Upon one other point our readers will naturally look for some information.
How have the necessary expenses of this undertaking been met? These, it
will readily be seen, would necessarily be large. So many persons could
not come together from various parts of the kingdom--some very distant,
including the extreme north of Scotland, and the extreme west of
Cornwall--and remain in London for a week in every month, without a
considerable expenditure of money. It was also found necessary for the
satisfactory execution of the work that each portion, from time to time as
provisionally completed, should be set up in type, and in this way further
expenses were entailed. The question of meeting these expenses was at an
early period forced upon the attention of the Company; for some members
before many months had elapsed had been put to serious costs, and while
all willingly gave their time and labour, as far as they might be able,
without reserve to this important work, it was felt to be impossible to
allow this extra burden to rest upon any, and the more so as the pressure
of it must needs be very unequally distributed. An appeal to the public
for help having met with no adequate response, it was resolved to dispose
of the copyright of the work, in the hope thereby of obtaining sufficient
means of meeting the expenses of completing it. Several offers from
different sources were made to the Companies; but ultimately, for various
reasons, it was deemed best to accede to that made by the University
Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, whereby, in return for the copyright of
the Revised Version, the Chancellors, Masters, and Scholars of the two
Universities agreed to provide a sum which it was hoped would suffice for
the expenses that would be incurred in the prosecution and completion of
the work, and to advance a certain portion of the same from time to time.
A draft deed embodying these agreements having been submitted to the
Companies was after some amendments accepted on December 10th, 1872.
The agreement with the University Presses binds the two Companies to a
revision of the Apocrypha, a work not contemplated in their original
undertaking. The New Testament Company have made arrangements for taking a
full share of this revision, and entered upon the work in April last.
Until this is completed they will not be released from their
responsibilities.
APPENDIX.
(A.)
_PURVEY’S PROLOGUE TO THE WYCLIFFITE BIBLE (1388?)_
CHAPTER XV.
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