Captain Gosset has this week resigned the office of Serjeant-
at-Arms, to the great regret of the whole House of Commons, which he has now served, in one office or another, for forty-nine years. He has discharged his duty with so much good-temper and suavity, that even Mr. Parnell joined heartily in the tribute to his admirable qualities, and suggested with some humour that by sitting so near to the Irish Members, Captain Gosset had in some way contracted the genial and fascinating qualities of the Irish Party. Mr. Parnell himself, no doubt, must have exhaled a whole atmosphere of sweetness ; while Mr. Bigger and Mr. O'Brien must have supplied a mellow and delicious radiance of light. Really, this theory of Mr. Parnell's as to Captain Gosset's involuntary absorption of the subtle charms of his nearest neighbours, shows that the Irish leader is developing a humour of which he has hitherto been innocent. And there is another story which points in the same direction. Rumour says that one day, after meeting in the blandest way the views of the present Administration as to Votes in Supply, Mr. Parnell was asked by one of the officials how long he intended to make matters so pleasant for them; to which Mr. Parnell drily replied,—" So long as you are not a Government."
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