In England, following the old Roman law, the °King's Highway' early came to represent a perpetual legal and customary right of pas sage, residing in the sovereign, for himself and his subjects over another's land. The mainte nance of the road at first devolved on the Lord of the Manor, then for many centuries on the parish and now on the district and county councils. In the United States the public road has come to represent a definite strip or area of land owned and maintained by the public for public passage and such additional uses as may be determined by statute.
With the fall of the Roman Empire its magnificent system of roads began to decay and as a result of the following thousand years of neglect ceased to exist. Not until about the close of the Middle Ages did road building begin to revive and then not in Italy but in England and France. In 1597 Sully was ap pointed "Grand \toyer° of France and slow but definite improvement of the roads was begun. Broken stone began to be used ex tensively for surfacing during his 'Ministry.
In mot when Colbert became Comptroller of Finance he extended the feudal system of compulsory labor, called the so as to compel every able-bodied rural peasant, to gether with his work animals, to labor on the road or in the production of road materials as many days as the king; at the request of his Comptroller, might decree. By this means 15,000 miles of main roads were surfaced with broken stone. This work, however, imposed a fearful hardship on the peasants and was accompanied by the gravest abuses and caused the greatest discontent. Nevertheless the system of the "corvee was continued with the greatest rigor until 1774 and was not entirely abolished until 1787.
About 1775 Tresagnet introduced in the de partment of Limoges a system of road build ing and maintenance which soon became gen eral in France. This system, by making scien tific provision for proper drainage, greatly re duced the amount of material required and sub stituted for the old periodical, haphazard road mending by the inefficient compulsory labor of the "corvee) continuous, systematic maintenance by permanently employed laborers employed by the state or departments and under the super vision of skilled engineers. This system, with but slight modifications is still in force. The state department of roads and bridges (Corps des Ponts et Chaussies) which has full con trol of all state highways is and has been for nearly a century and a half the chief controlling force in all road matters in France.
In England, until near the close of the 13th century, the duty of maintaining the Kin& Highway devolved entirely on the Lord of the Manor. From 1285 until 1555, however, we find a gradually increasing trend toward plac ing this burden on the parish. In 1555 the duty of road maintenance was by statute definitely placed on the parish and for the next 300 years Parliament was often obliged to devise new ways and means to enforce this obligation.
As travel and trade increased, the demand for improved roads became more and more insistent, and finally the argument that, "Every person ought to contribute to the roads in pro portion to the use he makes or the benefit be derives from them' found favor with Parlia ment and the toll-road era began. The toll road or turnpike consisted of a grant or fran chise by Parliament to a company to improve and maintain a certain length of road and establish toll gates and collect certain fixed tolls for each passage over the road. These charters were usually granted by Parliament for a term of 21 to 31 years, and, during the early period of toll-road existence, were usually renewed without question. The first turnpike act by Parliament was passed in 1663 and dur ing the later part of the 18th century the toll roads multiplied very rapidly. Not less than 1,100 such trusts or companies, involving about 20,000 miles, existed in 1838 when the railroad began to make itself felt in diverting the large coach ing traffic. The toll road, however, never be came popular with the public. The inherent fault was the impossibility of fixing a rate of toll which would be accepted as fair by all. Many of the turnpike trusts, also, proved financially unprofitable, due largely to the high cost of collecting -the tolls. In 1878 England provided that no further charters should be granted and that as the existing charters ex pired the toll roads should be taken over by the highway districts' or' coanties. However, the last turnpike in England and Wales, the Anglesey portion of the Shrewsbury and Holy head road, did not go out of existence until 1 Nov. 1895.