the maximum of assessment, differ in different counties, according to the varying circumstances of each. By these Acts the administration of all matters relating to the roads is vested in trustees. Sheriffs depute and substitute, and all persons in the commission of the peace, are appointed trustees: with all individuals, and their eldest sons, being owners of estates worth 100l. Scotch a year, and upwards, of valued rent; one guardian or trustee of all minors possessing such property; and the provost and the two eldest bailies of every burgh. The Act usually divides the county into districts; the trustees residing in each district being appointed to manage the roads contained in it. The district trustees, at their meetings, prepare statements and estimates, which are laid before the general meeting of the trustees of the county.

The latter have power to order an assessment to be made on the occupiers of lands, not exceeding the amount prescribed in the Act.

The proceedings of the trustees of the districts, at their meetings, are subject to the direction, revision, and control of the general meetings.

The trustees of the district meetings, appoint surveyors of the roads in their districts, with salaries.

Sufficient powers are given to the trustees for obtaining land and materials, and for making, widening, and repairing roads, and building bridges.

According to Sir Henry Parnell, this system of managing the highways has the following advantages over the English system of parish management :

--

"Ist. A more efficient governing authority is provided.

"2nd. The obstacle to a uniform and efficient management of the roads, which the small divisions of parishes occasion, is obviated, by giving the general management of all the roads of a county to the general meetings of the trustees.

"3rd. The funds for maintaining the roads are derived from a regular assessment on the lands, instead of by statute labour.

4th. The surveyors are appointed permanently, and with fixed salaries.

"The experience of the manner in which the new Scotch system has worked, fully establishes its great superiority over the old Scotch system, which still exists in some counties, and over the English parish system; and leads to the conclusion that it is expedient to make it universal in Scotland, and substitute it in England instead of the English system."—(P. 315.)

It is not easy for those accustomed to travel along the smooth and level roads by which every part of Scotland is now intersected to form any accurate idea of the difficulties the traveller had to encounter in that country a century ago. Roads were then hardly formed; and, in summer, not unfrequently consisted of the bottoms of rivulets. Down to the middle of last century, most part of the goods conveyed from place to place in Scotland, at least where the distances were not very great, were carried, not by carts or wagons, but on horseback. Oatmcal, coals, turf, and even straw and hay, were conveyed in this way! At that period, and for long previously, single-horse traffickers

(cadgers) regularly plied between different places, supplying the inhabitants with such articles as were then most in demand, as salt, fish, poultry, eggs, earthenware, &c.; these were usually conveyed in sacks or baskets, suspended one on each side the horse. But in carrying goods between distant places, it was necessary to employ a cart, as all that a horse could carry on his back was not sufficient to defray the cost of a long journey. The time that the carriers (for such was the name given to those that used carts) usually required to perform their journeys seems now almost incredible. The common carrier from Selkirk to Edinburgh, thirty-eight miles distant, required a fortnight for his journey between the two places, going and returning! The road originally was among the most perilous in the whole country; a considerable extent of it lay in the bottom of that district called Galawater, from the name of the principal stream, the channel of the water being, when not flooded, the track chosen as the most level, and easiest to travel in!

Even between the largest cities the means of travelling were but little superior. In 1678, an agreement was made to run a coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of 44 miles, which was to be drawn by six horses, and to perform the journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back again in six days. Even so late as the middle of last century, it took 14 day for the stage coach to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow, a journey which is now accomplished in 4 or 5 hours.

So late as 1763, there was but one stage coach from Edinburgh to London, and it set out only once a month, taking from 12 to 14 days to perform the journey. Previously to the late opening of the railway, by which they have been in a great measure superseded, there were, exclusive of steam packets, smacks, &c., three or four coaches which set out each day from Edinburgh for London, and conversely, performing the journey in from 45 to 48 hours.-(Robertson's Rural Recol. pp. 39-44.)

Highland roads.-Besides the roads constructed in Scotland under the system now described, a large extent of excellent road has been formed, either wholly or partly at the public expense, and under a different system of supervision. During the rebellion of 1715 the royal troops were unable, from the want of roads and the impracticable nature of the country, to advance beyond Blair in Athol; and to obviate this inconvenience in future, government soon after began to employ part of the troops quartered in Scotland in the construction of military roads in different parts of the Highlands, which, when finished, extended in all to about 800 miles. Unluckily they were not well planned: being for the most part carried, wherever it was practicable, direct from place to place, they were necessarily hilly, and were, also, too narrow. About the commencement of the present century, it became a question whether it was worth while for Government to continue to defray the expense of keeping these roads in repair. But, though it was ascertained that they were no longer of any material use as military roads, they were found to be of the greatest importance as affording a means of communication; and the inquiries then set on foot, impressed Government with a conviction, that nothing

would contribute so much to the improvement of the Highlands as their intersection with good roads. But, this being an undertaking that exceeded the limited means of the proprietors and inhabitants, parliamentary commissioners were appointed, who were authorised to decide upon the roads proper to be constructed, and to superintend their execution; the public agreeing to defray half the cost of such roads, the other half being defrayed by the proprietors, or other persons benefited thereby. The measure has been most successful. "The Highland counties were prompt to the call, in contributing their quota. The whole amount of parliamentary advances, including interest, has been 267,000l., and the county advances 214,000.; they being only liable for half the expense of making the roads, the expense of general management falling on the public. About 60,0001. beyond these sums have been defrayed by individuals; so that about 540,000l. have been expended upon the Highland parliamentary roads. The length of new roads formed by this joint fund has been 875 miles, and the number of bridges of all kinds 1,117. With the exception of 148 miles in Argyle and Bute, these parliamentary roads lie almost wholly in Inverness-shire and the northern counties."-(Anderson's Highlands, p. 60.) The operations were conducted by Mr. Telford; and, though the region which the roads traverse be the most mountainous and rugged in the empire, they have been laid out with so much skill and judgment, that the acclivities are almost every where moderate.

Since the parliamentary roads were undertaken, a large portion of the old military roads has been allowed to fall into disrepair; but nearly 300 miles of them are still kept up. In 1814 they were placed under the control of the parliamentary commissioners, who have now about 1,200 miles of road under their care. The total charge on account of repairs, &c., amounts to about 10,000l. a year.

It would not be easy to enumerate the advantages that have resulted from the construction of these roads. They have done more than anything else that could have been done to promote the improvement of the Highlands. The proprietors have made very great exertions to extend the advantages of improved communication to districts removed from the parliamentary roads. In the county of Sutherland only, about 350 miles of road have been constructed, at the expense of the county since 1810, exclusive of the parliamentary roads.

Irish roads.-The roads of Ireland are, generally speaking, well laid out, and in a good state of repair. This result is ascribed, by Sir Henry Parnell, to the abolition of the old system of statute labour in 1763, and the placing of the construction and administration of roads under the control of the grand juries. The method of proceeding is as follows:-Any person who wishes to have a new road constructed, presents a memorial to the grand jury at the assizes, with an affidavit of its necessity. A deliberation then takes place upon the subject, and, if the grand jury allow the presentment, the road is either made or repaired, as the case requires: the accounting presentment is sworn to, and must receive the sanction of the judge. Mail coach roads are determined upon by the postmaster-general, and the expense is defrayed by a tax on the county. The money for other roads is

raised by a baronial tax, each barony paying the expense of the roads within its boundaries.-(Wakefield's Ireland, vol. i., p. 657.)

Besides the roads constructed under the above regulations, a considerable extent of road has, within these few years, been constructed in different parts of the country, at the public expense, under the superintendence of the Board of Public Works. These roads are said to have been productive of the best effects; but it seems unreasonable that those through whose property they pass, and who are principally benefited by them, should contribute nothing towards the expense of their construction, and of keeping them in repair.

RAILWAYS.

But every existing means of communication, whether by improved roads or canals, is already nearly superseded, at least between places of any importance, by the construction of railways and the employment of locomotive engines. These, which rank among the most important and most advantageous improvements and discoveries of modern science, have effected a total revolution in the means and methods of conveyance. They have immeasurably increased the facilities of communication; passengers and goods being transported by their agency, from place to place, with a celerity, cheapness, and (where proper precautions are taken) security, that could not previously have been supposed possible; and which, in fact, are all but miraculous.

Construction of Railroads.-The friction on a perfectly level railroad, properly constructed, is estimated to amount to from one-seventh to one-tenth only of the friction on an ordinary level road; so that, supposing the same force to be applied in both cases, it would move a weight from 7 to 10 times as great on the former as on the latter. But if there be a very moderate ascent, such as 1 foot in 50, which in an ordinary road would hardly be perceived, a great increase of power on the railroad is required to overcome the resistance that is thus occasioned. The reason is, that the ordinary load on a level railroad is about seven times as great as on a common turnpike road; so that when the force of gravity is brought into operation by an ascending plane, its opposing power, being proportioned to the load, is 7 times as great as on a common road. Hence the vast importance of having railroads either level or as nearly so as possible.

It is also of great importance that railroads should be straight, or, at least, free from any abrupt curves. Carriages being kept on the road by flanges on the wheels, it is obvious, that where the radius of the curves is comparatively short, the friction on the sides of the rails, and consequent retardation, are proportionally great. In the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad, the curves form segments of a circle which, if extended, would embrace a circumference of 15 miles.

Iron railroads, the kind now generally used, are of two descriptions. The flat rail or tram-road, consists of cast-iron plates abont 3 feet long, 4 inches broad, and inch or 1 inch thick, with a flange, or turned up edge, on the inside, to guide the wheels of the carriage. The plates rest at each end on sleepers of stone or wood, sunk into the earth, and they are joined to each other so as to form a continuous

horizontal pathway. They are, of course, double; and the distance between the opposite rails, or width of gauge, which, of course, determines the width of the carriage, is from 4 feet 8 inches, the narrow, to 7 feet the wide gauge; the former being, however, by far the more extensively introduced. The edge rail, which is found to be superior to the tram rail, is made either of wrought or cast iron; if the latter be used, the rails are about 3 feet long, 3 or 4 inches broad, and from 1 to 2 inches thick, being joined at the ends by cast-metal sockets attached to the sleepers. The upper edge of the rail is generally made with a convex surface, to which the wheel of the carriage is attached by a groove made somewhat wider. When wrought iron is used, which is in many respects preferable, the bars are made of a smaller size, of a wedge shape, and from 12 to 18 feet long; but they are supported by sleepers at the distance of every 3 feet. In the Liverpool Railroad the bars are 15 feet long, and weigh 75 lbs. per lineal yard. The waggons in common use run upon 4 wheels of from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Railroads are either made double, one for going and one for returning; or they are made with sidings, where the carriages may pass each other.

Speed of Carriages on Railroads, &c.-The effect of railways in diminishing friction is familiar to every one; and they have long been used in various places of this and other countries, particularly in the vicinity of mines, for facilitating the transport of heavy loads. But it is only since the application of locomotive engines as a moving power, that they began powerfully to attract the public attention, and that their value has been fully appreciated. These engines were first brought into use on the Darlington and Stockton Railroad, opened on the 27th of December, 1825; but it was not till the opening of the railway between Manchester and Liverpool that the vast importance of this novel means of intercourse was fully perceived. This work, though now far surpassed in magnitude by other railroads, cost nearly a million sterling. It has the advantage of being nearly level; for, with the exception of a short distance at Rainhill, where it is inclined at the rate of 1 foot in 96, there is no greater inclination than in the ratio of 1 foot in 880. The length of the railway is about 31 miles; and it was usual from its opening to perform this journey in handsome carriages attached to the locomotive engines, in 1 hour, or less! So far, indeed, as respects the facility of passing from the one to the other, this railway has brought Manchester and Liverpool as near to each other as the western part of London is to the eastern part!

The opening of this railway having more than verified the most sanguine anticipations as to the success of such undertakings, and gone far, in fact, to strike time and space out of the calculations of the traveller, gave an extraordinary stimulus to similar undertakings in all parts of the country; and in no long period, there were hardly any two considerable places in Great Britain, how distant soever, which it was not proposed to connect by railways. An immense number of companies have been formed, and a very large amount of capital expended upon, and subscribed for carrying on these undertakings; and there can be no doubt that the country has profited very