The Adelaide Observer - Saturday, June 1, 1895

The Observer.
ADELAIDE, JUNE 1, 1895.

The now notorious Oscar Wilde has been found guilty by a Jury of his fellow countrymen of an abominable offence, and in company with a low-born and vicious associate has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment. This, although the highest penalty sanctioned by law, is one which, in the opinion of Sir Alfred Wills - as upright and pure-minded a Judge as has ever occupied a seat on the English Bench — is totally inadequate to fitly mark the enormity of the crime charged against the prisoner. How has the mighty fallen! The apostle and high priest of æstheticism; the idol of a large section of the curled darlings of society; the glass of fashion; the arbiter of taste; the man to whom roughness of manner and the rude ways of the world were exquisite torture to be condemned as a common felon, or, rather, as a felon who has outraged the most elementary laws of decency, and sent no doubt to herd with the lowest type of malefactors in a vulgar gaol! If this were all — if this convict were merely a successful adventurer who had traded upon the gullibility of his fellow mortals — there would be room for no feeling except that of supreme satisfaction at the unmasking and sending into oblivion of a villain who had long masqueraded under borrowed plumes. But Oscar Wilde is not a mere impostor, and his case cannot in fairness be treated from that point of view. He is a man of brilliant parts who throughout his career has by force of sheer ability commanded the admiration, if in no sense the respect, of his fellows. Having obtained at Portera School, Enniskillen, and Trinity College, Dublin, some of the highest awards open to youthful scholarship he proceeded to Oxford, where he greatly distinguished himself and gave evidence of the possession of those poetic and artistic talents which have greatly influenced the course of his life. His craze for "æstheticism," although it has covered his name with ridicule, is to be regarded rather as an eccentricity than anything else. At all events, he has been able, in spite of it, to make himself famous as a critic and essayist, a writer of verses and of works of fiction, and an author of plays, which when acted have as a rule taken the theatrical world by storm.

Although most of Oscar Wilde's literary and dramatic compositions are more or less tainted with sensuality, and not a few of them tend to idealize what, tested by old-fashioned standards of morality, can only be characterized as vice and impurity, there can be no question as to the marvellous ability of the author. Thus, in contemplating the practical annihilation of Oscar Wilde, one has not the satisfaction of rejoicing at the exposure and punishment of a mere charlatan, but has to deplore the irrevocable downfall of a genius who, up to a certain point, turned to good account his splendid mental powers, but who in the end suffered his grosser nature to gain complete control. It is surely the very irony of fate that the task of exposing Oscar Wilde and procuring his conviction for the vile offences laid to his charge should have devolved upon one with so infamous a reputation as the Marquis of Queensberry. For once, however, that notorious noble man has done good service to the cause of morality, and has justified to the hilt the extreme course adopted by him to secure the withdrawal of his hopeful son from the malign influence of "the funny little man" for whom he had conceived so passionate an affection. Whether the precocious young aristocrat will now renounce his friend and congratulate himself upon his escape from such polluting companionship is more than doubtful. It reflects credit upon the administration of the law in Great Britain that even so well known and influential a person as Oscar Wilde has not been able to escape the penalty due to his misdeeds. The ingenuity and eloquence of the eminent counsel who appeared on his behalf, and all the attempts to enmesh Judge and Jury in a network of technicality were alike powerless to arrest the course of justice.