The Australasian - Saturday, May 25, 1895

SOCIAL GOSSIP.
VANITY FAIR.
BY J.M.D.
LONDON. APRIL 18.

The newspapers, almost persuaded by the example of the St. James's Gazette, have agreed generally to boycott the Oscar Wilde horror. Nevertheless the whole business reaches almost the dimensions of a national disgrace. Our French critics have, of course, taken it up with glee, and a couple of duels fought in Paris - where Oscar had become a person of importance latterly - are among the results. There is no doubt that the whole group of decadents, male and female, have suffered a very nasty jar. Sundry "brave" and psychologically precious novels and poems which were to have appeared have been suppressed. There is sorrow, accordingly, in many of the "new pigstyes," where our teachers and preachers are fattened. Oscar held a certain position in politics and social movements. He was a Fabian, and had written a paper in the Fortnightly for February, 1891, on "The Soul of Man Under Socialism," in which he says that, "after all, even in prison, a man can be quite free. His personality can be untroubled." Besides, he was a pronounced Home Ruler. Sir T. Wemyss Reid is silly enough, in this week's Speaker, to attempt a sort of vindication of Oscar at the expense of Edward Carson, who is an Irish loyalist, boasting of Oscar's "intellectual superiority" and "airy indifference" under cross-examination. Edward Carson's "intelligence," according to the Speaker, is "duller" than Oscar's. A good many progressive persons, also, are not at all pleased at the idea of a mere Marquis getting the better of the poet, who hailed the advent of "the Young Greek God-Democracy." The most interesting man whom I have come across in connection with this affair is the part proprietor of a Liberal newspaper in Yorkshire, who also happens to be Mr. Asquith's uncle. On the evening of the day when Carson's first terrible cross-examination had practically settled the case, this intelligent relative of Mr. Asquith's informed me that Oscar Wilde was a much misunderstood man, who would certainly come off with flying colours. The eccentric Marquis of Queensberry has really behaved very well in the whole matter. Such was the condition of public opinion ten days ago that any public man, from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the lighthouse-keeper in the Falkland Islands, whose name the Marquis had "mentioned," would have been obliged to commit suicide or bolt. As it is, an illustrious invalid who has been ordered a sea voyage by the doctors is said to be afraid to adopt that cure lest "everybody" should say that he had "bolted." Lady Queensberry - who retains the title although she divorced the Marquis - has just let her house in town and gone abroad. She is still a very beautiful woman of fifty. The merciful theory that Oscar Wilde is "cracked" is propounded by those who knew him, rather after the event, and the many eccentricities of both his parents are recalled by people who knew Dublin thirty years ago. It appears that George Alexander had already advanced Oscar £1,000 on his last play, "The Importance of Being Earnest." The utmost sentence which the author can get under "Labouchere's clause" is two years' imprisonment with hard labour. This would not disqualify him for a seat in the House of Commons after he got out. There might be a vacancy in the Forest of Dean division about that time.