LONDON, TUESDAY.The expected application for Mr. Oscar Wilde to be released on bail was made at Bow Street this morning, before Mr. Vaughan. Mr. Travers Humphreys appeared on behalf of the prisoner, while the Treasury was represented by Mr. Argus Lewis. Mr. Humphreys briefly recapitulated the history of the case up to the application made yesterday to Baron Pollock, and said that he was now prepared with the necessary sureties. Both of them were persons of substance, and their names had been submitted to and approved by the Treasury. One was Rev. Stewart Headlam, and the other Lord Douglas, of Hawick, otherwise Viscount Drumlanrig. Both these gentlemen were called, and swore that they were worth £1,250, the amount of bail fixed for each surety by Baron Pollock. Mr. Vaughan said he was perfectly satisfied with the bail tendered, and he ordered Wilde’s immediate release.
Mr. Stewart Headlam, interviewed by a Press Association representative at the close of the proceedings as to his reason for becoming surety, said—"I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind had been prejudiced before the case began, and I was anxious to give Mr. Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits"
The Rev Stewart Headlam, interviewed at the close of the proceedings as to the reasons which induced him to become surety for Wilde made the following statement: "I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind had been prejudiced before the case began, and I was anxious to give Mr Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits."
At the close of the hearing to-day Lord Douglas of Hawick and Rev. Stewart Headlam, accompanied by one of Messrs. Humphreys’ clerks, entered a cab, and drove to Holloway Jail.
Detective-Inspector Brockwell, Sergeant White, jailer at Bow Street, and a clerk of Messrs. Humphreys & Son, Wilde’s solicitors, arrived at Holloway Prison at twenty minutes past one this afternoon for the purpose of receiving Oscar Wilde, and taking him to Bow Street, so that he might enter into his own recognizance before being restored to liberty. The necessary formalities at the prison took some little time, but just before two the party emerged through the wicket door, and took seats in a waiting cab. Wilde wore a dark cloth overcoat, grey trousers, and a silk hat. There was a wearied expression about his pale features strongly indicative of sleepless nights, and it could plainly be seen he was in anything but robots health. His body also seemed slightly bent.
Neither at the prison gate nor at Bow Street was there the slightest demonstration, and during the journey Wilde is stated to have maintained almost absolute silence, being seemingly intensely absorbed in thought.
At Bow Street the two sureties—Rev. Stewart Headlam and Lord Douglas Hawick—were waiting, and the proceedings in connection with Wilde’s recognisances of £2,500 having been completed, the accused was released. He immediately drove to the Midland Hotel, St. Pancras, accompanied by his sureties, and it was subsequently stated he was suffering from extreme prostration, and quite unable to undergo the fatigue of an interview.
It is expected he will leave London to-morrow, and his solicitors, at his own request, have offered to keep the authorities fully informed of his movements and precise whereabouts between now and the 20th inst, when he will in due course give himself up to the police. In the course of the afternoon it was stated that Wilde had an interview at the Law Courts with Sir Edward Clarke.