Brown began the Toronto "Banner" in 1843. It was a Presbyterian weekly supporting Free Kirk principles and political reform. Brown's father raised the money and founded a weekly newspaper, "The Globe", in 1844, and it later became a daily news source. Filled with strong editorials on religious and political affairs, "The Globe" quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada at Kingston. The "Brown Report," which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of the warden, Henry Smith. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald and contributed to the tense relationship between the two rival politicians.