tion provided always, that no order or determination of the said trustees, which shall have been made at any annual general meeting, shall be annulled, varied, or altered but at some subsequent annual general meeting, nor unless notice thereof shall have been given by advertisement, to be twice published in one of the Edinburgh newspapers, thirty days before such subsequent meeting.

XVII. And be it enacted, that the trustees, or any three or more of them in the said districts, at their first meeting, or any adjourned meeting, shall be empowered to name a preses or chairman of their meeting, and a clerk during pleasure; and that they shall superintend and have the direction and cognizance of the several roads and bridges within their respective districts; and shall have power to appoint the order in which the same shall be made and repaired, and to appropriate the monies and services to be exacted and raised by virtue of this act from each district, but in such a manner that the money or services exacted from each parish shall be laid out upon the roads of that parish only, unless two thirds of the trustees having property in any parish shall agree that the whole or any part of such monies or services should be applied to other roads; and provided that the money or services assessed upon or exacted in country parishes shall be wholly expended or applied on roads not turnpike, excepting the money levied in burgh and upon burgh roods, which may be laid out as herein-after provided, and also excepting the share of each parish in the expence of clerks, collectors, and surveyors, overseers, and other officers, which proportion shall be regulated by the district meetings; and the said trustees, at the said district meetings, are hereby

empowered to appoint surveyors and overseers for the repair of the roads within their respective districts, and to allow them suitable salaries, and to remove or dismiss them, and appoint others, as they shall find necessary; and the said surveyors and overseers may, by a justice of the peace of the bounds, be made constables, for the special purpose of acting as constables in the business of the highways and roads, and for that purpose only.

XXI. And be it further enacted, that the said trustees in each district shall hold a meeting annually, some time before the general meeting appointed to be held on the same day that the commissioners of supply shall be directed by the land tax act of the year then current to assemble, and shall make up a particular state of the roads and bridges within their respective districts, and estimates of the sums necessary for the repair of them for the then current year; and they shall likewise make out an account of the application of the assessment, composition money, and services of the preceding year; which state, estimate, and account shall be laid before the general meeting, and engrossed in the book of their proceedings: and, according to the said state and estimate, if it be approved of by them, the said general meeting shall fix the rate of assessment and proportion of composition money corresponding thereto, to be levied in each district, and in each parish in that district, for the then current year; and if the trustees of any district neglect or omit to prepare such state and estimate, and to lay it before the said general meeting, then the trustees in said general meeting assembled are hereby empowered and required to assess the said district in the maximum assessment, and to levy the highest proportion

of composition money for the then current year, and to appoint a committee of their own number to apply the money to the repairs of the said roads and bridges within the respective parishes where it is levied : and further, in case of such neglect, omission, or failure, the clerk of the general meeting shall, and he is hereby required to apply to the sheriff depute, or his substitute, of the county, who shall grant warrant for summoning the clerk of the district so failing, or other person or persons to whom the said failure or neglect is imputed, and, on proof thereof, shall fine him and them in a sum not exceeding 107. sterling, to be paid to the said trustees, and to be applied by them to the repair of the said roads; and the prosecutor shall yearly report to the first adjourned general meeting after the 30th day of April the issue of such prosecutions.

XXIV. And be it further enacted, that if any district shall neglect or omit to lay before said general meeting an account of the application of the assessment and composition money of the preceding year within that district, in that case the said general meeting are hereby impowered and required to appoint a committee of their own number, to inquire into the cause of the said neglect, and to report to them at their next general meeting, or adjourned general meeting; and if it shall appear that the trustees of the said district have neglected to meet, or to levy the assessment for the preceding year, or shall have neglected to lay out said money upon the repairs of the roads and bridges after having levied it, in that case the said general meeting are hereby impowered and required to appoint a collector or collectors, and to levy the said assessment and composition money, and likewise to name a committee

of three or more of their own number, who shall be vested with all the powers given by this act to the district meetings, for the application of said assessment or composition money towards the repairs of the roads and bridges within the respective parishes where it is levied.

XXXIII. And be it further enacted, that the said trustees, in their general or district meeting, or a quorum of them, which is hereby declared to be seven at a general meeting, and three at a district meeting, shall, and they are hereby authorized to cause the highways or roads, bridges, and ferries, within the said county, to be amended, widened, and repaired in such manner as they shall think proper; and to settle the direction of any of the said roads; and to make, or cause to be made, causeways; and to cut or make drains, ditches, or trenches through any grounds lying contiguous to the said roads; and to make passage for the water, where it shall be found necessary, from such ditches or trenches through the ground of any adjacent proprietor; and also to keep clear such drains, ditches, passages, or outlets; and the workmen, authorized by them, may go upon the said lands for that purpose: provided always, that reasonable satisfaction be made to the owner or occupier of such land for the damage to be done thereby and if the said owner or occupier shall not be satisfied with the allowance offered by the said trustees, he shall be at liberty to apply to the quarter sessions, who shall have power finally to settle the same.

XXXIV. And be it further enacted, that the said trustees, in their general or district meeting, or a quorum of them, shall, and are hereby authorized and empowered to cause new arches and bridges of stone, brick, or timber, to be made and erected upon the said roads;

and any old bridges which may become useless or unnecessary, by changing the course of the roads, or otherwise, to be pulled down, and the materials thereof to be sold or applied in building new arches, or for repairing the said highways or roads, as they shall see proper; and also to cause such parts of the said roads as are not of a sufficient breadth to be widened, and made of such breadth as they shall think proper, not exceeding forty feet, free of ditches: and also to cause the course of such part or parts of the said roads, as they shall think proper, to be changed or altered, for shortening the same, or for making them more accessible; and to carry the same through and over such grounds and fences, as to the said trustees may appear most proper, accessible, and convenient; and along or through any bye or other roads, which may be more convenient than the old course of any of the said roads; in which case the said bye road, as far as it is joined by any of the said roads, shall be considered as part of them; and for these purposes, if necessary, to cause remove fences, or pull down any houses, the side walls of which, are not more than twelve feet high, upon giving the occupiers of said houses legal intimation of removal; and the road so altered shall, from thenceforth, be deemed and taken to be a public highway; and shall be repaired and amended, and kept in repair, in the same manner as the said highways directed to be repaired by this pre

sent act.

XXXVIII. And be it further enacted, that in altering or widening the said roads, or in making such new course of the roads, or such roads of communication, or in pulling down any house or houses, or part or parts of any house or houses, by the authority of this act, in