sides. When the centre is paved, the man who attends the horse is in danger from the light carriages passing by quickly; but when the sides are paved, the waggoners are enabled to walk close to their horses, and take proper care of them, leaving the centre of the road for light carriages.

Depots.-Depots should be built on the side of the road, at the distance of about one quarter of a mile asunder, for the purpose of holding materials to repair it. It should be of some regular form, easily measured. Sir Henry Parnell recommends the back wall to be twelve yards long, and each of the sides two yards and a half at the bottom, and to slope at half a right angle to the top the height should be one yard.

The dimensions here given would contain 24 cubic yards of road material; and therefore four of such depots, the number on a mile, would contain 96 cubic yards. These depots are not upon many of the Irish roads, which is an omission that often leaves a rut in the road for weeks. They are comparatively useless if placed at a greater distance asunder than a quarter of a mile; as to convey materials from them in a wheelbarrow, to a greater distance than one furlong, would be both tedious and expensive.

Specification for building Depots of stone masonry. -Two depots are to be built in such places as may be pointed out by the engineer or his assistant: they are to be built with stone and lime, upon a solid foundation. The dimensions are to be twelve yards in the clear at the back, with ends two yards and a half clear at the bottom, and to rise to one and a half yards at the top; the thickness of the work to be eighteen inches

throughout for the height of three feet, and the work under that to be two feet thick. The top of the back and sides to be finished with Killiney granite, neatly hammer dressed. The back and ends of the depot to be secured outside, by making a mound of earth round them, two feet high, and two feet and a half thick at the base, rounded off at top, and well lined with sods. The floor of the depot to be flagged with Kilrush flags, neatly and evenly set a proper drain to be made be

SLOPE

Plan of a Depot.

36 feet.

Side of Road.

fore the depot, thirteen yards long and nine inches in the square: the mound round the base to be planted with quicksets.

Outlets.-Outlets are necessary to carry off the water from the side-channels of the road. They may be built of stone or brick; they are generally about one foot square. These outlets are sometimes made of tiles or iron pipes, when the water is to be conveyed from the side channel to the side drain. Particular care should be taken that an outlet should be placed at the end of every cutting, to carry off the water before it reaches the embankment.

Inlets.-The water from the side channels of a road should be conveyed into the cross-drains by side openings or inlets, ten inches by sixteen inches, built with stone masonry, and covered with good sound flags. Inlets are sometimes made along the channels, and covered with iron grates. In situations where water accumulates in large quantities during the time of floods, the grates should open on hinges, to allow the water to run off quickly.

ROAD-COVERINGS.

The best road-covering is that which lasts longest, and at the same time offers least resistance to the force of traction. To possess the one quality without the other, would leave the road still imperfect. Large blocks of unshapen stone, however durable, closely fixed together, without any regard to the formation of a smooth or even surface, would be ill calculated for carriages with any weight, or for unloaded carriages moving over it, with any degree of reasonable speed; and a road with a smooth and even surface, but composed of materials so weak and fragile as to yield, and crumble into dust, under the smallest pressure, breaking at once into ruts and cavities, serving as reservoirs to collect and retain water, is still more imperfect than the last. Therefore, to render a road useful, it must possess the two qualities above mentioned-smoothness of surface, and durability of materials. The bottom of the road must also be solid and unyielding, otherwise the road-covering will soon work its way into it, and force up the subsoil, which, mixing with the road materials, tends to accelerate their wear and tear. In wet

weather, the subsoil, thus forced to the surface, prevents by its semi-fluidity, the union of the road materials into a solid mass; therefore the carriage wheels soon sink into it, furrowing it up into ruts, which render it impassable.

Some short time ago, the making and repairing of the public roads through Ireland were committed to persons without skill or science. An influential grand juror procured a presentment for making or repairing a

road, which he was sure would enhance the value of his estate—the chief object he had in view. This job was given to such of his tenantry as owed most rent, by which they were enabled to clear off the arrears—the only consideration that guided him in his selection. The roads being thus committed to the care of such persons-persons without education, science, or skillit is needless to say that, under such management, they must have been badly constructed, and kept in the worst possible condition.

The condition of the roads in England and Wales, at the time we allude to, was not much better; but the system of making, repairing, and general management has been so much improved of late years, by having received the particula rattention of men of scientific skill, and of the legislature, that the public now have little reason to complain, so far as regards the state of the public highways, the improvement in which having rendered travelling easy, pleasant, and expeditious. We recollect when it was considered beneath the notice of men of science and education to attend to this most useful department of engineering; and had not such men as Macadam and Telford, followed by Griffith, Nimmo, Edgeworth, and M'Neil, excited the attention of the public, by pointing out a better and a more scientific method of making and repairing roads, they might have remained in the same imperfect condition in which they had been, before these eminent persons had directed their attention to such works.

A short time before the introduction of mail coaches into Ireland, the construction of the public highways was invariably entrusted to persons totally unacquainted

with even the lowest elements of science. Under the management of such persons, unassisted by the light of science, and uninstructed in art, the roads must have been in the worst possible condition. The introduction of mail coaches, however, soon changed the state of things for the better, effecting a complete revolution in the mode of travelling. By this new mode of conveyance, persons travelled over distances in a few hours, which, a short time before, required days to accomplish. A Cork merchant arrived in Dublin on the evening of the sixth or seventh day, laden with commissions from his neighbours, to execute which, with his own business, usually required a residence in the metropolis for two or three months, actively employed. Next year these friendly offices were executed by another of the principal traders, the small shopkeeper never daring to venture upon a journey so tedious and expensive. A similar practice was pursued by the wealthier classes of traders in Limerick, Tralee, Ennis, Galway, Sligo, and other distant towns in Ireland.

When the public roads connecting the principal cities and towns in Ireland with the capital, were in the condition here described, what must have been the state of the cross roads, made for the transmission of the agricultural produce of the country? Before carriage roads had been made through the remote districts of Kerry, it was the common practice to convey the butter in firkins, on men's backs, to the trackway, (for road it could not be called,) and from thence to the city of Cork in panniers or baskets, slung over a small poney's back, the journey requiring several days, and the quantity thus requiring such a vast expenditure of time and