William Empson (1791 – 10 December 1852) was an English barrister, professor and journalist. William Empson was educated at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. He was Professor at the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

's College from 1824 to 1852. He contributed regularly to the ''

Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...

'' (1823–49) and was for some years its editor (1847–52).

Life

He was educated at Winchester School, where he was a schoolfellow of

Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wide ...

, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. 1812, and M.A. 1815. On 2 July 1824 he became professor of "general polity and the laws of England" at the East India College, Haileybury, a chair which had been formerly occupied by

Sir James Mackintosh Sir James Mackintosh Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (24 October 1765 – 30 May 1832) was a Scottish jurist, Whig (British political party), Whig politician and Whig history, Whig historian. His studies and sympathies embraced many interests. ...

. He was a close friend of his colleague,

Robert Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

. Empson died at Haileybury 10 December 1852.

''Edinburgh Review''

Empson began to contribute to the ''Edinburgh Review'' in 1823, and by 1849 had written over sixty articles for it on law, politics, and literary topics. Empson is now best known for his October 1843 article on

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...

, a review of the ''Memoir of Jeremy Bentham'' by

John Bowring Sir John Bowring , or Phraya Siamanukulkij Siammitrmahayot, , , group=note (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was a British political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong. He was a ...

. It produced a contradiction from

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

, published in the ''Review'' for January 1844. Empson had picked up on Bowring's statement that Bentham was remarkably selfish, comparable only to his follower

James Mill James Mill (born James Milne; 6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote ''The History of British ...

.W. J. Mander, Alan P. F. Sell, Gavin Budge (editors), ''The Dictionary of Nineteenth-century British Philosophers'', Volume 1 (2002), pp. 357–8. In January 1845 he wrote on the ''Fragment of the Church'' of Thomas Arnold, with whose views on educational and church questions he was in sympathy. Other articles offended

Edward Bulwer Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (25 May 180318 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secret ...

and Henry Brougham, who called him a bad imitator of Macaulay. Empson succeeded to the editorship of the ''Edinburgh Review'' in 1847, on the death of

Macvey Napier Macvey Napier (born Napier Macvey) (11 April 1776 – 11 February 1847) was a Scottish solicitor, legal scholar, and an editor of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. He was Professor of Conveyancing at the University of Edinburgh. Life Macv ...

Family

On 27 June 1838, Empson married Charlotte Jeffrey (b. 1814), daughter of

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (23 October 1773 – 26 January 1850) was a Scottish judge and literary critic. Life He was born at 7 Charles Street near Potterow in south Edinburgh, the son of George Jeffrey, a clerk in the Court of Session ...

.The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, Volume 1
Duke University archive
accessed 9 October 2007

Notes

External links

Obituary notice - ''The New York Times'', 15 January 1853
;Attribution 1791 births 1852 deaths British magazine editors Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge {{UK-law-bio-stub