THE TITBNPIIM TRUST SYSTEM.
A CORRESPONDENT calls our attention to a local point, which has, however, a general interest. It is proposed, within the'juitisdiCtion of the Bristol Turnpike Trust, to erect a new gate at Wet-toirn on the Ashton road • and our correspondent shows that thik!iddition to the fiscal restrictions upon local travelling is n,e ,.. leas. The 4 total cost of the road is just over 13061. ; the re. na 1391/. ; leaving a balance in hand of 85/. But the gate is add in .order to raise more " wind" for some less profitable part of the4ust ; and is thus adding one more grievance to the many inflicted in maintaining that gigantic public nuisance the bankrupt " turnpike trust" of the kingdom. Bristol, it may be remembered, is not a thousand miles from the scene of Rebecca's exploits ; and although in district? better under the control of the Police than those of Wales we .:do not have riots, yet we endure what are almost as bad—unj414'exaction apft personal inconvenience. Hopelessness of thoroughly improving-the system has rendered its administrators reckless : the endeavour to get as much as possible, without caring particularly about the means, has induced a system of subletting; and at the very bounds of the city of London itself, that system causes a low species of partnership between the local collector and the ultimate :recipients of the tolls, which marks the vicious character of the whole sys- tem. It may be said that the consumer pays the impost, and it is therefore spread over the whole public. But it is a very incon- venient plan for the rich to be stopped in the midst of a Smart trot for the levy of a small tax ; and it is a still more objeetionable mode of levying a general tax sometimes upon the poor carter, who is about the worst of all people to select as paymaster on account of the public. For the whole public is interested in the mainte- nance of roads—the first thing to construct on the founding of a new community. How much extravagance is incurred by the system of trusts is shown by the same correspondent, who points out that inthree r neighbouring parishes fifty miles of highways are maintained at a cost under 121. per mile, while the average cost under the ;feta Trust is 60/. per mile. Now a toll levied in the name of uniint.ain- ing roads, but really expended in maintaining extravagance, is robbery, be it upon rich or poor. But there is one inconvenience at- tending the discussion of the whole subject its utter staleness. Everybody knows the extent of the nuisance, and hates it.equally. We verily believe, that the trustee who proposes the " ii,..*gatee sickens at the discussion even more than the carter rats the toll. The nuisance is one of those that survives partlylme- scription and partly by their very extent. The whole sàcL is brought to the surface again by these occasional and i.aPço.ijsts about some particular gate, and then we do but need a rettryl be the vexation, as a memorandum that some day or other we...... "do do something." Lord Palmerston has promised the nd1i I. ment of county administration in reference to lodayie ;:lizid in that promise we hope to see the euthanasia of the prepoStereue turnpike trust system.
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