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LONDON, ENG., May 24. -- There was the usual crowd at the Old Bailey courtroom to-day when Sir Edward Clarke addressed the jury in behalf of Oscar Wilde, charged with serious misdemeanors.

Wilde was called to the witness-box and given a chair, as he seemed to be broken down. In answer to questions he related how he had been on terms of intimacy with the Marquis of Queensberry's family for years, and entirely denied the charges made against him.

Sir Frank Lockwood, solicitor-general, at the conclusion of the address of Sir Edward Clarke, began a severe cross-examination of the defendant, which lasted over an hour.

Sir Edward Clarke briefly re-examined Wilde and then made his final address to the jury, asking them to save the defendant from the ruin of his reputation, which, he added, had been nearly quenched by the torrent of prejudice in the press. [Applause.]

Sir Frank Lockwood followed for the prosecution, but he had barely begun his address when the court was adjourned for the day.

The Marquis of Queensberry is quoted as saying: "I do not wish to see Wilde further punished. He has suffered enough. I only want to keep the beast from my son. Every one knows Wilde is no better than Alfred Taylor." Asked as to what he thought would be the verdict, he said: ''I am willing to forfeit 1000 to 1 that Wilde is acquitted. There are many names back of this thing."

OSCAR WILDE

The May sessions of the Central Criminal Court commence next Monday, and Oscar Wilde's case is to be taken first. Mr Justice Wills, instead of Mr Justice Charles, will preside, and Mr Poland may conduct the prosecution either with or without Mr Gill. On dit, the manner in which the Crown's case was presented last month has been severely criticized in legal circles. Mr Russell (who acted for Lord Queensberry in the civil trial) scoffs at the ineptitude of the Treasury solicitors, and at their failing to secure a verdict. The evidence, properly handled, was, in his view, impossible to combat, but the Treasury had offended their most important witnesses before they put them in the box. On the other hand Sir Edward Clarke made the very most of every point for Oscar. Nevertheless, it is stated the manner in which the jury divided was erroneously announced. Instead of being fairly divided for and against conviction, a juror writes:—"On each of the three vital issues ten were for conviction and two for acquittal." A great many people are of the opinion that, looking at the terrible completeness of Wilde's professional, social, and financial ruin, he has been already sufficiently punished.

At the second trial Justice Wills presided, and Wilde came into court accompanied by his bondsmen, Lord Douglas, of Hawick, and the Rev. Stewart Headlam, of the London School Board. The latter said: "I felt that the public mind was prejudiced before the case began, and I was anxious to give Wilde any help possible to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits." Taylor was tried first, and he was put on the witness stand, and repeated the statements he made previously. Replying to a question in regard to the visitors at his rooms, he asked to be allowed to write their names. The judge said: "If the names are written I will read them aloud; I do not approve of mystery." Taylor did not write the names, but mentioned a few who have been connected with the case. There were no notable names among them. He denied that he had gone through a marriage ceremony with a man named Mason. After the libel trial of Wilde against Lord Queensberry the latter's solicitor, he said, had asked him to make a statement against Wilde, but this he had refused to do. He admitted he had written a letter to the man Mason signing himself "With love."

At the close of the day's proceedings the Marquis of Queensberry and his eldest son had an encounter at the corner of Albemarle and Piccadilly, in which the latter got a black eye. They afterwards appeared before the police magistrate at the Old Bailey, and were bound over to keep the peace. The crowd cheered the Marquis as he drove away. The son's wife received this characteristic telegram from her father-in-law: "I must congratulate you on the result, but I cannot congratulate you on Percy's appearance. He looks like a dug-up corpse. I fear there is too much madness in kissing. Taylor is guilty. It will be Wilde's turn to-morrow."

The principal witnesses against Wilde were the youth Shelley, Parker's servants, and the servants at the Savoy. Wilde, called on to testify on his own behalf, related that he had been on terms of intimacy with the Marquis of Queensberry's family for years, and entirely denied the charges made against him.

Sir Frank Lockwood subjected the defendant to half an hour's severe cross-examination. When Wilde was asked about the famous letters he had written to Lord Douglas, which were read at the time of the first trial, he said it was a beautiful way in which an artist would write to a cultured young man. Taking up the letter Wilde had written to Lord Alfred praising his "red roseleaf lips" and "slim gilt soul" that "walked between poetry and passion," Sir Frank asked the defendant whether he considered this letter decent. Wilde replied: "Decency does not come into the question." "Do you understand the meaning of the word?" asked the counsel sternly. "Yes," replied Wilde. Wilde admitted that he made repeated visits to the rooms of Alfred Taylor, where he met a number of young men. Wilde also admitted his association with the other young men whose names were mentioned in the previous trial.

Sir Edward Clarke, in his address to the jury, asked them to save the defendant from the ruin of his reputation, which, he added, had been nearly quenched by the torrent of prejudice in the Press.—(Applause.)

The Solicitor-General, in addressing the jury, commented severely on the prisoner's intimacy with Lord Alfred Douglas, and his conduct at hotels and public places in and about London. Referring to the letters Wilde wrote to Lord Alfred Douglas, counsel said the jury had been told that they were too low to appreciate such poetry, and he thanked God it was so, for it showed that they were above the level of beasts. Sir F. Lockwood asked the jury to return a verdict which would prevent "such detestable and abominable vice from rearing its head unblushingly in this country."

The summing-up of the judge was, on the whole, favorable to Wilde. During its delivery the foreman of the jury asked whether, in view of the intimacy between Lord Alfred Douglas and Alfred Wood, one of the men whose names had been brought prominently in the case, a warrant for Lord Alfred's arrest had ever been issued. The judge replied that he thought not. The foreman then asked if it had ever been thought of. To this the judge replied that he could not say. He added that the suspicion that Lord Alfred Douglas would be spared if guilty was a wild idea, and a matter that they could not discuss. The present inquiry was as to whether the man in the dock was guilty of immoral practices with certain men.

The jury returned at half-past five o'clock, having been absent from court about four hours, and gave in a verdict of guilty. Wilde was found guilty on all points of the indictment, including the charge with reference to persons unknown who were also pronounced guilty. This probably referred to the Savoy Hotel evidence.

While the jury were out, Wilde's counsel procured from him, at the request of a representative of the Associated Press, the following signed statement:—"The charges against me are entirely untrue. Youth in every form always fascinated me because youth has naturally that temperament to which the artists try to attain. All works of art are produced in the moment of youth. I have no sense at all of social grades. I love society and the rich and well-born on account of their luxury, culture, the grace of their lives, and the external accidents of comely life. But anyone, a ploughboy, fisherman, or street arab has an interest for me. Mere humanity is so wonderful. I do not ask of the young what they do. I don't care who they are. Their ignorance has its mode of wisdom. Their lack of culture leaves them open to fresh and vivid impressions.

The judge, in passing sentence, expressed his regret that he was unable to make the punishment more sever. [The finish of the trial reaches us via San Francisco.—Ed. E.S.]