REPORT
FROM
SELECT COMMITTEE
ON
MR. M’ADAM’S PETITION,
AND
EXTRACTS FROM EVIDENCE
RELATING TO HIS IMPROVED SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTING AND REPAIRING THE PUBLIC ROADS OF THE KINGDOM.
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.
“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.
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 2,000l. 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 2000l.”
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 5,019l. 6s. 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.
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 2,000l. 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 2,000l. 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 5,019l. 6s. 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 1,837l. 17s. 6d. and they further propose the sum of 2,000l. or 2,500l. 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 2,000l. 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 4,000l. 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 2,000l. or 2,500l., 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 400l. and each subsequent year, of 500l.; but taking into consideration, that out of his annual salary 200l. is for expenses incident to his Office, the remaining sum of 300l. 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.