The Directors of the North British Railway Company have appointed
Mr. W. H. Barlow, President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, to prepare plans for the reconstruction of the Tay Bridge. Mr. Barlow was one of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the cause of the Tay Bridge disaster, and the public were, we believe, justly dissatisfied with the very reticent view which Mr. Barlow and Colonel Yolland took of their duty in reporting on that disaster. It was afterwards stated that Mr. Rothery had no warrant for saying that there was entire agreement between him and his colleagues in his view of that disaster. Whether that be so or not,—on which, of course, we cannot pretend to pass judgment,—there would be more public confidence felt in Mr. Barlow, in relation to the very responsible duty in which he is now engaged, if he had given the public as frankly as Mr. Rothery gave it, his own judgment on the personal responsibility for that awful catastrophe. The new plans must be anxious things, at the best.
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