Toll

“ People in the habit of attending the market compromise their tolls, by a regular payment of from one to three ahmulahs weekly, and they are 231 then allowed to bring whatever produce they choose. I also understood that the people of the town were exempted from any imposition of toll for such articles they exposed for sale. ”

“ At common law a toll must be reasonable. The same principle appears in various acts of parliament. The Statute of VY/est minster the First inflicts a penalty for taking excessive toll. The Railway Clauses Act 1845 provides for the equality of tolls, that is, that all persons and classes of goods shall in like circumstances be treated alike as to charges. A right of distress is incident to the right to toll, but the distress cannot be sold unless an act of parliament expressly authorizes the sale. Tolls are not rateable, unless they are appurtenant to land. ”

“ Toll traverse, or a toll demanded for passing on or over the private property of the claimant, or using it in any other way, is of a different description; being founded on the right which every man has to the exclusive enjoyment of what is exclusively his private property, its use by others is a sufficient consideration for the exaction of toll. Mo. 575; 2 Wils. 299; Cowp. 47-8. But whenever toll is exacted for the passage over a public water, the nature of it changes; its foundation not being property, it rests on a grant or prescription, and if the toll is unreasonable, the grant is void. ”

“ The toll-keeper named the place.
“That’s it!” cried the tramp, rousing up and speaking with a kind of triumphant ferocity. “That’s the place—I’m not going far past that. I’ve come to find a man out and pay a debt.”
To pay a debt!—a man who had just parted with his last penny! The toll-keeper’s suspicions were confirmed—the old man’s brain was affected ”

“ But when there is no existing right of property, except that which is the jus publicum, a grant of toll for its use, or passage over it, to any subject, is the franchise of toll thorough, or toll on a public highway, which is void, whether by prescription or the king's charter, unless for good consideration or reasonable recompense, which must be made to appear to have existed at the time of the grant, and to have been continued so long as toll is exacted. ”

“ When, however, the tolls have repaid with interest the whole of the expenditure, the road or bridge should be thrown open free of toll, that it may be used also by those to whom, unless open gratuitously, it would be valueless ”

“ And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the toll-gatherers on said road shall, respectively, receive compensation for their services, at the rate of twelve per centum on the amount of tolls by them, respectively, collected: Provided, That the annual compensation of any toll-gatherer shall never exceed the sum of two hundred dollars. ”

“ Variety and number of tolls.—The variety of feudal tolls is almost inconceivable. Attempts by scholars to classify them as we should modern fees and taxes are useless, because no principle underlay the system. A French scholar has made a list of seventeen different kinds of tolls, but this is rough and incomplete. We can say in general that tolls were levied everywhere and on everything. Even a jongleur, the equivalent58 to the modern organ-grinder, could not pass the gates of Paris without making his monkey show off to pay his own way. A man had to pay toll not only when he went over a bridge ”

“ The town is completely surrounded by toll-gates; the tolls collected do not go to pay for the maintenance of the roads, but to defray a debt incurred by removing buildings, including the ancient shambles, from the middle of the street early in the century. ”

“ Toll thorough is paid for the use of a highway. In this case, if charged by a private person, some consideration, such as repair of the highway, must be shown, as such a toll is against common right. In one case, that of the Cornish custom of tin-bounding, the right to tin tolls may depend upon custom. At common law a toll must be reasonable. ”

“ It will be seen that the taxation of a railway line—as distinct from that of railway buildings—is, to all intents and purposes, the enforcement of a toll, on all traffic carried, for the privilege of passing through the parish concerned; while there is no suggestion, as there was in the case of turnpike roads, that those who collect the toll confer an advantage on those by whom the toll is paid. ”

“ The philosophy of the toll system is patent. Rates of toll were determined by the wear on the road. Tolls were charged in order to keep the road in repair, and, consequently, each animal or vehicle was taxed in proportion as it damaged the roadbed. Cattle were taxed twice as heavily as sheep or hogs, and, according to the tariff of 1845, hogs were taxed twice as much as sheep. The tariff on vehicles was determined by the width of the tires used, for the narrower the tire the more the roadbed was cut up. ”

“ When they stopped at the toll-gate Captain Asher came down to collect the toll—ten cents for two horses and a carriage. Olive was sitting in the little arbor, reading. She had noticed the approaching equipage and saw that there was a lady in it, but for some reason or other she was not so anxious as she had been to collect toll from ladies. If she could have arranged the matter to suit herself she would have taken toll from the male travelers, and her Uncle John might attend to the women; she did not believe that men would have such absurd ideas about people or ask ridiculous questions. ”

“ This toll-collector—he is dead now—had amused himself in bygone days by carving life-size heads out of wood, and these were stuck along the eaves. One is the face of a drunkard, round and blotched, leering out of misty eyes at the passers-by; the next has the crumpled features of a miser, worn out with toil and moil; a third has the wild scowl of a maniac; and a fourth the stare of an idiot.
I drove past, flinging the toll to the door, and shouting to the old man to pick it up, for I was in a vast hurry to reach the station before Dr. ”

“ The test of the feasibility of a direct toll system on the roads is based upon assumed average rates of 3.5 cents per vehicle-mile for motortrucks and busses and 1 cent per vehicle-mile for passenger cars. Since, on the average, it is estimated that the ratio of motortrucks and busses to passenger automobiles in the traffic will be approximately as 1 is to 4, the assumed toll rates for each type of vehicle result in an average rate of 1.5 cents per vehicle-mile for vehicles of all descriptions. ”

“ If a man refuses to pay bridge or ferry toll, he shall be made to pay it fourfold. If he refuses to pay toll on the frontier, he shall be fined thirty shillings. This is the toll for ferries: For coming and going, four foot-passengers shall pay a penny; a man on horseback, a half-penny ”

“ Persons making long trips on the road could pay toll for the entire distance and receive a certificate guaranteeing free passage to their destination. [29] Compounding rates were early put in force, applying, in Ohio, for persons residing within eight miles of the road, [30] the radius being extended later to ten. [31] Passengers in the stages were counted by the tollgate-keepers and the company operating the stage charged with the toll. ”

“ To the rising generation, to whom tollgates are almost unknown, a study of the toll system affords novel entertainment, helping one to realize something of one of the most serious questions of public economics of two generations ago. Tollgates averaged one in eighteen or twenty miles in Pennsylvania, and one in ten miles in Ohio, with tolls a little higher than half the rate in Pennsylvania. ”

“ Anglo-Saxon writings frequently speak of money as given by weight. Our cut No. 53 is a representation of the merchant, or the toll-taker, seated before his account book, with his scales hanging to the desk. In the first of these cuts, a man holds the bag or purse, in which the money received for toll or merchandise is deposited. The cut No. 54 represents the receiver pouring the money out of his bag into the cyst, or chest, in which it is to be locked up and kept in his treasury. ”

“ Before railways had come, to clear the roads of most of the cattle and the waggons, the income 90of this toll-gate was considerable, but in these days it is not worth the while of the owner of these petty rights to collect the small gains, and the toll-house has been let as an ordinary cottage, but, in consideration of the tolls, at a rent slightly above its value as a dwelling. ”

“ That, as soon as the said gates and toll-houses shall be erected, it shall be the duty of the said toll collector, or collectors, and they are hereby required to demand and receive, for passing the said gates, the tolls and rats hereafter mentioned: and they may stop any person riding, leading, or driving any horses, cattle, sulky, chair, phaeton, cart, chaise, wagon, sleigh, sled, or other carriage of burden or pleasure, from passing through the said gate or gates, until they shall have respectively paid for passing the same ”

“ Higginbotham within a day or two?'
'Yes,' answered the toll-gatherer. 'He passed the gate just before you drove up, and yonder he rides now, if you can see him through the dusk. He's been to Woodfield this afternoon, attending a sheriff's sale there. The old man generally shakes hands and has a little chat with me; but to-night, he nodded,—as if to say, 'charge my toll,'—and jogged on; for wherever he goes, he must always be at home by eight o'clock.'
'So they tell me,' said Dominicus.
'I never saw a man look so yellow and thin as the squire does,' continued the toll-gatherer. ”

“ Even in the particular instances in which traffic can be attracted to toll highways sufficient in volume to repay the costs of financing, construction and operation, we regard the toll device as an inadvisable and expensive expedient. ”

“ This is strikingly illustrated by comparing the toll charged upon coaches similar to those employed in conveying the mails, with the toll indirectly levied upon the mail-stage, by a charge upon its passengers. According to the rates contained in the law of which we are speaking, a four-wheel carriage, drawn by four horses, pays at each gate thirty-one and a quarter cents, and if it is not conveying the mail, it pays nothing on its passengers. ”

“ A city may levy reasonable tolls in a market established by itself. A shunpike, or road constructed to facilitate evasion of tolls on a turnpike road, may be closed by injunction. The question of tolls was at one time an important one in international law. ”

“ The act of February 6th, 1837, imposes a toll at each gate, of three cents, upon the passengers in question. The act of March 19th, 1838, authorizes the Board of Public Works to 'revise' the rates of all the tolls-'to be paid by persons passing on, or using, the National road.' In the exercise of this power the board has raised the toll in controversy from three to ten cents. It is admitted that they have not transcended the limitation contained in the 15th section of the act of 1831. ”

“ Bolt upright in a sulky rides a thin, sour-visaged man, who, as he pays his toll, hands the toll-gatherer a printed card to stick upon the wall. The vinegar-faced traveller proves to be a manufacturer of pickles. ”

“ The articles upon which the company is authorized to take toll are particularly enumerated, and the amount specified. The toll is imposed on commodities on board of a vessel passing through the canal.
No toll is given on the vessels themselves, except only when they have no commodities on board, or not sufficient to yield a toll of four dollars. Passengers are not mentioned in the enumeration, nor is any toll given upon a vessel on account of the persons or passengers it may have on board. ”

“ THE NEW TOLL-BARS.
So the new toll-bars are forthwith erected; but to the great surprise of Madama and her counsellors with [Pg 213] very much less result than had been anticipated; with little other result indeed than a few broken heads and bloody noses, arising from the scuffles of the toll-bar keepers with violent travellers who decline paying the new imposition. This was all natural enough; but the strange thing is, that the traffic most notably falls off. Travellers won't come to be taxed. Ducky won't come to be killed. With a perverse cunning, most provoking, men go round another way ”

“ Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and their tolls. (Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat [tallow] , and three live pigs for their ships.) "3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official accuses anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that he has kept back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he shall swear to this with six others and shall be quit of the charge. 1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the -man to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge. ”

“ Toll and team (O. Eng. Law) , the privilege of having a market, and jurisdiction of villeins. Burrill. — Toll bar, a bar or beam used on a canal for stopping boats at the tollhouse, or on a road for stopping passengers. — Toll bridge, a bridge where toll is paid for passing over it. — Toll corn, corn taken as pay for grinding at a mill. — Toll dish, a dish for measuring toll in mills. — Toll gatherer, a man who takes, or gathers, toll. — Toll hop, a toll dish. ”

“ The stall-holders were "foreigners", and had to pay to the town a toll for permission to sell in the town. In our day you can go and settle in any town you please, and open a shop just as you like, but you cannot so easily take a stall and sell in the market: you must pay the market toll even now. ”