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necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be on each sideof his coach, in order to prop it. Of the carriages which con- -veyed his retinue several were upset and injured. A letterfrom one of his gentlemen in waiting has been preserved, inwhich the unfortunate courtier complains that, during fourteenhours, he never once alighted, except when his coach wasoverturned or stuck fast in the mud. *

One chief cause of the badness of the roads seems to havebeen the defective state of the law. Every parish was boundto repair the highways which passed through it. Thepeasantry were forced to give their gratuitous labour six daysin the year. If this was not sufficient, hired labour was em-ployed , and the expense was met by a parochial rate. Thata route connecting two great towns, which have a large andthriving trade with each other, should be maintained at thecoast of the rural population scattered between them is ob-viously unjust; and this injustice was peculiarly glaring in thecase of the great North road, which traversed very poor andthinly inhabited districts, and joined very rich and populousdistricts. Indeed it was not in the power of the parishes ofHuntingdonshire to mend a highway worn by the constanttraffic between the W est Riding of Yorkshire and London.Soon after the Restoration this grievance attracted the noticeof Parliament; and an act, the first of our many turnpike acts,was passed, imposing a small toll on travellers and goods,for the purpose of keeping some parts of this important line ofcommunication in good repair.** This innovation, however,excited many murmurs; and the other great avenues to thecapital were long left under the old system. A change was atlength affected, but not without much difficulty. For unjustand absurd taxation to which men are accustomed is oftenborne far more willingly than the most reasonable impost

* Annals ol Queen Anne, 1103. Appendix, No. 3.

" 15 Car. II. c. 1.

J\lacaulaj, History. I. 24

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