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LONDON, April 6. -- Although Oscar Wilde is languishing in jail as a criminal without bail on a heinous charge, he still has a number of influential friends who are zealous in his defense, notwithstanding that they are intimate enough with him to know most of the secrets of his private life. Lord Douglas of Hawick, second and eldest living son of the Marquis of Queensberry, is one of these. He is altogether the manliest-looking of the family. Before the death of his elder brother. Viscount Drumlanrig, he was well and favorably known as plain Percy Douglas. He has an unsmirched reputation, and entirely differs in every respect from his effeminate next younger brother. Lord Alfred Douglas. Since his return from Australia last Fall Lord Douglas of Hawick has been an almost constant associate of Oscar Wilde. He is willing at any time to go upon the witness stand in Wilde's behalf, and is vehement in his denunciation of Wilde's counsel for having withdrawn the suit.

NEW YORK, April 7. -- The Sun's London special cable says: Most observers of English character would have declared it impossible to arouse the phlegmatic conscience and emotions of the nation to such a pitch of intensity as is to-day manifesting itself in all classes. The horror, the loathing, the anger which the revelations in connection with The Wilde-Queensberry case have caused can be compared only with one of those whirlwinds of passion which once in a few decades suddenly sweep over a nation and by their very violence restore confidence in human nature. Not until to-day, apparently, has the country realized that a moral pestilence in the atmosphere has long been doing deadly work. Already there are signs that the popular revenge and reform will be indiscriminating and unreasoning in their work. The finger of suspicion is already carrying condemnation wherever it is pointed. Many will suffer fearful social penalties who are absolutely innocent; but the general effect of the great onslaught of public opinion which has now begun will be salutory and for the purifying of the nation. The best sign of all is that Englishmen are ashamed. It is the first time I have ever seen the manifestation of this emotion among them. They feel that a deep, black, national disgrace has been uncovered, and the feeling is the more powerful because new to them. Their anger against the human reptiles who have brought this shame upon them is indescribable. It not only demands the swiftest and severest punishment, but it has been instantly turned against every art, every fad, every innovation with which those accused or suspected have been identified.

To-day's newspapers are unanimous, for instance, in pronouncing the doom of aestheticism and everything connected with that cult. Thus the Telegraph correctly voices public opinion when it says:— "If the general concern were only with the man himself, his spurious brilliancy, inflated egotism, diseased vanity, cultivated affectation and shameless disavowal of all morality, the best thing would be to dismiss him and his deeds without a word to the penalty of universal condemnation. But there is more than the individual himself to be considered in the matter. The just verdict of yesterday must he held to include with him the tendency of his peculiar career, the meaning and influence of his teachings and all those shallow and specious arts by which he and his like have attempted to establish a cult and even to set up new schools of literature, the drama and social thought. To the fantastic beginning of the new school of ethical or literary principles no particular objections could be urged. Nevertheless these men, linking a certain real sense of beauty with profligate tastes and profane mockery, have exercised a visible influence upon the generation cursed by their presence. You may trace them to-day in the outlying regions of the press, where a certain class of publication strives to exist which has for its inspiration the salacious impulse to go perpetually as close as can be to the limits of public decorum, and to show its smartness by irreverence, veiled indelicacy and as far as it dares by violation of the sacredness of private life. The trial of this fetid fashion has penetrated to our theatres. The shame and disgrace of it have invaded art, and we are asked to admire now-a-days specimens from the impressionist and fleshly galleries which are of true and serious art merely a burlesque and mockery. It has passed with heavy damage to bad taste and rightful amusement into the domain of fiction, so that we see novel after novel aspire to a moment's popularity on the grounds of prurient sexuality or of ignorant disbelief."

Action Demanded.

The Chronicle recognizes the wide extent of the evil and says :—" For a long time past London life, or let us say, a small and obscure section of it, has been under the shadow of a black cloud. Everybody has suspected and feared. Nobody, no decent person has known that there was some centre whence the most deadly infections spread. It was apparent in a certain class of literature. Now a jury has declared that even a man of unattractive character has done a public benefit in branding one of the most prominent figures in our drama, our literature and by no means an unfashionable section of society. Suffice it to know that as some return for the undamming of the putrid stream our life id rid forever of a pest. The way has been cleared for the increased wholesomeness of life. Public Opinion has been so sharply screwed up in the past two days that certain things in current art and literature, no less than in conduct, will be intolerable for at least a long time to come."

Regarding the measured which society, now thoroughly aroused and exasperated, will employ for feeling with the evil, it may be said that the Government has wisely decided upon sharp, rapid and severe action. Evidence has accumulated in the last few days ample for the condemnation of several leader, of abominable coterie which has its significations throughout Europe. They will be arrested and in New York police parlance railroaded as fast as possible to penal servitude. The Government promptly began to-day by arresting Alfred Taylor whom the police say has long been known as the leader of this infamous [...]. Like others of his class, the development of hs mania has followed sudden accession of wealth and luxury. His father, who was prominent in the [...] and was once close to the Lord Mayor’s chair, left him an immense fortune, which he used to gratify every physical apatite. He spent $60,000 in furnishing his house, which has been the headquarters of this class of sensua[…]ts. The victims of himself and [...]s crew were dazzled by the [...] oriental luxuries of the place.

One of the features of the drawing-room, to which daylight is never admitted, is a marble fountain distributing perfume instead of water. The police searched the whole place yesterday. Both Wilde and Taylor were committed for trial, without bail, at the Bow street Police court to-day, after an overwhelming mass of revolting evidence had been given by the victims.

Prison life is expected to have an immediate effect on men who are accustomed to every luxury and indulgence, and Wilde is much depressed after a night's confinement. The police have reason to believe that to-day's exposure is already causing a panic stricken exodus of many persons from England, such as followed the Cleveland street scandal a few years ago. There are some who are not unknown in society among them.

Two More Views.

NEW YORK, April 7. — Harold Frederic Cables from London to the Times:— It would be impossible to convey to American readers the faintest idea of the terrible fascination with which the Oscar Wilde tragedy has dominated London attention this week. However much might have been one's wishes otherwise, the episode irresistibly forced itself upon people's thoughts and talk, and like the Beecher-Tilton trial it broke down a great number of conversational barriers ordinarily maintained in society intercourse. Friends tell me that it made its way into the dinner table talk in the polite West end circles of anything but a loose type. Another week of it would have spread incalculable murrain throughout society. For this reason alone there is a good deal of regret among calm minded folk that the arrest was not postponed till to-day, so as to give him a chance to fly from the country last night as he intended. As may be imagined, scores of rival stones are afloat about other men incriminated, including some names known throughout the English-speaking world.

NEW YORK, April 7. - The World’s London cable says:— "If Oscar Wilde's indifference during the revelations in court to-day was assumed it was an excellent piece of acting. It seems certain that he will be convicted. The minimum penally for the offence with which he is charged Is ten years' imprisonment; the maximum punishment is penal servitude for life. There will be a demand for an exemplary sentence as public sentiment is aroused against the group to which he belongs. Other persecutions may follow. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Wilde, who is a very estimable woman and for his two beautiful children. A singular feature of English law is that even if her husband is convicted and sentenced to penal servitude Mrs. Wilde cannot get a divorce on either ground."

A Family Centention.

Although Oscar Wilde Is languishing in the jail as a criminal without bail on a heinous charge, still he has a number of influential friends, who are zealous in his defence, notwithstanding that they are intimate enough with him to know most of the secrets of his private life. Lord Douglas, of Hawick, second and eldest living son of the Marquis of Queensberry, is one of them. He is altogether the manliest looking of the family. Before the death of his eldest brother, Viscount Drumlaurig, he was well and favorably known as plain Percy Douglas. He has an unsmirched reputation and is entirely different in every respect from his effeminate next younger brother, Lord Alfred Douglas. Since his return from Australia last fall Lord Douglas of Hawick has been a most constant associate of Oscar Wilde. In an interview this afternoon he said that everyone in his family, excepting his father, has refused to believe the accusations against Wilde. He, himself, he said, was willing at any time to go upon the witness stand in Wilder behalf, and he was vehement in his denunciation of Wilde's counsel for having withdrawn the suit.

Archibald Edward Douglass, brother of the Marquis of Queensberry, has written a letter repudiating the statement made to-day in the course of an interview by Lord Douglas, of Hawick, eldest living son or the Marquis, to the effect that no member of the family, except his father, believes the charges against Wilde. In refutation of this statement the writer of the letter says:— "My mother, my sister and myself believe the allegations against Oscar Wilde."

The charge against Wilde is meantime being prosecuted under the Criminal Law Amendment act, which classes his offence as a misdemeanor, the maximum penalty for which is two years imprisonment for each conviction.

The Marquis of Queensberry is receiving hundreds of congratulatory telegrams and letters. In an interview ha said : "I think I have done my duty, not only to my family and myself, but also to the community. It has cost me £1,200 and now if the law of England don't step in I must make my own law. I have sent a message to this creature Wilde to the effect that if he chooses to leave the country I, for one, shall not lift a finger to stay him. But he must distinctly understand that If he takes my son with him I shall follow him and shoot him like a dog. But I think he ought not be allowed to leave the country. I think he ought to be placed where be can ruin no more young men. For the part I have taken myself in this matter I can only say that I have acted absolutely and entirely from a sense of duty. Many of my friends said, as many of these telegrams received also say, that l am to be commended for my pluck. I do not see that pluck had any thing to do with it. I do not see that I could have acted otherwise than I have done. I have preserved my self-respect. I may tell you that the full measure of this man's baseness was not revealed to me until after my own arrest at his instance. Then the evidence which accumulated and the voluntary confessions which were made to us showed us a depth of immorality which is almost incredible."

The prurient plays of Wilde and the cognate production of "The second Mrs. Tanqueray" and 'The Notorious Mrs. Ebbswaith," which are now called "Dinerete" are doomed, and there is a strong reaction towards a healthier treatment of stage representations, while the current decadent literature will also get a set-back.

LONDON, April 7. — Sydney Grundy, the dramatist, has written the Daily Telegraph a letter regarding the removal of Oscar Wilde's name from the programmes of his plays. He asks "by what principle of justice or charity is the author's name blotted from his work? If a man is not to be credited with what be has done well, by what right Is he punished for what be has done ill?"