"The Edinburgh Review was a new departure in the history of periodicals. Unlike the Monthly and Critical Reviews it withheld from commenting or reprinting all the productions of the press. Besides being very selective, its editors established the basic guidelines by
which 19th century reviewing was to be conducted. These reviewers seized each opportunity to present their own views of the general subject rather than their reactions on the methods or materials of the author. The foremost successful periodical among the organs of literary
criticism" (Faustus).

"Chalmers' writings in the Edinburgh Review and elsewhere were probably the most important single channel whereby the tenets of utilitarianism and political economy were mediated to the evangelical world" (Victorian Studies).