Compare Documents

LONDON, May 8.––Mr. Vaughan accepted Oscar Wilde’s bail at Bow Street yesterday morning, and early in the afternoon he was released. The bail was fixed at £2,500 in Wilde’s own recognizances, with two sureties of £1,250 each. The two sureties were Lord Douglas of Hawick and the Rev. Stewart Headlam. The sureties afterwards proceeded to Holloway Jail and accompanied Wilde back to Bow Street to be formally set at liberty.

Wilde looked brighter and not much worse for his incarceration. The Rev. Stewart Headlam, in an interview as to his action, says: "I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind has been prejudiced before the case began, and I anxious to give Mr. Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits."

Legal formalities at Bow-street Police-court revealed on the 7th inst. the well-kept secret of who were the two gentlemen who had agreed to be the required sureties in £1250 each for the appearance of Oscar Wilde at tho next Old Bailey Sessions. Mr. Travers Humphreys introduced in this remarkable juxtaposition the Ref. Stewart Headlam and Lord Douglas of Hawick.

Mr. Angus Lewis, for the Treasury, intimated that no objection would be raised on his side; and both the proposed sureties baring satisfied the Court that they were solvent to the extent of £1250 each and willing to become bail, their recognisances were accepted.

About twenty minutes past two a four-wheeled cab drove into Bow-street from the direction of Longacre conveying from Holloway Oscar Wilde and Chief-Inspector White, while Inspector Brockwell, who originally had the prisoner in charge, sat with the gaoler. Wilde was dressed, as usual, with scrupulous care in dark frock-coat and silk hat, and when he alighted in the station yard he walked, erect and self-possessed, with all the old air of being superior to, and untouched by, circumstances. He was brought into the court building by a private door leading to the inner end of the official corridor, and without being taken into the court itself was conducted at once to the private office of Mr. Alexander, the chief clerk, where his recognisances were taken—a purely formal proceeding. Presently Wilde and his sureties quietly left the court by the magistrate's private door in Broadcourt, and walked rapidly away in the direction of Drury-lane. Thence the three drove straight from Bow-street to the Midland Grand Hotel in a hired cab which had been waiting at the back of the court. Mr. Wilde, in answer to inquiries addressed to him by a reporter, declared that he had nothing to say; but he seemed much relieved by the prospect of a little freedom and fresh air after so many weary days' confinement.

It was supposed that Mr. Wilde might intend taking an immediate trip to Scarborough, or some other of the Yorkshire watering-places, as it had been announced that he would spend the interval between his release and his next appearance at the Old Bailey at the seaside. A train for the North left the station at four o'clock, but he did not travel by it. Mr. Headlam left the hotel at this hour, and walked away down Eustonroad smoking a cigarette, Lord Douglas having in the meantime engaged rooms for the afternoon at the Midland Grand. Later in the afternoon Mr. Wilde was visited by an old personal friend, and he was also busily engaged for a considerable time with two of Messrs. Humphreys and Son's clerks over his private affair and the pending new trial. He was then stated to be suffering from prostration and weakness, and unable to undergo the fatigue of an interview.

Mr. Wilde's solicitors, at their client's own request, have intimated to the authorities that they are perfectly prepared to keep them fully informed as to his movements and precise whereabouts between now and the 20th inst., when Mr. Wilde will, in due course, give himself up to the police.

The Rev. Stewart Headlam, interviewed as to the reasons which induced him to become surety for Mr. Wilde, banded to the reporter the following statement in writing : I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind had been prejudiced before the case begun, and I was anxious to give Mr. Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits.