In recruiting Wilson, Catherine Richardson, the owner of the Berwick Advertiser (B. A.), was appointing an ambitious, hard-working, confident young man, with local knowledge, who was both literate and literary, and who also had experience of the printing process. Knowledge of literature was important as her newspaper had previously included considerable literary material.

Of course, it was also crucial that Wilson supported the Advertiser’s political stance and no doubt Catherine Richardson was aware that he was an ardent supporter of reform. He immediately changed the newspaper’s political coverage by introducing a regular political column.

Wilson defined himself as a ‘reformer’ and stressed his desire for gradual reform, thus differentiating himself from the Radicals. He wrote:

 

"Hasty violent, extreme measures – measures of which we see the object but not the consequences, are at variance with every principle of good and safe government."
(B. A. 20th September 1834)

 

He did not want to destroy Britain’s institutions but rather he wished to conserve what was best in Britain’s constitution and system of government since a ‘true radical’ like himself loves his country and its institutions. He informed a friend in a letter written on 15th April 1834 that the achievement of the necessary reform he envisaged was to be a protracted task, which might take 50 years

Throughout his editorship Wilson was a persistent critic of the Tories who he argued were “… a century behind the age – they have been born too late …” (B. A 18th April 1835).

Later that year he compared the Tories and Whigs as follows:

 

"The Tory would move like a snail, denying he moves at all, and his movements are so slow, that we only know by the slime he has left behind him; the Whig creeps like a tortoise, slowly and surely, and looking about him, but making much greater progress than the Tory …"
(B. A. 26th July 1834)

 

Wilson assumed the editorial post at a key moment in the passage of the Whig Earl Grey’s Great Reform Act. The third version of the proposed reforms had been passed by the Commons and was being considered by the Lords, who had refused to pass the previous bills.

Wilson even questioned the role of the Monarch. He was concerned that the King was advised by the wrong people and wrote of the “… blackness of the secret and deep perfidy which poisoned the Royal ear and alarmed the royal breast” (B. A. 26th May 1832). Wilson expressed some concern for his position given his criticism of the King, thus:

 

"We know very well that this is what is called a delicate subject to write about and that a very few years ago, it would have been a dangerous one – and perhaps it is not a safe one to say much upon even yet – but it is the duty of a public Journalist to keep his readers alive to their duty and to a knowledge of all that concerns them."
(B. A. 18th July 1835)

 

The act was passed, but in reality, not a lot had changed. The landed aristocracy remained in control of Parliament and the power of the middle classes remained limited. As Wilson shrewdly observed:

 

"We have entrusted the keeping of our rights to a government or constitution, in which the aristocracy and democracy are blended."
(B. A 6th September 1834)

 

The act had merely extended the vote to from around 2% to 7% of the adult male population

He also remained disappointed that, in the post-reform context, corruption in the electoral process remained rife. He complained

 

"Corruption has been open, gross and disgusting. Intimidation has walked abroad, unashamed, glorying in its strength."
(B. A. 24th January 1835)

 

He was correct, but he provided only evidence of Tory corruption, while corruption was practiced by both parties after the Great Reform Act, as it had been previously.

As regards the other great Whig policy, he was disappointed with the various Whig governments he observed regarding their ‘tortoise’ approach to retrenchment. For example, in 1835 he asked:
For what reason are the people asked to uphold an immense standing army after twenty years of peace? (BA 6th June 1835)

Earlier he had made a suggestion regarding retrenchment, as follows:

 

"We see but little use for such a numerous army … why not employ them at public works? For Wilson the most obvious essential employment for these men was the construction of railways."
(B. A. 1st November 1834)

 

Criticism of the pension list was a persistent theme of his editorship. He argued that to:

 

“… cleanse and purify the pension list was a duty which ministers owed to the country …”

"… what Secret Service – ‘what deed without a name’, has Lady this, Miss That, or Madam Such a One performed, that the public must not break faith with them? … with the tribe of state paupers we would wage a war of extermination."
(B. A. 3rd May 1834)

 

Government should learn from business he felt. As it was “… notorious that in almost every department (government) business is transacted in an antiquated, complex and bungling manner: Learn from business”.

A persistent theme of Wilson’s editorship was that ‘the burden of taxation’ on the people was too great. The solution for Wilson was not to renege on the debt nor to immediately ‘pay it off tomorrow’. Rather it was necessary to reform the taxation system to ensure economic progress:

 

"We know that perfect equality is impossible, but under the present system it is chiefly on labour, industry and enterprise, that the burden of taxation falls."
(B. A. 18th October 1834)

 

Redistribution of the burden was required as “… scarce a tenth part of the taxes is paid by the wealthy … that is an evil requiring a remedy” (B. A. 1st November 1834).

Excise Duty was another target for criticism by Wilson because of the burden it imposed on the middle and lower classes.

He was concerned about the effect of this taxation on economic activity:

"The most injudicious of our excise laws, however, are the taxes on our manufacturers … they injure commerce by preventing or limiting the exportation of the taxed manufactures, and they injure the workman by limiting his labour."
(B. A. 18th October 1834)

 

While he supported a tax on property, he opposed income tax as “… the most tyrannous, inquisitorial, and ruinous, and beyond every other proves the most unequal”.

In 1834 Wilson had summarized his views about the further need for electoral reform, thus:

 

"There is still too much of the leaven of the upper house. …Property is important, but men are more important than property; and if parliament is to be the guardian of the rights, lives and liberties of the people, then assuredly it ought to be the possession of those rights and liberties which should qualify their possessors to vote for the election of their guardians."
(B. A. 6th September 1834)

 

Wilson’s views were ahead of their time. The secret ballot was not introduced until the Ballot Act 1872. Salaries for MPs were introduced by the 1911 Parliament Act. The length of a Parliament was reduced to five years by the Reform Act 1918.

The editorship gave Wilson a significant platform for his political views. His rhetoric is impressive. Further, his analysis is generally stimulating and learned. Cowan (1946) in his extensive survey of Scottish newspapers, states of Wilson:

 

"It is safe to say that here was a combination of force, industry and imagination unmatched among Scottish journalists of that day."

Reference:
Cowan, R. (1946) The newspaper in Scotland: A study of its first expansion 1815-1860 G Outram