neral introduction of
wood pavement.

In the first place, the facility of cleansing will be greatly increased.
A smooth surface, between which and the subsoil is interposed a thick
concrete--which grows as hard and impermeable as iron--will not generate
mud and filth to one-fiftieth of the extent of either granite roads or
Macadam. It is probable that if there were no importations of dirt from
the wheels of carriages coming off the stone streets, little
scavengering would be needed. Certainly not more than could be supplied
by one of Whitworth's machines. And it is equally evident that if wood
were kept unpolluted by the liquid mud--into which the surface of the
other causeways is converted in the driest weather by water carts--the
slipperiness would be effectually cured.

In the second place, the saving of expense in cleansing and repairing
would be prodigious. Let us take as our text a document submitted to the
Marylebone Vestry in 1840, and acted on by them in the case of Oxford
Street; and remember that the expenses of cleansing were calculated at
the cost of the manual labour--a cost, we believe, reduced two thirds by
the invention of Mr Whitworth. The Report is dated 1837:--

"The cost of the last five years having been, L16,881
The present expense for 1837, about 2,000
The required outlay 4,000
And the cleansing for 1837 900
------
Gives a total for six years of L23,781

"Or an annual expenditure averaging L3963; so that the future
expenses of Oxford Street, maintained as a Macadamized
carriage-way, would be about L4000, or 2s. 4d per yard per
annum.

"In contrast with this extract from the parochial documents,
the results of which must have been greatly increased within
the last three years, the Metropolitan Wood-Paving Company, who
have already laid down above 4000 yards in Oxford Street,
between Wells Street and Charles Street, are understood to be
willing to complete the entire street in the best manner for
12s. per square yard, or about L14,000--for which they propose
to take bonds bearing interest at the rate of four-and-a-half
per cent per annum, whereby the parish will obtain ample time
for ultimate payment; and further, to keep the whole in repair,
inclusive of the cost of cleansing and watering, for one year