The two items above mentioned commence the account for 1817, in April, leaving a balance £246 Is. 3d. The accounts are not again made up until September, 1819. When they are audited by the seven Trustees present and the balance, £911 14s. 7d., carried forward.

During the financial years, 1819-20, the accounts were made up and balanced in May, July, and November; the expenditure was £2,895 10s. 8d., and the balance £443 2s. 4d., carried forward to the next year's account. The expenditure seems large, but the sum, £526, was repaid to a bondholder.

The account for 1820-21 commences November 6th, 1820, and ends September 3rd, 1821.

The accounts run on without a balance, having been arrived at until January 30th, 1823. But the above figures appear at the end of September, 1822, in the body of the account; not breaking the continuity of entries, and apparently due to the necessity there was for the clerk to have the figures to enable him to fill in the forms, in compliance with the Parliamentary Order.

January 30th, 1823.-The figures are as follows:-

The expenditure included payments to bondholders, who

had lent money on the security of the tolls.

Repayment of Money Borrowed.

In August, 1810, there is entered a payment made the previous December to Lord Henniker:-" Principal and interest due on mortgage of tolls, £201 13s. 4d.”

There is mention made of £300 paid to one of the bondholders, but there being no memorandum for what purpose the money was paid, it is omitted in the above list of payments The financial year, 1822-23, commenced with an indebtedness on account of money borrowed of £3,500.

Until the year 1822-23 the accounts of the Trustees have been, at times, irregularly kept. It seems, however, as if similar irregularity was to be met with in the accounts of other trusts. For, in the Act 3 George IV., cap. 126, August 6th, 1822, there is a clause giving instructions as to the compilation and rendering of accounts. Clause 78 directs, "That the Trustees or Commissioners of every turnpike road shall, at their general annual meeting in each year, examine and audit the accounts of the treasurer, clerk, and surveyor, in their employ, distinguishing

Expenditure.

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To Surveyor's Account of Day Lakor, between Michaelma 1823, for Mamtenance or Repair of Roads

To Surveyors Account of Team Labor, between same time
Ditto, for Work executed by Contract, being for 11 miles
Stones and Labor

Ditto for Repair or Maintenance, or Building of Houses
Ditto for Rents of Quarries, and Costs of Stones
Ditto for Salaries and other Payments to Clerks, Surveyors,
Ditto for Printing, Advertising and Stationary

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1

>ond from other debts," and when found to be correct, the

EP Chairman had to sign them. The accounts, &c., so certified were to be made out in accordance with a form appended to the Act of Parliament, and a copy transmitted to the Clerk of the Peace of the county in which the roads, or the major part, were situated. The Clerk of the Peace was to cause the accounts to be produced to the justices assembled at Quarter Sessions, and then to be registered, and kept amongst the records of the aelm Quarter Session. The statement was to be printed, and a copy sent to each acting Trustee or Commissioner of the road.

The introduction of forms in which the accounts were to be rendered, secured uniformity in the highway accounts throughout the kingdom. But it does not appear that there was any idea of transmitting copies to a central office until the 3rd and 4th William IV., cap. 8o, required copies of the annual statements of highway accounts to be forwarded to the Secretary of State. The object is explained in the Turnpike Act of 1869 to be, "To enable the principal Secretary of State to elucidate said statements, and to make abstracts thereof to be laid before Parliament."

It is, however, due to the Act of 1822, that the following accounts of the receipt and expenditure of the Epping and Ongar Trust have been kept in a manner allowing them to be readily tabulated.

A copy of each year's account, made out on the form ordered by Parliament, was pasted in a book kept for that purpose. One of them has been reproduced by photolithography, and it is, therefore, a facsimile; a copy faces this page.

The amounts were made up at Michaelmas, and, therefore, include the last quarter of the previous year.