the kingdom in one set of hands, would so manifestly tend towards economy and increased efficiency that a measure calculated to secure that end in a practical way would be welcomed with universal satisfaction, once it had been understood. It is ridiculous, for example, as well as wasteful, that the management of the Great North Road should be in the hands of more than a hundred distinct authorities.

But redistribution of the burden of upkeep is quite another matter. In a new country it might be possible to construct all roads from the outset at the general cost of the community, since a country without roads is worth little or nothing, and to apportion the cost of maintenance more or less equitably among those who used the highways. In an ancient country, and particularly in one governed on the elective principle, innumerable perplexities are inevitable. That those who use the roads should pay for them, proportionately to the use they make of them, is a pretty proposition in theory, but to work it out in practice has so far proved to be far beyond the capacity of legislators. Nothing could be more absolutely just than a wheel and horse-tax; and equity demands that some compensation should be obtained from those who, by driving flocks of sheep from place to place, do more harm to the normal road-surface than do many motor-cars, as any man may see if he studies the approaches to any famous sheep-marketEast Ilsley for example-a few days after the fair.

But, where governments depend on votes, strict justice of this kind is unattainable; innumerable anomalies must be borne; and some of them may even be justified by reference to other burdens and their incidence. If the farmer's manure-cart, often narrow-tired, injures the surface (in addition to befouling it with filth which will be dust and mud alternately until it is removed) more than the rubber-tired carriage of the landless but opulent person, it may still be fair that the manure-cart should escape taxation while the carriage is taxed. Apart altogether from the questions whether the carriage is a rich man's luxury, and of the taxation of luxuries as such, the farmer's burden of taxes is the heavier. No such plea can be advanced in favour of the tradesman's van in any of its many forms; it may even be urged with

logical justice that most, if not all, of the exemptions of vehicles from taxation mean essentially that the owners of those vehicles are, in a substantial measure, carrying on a protected industry. Still this country is not governed by logic; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer who should endeavour to follow logic and do justice by compelling numerous classes, accustomed to unfair exemption, to pay their proper share towards the maintenance of the roads, would soon retire, with his colleagues, into Opposition. It follows that, if there is ever to be redistribution of the burden of road-maintenance, it must be brought about by almost imperceptible degrees.

Again, assuming simplification of control and removal of the difficulties in the way of furnishing adequate funds to a central body, a Department of High-roads in fact, that body would have a complicated series of engineering problems to solve. Cost of road-making material-at present it must be granite-at the points where it is needed, will necessarily vary; and the difficulties of constructing a stable foundation, on which the life of a dustless road absolutely depends, will always be much greater in some districts than in others. Everybody, surely, must know stretches of road in the country, treated in identical fashion by the same authority, subject to the same traffic, some parts of which, by reason of varieties of subsoil, are always worse than others. So the net result of the last little series of observations is that, taking all the difficulties incidental to road-making reform into consideration, the day of the dustless and mudless road, of the road, that is to say, which will produce neither mud nor dust out of itself, is likely to be long delayed.

Dust and mud then on the roads, ready to be disturbed at any time, are a part, not likely to be removed for many a year, of the existing state of things; and the dust, when disturbed by the wheels of a motor-car, is the cause of the danger, the loss, and the discomfort which have been outlined, and that in very faint strokes, earlier in this paper. The question arising is, what measures can be taken to prevent these evils or to reduce them substantially. In approaching that question there is assuredly no reason to show any undue tenderness for the alleged rights of motorists; and the truth, harsh as

it may sound to motorists, is that their rights regarded, are at present very small indeed.

It may almost be said that the motor-car spi armed out of the brain of Gottlieb Daimler-: the claims of Benz are forgotten-as Pallas t the head of Zeus. At all events, since the at motor-cars into Great Britain from the Cont delayed until they had gone through ten years of ment abroad, it is fair to say that this advent, occurred, was that of alarmingly powerful macl... a world which was in no way prepared for the rights of their owners were, and are, rationally to making the best of that world as they found it, subject to the vested rights of those who w before them, and to striving for the amendment world, of the condition of the roads in fact, fashion that their reasonable rights may be g enlarged. They have been apt, naturally perl take an entirely mistaken view of their position. think that, apart from their statutory rights a abilities, they are entitled to use motor-cars preci other vehicles are used; and at the same time to go faster than other vehicles. Doubtless, a motor-ca be driven with safety, apart from dust, at greater. on the open road, since it can be brought to a stan with much greater rapidity (as has repeatedly proved by experiment) than any horse-drawn vel But motorists were bound to take the roads as t found them, and they will always be bound to take roads as they find them-gradually improving them is to be hoped-and to abide by the maxim, Sic ut tuo ut alienum non lædas.'

Let a crude example be taken. A man has a right the ordinary way to run along the gutter of Bond Stre so long as he does not jostle others using that thoroug fare; and there ought never to be an accumulation 6 liquid mud in that gutter. But, when there is such an accumulation, as sometimes happens, a man who plunge through it wilfully and precipitately, so as to befoul the garments of his fellow-citizens, would certainly be liable to an action for damages; nor would the fact that the mud ought not to have been there relieve him of s primary liability. This has a distinct bearing

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it may sound to motorists, is that their rights, properly regarded, are at present very small indeed.

It may almost be said that the motor-car sprung fully armed out of the brain of Gottlieb Daimler-not that the claims of Benz are forgotten-as Pallas did from the head of Zeus. At all events, since the advent of motor-cars into Great Britain from the Continent was delayed until they had gone through ten years of develop ment abroad, it is fair to say that this advent, when it occurred, was that of alarmingly powerful machines into a world which was in no way prepared for them. The rights of their owners were, and are, rationally limited to making the best of that world as they found and find it, subject to the vested rights of those who were in it before them, and to striving for the amendment of that world, of the condition of the roads in fact, in such fashion that their reasonable rights may be gradually enlarged. They have been apt, naturally perhaps, to take an entirely mistaken view of their position. They think that, apart from their statutory rights and disabilities, they are entitled to use motor-cars precisely as other vehicles are used; and at the same time to go much faster than other vehicles. Doubtless, a motor-car can be driven with safety, apart from dust, at greater speed on the open road, since it can be brought to a standstill with much greater rapidity (as has repeatedly been proved by experiment) than any horse-drawn vehicle. But motorists were bound to take the roads as they found them, and they will always be bound to take the roads as they find them-gradually improving them, it is to be hoped-and to abide by the maxim, Sie utere tuo ut alienum non lædas.'

Let a crude example be taken. A man has a right in the ordinary way to run along the gutter of Bond Street, so long as he does not jostle others using that thoroughfare; and there ought never to be an accumulation of liquid mud in that gutter. But, when there is such an accumulation, as sometimes happens, a man who plunged through it wilfully and precipitately, so as to befoul the garments of his fellow-citizens, would certainly be liable to an action for damages; nor would the fact that the mud ought not to have been there relieve him of his primary liability. This has a distinct bearing on the