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Original paragraph in
The Toronto World - Monday, May 27, 1895
The Toronto World - Monday, May 27, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
Daily Star and Herald - Saturday, June 8, 1895
Daily Star and Herald - Saturday, June 8, 1895
Difference
London, May 25.—The trial of Oscar Wilde was resumed in the Old Bailey Court Saturday morning, Sir Frank Lockwood continuing his address
to the jury for the prosecution. He dilated upon the intimacy of Wilde with Taylor, and said that leniency ought not to be shown to one and not to the
other because of the position and intellect of one.
The judge, in summing up, said Wilde had confessed that his conduct in regard to Lord Alfred Douglas had been such that he (the judge)
could not ask the jury, as 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 charge 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 none
the less poison to a young man’s mind, and the writer was clearly not a desirable companion for the young.
Before the jury retired the foreman asked the court if a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas.
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 judge said 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’s guilt is equal to that of Wilde’s."
The jury occupied two hours in the consideration of the case. After their verdict had been rendered, Sir Edward Clarke, 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. This view was apparently shared
by the spectators, as, when the judge sentenced Wilde and Taylor to two years’ imprisonment at hard labor, many persons present cried, "Shame."
When the sentence was pronounced Wilde appeared to be stunned. As the last words of the sentence were uttered the apostle of
aestheticism was hurried to his cell as a felon.
Public Prejudged Him Guilty.
New York, May 26.—The Sun’s London cable says: An Old Bailey jury, cautiously empanelled, and, as it seemed carefully coached by the
Judge of the High Court, has declared Oscar Wilde guilty of the abominable offences charged against him. Public opinion, which is often on the side of the
accused, and almost invariably sympathetic in regard to any prisoner standing a second trial for the same offence, had from the first pronounced, with
nearly absolute unanimity, that he was guilty of everything set forth in the indictment, and of much more. The country judged him out of his own mouth,
and so did the jury to a large extent.
Any other result would have been a disgrace to the intelligence of English jurymen, and a crying shame upon British justice. It is
possible, however, to conceal the fact that from the first the common people believed that Wilde would never be convicted. Instinctively, they felt that
the influence behind this shameless friend of princes and nobles would prove too powerful for ordinary judicial procedure. The police had placed the
Government in the possession of the names of men of rank, wealth and fashion who undeniably shared in some of Wilde’s orgies, and had collected evidence
amply sufficient to place them in the criminal dock with the hearty approval of all clean men. But the Secretary of State took no step against them to
vindicate outraged morals or avenge flouted justice.
The passionate shout which went up from the nation when Wilde’s impudent action, designed to stop the mouths of his accusers, ignobly
collapsed, compelled the Government to take action against him and his foul accomplice, Taylor. But Lord Alfred Douglas and other men whose evidence would
have made the case against Wilde and others even more complete and irrefutable were allowed to leave the country. They are still abroad, but doubtless
they will return to this country in a short time, secure against punishment. Possibly it is as well, for Wilde’s conviction can scarcely fail to prove an
effectual deterrent for years to come, and it will be to the public interest to let this awful scandal become forgotten.
Honest men have from the first displayed unusual, perhaps unchristian, eagerness for conviction in this case. The last two or three
days fierce and universal resentment has been spoken and shown at what appeared to be superficial observers almost collusion on the part of the judge and
the lawyers in order to save Wilde. But Justice Willis’ summing up, which unexpectedly proved to be a strictly judicial place of work, together with the
Solicitor-General’s masterly speech and the common sense of a jury of plain citizens, finally prevailed.
Wilde was full of confidence to the last, so that the result was a staggering blow to him. He strove to utter something, but his tongue
clove to the roof of his mouth, and he sank back in his chair, a mental and physical wreck. The final scene was truly, perhaps, fittingly, dramatic.