The Clergy are still much exercised in their minds as
to the proper demeanour for them, now that they are told they have no legal title to the epithet "Reverend." A correspondent of the Guardian suggests that the Clergy should take the names of their parishes, but the difficulty is not about the name, but about the handle to the name. We do not suppose that the rectors, and vicars, and curates wish to put off all their personal individuality, and to merge themselves in their official relation to the parish as a bishop merges himself in his official relation to a divine. The real ques- tion is whether the Rev. T. Jones will now call himself "Rever- end" or not ; and the real dilemma, we suppose, is about his taking, as a clergyman, the title "Esquire," if he insists on disowning the present titular property which he must share with a Dissenter. Of course, if he is prepared to be addressed simply as the Rector of A, the Vicar of B, the Curate of C, the difficulty disappears ; but these names are hardly sufficient for postal purposes, and if the individual name comes in at all, it will be awkward to strip it suddenly bare of both prefix and suffix. Would it not be better to go back quietly to the old system, and to remember that God made of one blood not only all the nations of the earth, but even Churchmen and Dissenters ?
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