Compare Paragraphs
This page compares two reports at the paragraph level. The column on the left shows the first report in its entirety, and the column in the middle identifies paragraphs from the second report with significant matching content. The column on the right highlights any differences between the two matching paragraphs: pink shows differences in the first report and purple in the second report. The Match percentage underneath each comparison row in this column shows the percentage of similarity between the two paragraphs.
Original paragraph in
Marlborough Express - Tuesday, July 23, 1895
Marlborough Express - Tuesday, July 23, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
The Evening Star - Thursday, August 1, 1895
The Evening Star - Thursday, August 1, 1895
Difference
In a brief comment on the close of the trial of Oscar Wilde, the Daily Chronicle has said:—"His sentence, enforced as it will be by the
severest rigors known to our abhorrent penal system, is virtually a sentence of death or of madness, a fate to which we confess we hesitate to condemn any
human creature whatever." A correspondent next day asked what this meant, and he was enlightened as follows:—Two years' hard labor is the severest
sentence, while it lasts, known to the English criminal law. It is a form of punishment never inflicted on criminals sentenced to penal servitude,
inasmuch as it is calculated to produce madness amongst them. Nine months' separate confinement is as much as a convict gets, and is considered as much as
his mind can stand. The Prisons Committee report that even nine months' separation often injuriously affect the nervous system, and recommend a reduction
of the time. A prisoner under two years' hard labor may be kept during the whole time in the solitude of his cell, with the exception of one hour a day.
During a portion of his detention he is allowed no ordinary reading books, has a wooden plank as a bed, and has to engage in occupation which the late
Chairman of the Prison Board declares to be "irritating, depressing, and debasing to the mental faculties, and decidedly brutalising in its effects." So
sever is this form of sentence considered to be, that many judges will not inflict it at all, and last year in a total of 160,000 short sentences, only 34
persons were committed for two years by the ordinary criminal courts.
A correspondent next day asked what this meant, and he was enlightened as follows:—"Two years' hard labor is the severest sentence,
while it lasts, known to the English criminal law. It is a form of punishment which is never inflicted on convicts sentenced to penal servitude, inasmuch
as it is calculated to produce madness amongst them. Nine months' separate confinement is as much as a convict gets, and is considered as much as his mind
can stand. The Prisons' Committee report that even nine months' separation often injuriously affects the nervous system, and recommend a reduction of the
time. A prisoner under two years' hard labor may be kept during the whole time in the solitude of his cell, with the exception of one hour a day. During a
portion of his detention he is allowed no ordinary reading books, has a wooden plank as a bed, and has to engage in occupation which the late chairman of
the Prison Board declares to be 'irritating, depressing, and debasing to the mental faculties, and decidedly brutalising in its effect.' So sever is this
form of sentence considered to be that many judges will not inflict it at all, and last year in a total of 160,000 short sentences only thirty-four
persons were committed for two years by the ordinary criminal court.