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COMPTON v. THE SUSQUEHANNA RAIL ROAD. 389
embankments, to a sensible jury of the country, the ascertaining
of the damages which the owner of the land would, or had sus-
tained, would be much more clearly understood and readily esti-
mated on viewing the work after it was done, than it could be by
any description given of what it might be when done. But,
where a public road is proposed to be opened under the authority
of the county court, it is expressly declared, that the damages
shall be paid to the respective parties before the road shall be
opened; and consequently, the site of such a proposed road must
be viewed and laid down, and the damages assessed before any
entry can be made upon it. (6)
There is another and a more special provision in the eighteenth
section of this act of incorporation, which expressly requires the
valuation to be made before the property proposed to be taken is
changed or altered by admixture with other substances. The rea-
son of this is also sufficiently clear; the two provisions, taken in
connection, shew, that it was intended, in all cases, that the sub-
ject of the inquisition should be viewed and inspected by the jury;
and that they should have it so placed before them as to enable
them to form a correct judgment as well from what they saw as
from what they might hear in proof. In the case of an injury
done by deep cutting or embankment, the understanding of the
jury would be more enlightened by inspecting the work after it
was done, than by viewing the site of the road before it was con-
structed; and therefore, the inquisition would be best taken after
the road had been made; but in other cases, or where the mate-
rials proposed to be taken are to be blended with other substances,
then it is clear, as the law expressly requires, that the inquisition
should be taken before the admixture or alteration has been made.
These provisions of this act of incorporation are similar to
those of almost all other laws authorizing land to be taken for the
making of roads and canals; and they have been introduced into
this and all similar acts of the Legislature, as a substitute for the
ancient writ of ad quod damnum; and therefore, so far as the
Legislature have been silent as to the mode of proceeding, or the
nature of things requires it, they must be governed by the general
principles of law applicable to the proceedings under a writ of ad
quod damnum; since the object to be accomplished by both is the
same, (c) According to the common law the inquisition under a
(b) 1818, ch. 89, s. 10.—(c) Rex p. Inhabitants of Flecknow, 1 Burr, 465.
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