Founded in 1824 by James Mill the Westminster Review propagated Benthamite ideals and middle-class interests, representing this class as the 'thinkers' and 'doers' of the world in contrast with the idleness of the aristocracy. Mill, a former contributor to both the Edinburgh Review and the Eclectic Review, attempted to establish the identity of Westminster by defining it against the reactionary stance of establishment periodical such as the Quarterly Review (Graham, English Literary Periodicals, p. 252). Under the editorship of J. S. Mill, and following a merger with the London Review in 1835, the Westminster established a reputation for enlightened and radical views, but lack of commercial success led to the periodical being sold to William E. Hickson and Henry Cole in 1840, when its influence declined. It was sold in 1847 to the publishers Chapman and Hall when it was merged with the Foreign Quarterly Review. Under the editorship of John Chapman, assisted by George Eliot and G. H. Lewes, its reputation was re-established. Other contributors included James and Harriet Martineau, connected with the National Review.
A sympathetic review of Modern Painters I, appeared in the Westminster Review, August 1843. The Westminster defended Ruskin from critical attack by the Quarterly Review and the Edinburgh Review following the publication of Modern Painters III in January 1856. Other sympathetic periodicals included the British Quarterly Review, April 1856, the American Putnam's Monthly Magazine, May 1856, the Eclectic Review, June 1856, Fraser's Magazine, June 1856, the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, June 1856, and the National Review, July 1856. Many of these periodicals were those representing the interests of religious dissent.