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At the Central Criminal Court, London, on Saturday last, before Mr. Justice Wills, the trial was resumed of Oscar Wilde, 40, author, on an indictment charging him with certain misdemeanours. This was the sixth day of the trials of Wilde and Taylor. The Marquis of Queensberry was again in attendance. The Solicitor-General Sir Frank Lockwood, Q.C.), Mr C. F. Gill, and Mr. Horace Avory prosecuted ; Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C.. Mr. Charles Mathews, and Mr Travers Humphreys defended.

The learned Solicitor-General, resuming his speech in reply on behalf of the Crown, dealt in detail with the arguments laid before the jury by Sir Edward Clarke in defence of Mr Wilde, and he commented in strong terms on observations that were made respecting the lofty situation of Mr. Wilde in connection with his literary accomplishments for the purpose of unduly influencing the judgment of the jury in considering the issue before them, and said that the jury ought to discard absolutely any such appeal, to apply their common sense to the testimony, and to form a conclusion on the evidence, which he submitted fully established the charges. He was commenting on another branch of the case when Sir Edward Clarke interposed on the ground that the learned Solicitor-General was alluding to incidents connected with another trial. The learned Solicitor-General maintained that he was strictly within his rights. The judge held that the learned Solicitor-General was entitled to make the comments he was making. An observation from the Solicitor-General bearing on the interruption of Sir Edward Clarke evoked laughter in court. The judge said that this sort of thing was most offensive to him. It was painful enough to have to try such a case as the present and keep the scales of justice evenly balanced, and when the Court was pestered with applause and other expressions of the feelings of senseless people, who had no business with the case, but came only to satisfy the cravings of a morbid curiosity, it was intolerable. If it were repeated he would have the court cleared. The learned Solicitor-General criticised the answers given by Mr. Wilde to the charges, which explanations, he submitted, were not worthy of belief. The jury could not fail to put the interpretation on the the conduct of the accused that he was a guilty man, and they ought to say so by their verdict.

The Judge, in summing-up, referred to the difficulties of the case in some of its features. He regretted that, if the conspiracy counts were unnecessary, or could not be established, they should have been placed in the indictment. The jury must not surrender their own independent judgment in dealing with the facts, and ought to discard everything which was not relevant to the issue before them, or did not assist their judgment. He did not desire to comment any more than he could help about Lord Alfred Douglas or the Marquis of Queensberry, but the whole of this lamentable inquiry arose through the defendant's association with Lord Alfred Douglas. He did not think that the action of the Marquis of Queensberry, in leaving the card at the defendant's club, whatever motives he had, was that of a gentleman. The jury were entitled to consider that these alleged acts happened some years ago. They ought to be the best judges as to whether the testimony of the witnesses was worthy or not of belief. The letters written by the accused to Lord Alfred Douglas were undoubtedly open to suspicion, and they had an important bearing on Wood's evidence. There was no corroboration of Wood as to the visit to Tito Street, and if his story had been true he thought that some corroboration might have been obtained. Wood belonged to the vilest class of persons that society was pestered with, and the jury ought not to believe his story unless satisfactorily corroborated. Their decision must turn on the character of the first introduction of Wilde to Wood. Did they believe that Wilde was actuated by charitable motives or by improper motives?

The Foreman of the Jury, interposing, asked whether a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas, and, if not, whether it was contemplated that a warrant be issued.

The Judge said he could not tell, but he thought not. It was a matter that they could not discuss at that stage. The granting of a warrant depended not upon the inference to be drawn from the letters referred to in the case, but on the production of evidence of specific acts. There was a disadvantage of speculating on this question. They must deal with the evidence before them and with that alone.

The Foreman—But if we are to deduce guilt from the letters it applies equally to Lord Alfred Douglas as to the defendant.

The Judge—In regard to the question as to the absence of Lord Alfred Douglas, he warned the jury not to be influenced by any consideration of this kind. All that they knew was that Lord Alfred Douglas went to Paris shortly before the last trial, and had remained there since. He felt sure that if the circumstances justified it the necessary proceedings would be taken. His Lordship dealt with each of the charges, and the evidence in support of them, and he then, after thanking the jury for the patient manner in which they had attended to the case, left the matter in their hands.

The jury retired to consider their verdict at half-past three o'clock, and returned a verdict of guilty.

Wilde and Taylor were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment, with hard labour.

The Press Association says—On last Saturday evening, immediately following the passing of the sentence on Wilde and Taylor, the prisoners were removed to the cells in Newgate Prison, adjoining the Central Criminal Court, pending the preparation of the legal warrants authorising their detention for two years. Both were suffering from nervousness, and betrayed their mental anxiety. From the first they were separated, but travelled in the same prison van to Pentonville Prison, where they will serve the preliminary portion of the sentence, a period to be eventually decided by the officials of the jail. When handed over to the governor of Pentonville the prisoners were taken separately to the reception ward, and each had to give details of his identity, religion, and submit to medical examination, after which they passed through the hands of the prison bathroom attendants and barber, and exchanged their own clothes for the prison garb, being afterwards handed over to the care of the chaplain. Yesterday they attended the prison chapel with the other occupants of the jail, and, with the exception of exercise time, they were confined to their cells, where they will in future be kept, unless their health becomes such as to entitle them to infirmary treatment, in which event the prison doctor will decide the nature of the work they must perform. By the terms of their sentence they will be isolated from their friends, except upon four occasions each year, and even this privilege may be forfeited by indifferent conduct.

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."