The Pall Mall Gazette - Saturday, May 25, 1895

OSCAR WILDE AT THE OLD BAILEY.
THE CONCLUDING DAY.
A HARD FIGHT BETWEEN COUNSEL.

The re-trial of Oscar Wilde reached its last day this morning, when the Solicitor-General (Sir Frank Lockwood) resumed his reply on the whole case. He commenced by referring to the witnesses whom Wilde could have called had his story been true--Lord Alfred Douglas and his intimate associate and friend, Taylor.

Sir E. Clarke protested against rhetorical descriptions, which had never been proved in evidence. It had not been proved that Taylor was Wilde's intimate associate and friend.

The Solicitor-General said Wilde had himself confessed it, and there were other badges of that friendship. The two called themselves by their Christian names, and Wilde entertained Taylor at a birthday party, telling him to bring any friends he chose, and he (Wilde) would not inquire too closely whether they came from the stable or the kitchen. It was not rhetoric, but a plain statement of facts, to say there was intimate association between the two ; and yet the suggestion made to the jury was that while one went down the other should be preserved because of the false glamour of art which had been sought to be thrown over him.

Sir E. Clarke (with agitation): I protest against this sort of appeal to the jury. It is further removed from comment on evidence than anything ever heard in this court.

His lordship: Hitherto there had been no reference to the other trial.

The Solicitor-General said he was alluding to Sir Edward Clarke's final appeal to the jury in respect of the

LITERARY POSSIBILITIES OF HIS CLIENT'S FUTURE.

He referred to Taylor as a man upon whom Wilde could have relied, had his story been true. Sir Edward Clarke had made much of the fact that it was Wilde himself who produced the first of the letters to Lord Alfred Douglas; but that was only done to take the sting out of the cross-examination. Sir Edward Clarke said the Solicitor-General had no right to make such a remark. The Solicitor-General retorted, and there was some little laughter at these repeated collisions between counsel. The Solicitor-General protested against laughter in such a case, and Mr. justice Wills said that it was difficult enough to sit and try such a case, but to be pestered with the applause or the expressions of feeling of senseless people, who had no business to be there beyond the gratification of morbid curiosity, was too much. He would clear the court on the first interruption by the public. The Solicitor-General, proceeding, said Sir Edward Clarke had made much of the fact that it was Wilde who initiated these proceedings by prosecuting Lord Queensberry. In that case no withdrawal of the prosecution was allowed. The jury found a verdict that the plea of justification was substantially true, and that it was for the public benefit that it had been pleaded, and yet those were the proceedings which gave Sir E. Clarke such satisfaction.

His lordship commenced to sum up at 12.25.