comes nearest to the estimate of their own officer. If no fair tender be made, recourse may then be had to advertising for a contract.

With respect to repairing paved streets, this work should be done by contract. The price may be fixed by the superficial yard; but the manner of doing the work should be minutely described in a specification.

Whenever any pavement is taken up, if only a few stones, there ought to be fresh broken stones provided for making good the bottoming. A principal cause of the bad state of the pavement in London is the neglect of timely repair. After a pavement is newly laid it is usually left without any repairs until it is in a ruinous state; but, instead of this, constant attention should be paid to it, and as soon as a single stone gets out of its proper bearing it should be taken up, and relaid with new bottoming. In case of breaking up the pavement for water or gas pipes, it should be specified that a complete bottoming of stones should be first laid down over the pipes, similar in every respect to that provided for the first making of the pave

ment.

The paving-stones should be laid on loose at first, and left till the bottoming is consolidated, and then they should be taken up and carefully set in mortar.

Paved streets have been objected to on account of the noise made by carriages passing over them. The noise chiefly arises from the boxes of the wheels striking the arms of the axletrees; and,

therefore, when a paved street is exceedingly rough, the strokes of the axles are frequent and violent. But when a paved street is properly made, the surface of it will be comparatively smooth, and then both the number and force of the strokes of the axles on the boxes, and consequently the noise made by carriages, will be greatly reduced. When a carriage passes from a rough to a well-made pavement, the difference of sound is immediately perceivable.

It is supposed by some persons that if the streets were paved in the way proposed their surface would be too smooth for horses to go safely over them; but this supposition is not well founded, except when that kind of stone is used which becomes polished by wear.

Scotch granite and some other kinds of stone do not become polished; and therefore pavements made with them will never have so smooth a surface as to be unfit for horses. A horse properly shod will seldom slip on a pavement, or fall, unless when thrown down by being turned too short, or other careless management.

The enormous expense which has been incurred by adopting the plan of broken stone streets in London, in place of pavements, is fully established by the following return, which was presented to the House of Commons in the year 1827.

By this return it appears that the first cost of converting 1 mile 250 yards from a pavement into broken stone road was 12,842., and that the

annual expense of maintaining this 1 mile 250 yards has been 4,0037., being at the rate of 1s. 9d. per superficial square yard.

66

"M'ADAM'S ROADS:

Regent Street, Whitehall, and Palace Yard
Streets.

"Account of all sums expended by the commissioners acting under 5 Geo. IV. c. 100. and 6 Geo. IV. c. 38., in converting Regent Street, Whitehall, and Palace Yard Streets into broken stone roads, including the value of the pavingstones converted into broken stones; also, of the expense incurred in maintaining these roads in repair, including scraping and watering, and all other expenses in the year ending 5th January 1827; and showing the number of lineal yards, and of superficial square yards, in the Regent Street District, the Whitehall District, and Palace Yard District; viz.

"The cost of converting Regent £ s. d. Street, Whitehall, and Palace

Yard Streets into broken stone

"The cost of maintaining these roads

in repair, including scraping, and
every expense, except watering,
in the year ended 5th January
1827, was

"The cost of watering the said roads in the year ended 5th January 1827, was

£4,632 9 4

"The extent of the said roads is as under;

"Clerk to the Commissioners for carrying into execution the Acts 5 Geo. IV. c. 100. and 6 Geo. IV. c. 38.

"Office of Woods, &c. 30th April 1827."

The following is a copy of a statement which appeared in a London Morning Paper on this subject:

"Macadamisation.

"In the proceedings taken before the House of Lords on the 11th of last May, several witnesses gave evidence on the Westminster Improvement Bill as to the comparative expense of macadamising and paving. According to this evidence, there is no less a difference in ten years than 21. on every superficial yard; a yard of paving for that time amounting to 10s. 10d., and a yard of macadamised road for the same period costing 2l. 10s. 10d.

"Mr. Johnson, an eminent pavior and stone merchant, stated before their Lordships that he had been a contractor for St. George's, St. Ann's, St. Giles's, and other parishes, and for some parts of the city, which enabled him to make very accurate calculations. He proved that the very best pavement would cost 13s. per square yard, which would require no repair for the first year certainly, and in most cases would cost nothing in repair for the first three years; that the expense after the first year would be about 4d. per yard per annum for ten years, after which the pavement as laid down would be worth 8s. per yard to the parish; thereby reducing the expense of a square yard of pavement in ten years to 10s. 10d., as under: