THE WORD ' CHURCHMAN.'
[TO THE EDITOR or rum "SPIICTATOR."] the Spectator of March 21st, at the end of the notice of " Upton-on-Severn," you remark that the change in the meaning of the word " Churchman" from clergyman to church member is "one of the oddest freaks of language on record." It is not a freak of language at all, but the change of a word to its right meaning. When the Church, in common language and common thought, meant the clergy, it was natural that a Churchman should mean a clergyman. Now that the true meaning of the Church as the congregation has been restored in common language, a Churchman has naturally come to mean a member of the Church. "A good citizen" is an exactly parallel expression to " a good Churchman." The word " statesman " must in like manner have originated when the State meant the Government, and a king would say, "I am the State," without fearing to be thought mad ; but " statesman " has not undergone a parallel change of meaning.—I am, Sir, &c., JOSEPH JOHN
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