post of financial member of the council of India, which had just been created. He hesitated about accepting it, for he appreciated his influence in the House of Commons, recognised the ‘gigantic difficulties’ which awaited him in India, and was not tempted by the high salary, as through the success of his paper, aided by some prudent investments, he was possessed of affluence. On public grounds, however, he determined upon going thither, and on 20 Oct. 1859 he left England for his new position. Through a ‘fortunate accident’ he visited immediately after his arrival the upper provinces of Hindustan. He travelled from Calcutta to Lahore, and back again, visiting every city and town of importance within that area, and returned much impressed with the undeveloped resources of the country. The principles of his budget were explained by him on 18 Feb. 1860. He found himself face to face with a great deficiency of revenue and an enormous increase in public debt. He proposed certain increased import duties with a tax on home-grown tobacco, a small and uniform license duty upon traders of every class, and the imposition of an income-tax on all incomes above 200 rupees a year, but with a reduction for those not exceeding 500 rupees per annum. These propositions met with considerable opposition, mainly through the action of Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan [q. v.], but that official was promptly recalled. Wilson's budget and Trevelyan's recall excited much criticism in England.
Wilson's next act was to establish a paper currency. He set up at Calcutta a government commission charged with the functions exercised in this country by the issue department of the Bank of England. Branch establishments were erected at Madras and Bombay, and the three presidencies were divided for the issue and redemption of notes into convenient districts called currency circles. The notes were to be for 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, or 1,000 rupees, and they were to be redeemable with silver. Wilson then commenced a reformation of the system of public accounts. He it was ‘that first evoked order out of the chaos of Indian finance, and rendered it possible for the future to regulate the outlay by the income.’
For some time after his arrival in India Wilson remained in good health, but with the advent of wet weather his physical strength declined. Under the pressure of work he neglected his condition, but about the middle of July 1860 he went for a week's change to Barrackpore. He returned to labour with only a slight improvement in his state. The dysentery increased, on 2 Aug. he took to his bed, and on the evening of 11 Aug. he was dead. Mourning for his loss was universal in Calcutta; he was buried in the Circular Road cemetery, where a monument was erected to his memory. His widow died in London in 1886, and was buried in the churchyard of Curry Rivel, Somerset. They had six daughters: the eldest, Elizabeth, married Walter Bagehot [q. v.]; the next, Julia, was the second wife of William Rathbone Greg [q. v.]; the fourth daughter, Zenobia, married Mr. Orby Shipley; the fifth, Sophia Victoria, married Mr. Stirling Halsey of the Indian civil service, private secretary to his father-in-law until his death.
Wilson was very active in his temperament, fertile in ideas, and lucid in exposition. To the last hour of his life he was of a sanguine disposition. His memory was marvellous, his judgment was remarkably even, and an iron constitution enabled him to accomplish a vast amount of work. In society his vivacity of conversation was always conspicuous. He was a foreign associate of the Institute of France.
A full-length statue of Wilson, by Steele of Edinburgh, the cost of which was defrayed by the mercantile community of the city, is in the Dalhousie Institute at Calcutta. A marble bust, by the same sculptor, is in the National Gallery of Edinburgh; it was placed there by the Royal Academy of Scotland, in recognition of his services in obtaining a grant from the treasury for the erection of the buildings in its occupation. That body presented Mrs. Wilson in 1859 with a portrait of him by Sir John Watson Gordon. It is now in Mrs. Bagehot's possession; a copy of it was given by Wilson's children to the gallery of local worthies in Hawick town-hall. A pen-and-ink sketch by Richard Doyle of Wilson, together with Sir William Molesworth, is in the print-room at the British Museum. They are both drawn with flowing hair, and underneath are the words: ‘Is that your own hair, or is it a whig?’ He is also represented in J. R. Herbert's picture of the leading members of the Anti-Cornlaw League.
[Economist, supplement by Walter Bagehot to number for 17 Nov. 1860; it was reprinted as a separate publication in 1861, and included in his Literary Studies (1879), i. 367–406 (1898 edit.), iii. 304–57; Gent. Mag. 1860, ii. 432; Vapereau, 1858 ed.; Encyclop. Brit. 8th ed., also by Mr. Bagehot; information from Mrs. Walter Bagehot of Herds Hill, Langport, Somerset.]
