every facility to other persons with the same general object; and that

the observations of their Surveyor of Mailcoaches, enclosed in their

Report of the 20th December, have acquired additional force from the

experience of the last two months, in which the mail coaches have had to

contend with unusual difficulties; for it has been evident on such parts

of roads where Mr. MᶜAdam’s system has been pursued, the public mails

have experienced less interruption than where the old system was

persisted in; and their Lordships conclude their letter by recommending

the advance of 2000_l._”

In the session of 1819, a Select Committee was appointed to take into

consideration the Acts in force regarding the Turnpike Roads and

Highways of the Kingdom, and the expediency of additional regulations

for their better repair and preservation. This Committee reported, in

the most decided terms, as to the success of Mr. MᶜAdam’s system. The

following is a short extract from that Report: “The admirable state of

repair into which the roads under Mr. MᶜAdam’s system were brought

attracted very general attention, and induced the commissioners of

various districts to apply for his assistance or advice. The general

testimony borne to his complete success wherever he has been employed,

and the proof that his improvements have been attended with an actual

reduction of expense, while they have afforded the most useful

employment to the poor, induce your Committee to attach a high degree of

importance to that which he has already accomplished. The imitations of

his plans are rendered easy by their simplicity, and by the candour with

which he has explained them, although ability in the surveyor to judge

of their application must be understood as an essential requisite.”

In session 1820, Mr. MᶜAdam presented a petition to Parliament, praying

for the payment of his expenses, and such reward for his services as the

House in its justice and wisdom should think fit to grant. This petition

was referred for consideration to the Select Committee then sitting upon

the state of the Highways, who had the account of Mr. MᶜAdam’s expenses

up to 1814 submitted to them; and from which account it appears, that

the distance travelled by Mr. MᶜAdam was 30,000 miles, and that there

were 1,920 days employed in this service; that reckoning by the rules of

allowance made by the Post Office to their surveyors, the expense of the

above travelling amounted to the sum of 5,019_l._ 6_s._ which sum Mr.

MᶜAdam states to have been expended by him on this service up to August

1814.

Mr. MᶜAdam further states, in his Evidence before the Committee; “This

account is made from memoranda in my possession, and I have made the

same with such care and attention, that I am ready to make oath that it

is to the best of my knowledge and belief correct, whenever I may be

required so to do.” Which he afterwards did in the following terms:

“I, John Loudon MᶜAdam, do hereby voluntarily make oath that the

above-mentioned account delivered by me to the Committee on Turnpike

Roads and Highways, is to the best of my knowledge and belief

correct.”

“Witness my hand this 8th day of March 1821.

(Signed) JNO. LOUDON MᶜADAM.”

“_Sworn before me at Pontefract,_ }

_8th March 1821._ }

(Signed) G. ALDERSON, _Alderman_.”

Your Committee, in their Report of the 18th of July 1820, state as

follows:

“The attention of your Committee has been directed to the claim of Mr.

John Loudon MᶜAdam for public remuneration, contained in his petition

referred to them by the House.

“Your Committee apprehend, that the ability, industry and zeal of Mr.

MᶜAdam in his successful pursuit of the best means for constructing

roads are become matters of general notoriety. It appears that Mr.

MᶜAdam first directed the public attention to this important fact, that

angular fragments of hard materials, sufficiently reduced in size, will

coalesce or bind, without other mixture, into a compacted mass of stone

nearly impenetrable to water, which being laid almost flat, so as to

allow of carriages passing freely upon all parts of the road, will wear

evenly throughout, not exhibiting the appearance of ruts or of any other

inequalities. This principle, once brought under notice, may appear

sufficiently obvious; but Mr. MᶜAdam has had the honour at much expense

of labour, of time, and of his private fortune, to bring it into

practice on an extensive scale.

“Your Committee are therefore clearly of opinion, that Mr. MᶜAdam is

entitled to reward, and they approve of the advance made to him by the

Postmaster General, under sanction of the Treasury. Your Committee have

called for the correspondence which passed upon that occasion. They have

examined Mr. Freeling, Chief Secretary to the Post Office; Mr. Johnson,

Surveyor or Superintendent of Mailcoaches; and they have received

statements from Mr. MᶜAdam, in support of his further claim, all of

which they insert in the Appendix; and after a full investigation of the

matters submitted to them, your Committee are of opinion, that Mr.

MᶜAdam is entitled to further reward for his services, but they think it

much better in all respects to leave the amount to the Post Office, than

to mention any specific sum themselves.

“While every individual throughout the nation, and almost every concern

is benefited by good roads, the Post Office derives peculiar and more

direct advantage from them, combined with constant and accurate

intelligence respecting their state; your Committee, therefore, consider

the Post Office best able to form a correct opinion upon the subject,

and they moreover feel that a debt is due from the revenue of the Post

Office, to be paid on any extraordinary occasion to the Roads of Great

Britain, a debt contracted by the exemption, however properly given, of

their carriages from toll.

“On all these grounds your Committee think it right to refer the

Petition of Mr. MᶜAdam to the Postmasters General, under the sanction of

the Treasury, with their favourable recommendation.”

And in the Appendix to that Report it will be found from the Evidence of

Mr. Freeling, “That the Post Office did not take Mr. MᶜAdam’s services

into consideration, or suppose that 2,000_l._ would be a sufficient

remuneration for those services; they merely stated, in answer to papers

from the Treasury, that they considered it would be right to _advance_

to Mr. MᶜAdam the sum of 2,000_l._ and consider Mr. MᶜAdam’s claims as

establishing a ground for further remuneration.”

In consequence of that Report the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s

Treasury again, on the 23d of September, refer the subject to the

Postmasters General, who, considering the first sum of 5,019_l._ 6_s._

to be admitted as proved before the Committee, recommended the payment

of his expenses from 1814, to be calculated upon the same principle as

the travelling allowance is made to the Superintendent of the

Mailcoaches, amounting to 1,837_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._ and they further

propose the sum of 2,000_l._ or 2,500_l._ to be granted to Mr. MᶜAdam,

as a moderate compensation for his services; upon this the Lords

Commissioners of the Treasury issued a second sum of 2,000_l._ stating

that their Lordships, adverting to the large amount of Mr. MᶜAdam’s

claims, cannot feel themselves justified in issuing any further sum to

him on account thereof, without the express authority of Parliament for

that purpose. On the 5th December 1820, Mr. MᶜAdam again addressed a

letter to the Lords of the Treasury, which was transmitted to the Post

Office; and the Postmasters General, referring to their former letter,

observe that they have no difficulty in bearing their testimony to the

services of Mr. MᶜAdam, and to the benefits which the Public were likely

to derive from them, and also stated that in their opinions the charges

were reasonable.

The last Memorial presented by Mr. MᶜAdam was to the Postmasters

General, who, in transmitting it to the Treasury, observe, “The

favourable opinions which we entertained and expressed in our former

Reports upon this subject have been confirmed by experience; and that by

employing Mr. MᶜAdam to survey the roads in Lancashire the most

beneficial results are likely to follow.”

Having thus given a succinct and connected account of these different

proceedings, and having taken into their consideration the whole of the

correspondence which has passed previous to this inquiry between the

Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury and the Postmasters

General, together with the several Memorials presented at different

periods to these departments by the Petitioner, with the documents

accompanying them, and having considered Mr. MᶜAdam’s statement of his

case, and the proof adduced in support of it, which accompany this

Report, your Committee are of opinion that Mr. MᶜAdam has, by means of

great assiduity, skill, and many years personal labour, and at a

considerable expense, out of his private property, introduced into very

extensive practice a system of repairing, making and managing the

turnpike roads and highways of the kingdom, from which the Public have

derived most important and valuable advantages.

That in addition to the notoriety of the fact, that the improved

condition of the public roads is in a great degree to be ascribed to the

ability, zeal, and indefatigable exertions of Mr. MᶜAdam, it now for the

first time appears, that Mr. MᶜAdam has gratuitously given his personal

attention upon, and advice and assistance to, no less a number than

seventy turnpike trusts in twenty-eight counties of the kingdom, from

many of which he has not received the payment even of his expenses; that

he has, for a considerable length of time, been engaged in an extensive

correspondence with persons connected with the management and

improvement of roads, affording, in the most unreserved manner,

information and instruction wherever required; and that he has attended,

during several sessions of Parliament, the Committee of this House, for

the same purpose of communicating information: all which services,

together with the assistance he has been called upon to give to the Post

Office, he has rendered without reward or pecuniary compensation of any

kind, beyond the sum of 4,000_l._ advanced to him by the Lords

Commissioners of the Treasury, in part payment of his expenses.

Looking to the result of these services as affecting the community at

large; the increase of comfort, convenience and safety to the Public

generally; the diminution of expense in the wear and tear of carriages

of all descriptions; the reduction of horse-labour, and consequent

expense of horses; the relief the oppressive burthen of the poor rates,

by the additional means created for employing the surplus labouring

population of the encumbered parishes; the abolition in many instances

of a great part, and in some, of the whole of the statute duty

complained of by the agriculturists, and the very essential benefit to

the agricultural, commercial and manufacturing classes, by the more easy

and equal diffusion of the produce of the soil over the various parts of

the kingdom; the free as well as rapid circulation of commercial

capital, thereby adding greatly to the national wealth and prosperity

which this system has materially contributed to effect; the Committee

cannot hesitate to express their opinion, in concurrence with that

already pronounced by the Heads of the Department of the Post Office,

that the sum of 2,000_l._ or 2,500_l._, in addition to his expenses, to

be calculated after the same rate of allowance as is granted by that

office to the Surveyor or Superintendent of Mailcoaches, will be but a

moderate compensation to Mr. MᶜAdam for his great exertions and very

valuable services.

The Committee, with a view to abridge the Appendix, have omitted to

include several testimonials forwarded to them from different innkeepers

and postmasters, stating the advantages they have derived from the

improvement of the roads under Mr. MᶜAdam’s system; but which tend to

confirm the general opinion favourable to the system.

It appears that Mr. MᶜAdam has held, from the year 1816 to the present

time, and now holds, the situation of general surveyor of the Bristol

Turnpike Roads at a salary, the first year, of 400_l._ and each

subsequent year, of 500_l._; but taking into consideration, that out of

his annual salary 200_l._ is for expenses incident to his Office, the

remaining sum of 300_l._ is, in the opinion of this Committee, not more

than an adequate payment for the constant and laborious duties attached

to the situation, and cannot, or ought not, to be considered as

constituting any remuneration to Mr. MᶜAdam for his other distinct and

important services.

It further appears, that the three sons of Mr. MᶜAdam are employed as

general surveyors upon various lines of road in different parts of the

Kingdom; that they have been and are competitors with all other road

surveyors, over whom they possess no other advantage than such as their

superior intelligence, skill and industry entitle them to, having no

exclusive or preferable privilege whatever; that they have improved, and

at the same time have very considerably reduced the expense upon almost

all the roads under their management; and that their incomes, when

diminished by the necessary disbursements and payments to the persons

acting under them, and their own expenses, cannot be deemed too large a

sum for their own individual services; but, on the contrary, that they

have returned to the Public for the amount of their gains a fair and

full measure of benefit, by the personal activity, skill and labour so

conspicuous in the management of the roads, and the funds of the trusts

under their superintendence; that two of the three had relinquished

situations of profit to afford their aid in giving effect to and

carrying the system into execution, and are justly entitled to the

fruits of their industry, and hard-earned incomes, without the

participation of any other person; and it does not appear that the

Petitioner has profited in any manner from the salaries allowed to his

sons.

With respect to the petition of Mr. Wingrove, referred to your

Committee, it appears, from the Petitioner’s own statement, that his

object is a compensation for services which he considers himself

individually to have rendered to the public, a claim which your

Committee can neither investigate nor entertain, being foreign to the

object of their inquiry; and no part of Mr. Wingrove’s statement

appearing, in the opinion of your Committee, to affect the system of Mr.

MᶜAdam, or impeach his claim to a remuneration for services performed,

they feel it necessary only to present his evidence without further

remark.

In like manner, and with the same observation, they may dismiss the

petition of Mr. Lester, between the comparative merit of whose literary

productions with those of Mr. MᶜAdam, and whether Mr. MᶜAdam has

“infringed upon his literary property,” your Committee are not called

upon to determine; nor is it within their province to pronounce an

opinion upon the degree of merit belonging to Mr. Lester for the

construction of the various models of machines exhibited to your

Committee, and alleged by Mr. Lester to be applicable to, and useful

for, the improvement of roads.

In conclusion, your Committee desire to state it as their opinion, that

the value of Mr. MᶜAdam’s system, and consequently of his services, by

no means appears to its full extent upon the roads under the immediate

management of himself, or of his sons; but that the effect produced upon

a considerable portion of the roads generally throughout the Kingdom,

since the adoption of his system, has been manifest, and, as your

Committee conceive, too apparent to escape the most common or

indifferent observer; and further, that it must be obvious, from past

experience, that a system from which so much good has been already

derived, would, if extended over the whole face of the Kingdom, be

productive of the most beneficial consequences both to the condition of

the roads, and in effecting a reduction of the amount of the present

enormous and improvident expenditure.

Your Committee would therefore strongly recommend to the House the

consideration of the subject of making and managing the roads of the

Kingdom in the course of the ensuing Session of Parliament, feeling

convinced that whatever plausible appearance the plan may assume of

appointing a large number of noblemen, gentlemen, farmers, and

tradesmen, Commissioners of Roads, that the practice has everywhere been

found to be at variance with the supposed efficiency of so large a

number of irresponsible managers; and that the inevitable consequences

of a continuance of this defective system will be, to involve the

different trusts deeper in debt, and leave the roads without funds to

preserve them in proper order.

Your Committee cannot close their Report without directing the attention

of the House to that part of Mr. James MᶜAdam’s evidence, in which he

states the practicability of converting the pavement of the streets of

London into smooth and substantial roads; and your Committee have the

satisfaction to inform the House that the experiment is about to be

tried in two very different and distinct parts of the Metropolis, viz.

in St. James’s Square, and over Westminster Bridge and its boundary.

This most desirable improvement has, as appears from the evidence of Mr.

MᶜAdam, senior, and from that of Mr. William MᶜAdam, already been tried,

and completely succeeded (as is well known to many members of the House)

both at Bristol and Exeter, and is in progress of execution upon the

paved ways in the county of Lancaster.

The benefit to the inhabitants of this large City by such an important

improvement, in all its various advantages of comfort, convenience, and

economy, can scarcely be appreciated; and your Committee hope that the

plan about to be tried in two separate parts of London will be found so

far to succeed as to induce its adoption, at least in all the large

streets of the Metropolis, observing, that they believe that it is a

plan which Mr. MᶜAdam has for many years urged the adoption of, and, as

constituting a part of his system, will be found mentioned in all his

publications on the improved system of road-making.

20th _June_, 1823.