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, a review of the Memoir of Jeremy Bentham by John Bowring. It produced a contradiction from John Stuart Mill, 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.
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 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.
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