attention to these matters, simply dealt with the task referred to them, and finally recommended that the debts chargeable upon the several Turnpike Trusts in South Wales should be ascertained and redeemed, and that they should be consolidated and placed under uniform management and control. In the Turnpike Act of 1844 Parliament adopted its recommendations. Commissioners were appointed for the six counties of South Wales to inquire into the Turnpike Trusts, to ascertain and estimate their debts, and to award to persons entitled moneys due therefrom. These sums were advanced by the Public Works Loan Commissioners, and charged on the Consolidated Fund. All local Acts for making, repairing, or regulating turnpike roads were repealed and a "County Roads Board" was established in each county to manage the turnpike roads under the provisions of the general Turnpike Acts. Equal tolls were to be taken at all gates in the same county, and a toll once paid cleared seven miles in the same or two miles in an adjacent county. Local boards, called "District Roads Boards," were authorized. Several amending Acts relating to these turnpike roads were passed in the years 1845, 1847, 1860, 1878, 1881, and 1882. The provisions of the principal and amending Acts cannot be of any particular value at the present time, and are not printed in this volume, for by the 13th section of the Local Government Act of 1888 the whole of the machinery of the County and District Roads Boards in South Wales was transferred to the County Councils then established.
A.D. 1881.—The sale of intoxicating liquors on Sunday in Wales was prohibited by the Sunday Closing Act (44-45 Victoria, c. 61). This was passed at the instance of the majority of the Parliamentary representatives for Wales. Monmouthshire was treated as a part of England, and not included within its provisions. A Royal Commission was appointed in 1889 to inquire into the working of this Act.
A.D. 1887.—In the Coal Mines Regulation Act (50-
