[4] Espinasse went to London in 1843, to work for the British Museum as an assistant; but he left his post after a clash with Anthony Panizzi.
[1][3] He published on 20 October 1847 in the Manchester Examiner an article on Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was starting out on a British lecture tour, in terms which set a pattern for later coverage.
[8] A prolific freelance writer, Espinasse became a major contributor to The Critic in the early 1850s, introduced by William Maccall.
Under the pseudonym Herodotus Smith he gave an insider's view of the literary world (other pseudonyms—he used at least three—were Lucian Paul and Frank Grave).
He was remembered as a biographer of French philosophers, and substantial contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography (he is one of those credited with its conception).