Walter Coulson

Walter Coulson (1795 – 1860) was an English newspaper editor, barrister, writer and associate of Jeremy Bentham. He served as Parliamentary reporter on the Morning Chronicle and was the editor of the evening paper The Traveller.

He was the second son of Thomas Coulson, master painter in the royal dockyard at Devonport (died in 1845), and Catherine, second daughter of Walter Borlase, surgeon of Penzance, and was born at Torpoint in Cornwall. He acted as amanuensis to Bentham, and obtained a place as parliamentary reporter on the staff of the Morning Chronicle. James Mill and Francis Place were early friends, and the first writings of John Stuart Mill appeared in the The Traveller in 1822, then owned by Robert Torrens and edited by Coulson.

The Traveller was merged with the The Globe in 1823, and Coulson was appointed editor, with a salary of £800 a year and a share of the profits, continuing for some time as the reporter of the Chronicle, until The Globe flourished. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn on 26 November 1828, becoming a Q.C. in July 1851, and a bencher of his inn in November 1851. He concentrated on conveyancing and chancery bar business. When differences of opinion arose between him and the proprietors of The Globe, he resigned the editorship.

Coulson was long the parliamentary draughtsman or counsel for the home department. The act for the sale of encumbered estates in Ireland was draughted by him and Lord Romilly. When the major change in the administration of Indian affairs occurred, the duty of collecting information on its laws and of drawing up a legal code was offered to Coulson; but he turned it down. He acted as a Commissioner on the Royal Commission that led to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.

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