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The fourth, and presumably the last, day of Wilde's second trial at the Old Bailey opened with cool breezes and court less crowded and oppressive than it was yesterday, when the prisoner's cross-examination attracted the sensation-hunters. The Solicitor-General whose speech to the jury on behalf of conviction was cut short in the middle by the adjournment last night, was the first of the counsel in the case to reach the court, where he occupied himself in a last hasty glance through the pages of his brief. It is interesting to recall that the present is the second case in which Sir Frank Lockwood has been brought into a cause célèbre to exert against a prisoner, the enormous influence of "the last word." In November last, when all England was waiting with breathless interest for the issue of the trial of Read for the murder of Florrie Dennis, the newly-appointed Solicitor-General went down to Chelmsford to prosecute, he had the

LAST WORD WITH THE JURY,

and Read was hanged. In the case, too, it was Mr. C. F. Gill who was superseded in the conduct of the Crown case.

At half-past ten Mr. Justice Wills arrived. A second case, a charge of wilful murder against one Jane White, had been placed in the list for the day, and his lordship carried with his papers the black cap. But this prisoner, who was brought first into the dock, was admitted only on the coroner's warrant, the Treasury had concluded to offer no evidence against her, and a verdict of not guilty was taken. So it happened that when Oscar Wilde, poet and dramatist, was called upon to surrender he became involved in the door of the dock with the discharged.

Sir F. Lockwood's Speech.

The Solicitor-General proceeded at once with his address. From the first it was a morning of gusty temper, with frequent sharp exchanges between Sir F. Lockwood and Sir E. Clarke. The first was provoked by Sir Edward rising to object to what he called Mr. Solicitor's rhetorical description of what had never been proved in evidence, in asserting that an intimate friendship existed between Wilde and Taylor.

"Gentlemen," Mr. Solicitor retorted, "It is not rehetoric, it is a plain statement of fact. What are the indications of an intimate friendship? They call one another by their Christian names. I do not inquire too closely whether they come from the stable or the kitchen. What greater proof of intimate friendship is there?" Again Mr. Solicitor protested against Sir Edward Clarke's differentiation of Taylor from Wilde by throwing round the letter

"A GLAMOR OF ART

which is false and untrue."

Again Sir Edward was on his feet, exclaiming, "My lord, I must distinctly protest--" when he was interrupted by the Solicitor-Ceneral with a passionate and contemptuous exclamation, only half articulated, of "You may go--oh!" and Mr. Solicitor's feelings became too much for him.

His Lordship, where the exhibitions of feeling distress unspeakably, tried to put all on the troubled waters, but Sir Edward Clarke continued, "All this is as far removed from the evidence as anything ever heard in this court."

Sir Frank Lockwood: I am alluding, my lord, and I maintain I am right in alluding, to my learned friend's last appeal to the jury as to the literary position of his client, and I am dealing in connection with that with his connection with the man Taylor, and I say these men

MUST BE JUDGED EQUALLY.

Sir Edward Clarke: They are fairly tried in the proper order.

"Oh, my lord," cried Mr. Solicitor, with increasing passion, "these interruptions would avail my friend nothing."

His Lordship said Mr. Solicitor was perfectly within his right. The only objection was to allusions to the result of the trial of Taylor.

Passing on to allude to the "madness of kissing" letter, the Solicitor-General contended that such a letter found in the possession of a woman, from a man, would be open to but one interpretation. How much worse, he suggested, was the inference to be drawn when such a letter was written by one man to another! It had been attempted to show that this was "a prose poem, a sonnet, a lovely thing which I suppose we are too low to appreciate. Gentlemen," thundered Mr. Solicitor, "let us thank God, if it is so, that we do not appreciate things of this sort save at the proper value, and that is somewhat lower than the beasts."

Again counsel came into collision, and a laugh followed. The Solicitor-General protested that he had no sympathy with such demonstrations, and his lordship, who is taking the case on bare nerves, almost tearfully admonished the crowd. "These interruptions," he said, "are offensive to me beyond anything that can be described. To have to try a case of this kind, to keep the scales even, and do one's duty is hard enough, but to be pestered with the applause or expressions of feeling of senseless people who have no business to be here at all except for the gratification of

MORBID CURIOSITY

is too much. If there is anything of the kind again I shall clear the court."

The Solicitor-General presently alluded to the witnesses Parker and Wood. His learned friend had said they were blackmailers, and had warned the jury against giving a verdict which should enable another vice, as detestable, as abominable, to rear its head with unblushing affrontery in this city. The genesis of the blackmailer is the man who had committed these sets of indecency with him. And the genesis of the man who commits these foul acts is the man who is

WILLING TO PAY

for their commission. Were it not that there are men willing to purchase vice in this most hideous and detestable form there would be no market for such crime, and no opening for these blackmailers to ply their calling. But where, he asked, was the motive? It was not suggested that either of these men had blackmailed Wilde. They had much to lose and nothing at all to gain by giving evidence here. It was not suggested that their evidence had been bought, or that they had been improperly influenced in any way.

Keenly Interested Listeners.

Wilde listened impassively from his corner of the dock, but all throughout the morning he carried frequently to his nose a small vinaigrette of cut glass. The Marquess of Queensberry retained his place near the bench, and the Rev. Stewart Headlam still sat with his back to the witness-box, with Lord Douglas of Hawick vis-à-vis at the other side of the solitary table. Mr. Grain, who defended Taylor, was in and out of the court of the morning, without wig or gown.

Lockwood's Last Words.

Having weathered through the early poems, the Solicitor-General settled down to a wordy and somewhat disconnected survey of the evidence, finding everywhere corroboration that he submitted to the jury as [...] to the prisoner. In regard to the Savoy Hotel charges, he asked why Lord Alfred Douglas, who slept in the next room, had not been called to deny the statements of the chambermaid. "Now, gentleman," he concluded, "I have been through the whole of this case. I have pointed out to you its strength, and I have to ask you to do your duty in regard to it. I have already dealt with that, as I think, unfortunate appeal which my learned friend, made as to Wilde. With that we have in the case nothing whatever to do. He has a right to be acquitted if you believe him to be an innocent man, be his lot high or low. But if, gentlemen, in your consciences you believe that he is guilty of these charges--well, then you have only one consideration, and that is to follow closely the obligation of the path which has been imposed upon you."

The Judge Sums Up.

At half-past twelve Mr. Justice Wills began his summing-up. Pointing out to the jury that their duty was "the cold, calm, resolute administration of justice," he said he would himself rather try the most shocking murder that it had ever fallen to his lot to try than be engaged in a case like this. It might be thought that the difficulty and distress of dealing with it would be increased by the position and education of the person accused. His lordship could not say that his own difficulty or sense of responsibility was increased by that consideration. Whatever might be the guilt or innocence of the accused, his conduct had been such, particularly with regard to Lord Alfred Douglas, that it would be impossible for 12 intelligent, imparital, and honest gentlemen to say there was no good ground for an indignant father to charge him with having posed, as the Marquess of Queensberry had suggested. His lordship continued that in his opinion the conspiracy charges should never have been introduced at the last trial, and the joining of the charges against the two prisoners of itself

JUSTIFIED THE DISAGREEMENT OF THE JURY.

As to the present trial, he would have preferred to try the prisoners in a different order, but he did not think the defendant had suffered by the course taken by the Solicitor-General. It was impossible in dealing with Wood's case to avoid dealing also with Lord Alfred Douglas. He was not here, and it must be remembered in his favor that if neither side called him he could not volunteer himself as witness. His lordship was also anxious not to say anything to blast the career of a young man on the threshold of life. His family seemed to be a house divided against itself, but even if there was no filial love or parental affection, even if there was nothing but hatred between father and son, what father would not try to save his son from the associations suggested by the two letters from the prisoner to Lord Alfred Douglas? His lordship would avoid saying whether those letters seemed to point to actual criminal conduct or not. Suppose that they were

PROSE POEMS,

suppose that they were things of which the intellectual and literary value could only be appreciated by persons of high culture, were they the less poisonous for a young man? It was strange that it should not occur to a gentleman capable of writing such letters that any young man to whom they were addressed must suffer in the estimations of everybody if it were known. Lord Queensberry seemed to have taken a method of interfering which his lordship would have thought no gentleman would have taken to leaving at the defendant's club a card containing a most offensive expression. It was a message which left the defendant no alternative but to prosecute, or to be publicly branded as a man who could not deny a foul charge.

Lord Queensberry found some of these expressions so little to his taste that he presently got up and

LEFT THE COURT.

His lordship went on to speak of the ill-assorted friendship between Lord Alfred Douglas and Wood, whom he introduced to Wilde, and to whom he gave a suit of clothes containing the "madness of kissing" letter. His lordship found it more understandable that a lad like Wood should be given cast-off clothes than silver cigarette cases. His lordship had no doubt that the "red rose-leaf lips" letter was the worst of the bundle which fell into the hands of the blackmailers, but he regarded it as highly unfortunate that the others should have been destroyed. If they were indeed harmless, as the defendant had said, they would have been an answer to this charge.

A Question from the Jury Box.

The foreman of the jury interposed with the question: "In view of the intimacy between Lord Alfred Douglas and Wood, was a warrant ever issued for the apprehension of Lord Alfred Douglas?"

His Lordship replied, "I should think not. We have not heard of it."

"Was it ever contemplated?" asked the foreman, and his lordship in many words said he did not know. A warrant would, in any case, not be issued without evidence of some fact, of something more than mere intimacy.

The Foreman: It seems to us that if we induce any guilt from these letters it applies as much to Lord Alfred Douglas as to the defendant.

His Lordship: Quite so; but how does that relieve the defendant? Our present inquiry is whether guilt is brought home to the man in the dock.

The Court adjourned for half an hour for lunch.

The Judge Doesn't Know.

After lunch his lordship returned to this subject. There was a natural disposition, he said, to ask, Why should this man stand in the dock and not Lord Alfred Douglas? But the supposition that Lord Alfred Douglas would ne in any way spared because he was Lord Alfred Douglas was one of the wildest injustice--the thing was utterly and hopelessly impossible. Lord Alfred Douglas, as they all knew, went to Paris with the present defendant. There he had stayed, and his lordship know absolutely nothing more about him. He was as ignorant in this respect as the jury. It might be that there was no evidence against Lord Alfred Douglas, but even about that he knew nothing. It was a thing they could not discuss, and to entertain any such consideration as he had mentioned would be prejudice of the worst possible kind. Then his lordship passed on to deal with the case of Chas. Parker.

Wilde Affected.

The references to Lord Alfred Douglas were the first part of to-day's proceedings to shake the prisoner out of his affectation of phlegm. He sat upright and watched the judge keenly during the colloquy with the foreman of the jury, and appeared relieved at the way in which it terminated. During the afternoon all the counsel engaged in the case were present for the first time since Wednesday, and Mr. Grain's presence in wig and gown gave color to the report that Taylor had been brought down from Holloway and would be sentenced after the jury had found a verdict in the present case.

His Lordship's Prejudice.

His lordship found some truth in the aphorism that a man must be judged by the company he keeps, but said it was for the jury to say whether the prisoner's association with lads like Wood and Parker, of inferior social grade and with no single bond of taste and sympathy, was more than merely suspicious. As to the Savoy Hotel incidents, his lordship hoped he was not pedantic, but his prejudice was in favor of males sleeping one in a bed, and where a man could afford to incur a hotel bill of more that £40 in a week, it seemed to him astonishing that he should not get at least the whole use of a bed for his money. And his lordship illustrated, anecdotally and autobiographically, a hope which he expressed that he was no fool in such matters.

Jury Retire.

At half-past three his Lordship concluded a rather discursive, but certainly not feeble summing up. Early in the course of it he had declared his dislike of a summing up "so colorless as to be no help to anybody," while at the same time urging the jury to view his directions critically. He now said he hoped he had held the balance truly. He had tried his very best to do so, and counsel on both sides and conducted the case with such eminent fairness--and courtesy!-- that he hoped, and believed, between the three of them they had really kept prejudice out of the case.

The jury retired at twenty-five minutes to four to "consider the verdict."

PROTEST BY THE JUDGE

The final stage in the trial of Oscar Wilde was entered upon on Saturday at the Old Bailey. The Solicitor-General (Sir F. Lock- wood), Mr. C. F. Gill, and Mr. H. Avorv appeared on behalf of the Public Prosecutor,and Sir E. Clarke, Mr. C. Mathews, and Mr. Travers Humphreys defended. The court was again crowded, and great interest was taken in the proceedings.

The Solicitor-General resumed his reply on the whole case, and at the outset referred to the circumstances under which Lord Queensberry wrote the letter which was the cause of the charges being investigated in the first instance. He proceeded to urge that Sir E. Clarke had appealed to the jury to save his client on account of his high literary position. Under the glamour of art-

Sir E. Clarke most strongly protested against this sort of appeal to the jury, which suggested that it was his desire that one man should go down and the other be saved under the false glamour of art. This was far removed from the evidence laid before the court. His Lordship said that up to the present time there had been little or no allusion to the other trial.

Sir F. Lockwood declared that his learned friend in his final appeal to the jury laid great stress upon the literary position of his client. This man must be judged equally "i h the other according to the law. The Judge remarked that he would have worthing to say on the points raised after-

The Solicitor-General next referred to Taylor as a man upon whom Wilde would have relied, had his story been true. Sir E. Clarke had made much of the fact that it was Wilde himself who produced the first of the letters to Lord A. Douglas; but that was only done to take the sting out of the cross-examination.

Sir W. Clarke stated that the Solicitor-General had no right to make such an observation.

Sir F. Lockwood retorted, and there was some laughter in the court at the repeated conflicts between the two eminent counsel, whereupon Sir F. Lockwood protested against laughter in such a case.

His Lordship said it was hard enough to have to try a case of that sort, and hold the scales fairly between the parties, without being pestered with applause, which merely expressed the feelings of senseless people who had no business in the court except the gratification of morbid curiosity. If there was any more of this kind of thing he would have the court cleared.

Sir F. Lockwood proceeded to closely analyse the charges against Wilde, and commented on the strong point made by Sir E. Clarke in his appeal to the jury, that the Crown had provided one of the principal witnesses with a suit of clothes, and that some of these men had been in the custody of the detectives. These clothes had been provided in order that the witnesses should not appear in the uniform if the Queen, and most of the others had been in the custody of the detectives and removed from place to place with great secrecy to prevent their being tampered with, and to ensure their attendance in court. He made no sort of apology for the course taken by the prosecution on this matter. He dealt at length with the evidence called on behalf of the prosecution, and asked what object could the independent witnesses have in giving their independent stories but to speak the truth in the interests of the public. In conclusion Sir F. Lockwood asked the jury to do their duty fairly. If they believed Wilde to be an innocent man they must acquit him; but if, on their consciences, they believed him to be guilty of the offences charged against him there was only one consideration - to follow closely the obligations which the oath had imposed upon them.

SUMMING UP.

The Judge, in summing up, referred to the difficulties and responsibilities imposed upon everyone connected with a case such as that before the court. It dealt with matters in which, thank God, one's ordinary experience of human life served one but little; but they were surrounded with an atmosphere of natural and inevitable prejudice, which made the cool administration of justice difficult. He regretted that the charges of conspiracy were ever introduced m the indictment; they ought either never to have been introduced, or never to have been abandoned when introduced. He did not believe that Wilde had suffered one hairs breadth by the order in which the defendants had been tried in the present the Solicitor-General that Taylor had not did not think that, under the circumstances, be could have made his appearance in the witness-box; and it was also inevitable that the defendant should give evidence if he hoped to have any chance of procuring a verdict of acquittal. He could not bring himself to give simply a colourless summing up, which was of no good to anybody; but expressed the hope that in respect of any opinions which might be hinted at or conveyed, the jury would regard them not as opinions to guide them, but rather as matters to criticize, to cavil with, to find fault with, and to see whether they were justified. It was the province of the jury themselves to decide; and it had been the aim of his judicial life, so far as he could, to preserve that province sacred. It was very unfortunate that in dealing with the case he should have to refer to Lord A. Douglas. He was not present, and was no party to the proceedings.

A Juror: My Lord, he could be here.

His Lordship assented that Lord Alfred could be present, but pointed out that he could not volunteer himself into the case. Continuing, the Judge remarked that he would say nothing that he could help to blast Lord A. Douglas's career in life; but it did not relieve him from the necessity of investigating, as far as he could, his relations with Wood . He referred to the defendant's letter to Lord A. Douglas, which Wilde said was a prose poem, and declared that it was poison for a young man. It was a lamentable one, necessitating the intervention of his friends. Whatever construction might be put upon the letter, it was one which an elder friend ought not to address to a young man. He proceeded to comment on the relations between the defendant, Lord A. Douglas, and the young men called on behalf of the prosecution; and in reference to Wilde's dealings with Wood, said it was for the jury to say whether they could accept the account given by the defendant, that he believed Wood to be a blackmailer coming to levy toll upon him because he possessed certain letters, and that he was so disarmed of suspicion by his candour in reference to the letter that he felt he had done great injustice in his own mind ; and, therefore, paid him £16, not for the letters, but as a pure act of benevolence to enable him to go to America. To destroy these appeared a most grievous mistake - a mad mistake. To believe anything simply because Wood said it would be absurd,as Wood belonged to perhaps the vilest class that our great cities produce; he was at least connected with a gang of black- mailers ; and the stress of the case with regard to him seemed to depend upon the character of the original introduction. Was it stamped with charity, kindness, and good- will simply, or was it by one wicked person to another?

The Foreman of the Jury, interrupting, said that in view of the intimacy with Lord Alfred Douglas the jury would be glad to know whether a warrant for Lord Alfred Douglas's apprehension was ever issued.

The Judge: I should think not.

The Foreman: Or ever contemplated?

The Judge: I cannot tell; nor need we discuss that, because Lord Alfred Douglas may yet have to answer a charge. He was not called. There may be a thousand considerations of which we may know nothing that might prevent his appearance in the witness box. I think you should deal with the matter upon the evidence before you.

The Foreman: If we are to deduce any guilt from these letters, it applies equally to Lord Alfred Douglas as to the defendant.

The Judge: Quite so; but how does that relieve the defendant. We have got the testimony of his guilt to deal with now. I believe that to be the recipient of such letters and to continue the intimacy is as fatal to the reputation of the recipient as to the sender; but that you have really nothing to do with at present. Our present inquiry is about the man who is in the dock - whether the guilt is brought home to him? After an adjournment of half-an-hour for luncheon, the Judge, on resuming at 2.25, implored the jury to give no heed to the fact that no charge had yet been brought against Lord Alfred Douglas, and to discard that consideration from their minds, lest it might prejudice the administration of justice. His Lordship then proceeded to deal with the case of Parker, speaking of him as mixed up with a gang of blackmailers, and pointing out that to accept his unsupported testimony would be monstrous ; but for some reason or other he appeared to have been a very acceptable companion, and the intimacy was an extraordinary one. It was the association with men of that class that created the suspicion in the case; but whether it ought to go beyond suspicion or not it was for the jury to say. He next dealt with the two occurrences at the Savoy Hotel, stating that one of them was most suspicious. In concluding he assured the jury that he had done his best to point out such things as he thought ought fairly to be said on behalf of the defendant, as well as what might fairly be relied upon the other side; and he thanked the jury for their patient and impartial attention to the detail of a disagreeable and anxious case. The jury retired at 3.30.

VERDICT.

The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty." Prisoner was sentenced to two years' hard labour. Taylor received the same.