The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-18 00:00:00

THE LATE EDITOR OF "THE EDINBURGH

REVIEW."

The literary world and a wide circle of affectionate
friends have sustained a serious loss by the death of Pro-
fessor Empson, which took place at Hayleybury on Fri-
day last. Few men of our time have discharged educa-
tional duties with greater zeal and conscientiousness.
He considered it a high responsibility to form the minds
and to direct the studies of young men, who might at
some future time be called upon to discharge the duties
of the magistracy and of the bench of justice in India.
To those who have considered, with an admiration not
unmixed with surprise, the questions in moral philoso-
phy, metaphysics, and the elements of general law,
which are answered by the native students at the Ma-
hommedan and Hindoo Colleges at Calcutta, it is fully
apparent that a new race of Asiatics is rapidly growing
up, capable of appreciating the knowledge and capacity
of the Europeans called to administer high civil functions
among them. Any deficiency in the qualifications of the
European civil servants, when compared with natives,
will be a severe blow to a power which peculiarly rests
on opinion. By no other were these truths more fully
recognised than they were by William Empson. Acting
on this conviction, no professor could endeavour more
faithfully than he did to render his lectures efficient for
their true end and object. Going far beyond common-place
and elementary teaching, his lectures opened large his-
torical views, the principles of moral philosophy and of
international law. Paley, Kent, Story, Wheeton, Wild-
man, and Sir William Scott, were his text books as
much as " Blackstone's Commentaries." This was pecu-
liarly important where, as in India, local jurisdictions
exist equal in area to European states, and where com-
plicated and ill-defined rights and systems, different re-
ligious faiths, contrasted ties of sovereignty, protection,
and alliance, render' a knowledge of the differing princi-
ples of jurisprudence absolutely necessary as a guide
through an otherwise impenetrable labyrinth. Those
who will take the trouble of looking carefully over Pro-
fessor Empson's Examination Papers will perceive how
well fitted was his system of instruction to convey the
knowledge required for Indian magistrates and judges.
He not only possessed knowledge, but the art of com-
municating it, and an art still rarer—that of obtaining
and exercising influence over the hearts of his pupils.
He showed a genial interest in the students of his class,

which won their confidence and affection. In this he
resembled his distinguished friend and fellow Wykemist,
Dr. Arnold.

An interesting proof of his success will appear from
the following occurrence, which will not be thought
trivial to those who have studied the characters of the
young. The students at the East India College have
been accustomed to celebrate the close of their term and
of their studies by an annual festival ; but on the last
examination, on learning the approaching end of their
friend and imstructor—then suffering from the rupture
of a blood vessel, of which, in a few days after, he died
—they spontaneously gave up their accustomed festival,
as being inconsistent with their anxiety and grateful
affection for him. And well they might do so. Though
in a most enfeebled state of health, and fully aware of
the risk he ran in the cold College hall, he would not
shrink from his duty as examiner, and within less than
half-an-hour of the close of his functions he was struck
with that fearful attack to which in a few days he fell
a victim. Yet even during this rapid sinking by decay
of bodily strength, he would not neglect the last duty he
could perform to his young friends. He carefully went
through his examination papers, and assigned to each
student his rank and position. No man ever fell more
truly in the field of duty.
Succeeding to the professiorial chair of Mackintosh,
occupying what had been the home of the gentle Mal-
thus, and having lived in intimate friendship with Lebas,
if he did not possess the metaphysical subtlety and uni-
versality of the first, if he did not leave behind him so
great a work as the justly celebrated Essay on Popula-
tion, if he was not a deep theologian, he surpassed Mack-
intosh in his industry and his enlarged and practical
wisdom, and he equalled Malthus in his love of truth
and courage in asserting it, and Lebas in his deep and
sincere piety.
In addition to his functions of Professor of Law,
William Empson held another office, which is often a
painful pre-eminence. He was editbr, as since the year
1823 he had been a contributor, to that leading critical
journal, the Edinburgh. Review. His genial kindliness
of nature rendered him an indulgent administrator of
those functions to which he was officially sworn in the
verse of Publius Syrus, "Judex damnatur cum nocens
absolvitur." At all times he preferred praise to blame,
and would rather have given a wreath of laurel than
" Luke's iron crown." Those are indifferent observers
who will not admit that refined criticism is not as much
shown in discriminating praise as in severe invective.
Indeed, the former requires greater skill and delicacy,
and appeals to less vulgar elements of success. The
generous feeling which distinguished William Empson
as an editor was shown in his reception of an interesting
and justly economiastic article on Robert Southey, whose
opinions on many points, and on politics more especi-
ally, were so opposite to his own. We may observe, in
passing, that in the case of the Tory poet laureate and
his son, the Rev. Cuthbert Southey, well merited praise
to the one, and the gift of a church living to the other,
came from a Whig Review and from a Whig Lord Chan-
cellor, in acknowledgment of high literary genius ; while
a bitter and discreditable attack appeared in that Quar-
terly Review which had derived its illumination from the
brilliancy of Southey's genius.
William Empson contributed upwards of 60 articles
to the Review between the years 1823 and 1849, on law,
the condition of the poorer classes, negro slavery, do-
mestic politics, poetry, and general literature and bio-
graphy. No questions appeared more congenial to his
nature than those which denounced oppression and
tyranny, whether political or ecclesiastical, and those
which, in reviewing the lives of the good and the great,
excited a train of moral feelings. One characteristic of
William Empson's editorship is to be traced equally to
the times in which we live and to his own nature and
opinions. Religious pugnacity appears now on all sides.
Our controversialists enter the lists with strange wea-
pons. Mitres and crosiers, and other offensive instru-
ments and symbols, stolen from mediaeval armouries, are
flourished by vehement and indignant combatants. The
population which lives between Carfax and Magdalen-
bridge seeks the help of the Romans against the inroad
of what they consider the Saxon barbarians. The assist-

ante of most able fellow-labourers was obtained by
William Empson for this new contest ; and.his own
mode of treating questions of this description is beauti-
fully shown in his review of the Life of Arnold, by
Arthur Stanley, contained in the January number of
1845. Throughout this most able series of articles on
religious topics the right of private judgment and the
scriptural foundation of our faith have been well de-
fended ; and the assertion of freedom of conscience and
freedom of inquiry has been made to rest on a founda-
tion of humble belief and of deep and unaffected piety.
Such are among the many claims which William Emp-
son possessed on the esteem and gratitude of his con-
temporaries. In private life he was most happy in his
associations. The friendships which he brought with
hire from Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge,
and which were extended in the world, and completed
among his estimable colleagues at Hayleybury, were un-
broken except by death. How he was loved and valued
by those who knew him most intimately is shown in the
delightful letters of Lord Jeffrey. To his intimacy with
that most captivating man William Empson owed the
completion of his family happiness in marriage. He
was unchangeable in all his friendships. Pope concludes
his penegyric on the minister Cragg by the emphatic
words—" And he lost no friend." Never was a human
being more entitled to Pope's praise than the subject of
the preceding sketch. He died aged 62 ; and never did
a calm and trusting death afford more conclusive evi-
dence of a life pure, useful, and benevolent.— Times.