were among the most useful
and stupendous works ever executed by man.'"

With the revival of human thought and civilization after the Middle
Ages, the improvement of the roads engaged the attention of public and
scientific men, and became once more an object of government; but for a
long time the rulers who concerned themselves about roads thought more
about repressing the crimes of violence and extortion thereon than they
did about improving their condition for travel. The first act of the
English Parliament relative to the improvement of roads in the kingdom
was in 1523; yet in 1685 most of the roads in England were in a
deplorable condition.

Macaulay says that on the best highways at that time the ruts were
deep, the descents precipitous, and the way often such that it was
hardly possible to distinguish it in the dark from the unenclosed heath
and fen which lay on both sides. It was only in fine weather that the
whole breadth of the road was available for wheeled vehicles; often the
mud lay deep on the right and on the left, and only a narrow track of
firm ground rose above the quagmire. It happened almost every day that
coaches stuck fast until a team of cattle could be procured from some
neighboring farm to tug them out of the slough. But to the honor of
England, this condition of her roads was not allowed to continue very
long. Although her progress in trade and prosperity has been
marvellously rapid, yet such progress can be measured by the
improvement of her roads, which are now unsurpassed anywhere in the
world.

Beyond question, internal communications are of vital importance to
every nation, and good roads are a prime necessity to every town or
city. A good road is always a source of comfort and pleasure to every
traveller. It is also a source of great saving each year in the wear
and tear of horse-flesh, vehicles, and harnesses. Good roads to market
and neighbors increase the price of farm produce, and bring people into
business relations and good fellowship, and thereby enhance in value
every homestead situated in their neighborhood. They cause a proper
distribution of population between town and country. For many years in
this country there has been a movement of population from the rural
districts into the cities and manufacturing villages. Many ancestral
homesteads have been deserted for promising "fresh woods and pastures
new" in the commercial world. This centralization of population is
evidently