1. R. Stephen was the first to bring together any considerable body of manuscript evidence, however negligently or capriciously he may have applied it to the emendation of the sacred text. A succession of English scholars was now ready to follow him in the same path, the only direct and sure one in criticism; and for about eighty years our countrymen maintained the foremost place in this important branch of Biblical learning. Their van was led by Brian Walton [1600-61], afterwards Bishop of Chester, who published in 1657 the London Polyglott, which he had planned twelve years before, as at once the solace and meet employment of himself and a worthy band of colleagues during that sad season when Christ’s Church in England was for a while trodden in the dust, and its ministers languished in silence and deep poverty. The fifth of his huge folios was devoted to the New Testament in six languages, viz. Stephen’s Greek text of 1550(189), the Peshitto-Syriac, the Latin Vulgate, the Ethiopic, Arabic, and (in the Gospels only) the Persic. The exclusively critical apparatus, with which alone we are concerned, consists of the readings of Cod. A set at the foot of the Greek text, and, in the sixth or supplementary volume, of Lucas Brugensis’ notes on various readings of the Gospels in Greek and Latin; of those given by the Louvain divines in their edition of the Vulgate (Walton, Polygl., Tom. vi. No. xvii); and especially of a collation of sixteen authorities, whereof all but three, viz. Nos. 1, 15, 16(190), had never been used before (Walton, Tom. vi. No. xvi). These various readings had been gathered by the care and diligence of Archbishop Ussher [1580-1656], then living in studious and devout retirement near London(191). They are as follows:—(1) _Steph._ the sixteen copies extracted from Stephen’s margin: (2) _Cant._ or Evan. D: (3) _Clar._ or Paul. D: (4) _Gon._ or Evan. 59: (5) _Em._ or Evan. 64, and also Act. 53: (6) _Goog._ or Evan. 62: (7) _Mont._ or Evan. 61: (8) _Lin._ or Evan. 56, and also Act. 33: (9) _Magd._ 1 or Evan. 57: (10) _Magd._ 2 or Paul. 42: (11) _Nov._ 1 or Evan. 58: (12) _Nov._ 2 or Act. 36: (13) _Bodl._ 1 or Evan. 47: (14) _Trit._ or _Bodl._ 2, Evan. 96: (15) _March. Veles._, the Velesian readings, described above, Vol. i. p. 209: (16) _Bib. Wech._, the Wechelian readings, which deserve no more regard than the Velesian. They were derived from the margin of a Bible printed at Frankfort, 1597, by the heirs of And. Wechel. It is indifferent whether they be referred to Francis Junius or F. Sylburg as editors, since all the readings in the New Testament are found in Stephen’s margin, or in the early editions.