Compare Documents

London news reports that after two hours' deliberation the jury on Saturday, May 25, convicted Oscar Wilde for immorality. Mr. Justice Willis in delivering sentence declared that the finding of the jury was a just one and that he never knew of a more shocking case, and regretted that he was unable to impose a sentence over the maximum penalty of two years' hard labor on both Wilde and Taylor. Wilde's appearance in the dock was that of an utter nervous physical wreck. On the sentence of the Court being delivered the audience cried shame. On Sunday, 26th, both Wilde and Taylor attended divine service in Petonville Chapel with their hair cropped and wearing the army prison garb.

It is also stated that the London police are in possession of a list of a large number of persons who will probably be notified to leave the country to avoid criminal proceedings.

At the end of the trial the foreman of the jury asked whether a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas.

The conduct in court of the Marquis of Queensberry and Lord Douglas, his son, was so unseemly on the 23rd that they had to be severely rebuked by the presiding Magistrate who dismissed them under bonds to keep the peace.

LONDON, May 25. - Oscar Wilde was today found guilty of the charges against him, and, with Alfred Taylor, sentence to two years at hard labor.

Sir Frank Lockwood, in summing up for the crown, denounced Wilde's "prose poems," asking that the jury consider them at their proper level.

The judge, in summing up, said that Wilde had confessed that his conduct in regard to Lord Alfred Douglas had been such that he (the judge) could not ask the jury in the previous trial to say that there was no ground for charging him with having posed as a criminal.

The judge, in the course of his remarks to the jury, dealt with each of the charges contained in the indictment, his opinion being plainly and strongly against the prisoner. In regard to Wilde's letters to Lord Alfred Douglas, he said they might be "prose poems," but they were nonetheless poison to a young man's mind, and the writer was clearly not a desirable companion for the young.

The judge finished his charge at 3 o'clock and the jury retired.

Before the jury retired the foreman asked the court if a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas.

The judge said that no warrant had been issued, whereupon the foreman said: "But if we must consider these letters as evidence of guilt, they surely show that Lord Alfred Douglas’s guilt is equal to that of Wilde."

After the verdict had been rendered, Sir Edward Clark, on behalf of Wilde, and counsel for Alfred Taylor, made application for a postponement of sentence.

The judge peremptorily refused to grant the application, and in his remarks described the offences of which the prisoners were guilty as the most heinous that had ever come to his notice. The judge then sentenced Wilde and Taylor to two years’ imprisonment at hard labor, the maximum penalty.

When the sentence was pronounced Wilde appeared to be stunned.

As the last word of the sentence was uttered the apostle of estheticism was hurried to his cell, a felon.