ABSTRACT
The inherent defects of the turnpike system must in themselves have been fatal to its permanent continuance, irrespective of the influence of the railways, which did not kill the turnpikes so much as merely give them the coup de grace. Statute labour was a positive burlesque of English local government. An authority referred to in Postlethwayt’s “ Dictionary ” had suggested that criminals condemned to death for minor offences should, instead of being transported, be ordered to do a year’s work on the highway. In 1835 Parliament abolished both statute labour and statute labour composition, thenceforward wholly superseded by highway rates as applying to the whole of the minor roads for which the parish was responsible. The Select Committee of 1819 reported that in the three preceding Sessions ninety turnpike trusts, seeking renewal of their Acts, had asked for authority to increase their tolls on the ground that they could not pay their debts without the assistance of Parliament.
