have a beginning somewhere. Where can they begin with more propriety than from Edinburgh southward?

The road from London to Holyhead is now within a year or two of being as complete as the nature of the country, and the application of science to it, will permit; but its improvement has been gradual. It has required the indefatigable perseverance of the Chairman of the HolyheadRoad Committee, and of other members of Parliament, since 1808, and the liberal pecuniary assistance of the public, as well as the contribution of the greater part of Ireland, in the shape of an additional postage, to bring it to its present state of improvement. The very satisfactory result of the exertions of the Irish members, however, will be, that the post, which formerly only reached Dublin upon the fourth morning, will in future arrive there in thirty-eight hours. (Vide conclusion of Fourth Report of Committee on the Holyhead Roads, 1822.)

To obtain similar advantages for Edinburgh and the north of Scotland, similar perseverance and exertion are necessary. The whole benefit cannot be gained at once; the goal must be reached by degrees,-but to reach it at all, the race must be begun. Let it be remembered, that if to reach the first point be worth striving for, no time should be lost in starting. It will require two years from the passing of an act for the improvement of the Wooler road, before it can be in a state for the additional mail to travel on it; and until it is so, it will be impossible for the London mail to arrive in Edinburgh by one o'clock on the second day. The necessary notices for bringing in a bill to make this road, have been given; and the approaching session should not be lost. Those public-spirited individuals who have the object of the improvement of these mails at heart, should lose no time in explaining the advantages and the practicability of the plan to their neighbours, and inducing them to unite with the inhabitants of the east and north of Scotland, and with the persons interested in the roads from

Glasgow to Perth, and from Lanark, by Cumbernauld and Stirling, to Perth, in making a combined and strenuous effort to induce Government and the Post-Master-General to give their necessary assistance to carry it into execution.

The sum required to execute the improvements on this part of the road is £72,500, and the Committee of last Session recommended that the public should advance that sum at a moderate rate of interest, on repayment being secured by a sinking fund; they suggest three per cent as the rate of interest, £2175 0 0

And three per cent for the sinking fund,

2175 0 0

Thus, laying on the narrow district through which the road passes, more than double the burden proposed to be laid on all the rest of the country.

As by the proposed plan, the advantage would be general to the farthest point of Scotland, the additional postage should also be general. It can hardly be doubted, but all who enjoy the advantage will cheerfully contribute to its attainment-one half-penny per letter would be fully sufficient.*

Of course the arrangement must be a general one, comprehending the whole object, and all the means, but the postage should not be exigible until the road is completed, and the mail arrives at the time stipulated.

The additional postage is not to be

considered as a permanent burden. It must be provided in the act, that as soon as the principal and interest are repaid, the additional postage shall cease; also that, if it exceeds in any year the sum of 1500l., the Commissioners shall be bound to pay such excess, in addition to the stipulated sinking fund, in farther reduction of the debt.

On the other hand, the Commissioners will exact no more of the additional tolls than is necessary for the accomplishment of the purposes of the act, and will reduce them whenever the state of their funds enables them to do so, by the reduction of the debt.

To this, as well as to every other measure of importance, various objections may be stated. These may be considered under the following heads: 1st, The increase of the rate of travelling. 2d, The inconvenience which might arise from leaving York, in going northward, earlier than at present. 3d, The inconveniences or disadvantages which might arise from the proposed division of the letters from Manchester and Carlisle. 4th, The objections which might be made by the inhabitants of the district, and by the proprietors of lands, through which the proposed new line of road to Morpeth is to run. 5th, The objections which may be raised by persons interested in the line of road from Morpeth, by Berwick, to Edinburgh.

rate. The Leeds coach by Ferrybridge (travelling the same road for a great way as the Edinburgh mail) went also for several years at a greater rate than nine miles an hour.

Persons connected with stage coaches say, that there would be no difficulty in conveying a stage coach of the weight of the mail coach, with its letters and passengers, at the rate of nine miles an hour along the whole road, with profit to the owners, provided it was a well-employed coach. That it would, of course, he necessary to run none but horses with some blood in them, and to drive short stages. As the whole time of travelling the journey will be shortened, passengers will more frequently go through the whole way than at present, which will insure better employment for the mail coach; and as, for the same reason, fewer stops for refreshment will be necessary, including them in the general rate of travelling will not be so great an addition to the exertion as might at first sight appear,-they will need to be four: Breakfast, dinner, and supper, the day after setting out, and breakfast on the following day. Should it, however, be found necessary, contrary to expectation, for the Postoffice to increase, in some small degree, the contract price for forwarding this mail, there ought to be no hesitation in incurring the additional expense, to obtain so great an accommodation for so large a portion of the kingdom.

the dissatisfaction of those places." From which it seems probable, that sending these mails off a little sooner than at present, and making them travel to York with a little more speed, would neither be difficult nor inconvenient. At any rate, the whole acceleration of the mail from London to York would only be one hour and twenty minutes, which would be all the acceleration in point of time that it would be necessary to give to these cross mails.

3d, No inconvenience appears likely to arise from the proposed division of the letters from Manchester to Carlisle. As it must be two years before the new Wooler road can be ready, the Glasgow and Perth, and the Lanark and Perth mail coaches, may be established before that time, when no inconvenience will be occasioned by the plan suggested.

4th, The objections of the inhabitants of the district, and of the proprietors of lands through which the improved Wooler road passes.

The only objection that could be raised by the inhabitants of the district, would be to an increase of tolls; but the advantages they will derive from the improved road, by being enabled to carry greater weights, and to travel faster with more ease to their horses, besides the saving of tear and wear, even if they paid double tolls, are so great and so apparent, that no person who has considered the matter, has the smallest doubt on the subject. In fact, the inhabitants of the district who travel the road, all look to its improvement with the greatest anxiety, considering that it will be of very great advantage to them.

Several proprietors of land through which the new road will go, have stated objections to particular parts of the line; but there is not one of them who does not acknowledge its general excellence, with the exception only of the particular part in his own immediate neighbourhood. Some of these proprietors, indeed, have most handsomely said, that no minor objections of their own should induce them to give any opposition to it. There can indeed be no serious objection, as Mr Telford has taken care that it shall not touch upon the pleasure-grounds, or domestic comfort, of any one person. Some gentlemen have indeed objected, that it comes too near their residences;

but in all these cases, it either passes, at the place objected to, along an existing public road, or there lies between it and the house of the person objecting, another public road still nearer, and which might, in some cases, be shut up in consequence of the making of the new road. Others object, that it rather goes farther from their houses than the present road, and only saves a mile or two of distance by doing so. Some object, that it does not go through a new and uncultivated district, and therefore does no good to the country. Others object, that it will cut some of their fields diagonally;-that it will deprive part of them of access to water, &c.; and some have started imaginary objections from not having informed themselves accurately as to the precise line proposed for the road. To all these objections, as none of them interfere with the privacy or domestic comfort of any person, there is this conclusive answer-that whatever damage is done, or can in any way fairly be alleged, will be liberally paid for, and every partial inconvenience amply compensated; and, if dissatisfied with the intentions of the Commissioners in that respect, every one has power to appeal to a jury of those who live in his own county, and who, if they have any bias, must have a favourable feeling towards their neighbour. The present road, where even it is departed from in the new line, will still have ample means for its future maintenance where it is necessary to continue it, and will in some cases be improved as part of the branch roads necessarily connected with the main line.

5th, To the objections which may be raised by persons interested in the road through East Lothian and Berwick to Morpeth, it may be sufficient to say, that, as the present mail coach is to be continued on that line, they are not entitled to any weight at all. No persons in this country have any right to say, that others shall not enjoy the benefit of an improvement because they themselves have long reaped exclusive advantages. This point is one which cannot now be argued with any grace, or hope of success.

The Committee on the Holyhead Roads, in their 4th Report of last session, (1822,) in recommending two alterations, one from Moxley to Stonebridge, by which two miles will be saved; the other from Wellington to

Chirk, by which seven miles will be saved, make the following observations:

"Your Committee have to remark, that it may be objected to this new line," (viz. from Moxley to Stonebridge,) "that it passes to the north of Birmingham, and consequently that the town of Birmingham may lose some of the advantages it now has from the Irish travelling. But as to this plea in favour of local interests, your Committee conceive the point to have been already decided by former Committees, and by the proceedings of Parliament, so far as the communication between England and Ireland is in question. In the case of the new road across the island of Anglesey, by which the interests of some towns, said to be of great importance, and the whole property vested in a large inn were altogether destroyed, Parliament passed an act for making this road, though a petition against it was sent up from a county meeting, in order to protect the local interests connected with the old road. The right of individuals in the Ferries of Bangor and Conway, have on the same principle been taken away by Parliament. All these things have been done, and with good reason, and proper consideration, for the public interest; for if this principle was not to guide the Legislature, and the principle of attending to local interests was to predominate, the inhabitants of Northampton and of Warwick, or of Dudley and of Walsall, would have just as good a right to require the Holyhead road to be brought through these towns, as the inhabitants of Birmingham or of Shrewsbury have of requiring it to be continued where it now is, sooner than suffer the public to have a shorter road by nine miles than the present road. The principle which requires the public interests to be accommodated to the local interests, rests upon a very perverted notion of the legitimate object of a good road; those who advocate this principle must believe that the right use of a road is to enable landlords to obtain high rents for their inns, and their tenants

to make large profits from travellers; whereas the only true and proper object of a good road should be to enable travellers to pass, in the shortest possible time, between any two places or points, and with the least possible trouble and expense. Your Committee cannot imagine any thing more unjust and unreasonable than to make the long journey from Holyhead to London, still longer by ten or fifteen miles than it ought to be, in order to give to certain towns the profits to be made by the expense which this extra distance imposes in every year on ten or fifteen thousand Irish travellers, who are obliged, from business, or the performance of some public duty, to perform this journey." Afterwards, in mentioning the new line from Wellington to Chirk, the Report of the Committee says:

"As this new line will leave out the town of Shrewsbury, the expediency of making it rests upon the same general grounds as those which have already been stated in the case of the new line from Stonebridge to Moxley."

In addition to this, it may be observed on this particular case, that the Chairman of the Morpeth and Wooler Road Committee, who is resident in and intimately connected with East Lothian, declined to have any thing to do with the Committee, until he should be satisfied that the improvement of the Wooler road would not be materially detrimental to the interests of East Lothian; he was so convinced, and he then moved for the Committee. The Committee afterwards took this point into consideration, and ordered returns from the turnpike trusts on the eastern road, between Morpeth and Edinburgh; and after due deliberation, were satisfied, as they express in the end of their Report, that the chief part of the income of the trusts would not be affected by the new road, and that no alteration would take place in the mail-coach by Berwick. The acceleration of the mail to Newcastle will be advantageous to Alnwick, Berwick, and East Lothian,

sooner.

Any anxiety shown by those interested in the eastern road to prevent the improvement of the Wooler road, is in fact a testimony in favour of its merit; were that not considerable, no anxiety need be shewn to prevent its execution.

When arrangements are made for insuring the arrival of the London mail in Edinburgh at one o'clock on the second day, it will be proper, as those interested in the Holyhead roads have done, to consider by what means the time can be still farther diminished.

It is well known to every person in the habit of travelling between Edinburgh and London, that great improvements can be made on the road south of Morpeth.-On the south side of Newcastle, the great hill at Gateshead may, by going up the valley to the westward, be almost entirely avoided.

The road from York towards London may be much shortened, by improving or new-making the road through the level country to Doncaster, to Bawtry, or to Retford.

From Newark to Grantham the road may be shortened, and Gunnerby-hill avoided, by taking the road straight from Long Bennington, or Foston, to the west of Gunnerby.

From Grantham to Witham Common the inequalities of the road may be much reduced; and the same may be said of the rest of the road all the way to London.

When the proper time shall arrive, application should be made to the Lords of the Treasury, to have the road from Morpeth to York, and from York to London, properly surveyed. It will be found that York is not out of the right line, though it is not in the present most direct line.

Were a proper survey made, improvements not now thought of would be pointed out, which the local trusts would adopt and execute.

On the plan which has been suggested many improvements will occur, if gentlemen, to whom it must be an object of interest, will make it the subject of their attentive consideration.