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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2900, 1 June 1878, Page 2

Sib Geobcke Gbey's refusal to gazette the official notification as to the title of " Honorable " has secured the approval of several leading English journals. TEe London Echo says* —"The-Prime Minis* ter of New Zealand appears to be a sensible man. He has delayed complying with the request of the Governor, who wishes , to have official notification in the Colonial Gazette, of the fact that the title of * Honorable * has bern conferred upon Judges Chapman and Grreason. The Premier, who bears the honored name of Grey, mindful of his own name and of the dignity of his office, declines to recognise 'a sham aristocracy.' The craving for. titles developes itself very curiously in new as well as in old communities, and, there is now more < redit to be obtained ? by the refusal than by the acceptance of titular honours. There are thousands of men who would give their ears for -a peerage, or for a step in that illustrious roll; and there are many-£oQi}'storieß of the way in which the First Ministers of the Crown have been solicited for patents. The Marquis of Normanby has probably not yet read Mr Torrens' ' Life of Lord Melbourne,' for if he had done so he would have remembered an anecdote of a peer who came to Lord Melbourne: to ask for a marquisate. With an expletive, as was his custom, now, ' more honored in the breach than in the observance/ Lord Melbourne replied, ' Why, you are not such a fool as to want that?' On another occasion Lord Melbourne asked, ■ Why, what does he want now, a Garter for the other leg P' It may be convenient, as in the United States, to address the Governors and Senators as ' Honorable,' just as we affix ' M.P.' to the names of mem- > bers of the House of Commons, or prefix ' Beverend ' to clergymen, bat there is no law in the States to sanction such titles. Indeed, the powe.* to. grant them is repudiated by the -Constitution ; and a recent decision of the, Judicial Committee held that there was more of courtesy than right in the title of • Eeverend' awarded to clergymen, and by common consent alao to Noncon* formist ministers and Catholic priests. For all that the present Premier of New Zealand is right, like his great namesake, who resolved to ' stand by hi 3 order.'"

A Round of Amusehents.— The ©if CUB.